Management Resources for the IT Manager - PDSA Management Resources for the IT ... project, time figures to a project, ... The documents that you should read through for the Project

Chapter 1

Management and Project Management Resources for the IT

Professional

This section provides the IT Professional with additional tools to help manage their organization and develop their teams’ skills and career goals.

Management and Project Management Resources for the IT Professional

1-2 PDSA Agile ALM Copyright© 2012 by PDSA, Inc.

All rights reserved. Reproduction is strictly prohibited.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 ..................................................................................................................... 1-1

Management and Project Management Resources for the IT Professional .................. 1-1

Table of Contents ............................................................................................. 1-2

Resource Documents ....................................................................................... 1-3

Project Manager Resources ............................................................................. 1-4

Project Manager’s Best Practices .......................................................... 1-4

Project Manager’s Best Practices for Requirements Gathering ............. 1-4

Project Manager’s Best Practices for Estimation ................................... 1-4

Project Manager’s “Daily Dozen” ........................................................... 1-5

Executive Project Status ....................................................................... 1-5

Project Manager Status Reporting......................................................... 1-6

Project Estimating and Tracking ............................................................ 1-6

The Importance of Time Tracking .......................................................... 1-7

Headcount Planning .............................................................................. 1-8

Manager Resources ....................................................................................... 1-10

Building a High Performance Development Team ............................... 1-10

Non Disclosure Agreement (NDA) ....................................................... 1-10

IT Director Roles & Responsibilities .................................................... 1-11

Employee Roles & Responsibilities ..................................................... 1-11

On-Going Employee Training .............................................................. 1-12

Resource Documents

PDSA Agile ALM 1-3 Copyright© 2012 by PDSA, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction is strictly prohibited.

Resource Documents

When you have a software project to manage, large or small, you will need to understand the different phases that this project goes through. You also need to understand how to manage each of these phases. The following resource documents each of these phases and some of the best ways you can manage a software project.

Documents that you should read through for the Project Management section is the following:

Resource Description

\Docs\ ManagementAndProjectManagement\

Ch01-Mgmt-Intro.docx

Chapter describing management best practices.

\Resources \ManagementAndProjectManagement\*

All the resource documents for the this chapter.




Project Manager Resources

Project Manager’s Best Practices

Project management might be the hardest IT job. This PowerPoint presentation provides ideas and insights into the best practices of a project manager.


ManagementAndProjectManagement \ProjectManagersSurvivalGuide.pptx

This PowerPoint presentation provides ideas and insights into the best practices to be a surviving project manager.

Project Manager’s Best Practices for Requirements Gathering

This is one of the most critical skills to appreciate, develop and improve your skills. This section can break out to a 1-2 hour work shop.


ManagementAndProjectManagement \BestPracticesForRequirementsGathering.pptx

This PowerPoint presentation provides a prescriptive approach to gathering requirements.

Project Manager’s Best Practices for Estimation

This is one of the most critical skills to appreciate, develop and improve your skills. This section can break out to a 1-2 hour work shop.


ManagementAndProjectManagement\BestPracticesForEstimatingAProject.pptx

This PowerPoint presentation provides a prescriptive approach to creating and estimating projects.



Project Manager’s “Daily Dozen”

Every morning a Project Manager should quickly review a quick list of items to start his/her day out right. This helps get a lay of the land.


ManagementAndProjectManagement \ ProjectManagersCheckList.docx.pptx

A list of 12 daily items to check.

Executive Project Status

It is critical that the IT Manager provide timely project status reports to their executives. But executives have very little time and typically like short and concise status information. This template provides just that.


ManagementAndProjectManagement \ProjectManager-StatusReport-Executive.pptx

This is a PowerPoint slide showing you a sample layout for providing project status to executive.




Project Manager Status Reporting

Project Managers must report the status of their projects to their superiors. We have provided a template of the information that should be contained in that status report.

Continuously status your customers

o Be very consistent

Status your team

o Informal emails

o Informal meetings

o Be consistent

Status your Management

o Be consistent


ManagementAndProjectManagement \ProjectManager-StatusReport-Sample1.docx

A sample template for reporting the status of projects.

ManagementAndProjectManagement \ProjectManager-StatusReport-Sample2.docx

A sample template for reporting the status of projects.

Project Estimating and Tracking

Estimating how long a software project will take is probably the most difficult task when developing a project plan. The estimating process is made more difficult due to several factors.

Different skill levels of programmers

Changes to the specifications by programmers

Changes to the specifications by the customer

Holidays, vacations, sick days by programmers

Holidays, vacations, sick days by key customer contacts

Un-foreseen hardware & software issues

Lack of knowledge of the estimator



Lack of good historical data

There are many problems that can come in when you try to put dollar figures to a project, time figures to a project, and schedule to a project. While we are not perfect in all of our estimates, we have developed a fairly sophisticated spreadsheet model that helps remind us of a lot of these issues.

Accurate estimating is very important. Also, an IT organization should be able to consistently estimate projects based on a model that can be repeated and improved. Good estimates build trust in your customer’s view of your organization and builds confidence in your team. Our estimating model is a multi-worksheet spreadsheet based on EXCEL. It is very easy to modify and extend for your needs.

The documents that you should read through for the Project Estimating section are the following:


\ManagementAndProjectManagement \EstimatingProjectModel.xls

This is a detailed sample spreadsheet that shows how to estimate each area of a project.

