Senior Construction Project Management Certification...Two-course construction project management certification that prepares people to pass the PMP exam and teaches them how to plan,

PROJECT MANAGER CERTIFICATION

LEARN PROVEN TOOLS FOR SUCCESS

Why do 95% of our students pass the PMP® exam? Because we give them the best materials, the best instructors and the benefit of our 20+ years of experience preparing people to pass the PMP exam.

Our instructor-led online training is the best available. You will work individually with your PMP-certified instructor at a schedule and pace you set. We guarantee you will pass the PMP exam and we work with you until you do. Don’t fail the exam because you took a cheap class or a boot camp where you crammed with 20 other people. Learn with an expert coach when it fits your schedule.

You will also master advanced construction project management tools and techniques. In a construction project case study, you will practice:

Running a planning meeting with the customer

Building and presenting a plan and schedule

Executing the project, analyzing risks and variances

Reporting status and recommending solutions toproblems.

Your instructor reviews every assignment you complete, sends you written feedback via e-mail, meets with you in private video conferences and talks with you by phone.

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104 PMP® Exam Preparation Main Page

Instructor-led Online Training

from Anywhere in the World

Contents

Course Summary

Detailed Syllabus

Lecture Sample

Textbook Sample

Sample Exam

Course Webpage

You will pass the Project Management Professional certification exam with our instructor-led online course. You’ll receive individual instruction from a PMP-certified project manager. You can prepare to earn your PMP certification by studying from anywhere at a schedule you control. The PMP certification exam is exceedingly difficult, covering hundreds of

concepts, tools and techniques. We will help you learn each and every one of them. In a phone conversation when you

begin the course, you’ll discuss your learning style and your instructor will tailor your materials to fit the way you learn. You’ll get coaching and individual feedback from your instructor on each of the 36 or more practice exams you will take.

How You Work With Your Instructor

You will have phone conversations and private video conferences with your instructor whenever you wish. There is no limit. Your instructor will review your progress, identify changes that may be needed in your study techniques and thoroughly explain any concepts or techniques until you have mastered them.

You will study with world-class materials by Dick Billows, PMP. You’ll watch high definition videos, read our electronic PMP prep textbook which describes all the processes, tools and techniques and shows you real-life examples of how to use them. You can also access our database of hundreds of articles and samples that illustrate every technique you need to know to pass the PMP exam.

PMP Passing Guarantee We guarantee our work on our PMP prep course. 95% of our students pass on their first try bit if you don’t, your instructor will work with you until you have your PMP. Examine the materials and see why our course has no equal; online or in a classroom.

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Validate your years of experience and advance your project manager career BECOME A PMP®

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PROJECT MANAGEMENT PROFESSIONAL

Learning Materials

333-Page E-textbook

42 Video Lectures 24/7

Videos of PMs in Action

Process Flowcharts

100s of Tool Write-ups 24 – 35 Practice Exams

We are a PMI Global Registered

Education Provider (R.E.P.) - #1147.

And our PMP Exam Prep course fulfills

the entire education requirement.

This is the only course you need

to pass the PMP exam -

guaranteed

Training with a PMP-certified Instructor

Our PMP Exam Prep course will prepare you to pass the PMP exam; we guarantee it. Your instructor tailors the course for you and works with you, 1-to-1, until you are a PMP.

Working With Your Instructor You will work individually with your PMP-certified instructor. You can e-mail questions to your instructor and get a response within 24 hours. Request a telephone call or a video conference as often as you need them. There are no limits.

Your instructor grades each exam and gives you feedback that includes the correct answers with explanations. They provide coaching on any areas you need to re-study.

Online Boot Camp You have a 4-day comprehensive review with your instructor immediately before your test date. You’ll do full-size PMP exam simulations and take practice tests focusing on every area covered in the exam. Then have a video conference or a phone conference with your instructor the night before your exam.

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Fulfill the Education

Requirement

Gain an International

Practice answering tricky questions

on every process group, knowledge

area, tool and technique so you're ready to pass the PMP exam

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Credential MASTER PM BEST PRACTICES

Passing Guaranteed

Course Outline

-Framework

PERSONAL INSTRUCTION SPECIFICATIONS

-Initiation

-Management Plans

-Project Plans

-Executing

-Monitoring & Control

-Closing

-Ethics & Professionalism

-Comprehensive Final Review

You have textbook reading, online

lectures and videos and PMP practice exams. You have as many phone calls

and video conferences with your instructor as you wish. They even call

you the day before your PMP exam to answer any questions and give you

final test-taking tips and techniques.

The best way to pass the PMP exam the first time is with a

course tailored to your schedule and learning style.

Your instructor, who is a PMP,

works directly and privately with you, answering your questions by phone or email

within 24 hours. You can have as many phone calls as you

wish.

When you take one of the 24- 35 practice exams (depending on how many you need), your

instructor sends you written feedback with the correct

answers and explanations of why they are correct.

For Experienced PMs

Get 60 Contact Hours

Use a PC, Mac or iPad

Study When You Want

Study From Anywhere

Take up to 1 Year

PMI Registered Education Provider

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1 ©2013 The Hampton Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved. May not be reproduced in any form.

104 PMP® Exam Prep Course 2013

104 PMP® Exam Prep Course Syllabus

Passing the PMP® Exam the First Time

Content Delivery System for Individual PMP Exam Training You and your instructor will work together in our content delivery system that will allow your

instructor to tailor the course to your needs, assignment by assignment. You’ll have video

conferences with your instructor on a regular basis plus phone calls and email exchanges

whenever you wish. There’s no limit to these contacts. You and your instructor will begin

with a private conference and use the results of your initial assessment to gauge where you

need more work and where your project management knowledge is complete. That custom

tailoring process will continue through the course. Your instructor will assess each of the

practice exams you submit, identify weaknesses and select specific materials from our

Learning Topics to address them.

Planning Your Personalized Course with Your Instructor During your initial call with your instructor, you'll plan the pace of your studies and identify

any deadlines you want to hit. Take a look at the “passing zone” in the graphic above. You'll

see that we recommend you study between 4 hours a week (18 weeks to finish) and 18

hours per week (4 weeks to finish). Each process group requires approximately 9 hours of

work. How intensely you study is, of course, your decision. But your odds of passing the

PMP exam the first time are highest when you stay within the “passing zone." You will

determine a schedule that fits your unique situation and you can change it if things change.

Long gaps in your studies reduce your odds of passing the PMP exam the first time. Over

97% of our students pass the exam on their first try. The students who do not pass typically

have a long gap in their studies. Try to schedule your studies so you can finish the course and sit for the exam within 7 days.

Once PMI has approved your application for the exam, you and your instructor will work on

a comprehensive final review during the 4 days immediately before you sit for the PMP

exam. You must successfully complete all course assignments, including the comprehensive

final review and take the PMP exam within 14 days of completing the course in order to

meet the terms of our passing guarantee. We are a PMI Registered Education Provider (R.E.P.). This course has been approved by PMI

for 60 hours, fulfilling the education requirement for the PMP exam.



Adapting the Course to Your Learning Style During the planning phone call, your instructor will discuss your strengths and weakness

based on the pre-course assessment test you’ll take. They will also ask you about your

preferred learning style. Think about whether you are a visual learner, where diagrams and

flow charts are a big help, or a logical learner where reading a text is the way you prefer to

learn new material. Based on the assessment and your discussion, you and you instructor

will plan how you should use the following learning materials to tailor the course to your

learning style:

1. Electronic textbook (e-book) Project Manager’s KnowledgeBase, 11th Edition. You

have reading assignments for each project process. You can print selected pages and sections or search the full textbook for key terms. The textbook is password protected

and our Student Services staff will send you an e-mail with the book and password to

download and open it. It is for your use alone, in part and in whole, and cannot be

copied. The individual textbook reading assignments for each project process are also

linked from your course website.

2. Lecture videos. These videos are approximately one hour for each process group and

contain lectures with illustrations of the key inputs, outputs, tools and techniques for

that process. They are available 24/7 and you may watch them as many times as you

wish from your PC, iPad, iPhone or Android.

3. Project manager in action videos. These show a project manager and team

members actually working through the PMI best practices in project management. They

are organized by the work of the process group you are studying.

4. Multiple-choice practice exams. You take online mini-PMP exams focused on one

process group. These practice questions are like the real PMP exam questions but there

are only 40 to 70 questions per exam for each process group. When you submit the

exam, it is sent directly to your instructor for review and grading. They will send you

written feedback within 24 hours and identify learning topics for you based on your

results. You must score at least 90% on the practice exam or your instructor will ask

you to re-take that exam. Alternatively, they may send you a link to another practice

exam for that process group. You will continue taking these practice exams until you

achieve 90% or higher.

5. Super scenario essay questions. These help you answer the situational questions on

the PMP exam and teach you how to handle these complex situations. Your instructor

will send you the link to the super scenario essay questions after you pass the multiple-

choice exam(s) for a process group. When you submit your super scenario essay

responses, they go directly to your instructor for evaluation. They help your instructor

determine how well you understand the material in the process group. You will receive

written feedback from your instructor within 24 hours.

Personalized Interaction with Your Instructor You’ll work 1-to-1 with your instructor who holds a PMP certification. They will guide you

through this exam preparation course and answer all your questions. So whenever you have

a question, you can either e-mail your instructor or request a private phone conference so

the two of you can discuss your issues.

Your instructor will review each of your practice exams, grade it, explain concepts you missed

and suggest areas of additional study to improve your scores. After you score 90% on your

multiple choice practice exam(s) for that process group, your instructor will send you the link

to the super scenario questions for that process group. These questions are in short essay

format and they test your understanding of the concepts in the process group. Your

instructor will give you written feedback within 24 hours.



Your Personal Scorecard While your instructor will keep track of each of your scores, you may want to track your

progress against the plan you set.

Process group Target date

Completed Reading

Watched Video

Lectures

1st

Practice Exam Score

2nd

Practice Exam Score

Completed Super

Scenario Questions

PMP Framework

Initiating

Management Plans

Project Plans

Executing

Monitoring and

Controlling

Closing

Professionalism and

Ethics

Submit Application to

PMP After your instructor sends you feedback that you have successfully completed

Professionalism and Ethics, you submit your application online to PMI and claim 60 education hours for completing your 4PM.com PMP Prep course.

Knowledge Areas Review the reading and lecture videos of the project management tasks

organized by the PMBOK, 5th

edition knowledge areas: scope, schedule, cost, quality, human resources, communication, procurement, risk and integration.

Schedule Exam Receive PMI’s approval to take the PMP exam & set your date. Allow 4 days for the comprehensive review.

Comprehensive

Review The comprehensive review begins 4 days prior to your PMP test date. Your

instructor will send you specific instructions for the comprehensive review once you set your PMP exam date.



1. PMP® Framework

Your reading and lectures will cover the framework of information used in all of the project

management process groups that follow. 1. Reading: Read the Framework chapter in your textbook or on your course website. We

recommend taking written notes.

2. Lectures: Watch the Framework lecture videos on the course website. Add the new

information in the lectures to your notes. 3. PM in Action Videos: There are no PM in Action videos in this first process group.

4. Practice Exams: Take the Framework multiple-choice practice exam inline by clicking

the button below the lecture. It will be sent directly to your instructor. They will grade it,

send you written explanations for the correct answers and additional feedback within 24

hours. If you do not achieve 90% on the first try, your instructor will suggest studying

additional learning topics and ask you to re-take this exam. If you achieved 90%, your

instructor will send you the link to the second Framework multiple-choice exam. Finally,

they will send you a link to the Framework super scenario essay questions.

5. Learning Topics: Your instructor will send you explanations for the multiple-choice

questions and, based on our test scores, they may send you links to additional learning

topics to strengthen your Framework knowledge.

2. Initiating Process Group

In this process group, you’ll learn about the best practices for initiating a new project. These

include the business case, defining the high-level scope, identifying stakeholders and risks,

then developing and presenting the project charter. 1. Reading: Read the Initiating chapter in your textbook or on your course website. We


2. Lecture: Watch the Initiating lecture videos on your course website. Add the new

information to your notes. 3. PM in Action Videos: Watch these videos from the link below the lecture.

4. Practice Exams: Take the Initiating multiple-choice practice exam by clicking the

button below the lecture. Complete the exam and it will be sent directly to your

instructor. They will grade it, send you written explanations for the correct answers and

additional feedback within 24 hours. If you do not achieve 90% on the first try, your

instructor will suggest studying additional learning topics and ask you to re-take this

exam. If you achieved 90%, your instructor will send you the link to the second

Initiating multiple-choice exam. Finally, they will send you a link to the Initiating super

scenario essay questions.



topics to strengthen your Initiating process group knowledge.

3. Management Plans Process Group

In this process group, we will cover the management plans for each component in the

project from scope, to budget, to schedule and more. 1. Reading: Read the Management Plans chapter in your textbook or on your course


website. We recommend taking written notes.

2. Lecture: Watch the Management Plans lecture videos on your course website. Add the

new information to your notes. 3. PM in Action Videos: Watch these videos from the link below the lecture.

4. Practice Exams: Take the Management Plans multiple-choice practice exam by

clicking the button below the lecture. Complete the exam and it will be sent directly to

your instructor. They will grade it, send you written explanations for the correct answers

and additional feedback within 24 hours. If you do not achieve 90% on the first try, your



Management Plans multiple-choice exam. Finally, they will send you a link to the super

scenario essay questions.



topics to strengthen your Management Plans process group knowledge. 6. Mid-course phone call: When you have completed the Management Plans process

group, you and your instructor will have a mid-course call to discuss beginning your

application for the PMP exam. You cannot submit the application until you’ve received

your instructor’s feedback that you have successfully completed the Professionalism and

Ethics process group. However, you should start documenting your project manager

work experience for the application after you talk with your instructor.

4. Project Planning Process Group

In this process group, we will cover the planning techniques used to create the scope

statement, schedule, budget and risk management. 1. Reading: Read the Planning section in your textbook or on your course website. We


2. Lecture: Watch the Planning lecture videos for this section on your course website.

Add the new information to your notes. 3. PM in Action Videos: Watch the videos that are linked below the lecture video.

4. Practice Exams: Take the Planning multiple-choice practice exam by clicking the





exam. If you achieved 90%, your instructor will send you the link to the second Planning

multiple-choice exam. Finally, they will send you a link to the super scenario essay

questions.



topics to strengthen your Planning process group knowledge.

5. Executing Process Group

In this process group, we’ll cover the executing processes, including obtaining and

managing resources, executing the project plan, performing quality assurance,

implementing change control and maximizing team performance.

©2013 The Hampton Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved. May not be reproduced in any form. 5

104 PMP® Exam Prep Course 2013 1. Reading: Read the Executing section in your textbook or on your course website. We


2. Lecture: Watch the Executing lecture videos on your course website. Add the new

information to your notes. 3. PM in Action Videos: Watch the videos that are linked below the lecture.

4. Practice Exams: Take the Executing multiple-choice practice exam by clicking the






Executing multiple-choice exam. Finally, they will send you a link to the super scenario

essay questions.



topics to strengthen your Executing process group knowledge.

6. Monitoring and Controlling Process Group

In this process group, we’ll cover the Monitoring and Controlling processes, which happen in

parallel with the Executing processes. These processes include measuring project

performance, managing changes, performing quality control, controlling the scope,

schedule, cost, and communicating status, and performance information to stakeholders.

1. Reading: Read the Monitoring and Controlling section in your textbook or on your

course website. We recommend taking written notes.

2. Lecture: Watch the Monitoring and Controlling lecture videos your course website. Add

the new information to your notes. 3. PM in Action Videos: Watch the videos that are linked below the lecture.

4. Practice Exams: Take the Monitoring and Controlling multiple-choice practice exam by






Monitoring and Controlling multiple-choice exam. Finally, they will send you a link to the

super scenario essay questions.



topics to strengthen your Monitoring and Controlling process group knowledge.

