Eng2001 Notes

7/25/2019 Eng2001 Notes

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What is a Project: A complex, non-routine, one time effort, limited by time, budget,

resources, and performance specifications designed to meet customer’s needs

What is project management: Application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques

to a broad range of activities in order to meet requirements of particular project. Comprised of

5 processes (initiating, planning, executing, controlling and closing). And 9 knowledge areas

(project integration, scope, project time, project cost, project quality, project human

resources, project communications, project risk management, and project procurement)

Successful Project: Meets projects objectives, satisfied customer (meets their needs and

expectations), repeat business, happy project team (responsibility of project manager),

learned/ improvement

Constraints: Quality/ scope interaled, once one item fixed, little flexibility remains. Minimise

implementation before planning stage. Determine a scope achievable within the available cost/

time determine an appropriate buffer (slack) intended for emergencies not changes of

plan.

What makes project fail: Slow communication, limited resources/ mismanagement,

wrong tools, not meeting specifications, wrong team/changing team, poor contingency

planning, lack of customer buy-in, unmanaged conflict, attitude/ perspective

Pressures leading to need for project management: Corporate downsizing,

global competition, knowledge explosion, small projects representing big problems,

compression of product lifecycle, increased customer focus, rapid development of third world

and closed economies,

Evolution of project management

Ad hoc usage use of tools on case by case basis, not organized/ systematic, friction

with rest of organization

Project driven organization projects fully integrated with strategic objectives,

accounting, management

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7/25/2019 Eng2001 Notes


1. Definition doing the right thing? What it’s worth? Do we want to get into this?

Project Charter2. Planning doing things right? How will we do it?

3. Execution are we getting things done? Monitoring / communications

a. Consist of several stages, can be overlapped

4. Delivery are we getting expected benefits? Documented/ learning, do what we get

what we expected?

Pressures on project life cycle:

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1. External pressures: more scope/ fewer resource and time

What do we need?

Definition of project/ project scope (including timeline)

Feasible plan for achieving deliverables (deliverables related to project, not just a

product)

Who does what? How are changes handled? (change is inevitable)

Communications

Project Work plan:

1. Project Team

a. Comprised of subset of primary stakeholders in project

b. Composition of team may vary over course of project

c. Subset should include people with necessary skills and knowledge to achieve

project goals

d. Project stake holders = individuals/ organizations who are involved in/ may be

affected by project activities

e. Sponsor = person/ group within performing organization who provides financial

resources

i. Authority to sign off on project completion, requestor/ payer, fights for

project and resources at high level, removes roadblocks, has interest in

project succeeding

f. Other stake holders = contractors, team members/families, government

agencies, public

2. Project Charter

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a. Primary outcome from early project definition

b. Formally recognizes existence of project, defines; description of work to be

performed, identitifes main deliverables/ ways of measuring outcome, lays out

assumptions/ constraints/ resource requirements

c. Issued by higher level manager, preferably external to project

d.

Contract from customer may = charter

e.

Project definition:

i. May get SOW (statement of work) instead of charter

ii. Charter includes risks limits, customer needs, spending limits, and even

team composition, also authorizes project manager to initiate and lead

project

iii. Project scope check list

1. Project objectives, deliverables, milestones (tools to mark specific

points along project time line aka project start/ end date, need

for external review/ budget checks, DO NOT IMPACT PROJECTDURATION), technical requirements, limits/ exclusions, reviews

with customer

3. Scope management Plan

a. Few projects proceed to completion according to original plan laid out in project

initiationScope of project changes as project progresses

b. SMP identifies: how changes integrated into project, how much change

expected, how changes to be identified/ initiated and by whom

4. Risk Management Plan

a. Primary areas of Risk

i. Staffing (have team members work together in past, is PM experienced?

Client activiely involved? Dedicated/ shared project resources? Some/ all

work subcontracted?)

ii. Environment (level of senior management support? Moral among staff?

Communication well? Perceived functional value of project? )

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iii. Project Definition (proposal / feasibility study? Anticipated ROI? Project

specifications/ success criteria defined and agreed upon? Project

responsibilities documented/ accepted? Project dependencies outside

direct control of project team?

iv. Project Management (who preparing/ prepared project plan? Is plan well

documented? Project deliverables based on proven standards? Formal

project management being used?)

v. Nature of project ( project justification? Expected project duration?

Unique project? Straightforward project? Project specifications? Timing

critical? Weather? Politics/ regulatory bodies a factor? Do external

stakeholders hold a lot of influence?

b. Risk analysis: What is risk event? What outcomes if event occurs? How severe

are consequences of event? Likelihood of event happening? When might event

occur? What is impact of event on project?

Risk assessment form/ risk response matrix

c. Risk

management:

i. Avoid risk (take least risky path)

ii. Reduce risk (have several suppliers for critical components/ have back up

systems)

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iii. Transfer risk (have insurance/ fixed price contracts) usually a cost

premium to transferring risk

iv.

Accept risk ( play the probabilities and accept the consequences, build in

time/ money contingency)

v. Share risk (coop ventures)

5.