\ManagementAndProjectManagement \EstimatingProjectModel-Sample2

This is a less detailed sample spreadsheet that shows how to estimate each area of a project.

\ManagementAndProjectManagement \EstimatingRoughCut.xls

A quick model for coming up with an estimate.

\ManagementAndProjectManagement \EstimatingTaskLifeCycleTool.xlsx

This tool provides an in-depth approach to building up a detailed estimate.

\ManagementAndProjectManagement \EstimatingTaskLifeCycleToolDescription.docx

This is a document to help you use the Task Lifecycle tool (xls).

The Importance of Time Tracking

Before we leave this Project Estimating section, we want to mention just one more item. While many shops say "I can't be bothered with tracking my time each day", we have found that you can't afford not to track your time. If you create an estimate for a project, you track actual hours to that estimate, you now have a better feel for how long it takes to perform a tasks the next time you have a similar task. We have developed a time tracking system here at PDSA that all developers are required to fill out each day. Each screen, data table and other objects in the Requirements Analysis document are put in as tasks in our time tracking system. As each programmer works on a task they then enter their time.




When the project is complete, you now have a complete record of actual hours versus estimated hours. You also have a great track record for how long certain tasks take.

PDSA employees are required to use the time tracking/labor collection system called TimeTrak. The documents that you should read through for the Project Tracking section are the following:


\ManagementAndProjectManagement \PDSA-eTimeTrak-UserManual-Binder.pdf

This is the user manual for PDSA’s eTimeTrak product. It is included here to illustrate a simple and easy to use time tracking system.

There are many time tracking solutions that you can purchase or use on-line. Below are some links to time tracking solutions that you might employ.

Headcount Planning

After the project has been estimated, it is now time to consider how you will staff the project, along with all the other projects in your shop. We have provided a simple Excel spreadsheet that we use to calculate the total amount of man hours we have available among all of our resources, and also calculate the total amount of projects we have going on at one time.

We have included another spreadsheet with two worksheets. The first worksheet (manload) is a simple model where you lay out the projects you have and how many estimated hours are required for each. Those estimates were built from the ProjectEstimatingModel.xls used above. We set the number of expected hours an employee would work each week and the number of weeks per month. We then run that up against your organizations capacity. You can then see where (what month) you have exceeded your staff’s capacity or where you may need to hire additional resources.

The second tab or worksheet is called Resources. This lists all of your resources and their availability. This worksheet is referenced from the first worksheet (manload). Together they provide a very simple way to quickly determine if you have the resources to accomplish your projects.

The spreadsheet for Headcount planning is the following:


\ManagementAndProjectManagement \HeadcountPlanning-Sample1.xls

This is a sample spreadsheet that shows how to estimate head counts based on work load and



your project estimates.

\ManagementAndProjectManagement \HeadcountPlanning-Sample2.xls

Another sample.




Manager Resources

Building a High Performance Development Team

Team development is critical in any organization. Through years of experience we have collected a process model for building and maintaining a high performance development team.


ManagementAndProjectManagement \HighPerfDevTeam.pptx

PowerPoint presentation outlining all the key steps to develop a high performance development team.

Non Disclosure Agreement (NDA)

Before a public disclosure takes place about intellectual property, anyone who needs to see the invention or idea should sign an NDA. For example, a mold maker, a potential investor, or the like should sign an NDA before the inventor discloses the invention. The signer of the NDA acknowledges that the invention is a trade secret and agrees to maintain it as such. If you are working with an external company, one or both parties may require an NDA to continue the discussions.


ManagementAndProjectManagement \NondisclosureAgreement-1.docx

A Word doc with a sample NDA. Please consult legal advice regarding any NDA. This is a sample. Please use at your own judgment and risk.

ManagementAndProjectManagement \NondisclosureAgreement-2.docx

A Word doc with a sample NDA. Please consult legal advice regarding any NDA. This is a sample. Please use at your own judgment and risk.

Manager Resources


IT Director Roles & Responsibilities

The role of IT Director is critical. Our template describes the key roles and responsibilities for a typical IT Director.


ManagementAndProjectManagement \RolesAndResponsibilities-ITDirector.docx

Details roles and responsibilities for a typical IT director.

Employee Roles & Responsibilities

Employees like to have clear-cut roles and responsibilities, and see potential for advancement in their careers. To this end you need to create a standard Roles & Responsibilities outline that all employees can look at. This helps keep them motivated and understanding what is expected of them to consistently advance and receive a favorable performance review and salary raise.


ManagementAndProjectManagement \RolesAndResponsibilities-SWEngineer.docx

Details roles, responsibilities, duties and skills required in your organization. ITdir-RolesAndResponsibilities.docx




On-Going Employee Training

It is important in the IT industry that your developers and IT staff are constantly challenged to stay up with the latest and greatest that is going on in the industry. While this is difficult, we have found that doing some of the following are a cost effective way of getting people trained.

Internet search engines

Internet technical web sites

Lunch time meetings

Send one person to class, then they have to train everyone else

Videos

Whitepapers on the internet

User Groups

eBooks

Books

Local seminars

Community colleges

Extension programs at universities

http://www.pdsa.com/training

http://www.pdsa.com/ebooks

http://www.pdsa.com/training

http://www.pdsa.com/ebooks

Manager Resources


Summary In this section you were given a set of resources that deal with the management issues of IT organizations. We are sure you will find these resources helpful in keeping your customers, your management and your employees satisfied.