7. Closing Process Group

In this process group, we’ll cover the seven processes to properly close out a project,

including verifying scope acceptance, transferring ownership of deliverables, financial, legal

and administrative closure, distributing the final project report, collating lessons learned,

archiving project information and measuring customer satisfaction.

1. Reading: Read the Closing section in your textbook or on your course website. We


2. Lecture: Watch the Closing lecture videos on your course website. Add the new

information to your notes.


104 PMP® Exam Prep Course 2013 3. PM in Action Videos: Watch the videos that are linked below the lecture.

4. Practice Exams: Take the Closing multiple-choice practice exam by clicking the button

below the lecture. Complete the exam and it will be sent directly to your instructor. They

will grade it, send you written explanations for the correct answers and additional

feedback within 24 hours. If you do not achieve 90% on the first try, your instructor will

suggest studying additional learning topics and ask you to re-take this exam. If you

achieved 90%, your instructor will send you the link to the second Closing multiple-

choice exam. Finally, they will send you a link to the super scenario essay questions.



topics to strengthen your Monitoring and Controlling process group knowledge.

8. Professionalism & Ethics

1. Reading: Read the Professionalism and Ethics chapter in your textbook or on your

course website. We recommend taking written notes.

2. Lecture: Watch the lecture videos “Who is Bound by the Code” through “Honesty” on

your course website under the “Lecture” section. Add the new information to your notes. 3. PM in Action Videos: Watch the videos that are linked below the lecture.

4. Practice Exams: Take the Professionalism and Ethics multiple-choice practice exam by






Professionalism and Ethics multiple-choice exam. Finally, they will send you a link to the

super scenario essay questions.



topics to strengthen your Professionalism and Ethics process group knowledge.

6. Submit Your PMP Application: When you receive your instructor’s feedback that you

have successfully completed the Professionalism and Ethics process group, you may

submit your PMP application to PMI. Do it online and you should receive a reply within 3

to 5 business days.

9. PMBOK, 5th edition Knowledge Areas

The PMBOK, 5th edition organizes the project management processes you have just

completed studying by knowledge areas. They are scope, schedule, cost, quality, human

resources, communication, procurement, risk and integration. While you wait for PMI to

approve your PMP application, complete the reading and lectures for this knowledge area

section.

1. Reading: Read the Knowledge Areas on your course website. We recommend taking

written notes.

2. Lecture: Watch the lecture videos “Scope management” through “Integration

management” on your course website under the “Lecture” section. Add the new

information to your notes.

3. Approved Application: Let your instructor know when PMI has approved your

application and you have scheduled your PMP exam date.



10. Comprehensive Review

When PMI has approved your application and you have scheduled your PMP exam, you and

your instructor will lay out a 4-day plan for completing the comprehensive review and

exams immediately before you sit for the PMP exam. Your instructor will coach you through

this final review and call you the day before your exam with test-taking tips, what to expect

at the test center, words of encouragement and answers to any last minute questions.


1

Copyright© 2013 by Richard A. Billows, PMP®, GCA All Rights Reserved

Published by The Hampton Group, Inc.

3547 South Ivanhoe St.

Denver, Colorado 80237 (303)756-4247

www.4pm.com

Other books Published by 4PM.com

Essentials of Project Management

Advanced Project Management Techniques

Program & Portfolio Management

Managing Information Technology Projects

Construction Project Management

Managing Healthcare Projects

The Hampton Group, Inc. is a Project Management Institute (PMI®) Global Registered Education Provider (R.E.P.). The

Hampton Group, Inc. is committed to enhancing the ongoing professional development of PMI® members, PMI®-certified

professionals and other project management

stakeholders through appropriate project management learning activities and products. As a PMI® R.E.P., The Hampton Group Inc., has agreed to abide by PMI®-established operational and educational guidelines and is subject to random audits for quality assurance purposes.

Microsoft is a registered trademark and Project ®and Windows® are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Screen shots reprinted with permission from Microsoft Corporation.

All other product names and services identified throughout this book are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. They are used throughout this book in editorial fashion only and for the benefit of such companies. No such uses, or the use of any trade name, is intended to convey endorsement or other affiliation with the book.

All rights reserved. The text of this publication, or any parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the publisher.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction & Organization................................................... 5

Framework of Project Management ......................................... 7

What is a Project? .......................................................... 7

Project Management: The Cast, the Roles and the Script ...... 7

One Size Does Not Fit All ...................................................... 9

Trade-offs ..................................................................... 9

Professionalism and Social Responsibility ........................... 9

Portfolios, Programs, Phases & Sub-projects ....................... 9

Project Roles ................................................................ 10

Organizational Context ................................................... 12

Project & Product Lifecycles ............................................ 14

The Process Groups of Project Management ............................ 16

Initiating ...................................................................... 16

Planning ....................................................................... 16

Executing ..................................................................... 16

Monitoring and Controlling .............................................. 16

Closing ........................................................................ 16

The Knowledge Areas of Project Management .......................... 17

Integration Management ................................................ 17

Scope Management ....................................................... 17

Schedule Management ................................................... 17

Cost Management ......................................................... 18

Quality Management Knowledge Area ............................... 18

Human Resources Management ....................................... 18

Communications Management ......................................... 18

Risk Management .......................................................... 19

Procurement Management .............................................. 19

Stakeholder Management ............................................... 19

Professionalism & Social Responsibility ............................. 19

What the Heck are EEF and OPA? ..................................... 19

Enterprise Environmental Factors (EEF) ............................ 20

Organizational Process Assets (OPA) ................................ 20

Three Project Management Examples ............................... 20

Initiating ........................................................................... 23

Statement of Work ........................................................... 24

Business Case .................................................................. 25

Identify Stakeholders 13.1 ................................................. 26

3 Project Examples of Identify Stakeholders ....................... 28

High-level Scope .............................................................. 34

High-level Risks ............................................................... 35

Develop Project Charter 4.1 ............................................... 36

3 Project Examples of Develop Project Charter .................... 38

Charter Approval Meeting .................................................. 44

Planning ............................................................................ 45

Develop Project Management Plan 4.2 ................................. 46

3 Project Examples of Develop Project Management Plan ...48

Plan Scope Management. 5.1 ............................................. 56

3 Project Examples of Plan Scope Management ................... 57

Plan Schedule Management 6.1 .......................................... 62

3 Project Examples of Plan Schedule Management ............... 63

Plan Cost Management 7.1 ................................................ 68

3 Project Examples of Plan Cost Management ..................... 69

Plan Human Resource Management 9.1 ............................... 73

2

3 Project Examples Plan Human Resource Management ........ 75

Plan Stakeholder Management 13.2 .................................... 82

3 Project Examples Plan Stakeholder Management .............. 84

Plan Communications Management 10.1 .............................. 88

3 Project Examples of Plan Communications Management ..89

Plan Risk Management 11.1 ............................................... 94

3 Project Examples of Plan Risk Management ..................... 95

Plan Quality Management 8.1 ........................................... 100

3 Project Examples Plan Quality Management ................... 102

Plan Procurement Management 12.1 ................................. 110

3 Project Examples of Plan Procurement Management ........ 112

Project Management Plan Summary .................................. 124

Scope Planning Processes ................................................ 125

Scope Planning Processes................................................... 125

Collect Requirements 5.2 ................................................ 126

3 Project Examples of Collect Requirements ..................... 128

Define Scope5.3............................................................. 134

3 Project Examples of Define Scope ................................ 136

Create WBS 5.4 ............................................................. 143

3 Project Examples of Create WBS ................................. 145

Project Planning: Scheduling Processes ............................. 153

Define Activities 6.2 ........................................................ 154

3 Project Examples of Define Activities ............................ 155

Sequence Activities 6.3 ................................................... 161

3 Project Examples of Sequence Activities ....................... 163

Estimate Activity Resources 6.4 ........................................ 168

3 Project Examples of Estimate Activity Resources ............. 170

2

Estimate Activity Durations 6.5 ........................................ 176

3 Project Examples of Estimate Activity Durations .............. 177

Develop Schedule 6.6 ..................................................... 185

3 Project Examples of Develop Schedule .......................... 186

Cost Management 7.1 ..................................................... 194

Cost Tools Used in Many Tasks ...................................... 194

Estimate Costs 7.2 ......................................................... 197

3 Project Examples of Estimate Costs .............................. 199

Determine Budget 7.3 ..................................................... 206

3 Project Examples of Determine Budget ......................... 207

Risk Planning Processes 11.1 ........................................... 214

Identify Risks 11.2 ......................................................... 215

3 Project Examples of Identify Risks ............................... 217

Perform Qualitative Risk Analysis 11.3 ............................... 223

3 Project Examples of Qualitative Risk Analysis ................. 224

Perform Quantitative Risk Analysis 11.4 ............................. 231

3 Project Examples of Quantitative Risk Analysis ............... 233

Plan Risk Responses 11.5 ................................................ 240

3 Project Examples of Plan Risk Responses....................... 242

Plan Approval Meeting .................................................... 247

Executing ........................................................................ 251

Direct and Manage Project Work 4.3 .................................. 253

3 Project Examples of Direct and Manage Project Work ......... 255

Acquire Project Team 9.2 ................................................ 261

3 Project Examples of Acquire Project Team ..................... 262

Conduct Procurements 12.2 ............................................. 268

3 Project Examples of Conduct Procurements ................... 270

Develop Project Team 9.3 ................................................ 276

3 Project Examples of Develop Project Team .................... 277

Perform Quality Assurance 8.2 ......................................... 282

Three Examples of Perform Quality Assurance .................. 283

Manage Project Team 9.4 ................................................ 288

3 Project Examples of Manage Project Team ..................... 290

Manage Stakeholder Engagement 13.3 .............................. 294

3 Project Examples of Manage Stakeholder Engagement .. 295

Manage Communications 10.2 .......................................... 300

3 Project Examples of Manage Communications ................ 301

Monitoring & Controlling ..................................................... 306

Monitor and Control Project Work 4.4 ................................ 307

3 Project Examples of Monitor and Control Project Work .. 309

Perform Integrated Change Control 4.5.............................. 315

3 Project Examples of Perform Integrated Change Control 321

Validate Scope 5.5 ......................................................... 331

3 Project Examples of Validate Scope .............................. 332

Closing ............................................................................ 337

Close Procurements 12.4 ................................................. 338

3 Project Examples of Close Procurements ....................... 339

4.6 Close Project or Phase ............................................... 343

3 Project Examples of Close Project ................................ 344

6.1 Professionalism & Social Responsibility ............................ 348

Ensure Integrity and Professionalism ................................. 349

Project Examples of Professionalism and Social Responsibility ................................................................................ 351

2

Project Management Knowledge Areas ................................. 356

About the AUTHOR ............................................................ 358

Project Manager’s KnowledgeBase Introduction & Organization

Quality Management

INTRODUCTION & ORGANIZATION

This is the 11th edition of the Project Manager’s KnowledgeBase, which we have entirely rewritten to align with the PMBOK 5th Edition and the new PMI exams that are effective in July 2013. Over the years, this book has achieved its goal of helping our readers master the following:

The knowledge needed to pass the PMI® certification exams

The best practices in project management.

We do this by showing you these techniques from two perspectives.

Process Groups organize the tools and techniques chronologically:

Initiating Process Group

Planning Process Group

Executing Process Group

Monitoring and Controlling Process Group

Closing Process Group

The Knowledge Areas are groups of tools and techniques with related purposes that flow throughout the lifecycle:

Integration Management

Scope Management

Schedule Management

Cost Management

Procurement Management

Human Resource Management

Communication Management

Risk Management

Stakeholder Management

Professionalism and Social Responsibility

I have organized this textbook to make passing the exam take

as little time as possible. So, I will present information in the sequence you will follow to do a project (process groups). However, we will also keep the Knowledge Areas together so you can learn the sequence of tasks in a Knowledge Area, like Risk management.

To avoid having a book that was over 1,000 pages, we have created a Digital Knowledgebase on our PMI® exam prep web site. There you can drill down for more information and study

the knowledge in different ways to suit your learning style.

1. Visual learners will find very large diagrams of the tasks with videos explaining them.

2. Flow chart learners will find charts of every process group,

Knowledge Area and task. 3. “Show me an example” learners will see hundreds of samples

of Gantt charts, human resource plans, scope statements, Monte Carlo simulations, Earned Value reports, etc.

I trust you will find the book of great value in passing the PMI certification exams and in your career as a professional project manager.

©2013 Copyright The Hampton Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without written permission. P5

Project Manager’s KnowledgeBase Introduction & Organization Statement of Work

As always, I need to express my thanks to those who help make each edition of this book a success. “Mustang Sally” Mitsch, CAPM, has once again nit-picked my work to near perfection. Leslie, “the FIST” Schiefelbein, PMP, has edited the bejesus out my every word and thought. Together they have not missed a shingle one of my mistakes.

Best Regards,

Dick Billows, PMP, GCA

April 30, 2013

©2013 Copyright The Hampton Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without written permission 6

Project Manager’s KnowledgeBase Framework of Project Management

FRAMEWORK OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT

In this first section of the book, we’ll move through the lifecycle of a project covering all the key ideas. We’ll begin by reviewing some of the key ideas that we’ll use in all the Process Groups that follow. We also want to accomplish three other things:

Get a big picture view of the processes we will study in much greater detail later

Understand some of the best practice ideas that permeate all the details

Begin to learn the PMI language of project management, which is most likely different from what you use in your organization.

This chapter is not an exhaustive explanation of the big picture, that’s why several hundred pages follow this chapter.

What is a Project?

Projects are very different from the other components of the modern organization. Projects are temporary endeavors regardless of their size or scope. All projects have a special purpose and a specific start and end point and that differentiates a project from operations that go on continuously. Projects reach their end in three ways:

The project’s planned outcome is met

The project’s outcome will never be met and the organization terminates it

The original need for the project no longer exists and the organization terminates the project.

A second characteristic of a project is that it creates a unique deliverable, which may be a product, service or some other result. No two projects are alike. For example, we might be constructing a chain of fast food hamburger restaurants that will serve identical food. But the fact that we will be working with different team members, in varying locations and for different owners makes each of these projects unique.

A third characteristic of a project is that the project management team plans it iteratively; they plan it allowing interaction between the components. For example, a project manager might produce a draft of a schedule and then go to work on the project budget. To optimize the budget, the PM may need to change the schedule and modify the risk management plan. PMI® calls this progressive elaboration of the plan. Project managers are constantly working, checking and revising their plans.

Project Management: The Cast, the Roles and the Script

Project management is not the efforts of one individual. There is a cast of people that can include one or more project managers and associate project managers, who, along with executives and professionals, make up the project management

team. As well, projects have sponsors whose role includes initiating the project, defining it and securing organizational approval to expend resources on it. The project management team works with the other members of the project team who do the project’s work. Both interact with project stakeholders who are people affected by the project including; executives, managers, employees, and even vendors.

Together these people write the script for the project, setting

objectives, identifying project requirements and then


Project Manager’s KnowledgeBase: FrameWork

©©2013 Copyright The Hampton Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without written permission. P8

converting those requirements into a verifiable scope and a project management plan that they then execute. Throughout the project’s life, the project management team works with the project team and stakeholders to deliver the project’s objective and its products.

Effective project management requires experience in managing projects as well as a wide range of learned skills and techniques. In addition to the PM’s skills and experience, an equally important determinant of project success is the

organization’s processes for project management and the availability of data and information from previous projects including lessons learned documentation about these previous projects.



ONE SIZE DOES NOT FIT ALL

Project managers know the best practices and design each project’s management plan with a suitable mix of techniques for that project. One set of techniques does not “fit” all projects. The PM designs the project management process using expert judgment as well as understanding of each project’s unique characteristics. Then the PM decides the extent to which he/she will apply the PMBOK® (Project Management Body of Knowledge) processes to achieve the

desired project results. For example, all projects should have some degree of risk management. So the PM determines if risk management warrants a few hours or a month’s worth of work. As well, the PM needs to decide whether the assessment of risk should be strictly qualitative and fast or if he/she should use more sophisticated quantitative techniques to assess probabilities and the impact of a risk event. In making these judgments, the PM is obviously guided by the organization’s policies and the sponsor’s preferences.