Communications/ reporting plan

a.

Details formal communication/ reporting requirements for primary project stake

holders. Include nature of communication required (meeting, written report,

conference call, email, etc,), frequency, level of detail, and any sign off

requirements which may result

6. Work break down structure (wbs)

a. Having described scope/ deliverables, WBS describes actual work done, project

broken down into smaller taks ensures everything necessary is included like

table of contents

b.

Hierarchical structure provides framework for managing projecti. Facilitates evaluation of time, cost, resources and technical performance

at all levels

ii. Provides information appropriate to different levels of management

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c. Why WBS? Adaptable to any situation, provides basis for change control,

facilitates monitoring of progress enables effective project communication,

makes unmanageable manageable, further clarifies project scope

d.

Include in wbsi. Fully describe all activates

ii.

State measurable deliverables

iii. Describe sub activities

iv. State known constraints

e. Work packages

i. What is being done, how long it will take, time phased budget (cost),

resources (how much) who is responsible, milestones for measuring

progress

7. Master budget

a.

Types of cost

i. Indirect: overhead, support facilities

ii. Direct: resources, variable, fixed

iii. opportunity: benefits lost as a result of choosing a different option

iv. sunk cost: costs already incurred

b. estimating project costs:

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i. top down estimation (analogous): uses previous similar project as basis

for expected costs

ii.

parametric modelling: based on mathematical calculations of project

parameters (ranging from cost per unit of raw materials to more complex

formulations, best when accurate historical information available, readily

quantifiable parameters, model is scalable)

iii.

bottom up estimation (summing up costs of individual work items of

project)

8. Task responsibility:

a. Decision making common problems: not known who is responsible for making

decisions, nobody willing to take responsibility for decision

b. Responsibility matrix :

Project Implementation: Filling the gaps (identify anything which seems to be missing),

implementing plan (coordinate all project components, establish communication/ feedback,

determine project statues, identify/ resolve problems, adjust/ maintain project variables), earnconfidence of stakeholders

Managing project: Roles of…

1. Project manager: monitor, analyze, quality control, motivate, manage conflict, reward

adjustment, change, gather information, communicate, status, make decisions

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a. Good traits include: systems thinker, integrity, proactive, high tolerance of

stress, business perspective, good communicator, effective time management,

skillful politician, optimist

2. Project Team Members: do jobs on schedule and on budget, communicate (both good

and bad news), help resolve problems

3.

Functional managers: deliver on resources promised, stay informed/ take interest, take

responsibility for work quality

4. Sponsor: financial

5. Senior management: not obstruct, pay/ reward success, support when needed respect

project management process, take some responsibility

Team development stages:

1. Forming: getting acquainted with each other, determine project roles

2. Storming : internal conflict, resenting personal constraints imposed by team, arguing

over control/ decision making3. Norming : increasing cohesiveness and camaraderie

4. Performing: fully functional, energies directed into project

5. Adjourning: wrapping up project

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Conflicting views:

Old views: troublemakers, bad, avoid, suppress

New views: inevitable, can be beneficial, natural result of changes, can/should be

managed

Managing conflict:

1. Avoid

a. Helps if conflict is minor, has not solved basic cause, cooling off period

2. Smooth over

a.

Diffuse situation, platitudes, diversion, another stop gap

3. Compromise

a. Neither side happy, may be workable, not necessarily good leadership since

project may also be compromised

4.

Forcea.

“ or else”, decisive, may work but someone loses

5. Solve

a. Gets to real issue, fixes problem, deals with issue (here is issue, here are options,

what and why, options available), best solution if possible causes can be complex

and multi layered

Reporting project Status:

Measure progress (how much done (underestimate), how much left (over estimate),

time versus effort (when to finish)) Change control

Effective communication

Feedback tailored to what is needed and by whom

Make sure information is easily available determine who updates this

Preparing for a meeting: Plan, inform, prepare, structure and control (chair, scribe,

facilitator, note taker, time keeper), summarize

Managing multiple projects: consistency of pm process, establish clear project

priorities, assign responsibilities and resources to activities, emphasise communication, practice

time management prioritize projects

Time management: use a to do list, prioritize activities, note that urgent =/= important

Keep time log: daily journal, record of interruptions,

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Project completion: as project winds down, people may be re-assigned and information

can disappear, without documentation all resources spent on intangibles (learning, process,

skills) lost to the organisation, planning for end of project important in order to get full value,

hand over to the client is also vital and should be managed appropriately

As project comes to completion:

Collect/ summarize project results (lots of documentation should already exist)

Compare results with project plan (should have been ongoing )

Evaluate performance of team (whether/ not team member reports to us or not)

Conduct post project management review/ record outcome

Ask if we had to do it again (as a more positive alternative to what went wrong)

Capture knowledge and lessons learned, templates for re use, information available to

others

Project hand off : documentation and information required by management/ client,

ongoing customer support (who is responsible, timing/ overlap, transfer of knowledge and

history), customer validation , reward team

Documents

Eng2001 Notes