Trade-offs

Project management also requires a PM to manage the tradeoffs between what’s called the triple constraint (even though there are six dimensions) of cost, time, scope, quality, resources and risk. The triple constraint is like a tug-of-war. If the sponsor changes any one of the dimensions, it will affect at least one of the other five constraints. For example, if we decrease the scope of the project we may also decrease the project’s cost, duration and resources. Increasing the quality dimension can increase duration and cost. On larger more sophisticated projects, the PM may analyze tradeoffs with sophisticated financial or mathematical tools. The PM conducts tradeoff analysis on smaller projects too but much more informally.

Professionalism and Social Responsibility

The PMBOK® includes one paragraph on professionalism; however, it is a major topic on the PMP® certification exam and to a lesser extent on the CAPM® exam. The project manager and project management team have an ethical responsibility to all stakeholders to conduct themselves according the tenets of the profession. There is a more detailed description of professionalism, social responsibility and ethics in the last chapter of this book. But the big picture view is that PMI® has developed a rigorous set of standards for project managers’

conduct with tough enforcement standards.

Portfolios, Programs, Phases & Sub- projects

There are many ways to combine or subdivide projects. As we think about the project landscape in an organization, the dividing line is more than a little blurry. Organizations use programs to combine the management of a number of projects that have a common purpose. For example, an organization may have a program to improve their quality of service. The program may involve individual quality improvement projects in the billing, customer service and sales departments to improve the customers’ experience.

Project portfolios are a bundle of programs and projects but they do not necessarily have a common purpose. Instead, an executive may take responsibility for a portfolio of information systems projects or construction projects that affect many different parts of the organization but which all use the same resources.

Finally, within these programs and portfolios, an organization may choose to subdivide a project into sub-projects. The sub- projects may be specific components of the larger effort that the organization contracts out to other organizations. For example, on a customer service project, the performing



organization may contract with an outside organization to survey their customers or complete test marketing.

Organizations that want greater control over a project may choose to divide it into phases or sub-phases. Each phase or sub-phase produces a deliverable that management examines and formally accepts before the next phase begins. This level of control over the project allows management to track the project and its progress to ensure it is delivering what it should.

Not all organizations follow this rigid step-by-step approach. If time is of the essence, some organizations will start work on the next phase of the project prior to formal acceptance of the prior phase’s deliverable. This approach creates a higher level of risk but it can save time. For instance, a software firm may start work on testing a piece of software before receiving final signoff on the coding. If the coding has any bugs that require re-work, the testing will need to start over, wasting time and money. However, if there are no bugs, the firm has actually saved time by fast tracking the testing and not waiting for

formal acceptance of the coding.

Best Practices & the Real World

To pass the PMI® certification exams you need to understand

the way of managing projects in a very idealistic world compared to the way most organizations do projects and the

way most PMs do their work. In fact, the most important thing to learn in preparing for the exam is PMI®’s definition of the right way to manage projects. That correct way includes not just using the techniques and tools but also adopting PMI®’s

attitudes about solving problems that may not be possible in your organization. Learning that PMI® attitude is the key to answering the Example questions where you must decide the right thing to do. You must answer each question according to how PMI® says we should do things, not how you do them in

your organization. You may disagree with PMI®’s way but if you want their certification, you must learn it.

Project Roles

Let’s expand on the brief descriptions of the project roles introduced earlier. PMI® defines a number of roles for people working on projects. The decision-making, range of action and participation in the project management process is different for

each role.

Stakeholders

The broadest role is that of project stakeholder and this category includes all the others. A stakeholder is any individual or organization that the project will affect, positively or

negatively. Stakeholders should be involved in the Initiating, Planning, Executing, Monitoring & Controlling and Closing functions of the project. This is another area where the PMI®

world probably differs from yours. Many PMs try to minimize the number of people involved in project planning, thinking that will let them better control the project scope. Unfortunately,

the opposite happens. Stakeholders excluded from planning always seem to spring up and add features or new requirements right at the end of the project. Those late changes often cost hundreds of times what the same requirement would have cost if it had been added during the planning phase. Therefore, PMI® encourages project managers to actively search for stakeholders early in the

project and it is a best practice.

Project stakeholders can include:

performing organization

sponsor

senior management

functional management



project team members

project management team members

project manager

project management office (PMO)

customers

users

vendors

suppliers

consultants

We also include employees not directly related to the project but who, due to their standing within the organization, have the ability to exert influence over the project.

The PMI® way of doing things requires project managers to reach out, identify and bring into the project decision-making processes a very broad cross section of stakeholders. The

stakeholders should be involved in the definition of the project scope, the major deliverables and many of the decisions made in later tasks.

As noted above, many project managers try to keep the number of people that are involved in the project planning as small as possible. They also try to insulate the project team and its planning process from outside influences and avoid conflicting opinions. However, the PMI® view is very different. It clearly identifies the need to engage stakeholders in project

initiation and planning because that is the only way we can uncover all the requirements of the project.

Project Sponsors

In the PMI® world, the project sponsor or initiator is responsible for providing funding for the project and issuing the project charter. On internal projects (those done within the

performing organization), the project sponsor also may create the statement of work (SOW) to begin initiation and guide the

project through the organization’s approval process. That approval requires that the sponsor detail the benefits the project will deliver and justify the costs of the project, often in a business case. When the sponsor secures organizational approval, that executive issues the project charter appointing the project manager and defining, among other things, the criteria for success. On consulting or client projects, the statement of work comes from the client or customer, possibly with an RFP (Request for Proposal) or contract.

The charter gives the PM organizational approval to use resources. This is another area where the PMBOK® process probably differs from your experience. You may see sponsors who just dump a problem or opportunity into a PM’s lap and then walk away after naming a completion date. PMI® is correct in stating that is the wrong way to do things.

Project Team Members

In the PMI® world, project team members do the work of the project and many project team members actively participate in detailing the project plan and completing their work packages. They may also be involved in risk management, procurement and quality, for example. Team members may also be a part of the project management team and become involved in activities ranging from integration to change control.

Project Manager

It is the project manager’s and project management team’s responsibility to integrate all of these roles and ensure that

they mesh, allowing successful completion of the project. The project manager’s role calls on a wide range of skills, including interpersonal, leadership and general management skills in addition to knowing project management techniques. Those project management skills are:

Leadership

Communication



Negotiation

Resolution of problems

Influencing the organization

Purchasing

Contracting

Accounting and finance

Information technology

Marketing

Sales

Manufacturing and distribution

Commercial law, local laws and legal traditions

Human Resources

Safety regulations

Supply chain management

As you work through this book, you will notice many other ways in which the PMI® world varies from the way in which your organization manages projects. In order to pass the PMI® certification exams, you will need to remember to answer each question according to the PMI® world rather than your own experience.

Project Management Team

With all that work to do, the project manager often invites stakeholders, team members, functional managers and

executives to assist in the management of the project. Participation like this not only spreads the work but also increases buy-in and support. The project management team can work on scope, risk, scheduling, budgeting, procurement, quality, human resources and communications, to name a few.

Organizational Context

Projects occur within organizations and their structures, processes and cultures affect projects and their teams. The organizational form influences how projects begin, how decisions are made, how resources are shared, how line managers perceive project managers and the overall rate of project success. Both in practice and for the certification exams, you need to understand the different organization types. More than half your exam questions will be Example questions and the kind of organization the PM is “in” often

determines the correct course of action to take on an issue.

Functional Organizations

Functional organizations have their structures designed around technical specialties like marketing, sales, manufacturing, facilities, customer service, engineering and accounting. These organizations are the most frequently encountered type and the barriers between these functional “silos” make it tough on project managers. Getting a project done that crosses functional lines often requires begging and whining for resources. In functional organizations project managers have little or no authority and must “borrow” people from functional departments. That requires that the PM negotiate for resources with the functional managers.

These extra steps are necessary because functional organizations operate with a strong chain of command philosophy that each employee should report to one boss. This

means that an employee communicates with their boss, who

communicates with the boss’s boss, all the way up the chain of command. The lines of communication usually follow the chain of command and are simple, but also quite rigid. Functional managers want to retain all of the formal authority over their employees and must often be convinced to loan them to a project. People loaned to a project often feel that the project is

a distraction from their “real job” where they get raises and promotions.



In these organizations, turf wars and lack of cooperation between functional departments make communication difficult. In these organizations, decision makers often choose to perform projects within one functional unit because reaching out to borrow resources and communicate across functional lines is so difficult.

Functional organizations try to improve their project performance by adding two other roles to the structure. Project expediters may assist functional managers in coordinating

projects. However, these project expediters have no decision- making authority and focus mainly on communication, following up on tasks and deliveries of equipment. Functional organizations may also employ project coordinators, who usually are in staff positions reporting to senior managers who have many projects underway at the same time. They often have some decision-making authority but do not have the responsibilities of project managers in the areas of making assignments, analyzing change requests and reporting status.

Matrix Organizations

Another organizational form is the matrix organization, which comes in three varieties (weak, balanced, strong). There are still departments for functions like accounting and marketing but these departments share resources across department lines routinely. The difference between the three types is the amount of power and influence of project managers versus

functional managers. But in all three types, people are more accepting of sharing departmental resources with projects than in functional organizations. In all three matrix types,

employees work for more than one boss. However, the degree of sharing affects a project manager's level of authority, power and influence.

The weak matrix organization is quite similar to a functional

organization with the project manager having a bit more power and influence but still being weaker than the functional manager. Borrowing resources can be a bit easier than in a functional organization. However, a project manager's authority is very limited in comparison to the functional

managers. Therefore, the PM must still plead and beg for resources and hope that the project sponsor has enough clout to secure resources for the project.

In a balanced matrix organization, the project manager and functional managers have relatively equal power and authority and the negotiation for borrowing resources is on even terms. Because the power is even, the level of conflict is at a peak and communications are at their most difficult. That may seem odd until you remember that people are unlikely to have conflict

with a person who has more power than they do.

In a strong matrix, the project manager has more power than the functional managers and has a much easier time acquiring resources and managing the project budget. All three types of matrix organizations have more complex communication processes and more conflict than the functional organization.

Projectized Organizations

The projectized organization transforms the project manager

from a flunky begging for resources to a person managing a project that the organization treats as if it were a department. In the projectized organization, the project and its manager have their own dedicated employees and a budget. They have

the same status as all the functional departments. The project manager is the organizational superior of the people working on the project team and does their performance reviews, develops their professional skills and manages their daily work assignments.

The projectized organizational form is desirable from a project management point of view because the PM has almost full authority over the resources with full availability. However,

projectized organizations have certain disadvantages. First, projectized organizations may hinder employees’ development in their technical specialties because they don’t associate regularly with people possessing the same specialized skills. Second, when the project is completed, the project organization disappears and it is not unusual for team members to have



some uncertainty about their next assignment. This can adversely affect morale and performance.

Organizations carve out projectized sub-units for long-term projects that require considerable employee development such as learning a new technology. We see the projectized organizational form in professional firms (like accounting, consulting and engineering) and in technical departments that primarily do projects, such as information systems departments.

To summarize what we have covered, think of the project manager’s power and influence as a continuum. On the left hand extreme, there is the functional organization where the PM’s power and influence is zero. As we move across the continuum into matrix organizations, the PM’s power grows and grows until it peaks in the projectized organization.

Organizational Continuum

Composite Organization - A Mix of All Three

Few organizations are purely functional, matrix or projectized. The larger the organization, the greater the chance that the organization has sub-divisions that are organized by different

types; this is called a composite organization. For example, in

a large organization the manufacturing division might follow strict functional lines with production, engineering and inventory control departments staffed with specialists. On the other hand, for research and development the organization might use a more fluid matrix structure to facilitate the sharing of skills on projects and new products. To go even further, for an upcoming new product, the organization might assemble the

project team as a separate department to ensure that needed resources are available from several functional areas, with this

projectized organization disbanding when the project is done. This product department would have its own budget and dedicated team.

Project Management Office: PMO

Organizations, regardless of their form, may utilize a project management office (PMO) to facilitate the projects that are taking place. Different organizations use different names for the PMO; it may be called the project office, program office or

program management office. We can have PMOs in functional or matrix organizations but we see them regularly in projectized and strong matrix organizations. They are less likely in weak matrix and functional organizations. For example, a consulting firm has a real need to coordinate project activities because almost all employees work on multiple projects and new client projects may start each week. That combination creates the need to closely track projects and to set priorities for resource allocation.

The PMO serves other important functions and there are several

styles of PMOs. Some distribute project information and may provide software and training for project managers and team members. Other project offices integrate the project information, enforce a common project methodology and help executives make priority and resource allocation decisions. In still others, the organization’s project managers work in the PMO and are assigned to manage projects by the PMO. In organizations with even stronger PMOs, they may assist the management committee in approving or rejecting proposed projects.

Project & Product Lifecycles

The PMBOK® talks about a number of different lifecycles. Products like a new cell phone have a product lifecycle that may start with research and development, move to testing, manufacturing, marketing and then end with product

replacement. Each of those phases in the product lifecycle may



require a project. The organization may have a project lifecycle it uses to build manufacturing facilities as required by the third phase of the product lifecycle above. That project lifecycle may start with design, followed by land acquisition, construction, and assembly line start-up.

Some organizations may have one lifecycle that they apply to all projects.

Alternatively, an organization may have several lifecycles and it may allow the project manager and team to select the one that is most appropriate for each project.

While lifecycles can vary widely, all lifecycles cover:

The work that needs to be completed

Each phase’s deliverable and approval

criteria The people involved.

There are also several features common to most project lifecycles. Most lifecycles require the fewest team members and resources at the beginning and end of the lifecycle. Project costs also follow the same bell-curve because the project is most costly in the middle of the project lifecycle. Risk is highest at the beginning of the lifecycle and decreases throughout the project phases. Stakeholder influence over the project requirements is also greatest at the beginning of the lifecycle and decreases through the phases. However, the cost of adding requirements rises as we move through the lifecycle.



THE PROCESS GROUPS OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT

As we mentioned above, a project manager selects the appropriate project management tasks and techniques for each project from an inventory of best practices. Those best practices are organized into 5 Process Groups, 11 Knowledge Areas and 47 processes.

The project lifecycle is broken into 5 process groups:

Initiating

It has 2 processes and gets things started by the sponsor securing project authorization from the organization.

Monitoring and Controlling

It has 11 processes and here we ensure that execution is going according to plan and correct things if it is not.

When the deliverables have all been produced, we bring the project to an end.

Closing

It has 2 processes and it is where we put the data away for use on future projects and assess how we did in lessons learned.

Planning

It has 24 processes and is the busiest process group because we make all the decisions about how we’re going to do things on the project.

When the project management plan is approved, we launch the project and have two process groups that happen at the same time:

Executing

It has 8 processes and it is here that we do the work of the project, consume most of the resources and produce the deliverables.



THE KNOWLEDGE AREAS OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Those 47 processes in project management can also be organized into 10 Knowledge Areas (11 if we include Professionalism, as we will).

Integration Management

It has 6 processes and the common purpose of tying together everything else that happens.

Develop Project Charter (Initiating Process Group)

Develop Project Management Plan (Planning Process Group)

Direct and Manage Project Work (Executing Process Group)

Monitor and Control Project Work (Monitoring and Controlling Process Group)

Perform Integrated Change Control (Monitoring and Controlling Process Group)

Close Project or Phase (Closing Process Group)

Scope Management

It has 6 processes with the purpose of defining what result the project should produce and then watching to ensure it does produce that result.

Plan Scope Management (Planning Process Group)

Collect Requirements (Planning Process Group)

Define Scope (Planning Process Group)

Create WBS (Planning Process Group)

Validate Scope (Monitoring and Controlling Process Group)

Control Scope (Monitoring and Controlling Process Group)

Schedule Management

It has 7 processes and the purpose is defining and then tracking the schedule for delivering the project’s scope.

Plan Schedule Management (Planning Process Group)

Define Activities (Planning Process Group)

Sequence Activities (Planning Process Group)

Estimate Activity Resources (Planning Process Group)



Estimate Activity Durations (Planning Process Group)

Develop Schedule (Planning Process Group)

Control Schedule (Monitoring and Controlling Process Group)

Cost Management

It has 4 processes with the purpose of establishing a budget for delivering the project’s scope and then tracking actual costs and comparing them to the budget.

Plan Cost Management (Planning Process Group)

Estimate Costs (Planning Process Group)

Determine Budget (Planning Process Group)

Control Costs (Monitoring and Controlling Process Group)

Quality Management Knowledge Area

It has 3 processes that share the purpose of establishing the criteria and specifications that the project’s deliverables must meet and then tracking actual performance and improving the process of producing those deliverables.

Plan Quality Management (Planning Process Group)

Perform Quality Assurance (Executing Process Group)

Control Quality (Monitoring and Controlling Process Group)

Human Resources Management

It has 4 processes for identifying, managing and developing the members of the project team.

Plan Human Resource Management (Planning Process Group)

Acquire Project Team (Executing Process Group)

Develop Project Team (Executing Process Group)

Manage Project Team (Executing Process Group)

Communications Management

It has 3 processes for the planning of project related communications, managing the communications and monitoring communications to make sure they are sufficient.

Plan Communications Management (Planning Process Group)

Manage Communications (Executing Process Group)

Control Communications (Monitoring and Controlling Process Group)



Risk Management

It has 6 processes with purpose of identifying the uncertainties or risks the project faces (things that could hurt and, as importantly, things that might help) and managing these risks to the project’s betterment.

Plan Risk Management (Planning Process Group)

Identify Risks (Planning Process Group)

Perform Qualitative Risk Analysis (Planning Process Group)

Perform Quantitative Risk Analysis (Planning Process Group)

Plan Risk Responses (Planning Process Group)

Control Risks (Monitoring and Controlling Process Group)

Procurement Management

It has 4 processes with the purpose of securing the items the project needs to buy and making sure they are delivered as

promised in the contracts/agreements.

Plan Procurement Management (Planning Process Group)

Conduct Procurements (Executing Process Group)

Control Procurements (Monitoring and Controlling Process Group)

Close Procurements (Closing Process Group)

Stakeholder Management

It has 4 processes with the purpose of identifying the stakeholders, their expectations for the project as well as managing those expectations through the life of the project.

Identify Stakeholders (Initiating Process Group)

Plan Stakeholder Management (Planning Process Group)

Manage Stakeholder Engagement (Executing Process Group)

Control Stakeholder Engagement (Monitoring and

Controlling Process Group)

Professionalism & Social Responsibility

The PMBOK® does not cover this topic but we treat it as the 11th Knowledge Area because it is important on the exams (up to 14% of the PMP® exam questions). This area covers the

ethical standards that project managers must meet.

What the Heck are EEF and OPA?

Every project is impacted by the internal and external environment the organization faces and its culture, management processes, policies and ways of doing business. These are called enterprise environmental factors (EEF).



Projects can, and should, draw on the organization’s collective project wisdom, lessons learned from project successes and failures and the data from previous projects. Unfortunately, in most organizations this information, called organizational process assets (OPA), is not archived or available so project managers must reinvent the wheel for each project and make the same mistakes again and again. The idea of archiving data and reusing content from previous projects may well be the most important best practice. Let’s discuss EEF and OPA a bit more because we will not repeat these ideas in the future discussion of every task.

long a certain kind of task took on earlier projects. It can save a project team from having to decompose their whole work breakdown structure because they can use all or part of the WBS created by previous project teams or their lessons learned. OPA can save time and improve results on every process in the project lifecycle.

With that background, let’s dive into the Examples that will teach you all the tools and techniques that represent the best practices in project management.

Enterprise Environmental Factors (EEF)

As a short hand in the book, we refer to these Enterprise Environmental Factors as EEF and they are an input to many of

the PMI® tasks. The EEF includes the organization’s personnel systems for doing business like the compensation system, accounting system and its information systems. It also includes

all the organizational policies such as the rules for hiring and evaluating employee performance. The industry in which the performing organization operates may also impose regulations and rules on the organization and its projects. We draw on

these factors and operate within the limitations they impose. The EEF also include external factors like governmental regulations and marketplace conditions.

Organizational Process Assets (OPA)

The Organizational Process Assets include a wide range of things that let us avoid “reinventing the wheel” for each

project. We want to use templates, forms and data from previous projects because it saves time and lets us learn from the successes and mistakes made on previous projects. One of the traits of organizations that are consistently successful with projects is that they have consistent processes and save the data from every project they do. The OPA lets project managers who are estimating duration look up the data on how

Three Project Management Examples

The best way to pass the PMI® certification exams and to master skills that will make you a better project manager is to see the tasks, tools and techniques applied in context; that is, see the techniques used in real project situations. Let’s begin by meeting three PMP®s and learn about the three projects they will manage through the rest of this book.

Chris Pimbock slowed down as he spotted the long line of passengers waiting to have their baggage checked at Honolulu International Airport. It'd been a great vacation and now he was ready to head back to Royster Industries, a small manufacturing company, and take on his next project challenge for his boss. The boss named the project the Trouble Report

Improvement Project with the acronym, TRIP. A woman joined the line behind Chris and inadvertently slid her carry-on bag into the back of his heel. She smiled at Chris in apology and

flipped open her iPad.

Just then Chris's cell phone chimed and he flipped open the phone and answered.

It was his boss, Tom Stearns who said, "I hope you had a good vacation, Chris, because the Sales and Marketing people are making all kinds of noise about the trouble report problems and



I'm going to need you to hit the ground running on the TRIP project as soon as you get back."

Chris answered, "Yes sir, the TRIP project is number one on my priority list. I plan to get started first thing Monday morning."

Chris dug his clipboard from his carry-on to give Tom a couple of facts and then hung up. Chris was surprised to see the woman behind him looking at him with an odd expression.

She closed her iPad and said with a smile, "Pardon me but I couldn't help overhearing your phone conversation and it sounds like you're a project manager just like I am. In fact, it sounds like we're both managing a project called TRIP.”

“I'm Chris Pimbock and that is a little weird,” Chris said and smiled back. “It’s my first major project, I just got my PMP®, and frankly this TRIP project is the first one my company has ever done with a trained project manager. We're pretty small, only a couple hundred people, so this should be a real adventure.”

Terry Evans introduced herself and said, "I've been a PMP® for a few years now but I'll never forget my first project. Let's just say I learned a lot. But this is so strange, both of us managing a project with the acronym TRIP.”

The man behind Terry, dressed in an elegant pinstripe suit, bit

the cap on his Monte Blanc fountain pen and said, "Sorry to eavesdrop, but what's even more strange is that there are three project managers standing in line and all managing projects call TRIP.”

Terry laughed. She and Chris both introduced themselves to Preston McCarthy, PMP®, and owner of a consulting firm whose

clients were Fortune 100 multinational companies. Preston said, "We all have an ethical duty to preserve the confidentiality of

our clients and the organizations for which we work. My TRIP project is about trouble reports in a multinational company with tens of thousands of employees. It's the biggest project and client my firm has ever handled so I’ll have a lot on my plate

first thing Monday morning. The stakes for the project are huge so we'll be applying some very sophisticated techniques because the stakes justify that kind of sophistication. We also have some significant language and cultural barriers as well as the usual turf battles between functional units. I'm going to be one busy project manager for the next year.”

Terry said, "Well our company’s smaller than that, just a few thousand employees, but you haven't seen turf battles until you’ve seen the ones between our functional units. The VPs are like feudal lords and ladies; jealously guarding their people and decision-making prerogatives. I'm going to have my hands full because my organization has never done a project involving multiple functional units, at least not successfully. Success is

pretty important to our business so I'm going to be focusing on very accurate estimating of costs and budgets and the usual change control processes. But communications and managing

stakeholder expectations are getting most of my emphasis. Our project management plan is not going to include the kind of sophisticated project techniques I imagine you'll be using, Preston."

Preston laughed, "Don't get me wrong; communications requirements and stakeholder expectations are going to be

number one for me, like they always are. How about you, Chris; how have you tailored your project management plan?"

Chris laughed, "Well we're a lot less sophisticated and the project is pretty much taking place within our department. So I'm going to be focusing on getting the boss and our stakeholders used to doing any type of project management.

What I'm going to be hearing is ‘Why can’t you start today and finish in a month?’ I'm going to have to fight and claw and have very good arguments about why we should be doing any project management tasks rather than just getting to work quickly."



Preston chuckled and said, "Been there, done that. Frankly, not to minimize the challenges that Terry and I face, but

getting an organization started doing things the right way may be the most difficult of all.”

Project Manager’s KnowledgeBase Initiating Statement of Work

INITIATING

All projects need to be initiated, whether they are a small project for your boss affecting only the department in which you work or a major project involving many departments or outside customers. Initiation starts with a statement of work, an idea or a problem or an opportunity. Then, the sponsor and/or project manager drafts the business case, an assessment of the project and its feasibility. For small projects, that assessment might happen in a conversation with the sponsor over coffee.

On a bigger project, the business case might involve formal cost-benefit analysis, the preparation of a feasibility study and documentation to persuade the corporation that the project is worth doing. Next, the project manager identifies

the other stakeholders who will be affected by the project. Then, the project manager will work with the sponsor and stakeholders to define a high-level scope of the project, which is a measurable business outcome or acceptance criteria against which the project results will be measured. With the high-level scope defined, the project manager moves on to analyze the risks the project faces, the

assumptions they are making about the outside world and the constraints within which the project has to operate.

With all that data gathered, the project manager then develops the project charter, which explains the value of the project as well as its costs and duration. Last, the project manager presents the charter and when it is approved, the PM gets the authorization to begin detailed planning and use organizational resources.


Project Manager’s KnowledgeBase Initiating Statement of Work


Statement of Work

The project statement of work (SOW) is produced at the beginning of Initiation by the project sponsor. It describes what the sponsor wants the project to deliver in terms of business results, product of the project and other deliverables. The sponsor should also describe the business need that will justify the project. This may be in the areas of customer demands, technological changes, regulatory changes or organization growth.

The SOW should provide the project manager with descriptions and information on the product that the project

will deliver when it is successful. It should also explain how the project relates to the business needs of the organization.

As an example, the sponsor might write an email describing how the response time of the supply room needs to be improved. The sponsor might detail the performance he expects from the supply room at the end of the project with

acceptance criteria like “supply orders are filled within four hours.” The reason for this improvement is that operating

departments are losing valuable time waiting for supplies to arrive. This in turn is causing delays in production. The sponsor might conclude by saying this project is consistent with the organization’s goal for this year of improving turnaround time in service to customers.” That simple email meets the criteria for the initiation statement of work. Obviously, for larger efforts the extent of the statement of

work might be much larger but the points this email covered have to be in every statement of work.

The sponsor generates the SOW at the beginning of Initiation and the project manager uses it for the development of the business case and the charter, unless the sponsor does those as well.

It’s important to remember that there is also a procurement statement of work, which the project manager will issue to potential vendors being asked to bid. On the PMI exam, every time you see an SOW question, you need to be clear about which kind of SOW the question is focused on.


Project Manager’s KnowledgeBase Initiating Business Case

Business Case

The business case is prepared by the sponsor and/or project manager or a business analyst to justify the project to the organization. Many organizations have criteria they apply to proposed projects. Those criteria might include return on investment (ROI) or payback period, among other financial metrics. At a minimum, the business case includes narrative and a cost-benefit justification of the money and time that will be invested in the project. On larger projects, the business case can be very substantial documentation with extensive financial projections on the cost of the project as

well as on the benefits it will produce over time.

As an example, a project manager who receives an email

with statement of work information from the sponsor about a small project, might respond with an email providing estimates of the project costs and benefits. That email might document the complaints from department managers about supply room turnaround time and then estimate that improved controls over stocking levels could reduce stock

outs to less than two a month. That improvement would save approximately 100 hours a month in the operating departments. The project manager would do some calculations using people’s average hourly rates and quantify the benefits as a savings of $4,000 of employee time a month. The project manager might also estimate that the project to attain that reduced level of stock outs would require 20 hours of the project manager’s time and 40 hours of supply room personnel time. The project manager might estimate the total cost of the project as $6,500 and compare that to the $48,000 in annual cost savings which the project

could produce. That simple document meets all the criteria for the business case. Of course, a larger project would require much more substantial efforts.


Project Manager’s KnowledgeBase Initiating Identify Stakeholders 13.1

Identify Stakeholders 13.1

As soon as the sponsor has produced the SOW, which

triggers the business case the organization requires, the project manager begins the process of identifying the stakeholders. Why does this happen so early? Because the project manager wants to hunt exhaustively for people who will be affected, positively or negatively, by the project. This will allow us to unearth their requirements and address

them by either including or excluding them from the project plan. Another reason is because the stakeholders are assets

of the project. They will include managers who lend us people and other resources, as well as people with expertise in many aspects of the project, like risk management or budgeting. The project manager will also use those

stakeholders to help define the scope more extensively and also identify the risks and assumptions. This focus on using the stakeholders is reflected in the entire PMI exam. Finally, the project manager needs to manage the stakeholders to ensure that the project benefits from their support. As part of that effort, the PM needs to manage their expectations so

that the project delivers what they expect it to deliver. They are assets to be identified early, then cultivated and engaged throughout the entire project. Stakeholders should not be viewed as people who interfere in the project work.

How To Do It

You sat down with two of the employees from the supply room to

talk about the project and to identify the stakeholders. You

asked a couple of questions about departments that were the

biggest users of the supply room as well as those people and

departments who complained about the file room the most. You

also asked about which supply room users were the happiest

with the service. As the supply room employees mentioned

people’s names, you added them to your stakeholder list. You

asked if there was anyone else familiar with the supply room

users and they mentioned another supply room employee who



had been there for years but was on vacation that week. You

made a note to add her to your networking list and then asked

about the vendors who provided the materials to the supply

room. You asked if there were any problems or issues with those

vendors and the employees made some comments about late

payment and the fact that some of the delivery people would not

put their products on the supply room shelves. That caused

frequent delays in stocking. You made note of that issue and the

names of the vendors involved and added them to your

stakeholder list. At the end of the session, you asked about other

departments in the organization that they worked with and they

mentioned the purchasing department and accounting. You got

the names of the individuals with whom they worked and added

them to the stakeholder list. After you finished your coffee, you went down to the file room

and looked at the project archives. You found two other projects

that involved the file room and glanced through that

stakeholder documentation to see who was involved. You found

the name of an IT business analyst who had done some work for

the purchasing and inventory management system and added

that person to your stakeholder list. The following morning you began your initial stakeholder

interviews. You would not only gather information about their

potential requirements and expectations for the project, you

would begin the process of managing their expectations by

asking them what they expected from the project and

immediately correcting any misunderstandings. You knew how

critical it was to align the stakeholders’ expectations with the

actual scope of the project. You also would keep your eyes open

for potential contributions each of these people could make to

the project. You wanted to involve some of them in activities like

scheduling and risk management because that kind of

involvement would build their support. This was a small project so you completed your stakeholder

interviews after talking to eight people. You still documented

those people in your stakeholder register and made notes about

their expectations, potential involvement and issues. You would

add to the register as you moved through the process groups of

the project.

Inputs to this Process

The business case and statement of work produced

earlier as well as the charter we are also

developing in Initiating are a good launching point

for identifying stakeholders including: the project

sponsor, team members, client/customer, users,

specific departments within the organization and

outside organizations/groups that may be affected

by the project. The organization’s project archives, particularly

from similar projects, can be an excellent source of

stakeholder information. If the project involves any procurement for goods

and services, procurement documents from

previous projects can help us identify

stakeholders. We take into account our organizational hierarchy

and any company politics relevant for stakeholder

identification. We also use stakeholder registers

and lessons learned from previous projects.



Tools & Techniques

We use interviewing and brainstorming with the

involved people using their expert judgment to

identify individuals who will be affected by the

project. The outreach for stakeholders may also

include networking with employees. We use stakeholder analysis to gather information

about the identified stakeholders. We want to

gather information about each stakeholder’s

position, job title, rank, skills/knowledge the

project may utilize as well as their requirements and needs from the project. Last, we want to

assess their attitude about the project (positive or

negative) and the level of power or influence they

can exert. We may have meetings with the project sponsor,

executives, team members and other identified

stakeholders to help us identify all the

stakeholders.

Outputs from this Process

We produce the stakeholder register, which lists

the stakeholders by name, their project role, project requirements -achievements, perceived

expectations, their impact/influence on the project

and whether or not they support the project.

3 Project Examples of Identify Stakeholders

PMI® places great emphasis on identifying stakeholders so that we include all the important people affected by the project and gather their project requirements early on, rather than after the project has started. In the three Examples you’ll read about, you can see how we modify our stakeholder identification depending on the size and formality of the project.

Small Project Example: Identify Stakeholders

Chris Pimbock, the project manager, works for Royster Corporation in the Customer Service department managed by Tom Sterns, who directs 15 employees including Chris.

The salespeople triggered the project because

customers were complaining about service response

time. Tom Sterns responded by initiating the Trouble Report Improvement Project (TRIP). The statement of work and business case define success as responding more quickly to customer trouble reports.

Tom Sterns smiled and handed Chris Pimbock the signed business case saying, “Here you are, the Sales VP and I both approved it." Tom pointed to his PC where Outlook was open, "Who do we send it to?”

Chris stuck the signed business case onto his clipboard and said, “Well, we should send it to all the stakeholders.”

Tom responded, "Yes, I have all the employees in the department on the distribution list."



"I think we need to think of the stakeholders a bit more broadly," Chris said. "Stakeholders are the people who will be affected by the project and we identify them up front so we can get their requirements and manage their expectations. The company's customers are certainly affected by the project and I would imagine that the Sales department, who started this whole thing, is probably the most important stakeholder."

Tom said, "I don't want those people from Sales and

Marketing telling us how to run this project. They stick their noses into our business more than enough as it is. I’m going to send it to just the employees in our department."

Chris smiled and said, "You're the boss and the project sponsor so we'll do it your way. But ignoring other important stakeholders will really reduce our odds of being successful. It creates a situation where stakeholders and their

requirements can spring up just as we’re finishing the project. Then they’ll cost much more to address and make

us late in addition. Like it or not, Sales and Marketing started this project and their opinion of our work when the project is done will matter a lot. So why not involve them in the project now rather than letting them surprise us at the end with what they really wanted?"

Tom nodded slowly, "That makes good sense. And it would be just like those jerks to watch us do all this work to improve service and then tell us we didn't do what they wanted."

Chris smiled and said, "That's exactly why we identify the stakeholders early and then manage their expectations so we don't get those nasty surprises."

Tom said, "Okay I'm sold. How do we do this stakeholder identification?"

Chris thought for a moment, running through the stakeholder identification techniques in his mind. Then he thought about the scale of the project and the fact that Tom, the sponsor, was not familiar with the best practices in project management and had seen too many projects dragged down by unnecessary paperwork and meetings. Chris decided to move slowly; a little bit of stakeholder identification was appropriate for this small project and would pay big benefits. An elaborate stakeholder identification process would be overkill and might cause Tom to skip the whole process.

Chris said, "Well we always tailor our project management tasks to the size of the project and this is a small one. So why don't you and I do some stakeholder identification right now?”

Tom nodded agreement, "Clearly we have some stakeholders in Sales. I can make a call and get them to assign a representative; probably one of the salespeople."

Chris said, "That's a good idea but we also have other Sales stakeholders plus some in Marketing whose expectations we want to manage. And it's much better for us to manage those expectations than to hope that one salesperson assigned to the project will do the job for us. So let's go ahead and get somebody else involved but also identify the VP of Sales/Marketing and some of her directors as stakeholders. We'll get them engaged during our requirements gathering and also make them part of the

stakeholder and communications management plans."

Tom smiled, "That's exactly the way to play the game. I can't think of any other stakeholders besides the people here in the department and our customers who are clearly affected. But Sales and Marketing will never let us talk to the customers directly. That's their turf."



Chris nodded and said, "I'll make a note to add customers as a stakeholder group anyway. Maybe something will come up. We can always add additional stakeholders as they come to our attention but I think that's enough for the moment. I'll start the stakeholder register.”

Multi-department Project Example: Identify Stakeholders

McLaughlin Electronic Enterprises is experiencing a large volume of complaints from customers about their response time on customer trouble reports. 15 different functional units are engaged in handling these trouble reports for different types of customers and different product lines.

Terry Evans, the project manager for this multi-

department project, is from Engineering and just earned her PMP®. Terry is concerned about managing the Trouble Report Improvement Project

(TRIP) across all of these departmental boundaries. The VP of Sales, Gwendolyn Stiles, is the project

sponsor and she drove the project through the approval process based on the cost of lost customers.

The company has over 5,000 employees and this

project will include systems development, construction of new office facilities, training of

employees and procurement of computer hardware and other equipment.

The project will utilize resources from 15 different

departments and technical specialists from 4 support departments (Information Systems, Construction, Training and Development).

Terry didn’t mind working late and Gwendolyn Stiles, the VP of Sales/Marketing and project sponsor, requested the meeting. But it did seem odd to meet at 8:30 at night and for the sponsor to request that she bring a pepperoni pizza. Terry found the right room in the deserted conference center, knocked and went in juggling the pizza box and her iPad.

Gwendolyn Stiles looked up from the papers in front of her and said, "Welcome! I know this is a bit unusual but the way we do projects in Marketing is to keep a tight lid on things. That way the competition doesn't find out about what new products we’re offering or our other marketing initiatives. I want to do this project exactly the same way without any interfering outsiders. That's why we’ll meet later at night. I hope you don't mind….Oh and this,” she pointed to a young woman sitting at the table, “is Audrey, my assistant."

Terry set the pizza and paper plates down on the table and smiled at Audrey. "It's not my choice to work evenings but I

certainly can accommodate your schedule. I'm a little concerned, however, about keeping the project secret from other departments whose cooperation we need."

Gwendolyn replied with a wave of her hand, “Well it’s not secret from top management but I don’t want to have people from other departments involved in planning this thing. All they'll do is work their own agendas and slow us down. We need to move fast!"

Terry helped herself to a slice of pizza and said, "I know it sounds like it would slow things down to engage our stakeholders but it actually speeds things up. These stakeholders are the people we need to support the project across the organization and the managers and directors are

the people we need to make changes in their departments’ operations. They clearly have a stake in this project and we need their active and enthusiastic support. Getting people to make changes in their work habits is always difficult and it will be even harder if we don't let the stakeholders



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participate in the planning and delivery of the project. In a very real sense we need to ‘sell’ the project to these stakeholders."

Audrey asked, "Exactly who are the stakeholders?"

Terry answered, "Anyone who is affected by the project or who can affect it. As I said, were going to be asking a very large number of departments to change their operations if

we're going to improve trouble-ticket turnaround time. The

managers and the employees in each of those departments who have to change their work procedures are all important

stakeholders because if they don't do things differently this project will fail. Other departments will have to lend us people to do the work of this project. If they don't

cooperate in making people from their departments available, this project is going to fail. So stakeholders are very influential and some of them are in very powerful positions. There are other departments and even outside firms who will supply resources this project needs and they’re stakeholders as well, with perhaps a little less influence and power over our success.”

Gwendolyn smiled and said, "You're basically looking at the stakeholders as if they were customers and segmenting the market."

Teri nodded agreement and said, "Good project managers tailor the procedures they use to fit the needs of each project. On this project, I think a fairly detailed segmentation of our stakeholders is warranted.

We’ll identify the stakeholders and also make an initial assessment of their interests in terms of what they want to get out of the project, their expectations for what it will do for the company and to their area of responsibility, their ability to influence the project and their requirements from the project.”

Gwendolyn slapped the conference table and said, "That makes sense. Let's do it!"

50 minutes later, Terry had the first two stakeholders entered into the initial stakeholder register and they stopped

to finish the pizza.

Between bites Terry said, "This is the way we’ll continue to identify stakeholders and you can see how we’re also laying

out the start of our stakeholder management strategy. I think the key to that strategy will be identifying people who have a lot of influence and engaging them in the project. Those people whose departments will be significantly affected by the project in terms of the changes, should have significant roles in the planning of the project. Less influential stakeholders may not be offered those decision- making roles but we certainly will communicate with them regularly so they're aware of what's going on in the project and how they can help.



Gwendolyn nodded and said, "I agree the people who have the most influence over the project’s success need to be engaged initially in the project. And we need to keep them informed and maybe even ‘take their temperature,’ you know, find out how they're feeling about the project on a regular basis. We don’t want to be taken by surprise by the people who have a problem or an issue. That's exactly how we deal with our important customers.”

Terry was typing into her iPad and when she finished, she looked up and said, "I'll lay out those elements of our stakeholder management strategy and we’ll reflect that strategy in both our requirements gathering and in our stakeholder and communications plans for the project."

Customer/Client Project Example: Identify Stakeholders

Globetrotter International Enterprises is experiencing problems on its response time to customer trouble reports in all 15 countries in which they operate.

This company hired Preston McCarthy, an external

consultant, to manage the project. Preston’s firm, McCarthy and Associates, is providing both technical expertise and project management services for Globetrotter.

Mr. Fuller, the president of Globetrotter Enterprises,

waved Preston McCarthy to a seat across the desk, saying, “We made a big point about the stakeholders and about how our profit centers operate independently. In the business case, we stressed the difficulty in getting the various functional areas to cooperate. Now, I’d like to know how the hell

you’re going to get this cantankerous management team of mine to cooperate across functional lines. Oh they talk about how we’re a matrix organization but that’s usually when they want some other

division to do something for them. Truth be told, we are as functional as hell…they operate like feudal lords and ladies ruling their own little kingdoms. So how are you going to get them to cooperate?”

Preston uncapped his Mont Blanc fountain pen and thought for a moment. The question was not a surprise but he realized that Mr. Fuller was concerned about this issue and probably not comfortable going ahead with the contract until he got an answer about this organizational question. Preston said, "Without a doubt, stakeholder support and participation is the biggest risk in the project. What we’re going to do is a thorough job of stakeholder identification and management. It is already obvious that the functional managers are going to require special handling and a big investment in time.

Mr. Fuller scowled and retorted, "And then you’re gonna come running to me to make them do what you want?"

Preston laughed and shook his head, "No, for your functional managers, we will conduct a personal face-to-face interview to explain the project to each of them individually. We’ll get an initial reaction so that we can assess their interests,

requirements and level of support. I know there are almost 35 of them but I want to make that initial personal assessment and then plot them in terms of their power, influence and potential impact on the project. Later we're going to put together a strategy for each of them individually which is going to lead to a round of ‘horse

trading’ based on each individual's hot button issues or requirements. I want them to own the project. We'll do this early in project planning and tailor the project plan to fit the agreement we've made with each of them. They'll each get something they value in exchange for making the changes we need in their operations so we can improve the overall trouble report performance. Obviously, I’ll get your

approval on each of the written deals we make which will detail their accountability.”

` 123 Advanced Construction Project Management

Instructor-led Online Training from Anywhere in the World

Main Page

Contents

Course Summary

Detailed Syllabus

Lecture Sample

Textbook Sample

Course Webpage

Enhance Your Construction Project Manager Skills & Your Ability to Persuade Customers

This Advanced Construction Project Management course is designed to give experienced construction

professionals the skills to manage larger and more strategic projects. You will prepare and present plans and

reports to customers and executives and persuade them to approve your solutions to problems. These skills are a

requirement for construction project managers who want to advance their career and increase their salary.

How the Course Works You have textbook reading, online lectures and videos and a construction project case study. You will learn to:

Design & gain approval for a strategic project plan Persuade customers and executives to support the plan in a

presentation designed for different personality types Present estimates of project costs and duration with options Present project risks & get your management strategy approved Present project variances & persuade customers and executives to

approve your solutions.You have the option to practice your presentation, persuasion and communication skills by giving presentations in live online video meetings with your instructor, just the two of you. They will send you a video of each presentation with their comments and suggestions for improving your skills.

Work with Your Instructor Through the entire course, you will work individually with your PMP-certified instructor via e-mail, phone calls and video conferences over the Internet.

You may begin the course whenever you wish and study from anywhere in the world. You set your own pace and schedule and you may take up to one year from enrollment to complete this 60 hour course. Your instructor also gives you one year of on-going support and advice after you complete the course. This coaching helps you apply what you learned to your construction projects at work.

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Master the Skills to:

Design a Strategic Plan

Present it to the Customers

Estimate Cost and Duration

Get the Customers’ Approval

Practice techniques for running

meetings and giving presentations

to customers and executives in a

strategic-level construction project

case study

Main Page

Analyze Risks & Variances

Get Corrective Action Approved

Give Persuasive Presentations

Answer Questions Effectively

ADVANCED CONSTRUCTION PM SKILLS

PRACTICE IN S I MUL A T ION S

You will work on a construction project case study and practice every tool and technique. Each assignment

PERSONAL INSTRUCTION SPECIFICATIONS

includes running a meeting or giving a presentation. You will design a strategic plan in a meeting with the customers and executives, then identify each individual’s personality type and communication requirements. You will develop and present cost and duration estimates and get the customers’ and executives’ approval. Next you will assess the project’s risks, present a risk response plan and get it approved by the executives. Finally, you will present a status report with suggestions for corrective action and gain the customers and executives’ approval to implement them.

E N HA N CED CO MMU N I C A TI ON SK I LL S

Effective communication is a key skill for every successful construction project manager. If your presentations are not persuasive and professionally delivered, your credibility as a project manager suffers. Each assignment in the Advanced Construction Project Management course includes the option of giving a live, filmed presentation to your instructor in our online conference center. It’s a private session, just you and your instructor. You get a copy of your video with your instructor’s feedback and coaching on your assignment content, communication style and presentation techniques.

Your instructor is available by

phone, e-mail or video

conference if you have questions

about using a tool or technique.

They will give you written

feedback on all your

assignments. You have the option

to practice every technique and

present every assignment in live,

online meetings. You are the

project manager in the case

study and your instructor plays

the customers/executives and

asks their typical questions.

Each optional live session is

filmed and you receive a video

of your presentation so you can

review your instructor’s

comments about your body

language, eye contact,

gestures, use of visual aids, etc.

You will achieve marked

improvement in your

communication skills.

For Experienced PMs

60 Hours of Work

Use a PC, Mac or iPad

Study When You Want

Study From Anywhere

Take up to 1 Year

PMI Registered Education Provider

#1147

Earns 60 Contact Hours

4PM.com

3547 S. Ivanhoe St.

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303-596-0000

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Advanced Construction Project Techniques

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Course Syllabus

Getting Started: In the introductory email, you received a form with your license agreement, the course requirements and return policy. Please sign this form and scan or fax it to us. Our fax number is (303) 845- 9145. Our e-mail is [email protected]

We’ll then e-mail your username and password to access your course lectures, supplemental reading and the student library with hundreds of articles, videos and graphics.

The free Adobe Flash Player version 11 or later is required for the course as is the Adobe Reader 9.2 or later. Both are available from http://www.Adobe.com You will also need Microsoft PowerPoint® or Apple Keynote 7 for your presentations and Microsoft Project® for your scheduling assignments. You may download a free 60 day trial from http://www.microsoft.com/project/en-us/project- professional-2010.aspx

Learning Objectives: Working with your personal instructor, you will learn advanced techniques and how to apply them to managing large strategic construction projects. The course teaches you these best practice techniques including how to design and present options, defend the techniques you used and make recommendations in presentations to executives.

We begin with project planning, then customer stakeholder management, risk analysis, estimating time and cost and finally

tracking and reporting. You have the option of giving a live online presentation to your instructor in each module.

Course Process & Grading: You can ask your instructor questions whenever you wish via phone or e-mail and you will receive personal written feedback on all your assignments. In addition, you will work privately with your instructor on making project presentations and assessing the personality types of the people with whom you will be communicating. You will learn how to tailor your communications to fit each personality type.

Each of the modules in the course has a textbook reading assignment, an online video lecture and a project case study-based assignment, which you complete and send to your instructor via e- mail. Then you will receive feedback on your assignment. You have the option to schedule a time to deliver your presentation to the executives (played by your instructor).

To pass the course, you must earn a grade of 80% or better on all assignments. Your instructor will ask you to revise any assignments that are below the 80% level.

Time Requirement: The course requires approximately 60 hours of effort for the reading, lectures, case study assignments, presentations and final exam. You must complete the course within 1 year of enrollment.

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.adobe.com/



http://www.microsoft.com/project/en-us/project-professional-2010.aspx

http://www.microsoft.com/project/en-us/project-professional-2010.aspx



Electronic Project Template: Along with your passwords, we will send you an Electronic Project Template (EPT) in MS Excel format. You can use this template to develop and then submit your project assignments. There is a tab for each of the assignments in the course and doing all your work in the template will save time. Please use e-mail to send assignments to your instructor.

Live Online Project Simulations: Your project case study takes place in the Vailcrest Corporation where you are a newly hired construction project manager. You will interact with the executive managers and staff in email exchanges and in optional live online meetings with the management team (role-played by your instructor). You will present your ideas, ask questions and answer their inquiries. It’s just like a real meeting except your instructor is with you offering coaching or even calling a time out if you get off track.

Because effective interpersonal relationships are such an important skill for construction project managers, you can practice presenting and explaining your work to executives who will ask you questions. The l ive project simulations will take place privately between you and your instructor in online meetings at mutually agreed upon times. In all of your assignments, you will play the role of the construction project manager and your instructor will play the project customer, stakeholders (people affected by the project), and team members. You will ask questions and receive answers like a conversation with these people. Your instructor will review and

critique how you handled each situation and send you feedback so you can improve your PM skills and your level of comfort in giving presentations. You will see marked improvement on each assignment and/or presentation in the case study.

Your Live Simulation Screen



Course Assignments & Simulations

1 – Strategic Planning with Executives

1. Reading: Read Chapters 1- 3 in your Advanced Construction Project Techniques textbook and the

write-ups on project design methodologies on the course website (Agile, Waterfall, Design-build and

Iterative). 2. Lecture: Watch the Module 1 lecture on the course

website and the Meet the Executives video.

3. Read the Vailcrest Project Case Study “Background Company, Executives & Project” below.

4. Use tab #1 in the Excel template to write the questions you want to ask Dan and the executives

during the live meeting to define the scope and High- level Deliverables for the Central Stores Project. Also

comment on your present position with these decision makers and what position you want to reach. Send it

to your instructor for feedback along with two dates/times if you want to do the live presentation. It

will take 20 minutes. 5. Complete the remaining items on tab #2 in your

template including your initial assessment of the

executives, the scope and major deliverables, issues, constraints, assumptions & risks, other deliverables

you discovered and slot them into the echelons. Last, complete the section on methodology and specify

which methodology you will

use for each major deliverable; agile, waterfall, iterative etc., based on what you know so far.

6. Send your template to your instructor for feedback.

VAILCREST PROJECT SIMULATION #1

BACKGROUND: COMPANY, EXECUTIVES & PROJECT

You walked into the brown stone Vailcrest headquarters early on your first full day back and realized how much had changed since your first stint as the Vailcrest construction project manager had ended 5 years ago. You were a rookie when you started with the company and a scared veteran by the time you left. That first Vailcrest construction project was a disaster and you saved it despite an executive group from Hell. But you were burned out 5 years and had joined a construction consulting firm that valued your hands-on project experience building in resort communities. At first it was exciting with a new client project every couple of weeks and you learned a lot of techniques from the firm’s partners. But now the construction consulting business was getting boring. All the travel and far too many 16 hour days were a real killer. Also, 5 years of city living made you yearn for Vail and the mountains. When Dan Morton, the Vailcrest president, called and made you a staggering offer to come back full time and run a strategic project initiative, you agreed after just a few seconds of thought. Here you stood, back in Vail ready to take on the same executives.

The enormous fireplace in the Vailcrest lobby was still there but a whole new wing had been added, built right into the cliff face



near the top of Vail Mountain. Dan had said your office was in the new wing so you headed that way from the lobby. You were

two hours early for your meeting with Dan about the big expansion project but you were eager to get settled in.

Figure 1 Vailcrest Main Lodge



Figure 2 Vailcrest Organization Chart



You found an office with your name on the door and opened it to see a smooth brown leather sofa to the right of your dark oak desk with a black executive chair. Beyond the desk was a view of the snow-capped Rockies that stretched for 100 miles. Nice. During your first stint with the company your “office” was in the vegetable storage locker with no window. On the phone, Dan said he’d leave some background info about the company’s growth over the last 5 years and your first project assignment, which would begin today. You sat down at the big desk, leaned forward to pick up a glossy leather folio sitting on the surface and opened it up.

You looked down at the cover sheet and found it was a report from a strategic planning firm, Royster Associates. You turned the page and began to read.

CONSULTANT’S REPORT INTRODUCTION

In the last five years, Vailcrest Corporation, a rehabilitation clinic and ski lodge located in Vail Colorado, has seen revenue growth of 30% per year with profit margins that are twice the industry average. The company delivers high levels of patient and customer satisfaction and earns 45% of its revenue from repeat customers.” There were pictures of the ski school, spa, therapy center, sports medicine clinic, hotel, and restaurants.

OVERVIEW

After reviewing the company’s performance, the strength of its executive staff, and surveying the industry for opportunities, we

have developed a strategic recommendation for Vailcrest Corporation.

The executives are rightly concerned about the need to expand their Vail facility to keep pace with the larger, multi-national competitors in the lucrative Vail Valley. While the company has the financial and managerial capability to expand, local politics is a brick wall. Vailcrest has tried to overcome the resistance driven by their competitors, environmental activists, animal rights protesters and strong local sentiment to limit tourism’s growth. But these factors have made the construction of new facilities impossible. The activists are well-financed and politically connect at the local, state and federal levels and, if anything, the movement is gaining local supporters.

While some executives want to stay small and defend the existing business, that strategy is unlikely to succeed. Vailcrest needs to use its profitability and market position as the springboard for major expansion in Vail with the goal of dominating the market while it can.

This all means that Vailcrest must follow a strategy of expanding within the current buildings it operates. The high-level approach for this effort should flow in two waves, the first is the completion of the Central Stores facility that will allow transferring the inventory from the main lodge, which in turn allows the second wave of remodeling to begin so we can create the new rooms, restaurants and treatment rooms in the main lodge which will generate the revenue.



The major steps are as follows:

Central Stores plans approved

Central Stores construction passes Building Dept. inspections

Stores, inventory & supplies relocated to Central Stores

Central Stores inventory system accepted by users

Main lodge passes Building Dept. inspections

New clinic treatments generate $15M in revenue in first 12 months



these therapies draws referrals to Vailcrest from physicians all over the United States.

Horst runs a superb operation largely due to subordinates who take care of the details after Horst lays out the big picture. The quality of the services is excellent but turnover is high among the physicians & therapists. Horst provides little in the way of detailed direction. His management approach severely limits his ability to lead a larger clinic or one with less capable staff.

Horst sees Vailcrest as primarily a medical institution with all the other services as merely supportive and not the reason people come to Vailcrest. The rehabilitation spa is not profitable but its losses each year are more than covered by the profits from the hotel and restaurants.

Martha Hobson, Hotel Operations VP

Martha Hobson was the first management professional in the company and brought operating controls, procedures and discipline to the hotel and restaurant operations. Under her guidance, those operations are now generating all the profits

for the company, while the rehabilitation clinic operates at a small loss. Martha brings calm professional management, controls all the details, and insists on carefully considering all the facts before making decisions. She is a disciplined thinker who could manage the entire company effectively.

ASSESSMENT OF THE EXECUTIVE STAFF

Dan Morton, President

Dan Morton, a former Olympic gold medal winner in the giant slalom, is President of Vailcrest Corporation, a company he founded. In his last Olympics, Dan won despite a serious leg injury in a dramatic and courageous come-from-behind slalom run. His courage led to many commercials and

endorsements. Knowing his fame would be fleeting, Dan quit the ski tour and used his accumulated wealth to purchase land atop Vail Mountain and build a ski school with a 40 room alpine lodge, dining room, and meeting facilities. Later, his mentor and the physician for the US Ski team, Dr. Horst Buckholtz, joined Dan and they added a 10,000 square foot clinic and therapy center for athletes from all sports. Dan has no formal business training but a lot of enthusiasm and is an inspirational leader.

Dr. Horst Buckholtz, Clinic Director and Medical Service VP

Dr. Buckholtz is a German physician and physical therapist who immigrated to the United States after receiving his degrees in Munich. He served as the Olympic team physician for years and had helped Dan through a host of injuries with his unique therapies and treatments. The renown of



Linda Tallmer, Marketing VP

Linda Tallmer is a very aggressive, people- oriented executive who is big on action without a great deal of planning or forethought. She is committed and very intense in her effort to help the Vailcrest employees. She is concerned about the amount of overtime people work and the

lack of promotional opportunities for the people in food service and the hotel operation. She has great difficulty getting any of the other executives to share these concerns. The other executives are more interested in building Vailcrest’s revenues and reputation as an outstanding work class resort. She also engages in continual conflicts with Horst and occasional battles with Martha. These executives constantly battle over whose projects take priority and the long term goals of Vailcrest Corporation.

Peggy Nordstrom, Information Systems Manager

Peggy was the first employee Dan hired and she has worn many hats from customer service to accounting, all without any formal education. She is very hard working and prefers to do the work herself rather than delegating. She is an extremely loyal and reliable employee, but the

company technology has outgrown her capability. Peggy developed the company’s first accounting controls and information systems. It is uncertain whether she has the talent

and training to provide the information systems support needed for a major expansion of the company’s operations.

CONSULTANT’S CENTRAL STORES PLAN

Based on our assessment of Vailcrest’s strengths and weaknesses and the state of the competition in your industry we recommend that the organization undertake a “Lightning Strike” expansion strategy within its existing facilities. While this strategy is high risk in the sense that the expansion project must be managed with great expertise, it offers the advantages of denying the competition the chance to respond. If successful, Vailcrest will be positioned to use its superior service and treatment plans to capture a dominant market share before the competition can react. In this facility outside the city limits, the company will maintain all inventories including; fresh and frozen food, beverages, spare equipment and medical supplies. The company will convert the 19,050 square feet of space now allocated to storage into additional guest rooms, clinic treatment rooms and restaurants which will support an additional $28 million in annual sales revenue.

The project needs to be integrated across all functional areas in the company, which will be difficult given the conflicts between the executives. While there are many components including construction, systems, business operations, and healthcare operations. The key is that Vailcrest must make this move to central stores as a lightning strike. Finish one construction effort while hiring & training people and developing system then move the supplies and start construction on the main lodge. You will



have to hire 16 new medical and 20 new hotel staff members and train them on the Vailcrest operating procedures so they are able to provide Vailcrest’s superior level of service in time for the opening of central stores. As well, marketing of the new treatments must be aimed at referring physicians all over the world.

Just as you finished reading, you sensed that someone was in your doorway. Sure enough, it was Dan Morton. With a grin on his face, he said, “Welcome back, stranger. Boy when you concentrate, you really concentrate. I have been here for 5 minutes as you read. Were you thinking, ‘Dan has lost his mind? This is crazy’?”

You smiled back and said, “It is good to be back and no, this is ambitious but if we get everybody pulling in the same direction, who knows what we can do. The consultant’s report was critical of the senior management staff. You are going to have to step on some toes to make this work.”

The smile left Dan’s face, replaced by a grimace. You knew from your last tour of duty with Vailcrest that Dan avoided conflict like the plague, which was why there was so much of it between the executives.

Dan shook his head, “It's even worse than it used to be because there is a lot of arguing between Linda, and Horst and Martha.”

You asked seriously, “Would you consider replacing…?”

Dan abruptly interrupted, “Those people helped me build Vailcrest and I will not fire or replace them. We’ll go with the horse that got us here. End of discussion on that topic.”

You laughed and said, “Okay, but I had to ask. Well, we need to start by defining the project scope and major deliverables. Then I’ll take on the screaming hordes in the requirements gathering meeting. But I need to do some planning with you.”

Dan nodded, sat down and said, “OK, what questions have you got for me? Wait,” he said and glanced at his watch. “No, we’ll do it later. I have people planning a big winter event. We’ll talk after that.”

2- Communicating with Stakeholders 1. Read Chapters 1-5 in the Type Talk at Work textbook.

The best way to use is book when typing a person is

to identify the type then find it in section III and use

the details on how to communicate with that type. 2. Lecture: Watch the Module 2 lecture on the course

website including the videos illustrating the different

personality types. 3. Read the Vailcrest Project Case Study “Stakeholder

Management” below and look at the Meet the Executives video again.

4. Use the video of the 4 Vailcrest executives (including Dan) to type each of them. The link to the video is on

the Module #2 web page. 5. In tab #2 of the course template, note your initial

typing of the executives (including Dan) and your



communications plan for the project based on the information you have. Describe how you will communicate with each of the three VPs in the

individual meetings. Also explain how you will deal with them as a group. Your objective in the session is

to address their objections and gain their support.

6. Send the template to your instructor for feedback. Include suggestions for two date and time options

when you will have individual meetings with the 3 Vailcrest executives Horst, Linda and Martha.


DEALING WITH THE STAKEHOLDERS

To prepare for your meetings with the Vailcrest executives, you walked into Vail Village and decided to have dinner at the Red Lion Bar, and listen to the singer who was appearing for his 28th season. You sat at a table and were quickly joined by a stream of Vailcrest employees you knew from the old days. As the various staff members welcomed you back, you asked questions about how things were going and how their projects were performing since you left. You heard all kinds of responses:

"Horst is still driving everyone crazy. He stops in the middle of talking to you and goes off on a tangent or some new big idea. The other day he stopped in the middle of our conversation about a patient and just gazed off into space. I've learned to wait it out but it took about 30 seconds before he totally changed the

subject and asked me about the new model of an imaging device we have. "

"Horst made me redo my notes in a patient's medical record because I had written them about the patient's ankle injury and Horst said I needed to focus on the whole patient. He wanted me to take a holistic approach rather than getting tied up in details.

But I mean heck, the guy’s angle is broken.”

"I work for both Dan and Horst and the difference is amazing. Horst is a big picture thinker, always wondering about what we're going to be doing five years down the road. That can get a little discouraging when you're trying to get your work done each day. And Dan is just the opposite. All he's concerned about is whether you're having fun. If you seem down, he will tell you to go hike for the rest of the day. It never occurs to him that you might have work that actually has to get done today. I don't know how those two works together.”

"I'm still waiting tables in the main dining room and Martha called me into her office to point out that my tips were averaging 3% less than last year. She asked me what I was doing differently, like I could remember. I don't know what trail I ran on yesterday.”

“I had a couple of customer complaints about my work waiting tables so Martha demoted me to busboy. Then she walked through the section of tables I just set up and spotted a couple of knives with water stains and told me to re-wash the silverware in the whole section."



"I’m working for Linda now because I couldn't stand Martha anymore. But working in marketing is like moving to a new planet. Linda has all kind of things going but her #1 issue is every one getting along and supporting one another.”

"Linda has her eccentricities but, boy, can she sell. A group contacted us about a department meeting for 50 and by the time Linda hung up they were bringing the whole company, 500 people."

3 – Advanced Estimating Techniques 1. Reading: Read Chapter 5 in your Advanced

Construction Project Techniques textbook. 2. Lecture: Watch the Module 3 lecture on the course

website.

3. Read the Vailcrest Project Case Study “Cost and

Duration Estimating Data” below. Then access the estimating data Excel spreadsheet on the website to

make your estimates of work and cost.

4. Use the 3-point, analogous and parametric estimates sections on tab #3 to develop the detail for your cost

and duration estimates for the whole project. You will

make estimates of the work and duration for each high-level deliverable.

5. For the estimates you make using 3-point estimating,

you will paste the pessimistic, optimistic and best guess into the 3-point section of tab #3. The template

will calculate the duration and cost at various confidence levels. Select several different confidence

levels to present to the executives so you give them

choices of higher confidence for higher cost. Remember to copy the work and cost data and paste it at the bottom or you will lose it when you calculate

the next HLD. 6. For the estimates you make using the parametric

technique paste the rate per unit and the number of

units into those fields in the template, tab #3. The template will calculate the cost and duration. Again

copy the cost and duration data to the bottom of tab #3 or you will lose it when you enter the next HLD.

7. For the estimates you make using the analogous technique copy the data from the historic project and

the adjustment factors into the template which will then calculate the analogous estimate for you. Copy

the data to the bottom of the tab. 8. Prepare a PowerPoint presentation of the duration and

cost estimates for use in your meeting with the

Vailcrest executives. 9. Be prepared to answer questions about the estimates

and the techniques you used to develop them.

Send all the materials to your instructor for

coaching and feedback and suggest two dates and times if you want to give a live online presentation.


COST AND DURATION ESTIMATING DATA

You were making exceptional progress on estimating the project costs and duration but you were feeling heavy pressure from Dan and his accountants to keep the project budget low and finish by



HIGH-LEVEL DELIVERABLE

ESTIMATING ISSUES ESTIMATING TECHNIQUE

Central Stores Plans Approved

Time delays in these first design tasks would be deadly and conflicts between these VPs are typical

Analogous estimates from previous Vailcrest projects

Central Stores Construction Passes Building Dept. Inspection

Have good parametric data from published sources

Parametric data based on Summit & Eagle County warehouse projects

Stores, Inventory & Supplies Relocated to Central Stores

This could be a real battle as the execs fight for storage space

Parametric estimates based on Vail hotel remodeling projects

Central Stores Inventory System accepted by Users

The systems development is the longest task on our critical path

3-point estimating by systems development staff and vendors

Main Lodge Passes Building Dept. Inspections

Good data from previous remodeling projects

Analogous estimates from previous Vailcrest projects

New Services/Treatments Generate $500K in Revenue in First 12 Months

Estimates by marketing & clinic staff familiar with these programs

3-point estimating

November 1. You also had to put together a presentation for the executive staff to gain their support. But your plan might require each of them to live with decreases in their departmental budgets. You had decided to use different estimating techniques for the various high-level deliverables in the project. Your estimating plan was as follows:

The estimating presentation was going to be interesting. Dan was set on an early finish date so you had plenty of time to work out the kinks before busy season got started at Thanksgiving. Horst never missed an opportunity to stop you and discuss his ideas for the "hospital of the future" and adding even more new therapies, treatments and surgical procedures. Clearly he was going to squeeze as much additional therapy equipment and clinical staffing as he could out of the project budget.

Martha was terrified of a service disaster if Central Stores couldn't produce supplies for guest rooms and restaurants when they were needed. She kept warning you about customers walking out of the restaurant if they had to wait too long for their meal or checking out of the hotel if their room wasn't ready.

Linda was generally concerned about the pressure this project would put on all the Vailcrest employees. She wanted to put the project off until after busy season, which missed the strategic point of beating the competition. She was uninterested in the details except as they affected the marketing inventory, which was a tiny percentage of Vailcrest’s overall storage.

As you looked at the results of your estimates you realized that Dan would be disappointed that the project would not finish until 12/5 and would cost $52,000 more than he wanted



4 – Advanced Risk Management 1. Reading: Read pages 61-65 in your Advanced

Construction Project Techniques textbook. 2. Lecture: Watch the Module 4 lecture on the course

website. 3. Read the Vailcrest Project Case Study “Risk

Management” below. 4. Use the risk identification and risk analysis data on the

course website and the case information below for this

assignment. 5. Using your course template Tab #5, develop a risk

management plan for 6 of the risks listed on the data

sheet which you think are most important. Also develop a specific risk response for each risk and

estimate its cost, as best you can. 6. Send your risk management plan and a PowerPoint

presentation to your instructor for feedback and

coaching. 7. Optionally, suggest 2 date and time options for a 20

minute live simulation where you will present your risk management plan.

8. Your instructor will send you feedback on your work

and/or a video of your live presentation.


RISK MANAGEMENT

You shuffled through the rough project schedule and the risk identification input you had received from people all over the organization. First you’d studied the WBS for key success factors

and decided that time was the most critical variable. Dan had told you the risks that would increase the duration of the project should be your first priority in risk management. You had asked the project stakeholders and team members to identify the top three risks to their part of the project. You now gazed across the summarized input from them. As usual, you had too many risks and too little money to spend mitigating them.

So you went through the data and calculated the expected value on each of the risks. Then you tried to come up with a risk response that didn't blow the budget and hoped it satisfied the executives so they would go along with your ideas for responding to the most significant risks.

5 – Earned Value & Status Reporting

1. Reading: Read chapter 8 in your Advanced

Construction Project Techniques textbook.

2. Lecture: Watch the Module 5 lecture on the course website.

3. Read the Vailcrest Project Case Study “Status Report” below

4. Use the information provided on the course web page with status reports from your project team and

vendors, including change requests.

5. Use earned value and variance data analysis to assess what has happened and the consequences

6. Identify corrective actions to relieve the problems

7. Analyze the change requests and make a recommendation for the executives’ approval or



rejection. Use the change forms at the bottom of tab #5

8. Send the completed template and your PowerPoint status presentation to your instructor for review and

feedback. Suggest 2 date and time options of you want to do a live 20 minute project simulation where you will

give your status presentation. It will include change request analysis and answering the executives’

questions. Your goal in this assignment is to secure their approval to proceed with your plan for corrective

action.


STATUS REPORT

Your bedside alarm went off at 5 AM as usual and you instantly realized that it was Friday and all the status reports were due by 5

P.M. You’d go through your usual weekly ritual, taking a look at the personal leave days of project team members to see if it looked like anybody was interviewing for a new job. The project was at a critical point and you could not afford any turnover. There was enough bad news without adding that. The executives were getting concerned about the project. Ski season was just around the corner and there had been so many delays and problems that the cushion before the skiers started flooding the village was now razor thin.

You just had to hold the group together for a few more weeks. Some creative and cheap solutions to problems would be the key to successful completion.


Advanced Construction Project Techniques Main Page




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Screen shots reprinted with permission from Microsoft Corporation.

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No such uses, or the use of any trade name, is intended to convey endorsement or

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Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 94-96302

ISBN: 9781938561023



1 - Project Lessons We will begin by sitting in on a "lessons learned" meeting for a

failed construction project. Though a gloomy way to introduce

the topics we’re going to cover in this book, but it will give us an

inventory of the practical project problems you will need

techniques to solve in today's project management environment.

After all, the point of this book is to help you avoid each and

every one of them.

THE PROJECT AT RIDGEWAY, INC.

Pat Milbarge, the construction project manager, knowing who would be blamed in today’s meeting, doodled in the margin of the “Lessons Learned” form, sketching a project manager hanging from a noose. Pat had notified all the project’s stakeholders of the meeting but everyone was late, just like during the project. A few of the project team members straggled in. Pat received crisp nods from some of them but many just went to their seats, eyes downcast. They’d all worked pretty hard. But their hard work had produced nothing for them except association with a failed project. Oh, there were a couple who goofed off and others who played games with duration estimates. But the resentment on most of their faces clearly signaled that they blamed Pat for the project’s failure.

The users tromped in as a group, led by the VP who’d had almost no involvement at the beginning of the project and whose time investment grew exponentially as deadline after deadline was missed.

"My gosh, yet another meeting," the VP sneered. "We're still trying to fix the mess you people made! If anything, the number of customer complaints is even worse than before we started this disaster."

Pat capped the fountain pen, thinking that this was a wonderful way to begin the meeting and said, "Well, the idea of the “lessons learned” meeting is to try to identify what went wrong so we can improve the way we do projects next time."

"You people," the VP snapped, "have to do a lot better! We cannot keep having these project disasters."

"We delivered every requirement you specified," barked a senior systems analyst, already red in the face.

The VP snapped back "Go tell that to the customers who are still complaining about our bad service and how long it takes us to straighten out problems."

Pat knew it was time to regain control of the meeting. "One of the problems with our planning was that we didn't focus on reducing the number of complaints. In the beginning, we only talked about the new reports, new conference rooms, ergonomic cubicles, all kinds of training, computer screens and system functionalities that you wanted. Then the list of requirements kept growing every week."

From the expressions on the faces of the first-line supervisors from the Billing department, Pat knew the debate was just starting.



"It kept growing because you never gave us what we needed," one of the supervisors snapped angrily.

The VP pushed back from the table and stood up, "This is getting us nowhere!” The VP pointed a finger at Pat's face and said, "You were seven months late and $300,000 over budget and we still have customer service problems, bad systems and crappy facilities."

With a pause to catch a breath, the VP went on, “And what I like least about the way you people do projects is that all the bad news always comes at the end, when we can’t do anything about it!”

Pat took a deep breath and gripped the edge of the table tightly and replied politely, “The reason the bad news keeps coming at the end is that people relied on imaginary numbers instead of letting us take the time to provide estimates based on data.”

“I got sick of listening to tip-toeing around the budget and completion date numbers. I need rock solid commitments to those,” The VP snapped.

“But you never …”

The VP walked out without listening to the rest of Pat’s response.

Pat leaned back and studied the ceiling as everyone else tromped out of the room. They had failed because of bad technique for defining the scope, controlling changes, making estimates and much more.

ESTIMATING: NO ONE WAS COMMITTED TO ANYTHING

Pat sat back down at the table and thought back to the project they’d just finished. The estimating was a disaster. They just hadn’t had the right techniques. It ended in a mess of team members, consultants and subcontractors feeling that impossible dates had been rammed down their throats and knowing they would fail before they started work. Everybody else thought the date commitments were based on numbers plucked from the sky. The project customer kept talking about how everyone was committed but no one was.

They needed a way to make estimates that was accurate but that still reflected the risk in the project. They also needed a way to deal with customers who arbitrarily cut each team member’s estimate in half, saying “I know you can get this project finished in half the time…you better figure out how!”

As the game went on people padded their estimates by more and more and the customer kept cutting until the schedule was a joke and everyone knew it. There had to be a better way to do this.

BAD SURPRISES WHEN IT'S TOO LATE

Pat thought about the VP’s earlier snide remark about getting the bad news when it was too late. There had been a lot of bad news when it was too late to solve the problem. Sure, some of that came from poor estimates, contractors trying to add to cost plus contracts and some from scope creep. They’d lacked the techniques do deal with any of that. As the completion date kept



getting pushed out, people got nervous about reporting any more slippage because there was hell to pay whenever they did.

Although they should have been honest and professional enough to report problems as soon as they arose, people didn’t. Pat should have done a better job of accepting bad news and protecting the team from executive tongue-lashings. Pat knew that getting bad news was better than not hearing about it because then no corrective action was possible. Another real problem was not having the tools to spot small problems early. With the project plan they had built, both the team members’ status reporting and Pat's reporting to the management groups was subjective. No one really knew how the project was going until they got near the end.

Even with the completion date slipping people keep adding to the requirements every week

CHANGES, CHANGES AND MORE CHANGES

Sure, they'd tried to "freeze" the requirements and plan and they’d gone through a very thorough approval and sign off process on the specifications. But then every week the list of features and functionalities grew. The customers and users saw a report, training class curriculum or a floor plan and said, "This won't work for us the way you've got it. You are not meeting our needs" Then the project team member or contractor would say, "That is what is in the approved plan. What you are asking for is a change. I'll have to fill out a change request because and it’ll take more time and cost more money."

The two would go around and around debating whether this was or was not a change and it would be escalated up the hierarchy. Then the same debate would occur at a higher level with everyone becoming more and more angry. Most times the change was added to the plan but usually with no corresponding increase in budget or duration. If Pat insisted on budget and duration increases to reflect the cost of a change in the project, the team was blamed for doing a poor job of laying out the requirements.

The fact was the users did not understand the technical language of the requirements they had signed off on. There was little or no poor linkage between those technical requirements and the improvements in operating performance. They just had not had the technique to tie it all together. It was also true that neither Pat nor the technical people on the team had a clear understanding of the business and performance results the users were seeking from the project. Of course, the users and customers did not seem to understand what success was either. In fact, the plan did little to include them in the effort so they sat back and looked at the deliverable with no accountability to do anything with them. That, Pat knew, was the result of bad planning.

PROJECT TEAM WANDERING IN THE WILDERNESS

Suddenly the 60 page schedule on the edge of the far table slide off onto the floor, scattering Gantt chart pages all over. Pat looked at all those Gantt charts fluttering to the conference room floor and wondered if the project plan had been a little too detailed. They had started the planning with a lot of talk about



the business outcomes and clear direction. But all the pressure to get started with the work led to the project plan being little more than a very detailed list of to dos. Either way the project schedule had been useless. They weren’t but two weeks into the effort when people started saying, "We've already done that" or "We can’t do that yet because…" so all those details in the schedule didn't provide the project team with guidance. And some of the more experienced people seemed to make a point of doing things in sequences other than what was laid out in the project plan. Then when the changes started to pour in it took so much time to update the detailed plan that Pat stopped doing it and the team drifted. The schedule was useless and the plan was no help.

PLANNING, MISSION STATEMENT MUSH

During the planning, the VP hardly gave them a moment of time; delegating planning to lower-level decision-makers who were unaware of the criteria that would be used to judge the project’s success. Why wouldn't the VP give the project team any time? Probably because every meeting they did have quickly descended into detailed technical discussions that simply were not of interest to that level of decision-maker. Pat lacked the technique to get anything more than a mission statement which got approved because there was nothing in it but vague generalities.

Pat tiredly rose and left the room, thinking two thoughts. First, this happens to us over and over again but we never learn any lessons from it. Second, wouldn’t it be nice if we had the technique to do better?

Deliverable-driven Project Management We’ll develop techniques to address these problems in the

remaining chapters of this book. The foundation for these

techniques will be our Deliverable-driven Project Management

Methodology (DPM™). We build this foundation with

unambiguous business deliverables that define success metrics

for the project as a whole and each of its assignments before we

start. Measured deliverables require that we think about end

results, rather than just activities in the planning. But the payoff

for the PM who makes this intellectual investment comes each

week in the form of:

Team members who know what is expected of them

before they start work

Executives who understand what they are “buying” from

the project and, as importantly, what they will not get

Scope and change control processes that are based on

hard-edged objective data, not opinion

Small project plans that are easily maintained and updated

so the PM knows exactly where the problems are.

It is normal for all of us to think in activity terms; what we want

people to do. To conceive measured deliverables we need to

think through the process a step further. We think about what we

want people to do and then how we will measure their

performance when they are finished. In other words, we decide

exactly what we want as a work product and define what a good

job is. It is this latter measurement that is our measured

deliverable. Let’s consider a few examples of activities and their

conversion to measured deliverables:



Activity Measured

Deliverable (Success

Definition)

Type of Measured

Deliverable

Reduce customer hold time

90% of customers spend less than 30 seconds on hold

Metric that we measure

Complete the design of the conference center

User Committee signs off on the design drawings and material samples

Approval deliverable – We measure success by the user or a technical reviewer signing off

Consistent temperature

Ambient temperature within the range of 69- 73 degrees 90% of the time

Develop customer history screen display (GUI)

Data for answering top 5 customer inquiry types accessed on 1 screen

Metric that we can objectively observe

Design the database

Database design approved by QC is in compliance with Standard Operating Procedure #6

Approval deliverable with reference to an IT department development process control

Acceptance testing

User test meets specification for Events #1 through #7 in Work Package 7-3-5

Yes/no deliverable with reference to detailed specification or a work package list of measured requirements

Train the users 90% of Customer Service Reps score 80% or higher on written test of new procedures

Metric that we can calculate

Activity Measured

Deliverable (Success

Definition)

Type of Measured

Deliverable

Install efficient packaging system

85% of customer orders packaged and labeled in less than 120 seconds

Metric that we can objectively measure

While the measured deliverables in the middle column are in a

number of formats, each gives us, or the person doing the work, a

clear and unambiguous performance expectation. It tells them

when they will be done and also makes clear what level of

performance is good enough. For an executive, measured

deliverables detail what they are getting and also what they are

not getting. Quantifying expectations before we start work, not

halfway through, is the key to scope control. Consider the

customer service training above. Laying out this clear end result

tells the trainer the standard that the trainees must meet after the

class. It also tells an executive how well the reps will be trained.

If that level is not good enough, we can change the plan now

rather than having to redo the training after the class.

Let’s look at how we’ll use this measured deliverable thinking in

our project management process.

Scope & Deliverable Network The biggest measured deliverable in our project is called the

scope. It quantifies business success for the project as a whole.

Once we have an understanding of the scope we’ll craft a

network of high-level deliverables (HLD) to deliver that scope.



Not all of these HLDs™ will have a technical orientation. Some

will capture the user or customer’s business deliverables that, in

combination with the project team effort, will deliver the scope.

As an example, say we have a project to improve customer

service performance. When we get approval on a scope of

“Decrease the time it takes to respond to a customer’s inquiry by

25%, we can build a high-level deliverable network that includes

all the necessary elements: engineering, design, construction,

training, equipment installation and the streamlining of their

work flow and processes. While the project manager will not

perform all of them, the PM includes them in the plan because no

one technical component can be successful if we don’t deliver

the overall scope.

The important point here is that we want to manage our technical

effort as part of an integrated project effort because that improves

the odds of success.

Trade-offs and Scope Control Our measured deliverable focus also lays the groundwork for

controlling the scope with quantified trade-offs. The trade-offs

we will work with come from the "4-Corners" of the project we

will develop. Instead of describing the project with just a

budget, due date and a long narrative, we describe it with four

metrics. These 4-Corners are:

Scope

Budget

Duration

Risk (probability of success).

Our intent is to build a project plan where each of these 4-

Corners is quantified and we can discuss quantified trade-offs

between them like, “Shortening the duration by three weeks will

cost $12,000 more.” We’ll establish the idea of trade-offs

between these 4-Corners early in the project and then we will use

it for scope control during:

Detailed planning

The final project approval presentation and

Every week as we track actual results and deal with

changes and problems.

Rather than try to "fight" with the customer’s executives about

changes to the plan or changes to the requirements, we will

present data on these trades-off before they ask. If the executives

wish to shorten the duration of the project, we will calculate the

impact on one or more of the other "corners" of the project. We

can certainly shorten the duration but the trade-off may increase

the cost, reduce what we achieve for the business (the scope) or

lower the probability of success (increase the risk). This trade-

off mentality is the key to maintaining a high probability of a

successful project by giving us an effective and data-based

approach to change control. It also allows executives to exercise

strategic control over what they are “buying” from the project

and that improves the relationship with the customer, your boss.





2 – Initiation & Scope Definition

In this chapter, we’ll work through the process of strategic

project planning, seeking to “frame” our project within

boundaries of measured business outcomes in the customer’s

operation (the customer’s business). We’ll also work with them

to establish and gain their approval of the

strategic framework of the project and the

processes we’ll use to deliver their end

result. The Broadbrush plans we’ll build are

2-pages or less and include:

An objective measure of project

success (scope )

A high-level deliverable network

(HLD ) that lays out, in measurable terms,

our path to the scope and quantifies the

boundaries of the project’s scope,

including both user and technical deliverables

Assessment of assumption, risks, mitigation strategy

The project charter with authority structures and

accountability relationships

Change control processes and approval levels.

Having this framework in place before we start work provides

solid scope control and substantially increases the probability of

the project being a success in the user or customer’s eyes.

However, strategic planning is a difficult process, which is why it

is skipped on so many projects.

Why Strategic Planning is Skipped Most projects start with the assembly of a grocery list of

requirements which grows each week during the

project because there is no strategic plan to

restrain the expansion of the project or target its

success. We have little ability to define what’s in

and what’s out of the project. Oh, we see long

narratives supposedly defining scope and

objectives but they rarely contain objectively

measurable definitions of success and the

measured steps we’ll take to reach that end

business result. So why do people skip strategic

planning? Because it requires:

Access to executive level decision-makers

Knowledge of the customer’s business

Speaking the user’s language

Negotiating performance commitments up front

Coping with a certain amount of conflict that occurs

whenever we make tough decisions



Conceiving a cross-functional effort that spans functional

“silos.”

No wonder people skip this strategic planning; it’s so much

easier just to start work. Let’s explore several of these

challenges in more detail.

First, the language of strategic planning is not technical (even

though that may be most comfortable for you). It is performance

metrics in the customer’s business. We talk their language, not

ours, with a focus on metrics to measure results. We talk about

the “accuracy of a customer’s invoices” and the “time it takes to

process a transaction” not the engineering details, GUI, or

network capacities we will install. It is difficult to keep the

planning discussions at a business deliverable level so we can

reach agreement on the measured business benefits that will be

our target. Many who will be in these discussions will want to

get into the delicious technical details, not what we have to

achieve in the business. The PM and project team members can

be their own worst enemy in this regard. We are more

comfortable talking about areas of our technical expertise than

the customer’s business. But we need to engage executive

decision-makers in this process, and we quickly lose them if we

let the planning sink into the “activity trap” of technical features

and functions.

Second, few PMs enjoy conflict and strategic planning triggers it.

Rather than burying disagreements under a mountain of vague

words, our strategic planning process focuses on hard-edged and

measurable business results. That brings conflicts to the surface.

We’re not creating conflict. Rather, we want to resolve as much

of the existing conflict over business results and “what’s in the

project” as early as possible. No project can meet every

customer’s expectations about the features and functionalities.

The question is when in the process do we face this issue and

control the scope. We can defer the existing conflict and smooth

it over in the interest of “getting off to a good start.” Then we

face it toward the end of the project, when changes are most

expensive. Or, we begin scope control early, which is much

better than waiting until the duration and budget start to slip.

So those are some of the challenges we face in strategic project

planning. As a rule of thumb, every hour spent on this process

saves 10 hours during the life of the project. We’ll use a two-

step strategic planning process to frame our tactical planning. It

substantially increases the probability of delivering the business

results the customers want within the time frame and budget to

which we will commit. With an approved strategic plan, we’ll

begin the project with:

The ability to focus our efforts on objectively measurable

business results

Executive agreement on the path we will take to reach

those end results

Commitment from the users to the deliverables they must

deliver as part of the effort

Executive understanding of the risks inherent in the

project and the cost of mitigating those risks



Clear authority and accountability relationships across

functional lines

Executive agreement on the processes and procedures for

making the inevitable changes.

Figure 1 Project Lifecycle

The Customer Experience Project (CEP) Let’s dive into the case study we will use through the remainder

of the book. It concerns an organization's project to improve the

service their customer’s experience (CEP). We'll see our project

manager fight through the difficulties in completing all the

components of a strategic plan and pick up new techniques along

the way. In this example (as is very common), the organization

does not have formal processes in place for prioritizing projects,

allocating resources, or project planning. Therefore the project

manager has to make up for the weak organizational processes.


Pat Milbarge crossed the black asphalt parking lot with its web of yellow lines, walking toward the throng of employees at the security entrance. Ridgeway, Inc.’s 14-story, gray glass building loomed above. It was the company's headquarters and only location. Pat smiled and nodded at friends and acquaintances also walking into the building.

Pat lifted a company ID card from the chain that almost everyone wore around their neck, flashed it to the guard and headed to the department’s cubicles. On the way in, Pat’s boss the, Customer Service VP, was deep in conversation with the silver-haired Executive Vice President (EVP). As Pat approach the duo, the boss raised a hand in greeting and Pat overheard the EVP say, "I know you don't like the idea of us bringing in outside consultants



or outsourcing but this Customer Experience effort is different. We both know you simply don't have the resources available for this kind of monumental effort.”

Pat saw the boss nod agreement and the EVP went on with a clenched fist, “With our fantastic growth and all the new products we're offering, our facilities, processes and systems are all outdated. Our competitors have all made major improvements and it’s not going to be long before our service, responsiveness, timeliness and quality lag badly and our market share drops. Heck, our people have awful facilities to work in, trouble talking to each other much less moving data from department to department! If we continue to grow like we are, you can imagine what a mess the customer service experience is going to be. The CEP vendor’s proposal we’re going to hear about today will fix all these things for us. To be honest with you, we are also looking at a larger outsourcing solution for all of customer service. I think the Board’s going to approve the expenditure and in the long run you'll save a lot of work and aggravation."

Pat slowed down to try and overhear the boss’s response, but it was lost in the buzz of conversation in the busy hallway. There had been a lot of grapevine chatter about the CEP and outsourcing and even a few snippy comments from sales people about how the outside CEP vendor was going to fix the mess in customer service. Not many in your department were happy about outsourcing but the last few major projects aimed at

customer service had not gone well. Pat plopped down into the cubicle chair and started what promised to be another 70-hour week.

A few hours later the boss collapsed into the chair in Pat’s cubicle. "Well, the Board turned down the outsourcing…temporarily," the boss said. "They decided that the company simply couldn't afford the big price tag. It was a close one though. All that world-class customer service stuff and the "best service in the market" talk really hit a responsive chord. The Board also liked the talk of improving interdepartmental information flows and the possibility of using outsourcing to cut labor costs while improving customer service. That high- powered CEP vendor was one silver-tongued devil. She started talking about not having to build new office space, using the Web to both improve internal communications and to give us world- class customer service. The Board was in heaven. But the price tag was just too much. So guess whose lap they've dumped the project into?"

A sinking feeling tied Pat’s stomach into knots. Without speaking, Pat fixed the boss with a level glare, knowing what was coming.

With a hopeful smile, the boss continued, "That's right, you're going to be the project manager on our 'partial' CEP project… there will be a lot of jobs that depend on how this project goes."



Pat nodded solemnly and then asked, "To get any of those CEP benefits the EVP was talking about, we’re going to have to change things in just about every department in this company. You and I both know how hard it is to get them to change things around here. That alone has killed us on five or six projects in the last year."

"I know,” the boss admitted. “And I also know this project is going to be a monster, particularly because they want us to start immediately. In fact, you have a meeting this afternoon with the steering committee that was formed for the CEP project. They want us to be finished in 9 months."

"You didn't agree to the completion date, did you? And what about the business case and getting funding approval?"

"I didn't commit to the date or to the $500,000 budget they approved for the 'partial' CEP system."

"But you said we’d try," Pat snapped. "And where did the $500,000 come from?"

The boss gave a weak grin and said, "We're not committed to any hard date or budget but the Board got so excited about the CEP benefits that they let the EVP bypass the business case process to get started immediately on the 'partial' CEP system."

Pat said, "What does ‘partial’ CEP mean?” You keep saying that."

"The Board turned down the vendor’s whole outsourcing proposal and asked if there was a cheaper, partial solution. It turned out that the less expensive options weren’t much less expensive. After the salesperson left, the EVP jumped on the bandwagon and asked the Board to fast-track a ‘partial’ CEP system where we spend just $500,000 but get most of the benefits of the CEP. I guess the Board must have felt badly about turning down the big project because they approved this ‘partial’ CEP without any business case or even discussion."

Pat sneered, “Well, we’re sure set up for success.”

THE CEP STEERING COMMITTEE: INVITATION TO THE

ACTIVITY TRAP

As Pat took a seat in the EVP’s conference room a few hours later, a mid-level manager from Sales was saying, "So we have nine months and four days until this CEP project will be finished." Pat glanced around the room and recognized just about everyone. There were first level supervisors from Payroll, Inventory Control, Accounting, Billing and Customer Service. The only higher-ranking person in the room was the Sales manager. They all turned and looked as Pat opened the leather folio.



"I guess the first thing we have to address," Pat said, "is planning all the changes that need to be made in each of your departments."

The Billing department supervisor responded, "But vendor said their CEP could be customized to meet all of our needs so we wouldn't have to change how we do things!"

Pat didn’t answer, biting a tongue that wanted to sue the phrase “Lying slime-ball sales person.” Instead Pat replied, "Another thing we need to establish is the scope of the project. Exactly what are we supposed to achieve?”

Four people started talking at the same time and three others pulled out multi-page lists. Another lost control of a thick pack of marked up pages and report layouts that slid across the table.

Pat smiled and said, "We’ll get to your detailed requirements a bit later but now we need to establish the overall scope of the project and talk about what the ‘partial’ CEP system is supposed to achieve."

Over the next 20 minutes Pat heard from each department representative and assembled the following list:

Better facilities for our employees

Reduced delivery time to customers

Improved accuracy

Better equipment

Access to all the data everywhere, even from Shipping

Easy customized reports

Weekly rather than monthly profit center and product profitability reports

Website where customers can access order tracking information and balances

Internal company website where employees can access customer and order history

Work force planning and work load balancing.

Pat closed the meeting and headed straight for the boss’s office. After a short wait Pat sat down in the chair opposite the cherry desk and said, "This is going to be a consummate disaster. There is little interest on anyone's part in changing their operating processes and all I've got is a wish list of generalities about how things will get better. Do we know what the executives expect from the CEP system?”

"Probably that same list of fantasies you just saw,” the boss said. “The vendor did a great job selling it at all levels in the



organization. The users have very high expectations about what this CEP solution can produce. Even worse, they're pushing very hard on having it up and running in 9 months.”

Avoiding the Activity Trap We’ve come to the first moment of truth in this project. We have

a customer group that is ready to deluge us with to do’s, features

and functionalities while pushing us very hard to get started so

we can hit an already determined finish date. We have

absolutely no idea how the customer’s executives sponsoring the

project will evaluate the success of the project or what specific

business benefits they are seeking from the project. Not an

unusual situation for a project manager.

There's no doubt that we could carefully record each and every

one of the many user requirements. We could then develop a

detailed list of technical specifications and the customers would

be happy with how quickly we have started work on the project.

Of course, we would have no ability to control the scope of the

project and the list of features will grow each week, no chance of

finishing in this millennium and the cost might well exceed the

gross national product of a small country.

This situation is the activity trap. If we start work with no

strategic plan and leap directly into tactical planning and coding,

our project will suffer the problems always associated with the

activity trap:

The list of requirements and features from the user will

grow each week

The technical specifications we have to deliver will

constantly change

We will still be adjusting our technical requirements

during final user acceptance testing

The quality of the deliverables we finally produce will be

poor

We will have no ability to exercise control over changes

to the project scope

The users will almost certainly be dissatisfied with the

project results

We will finish long after their target date.

Climbing out of the activity trap is not easy. The only way we

avoid it is to gain the executives’ formal commitment to the

measurable business results that define project success; what

we’ll call the scope. In other words, we need to unearth exactly

what the executives want and how they will evaluate the success

of our project. We want them to sign-off on a scope before we

start work.

From that scope, we will develop a high-level deliverable (HLD)

network that specifies the network of measurable business

deliverables required to deliver the end business result our

executive decision-makers want. When the executives have

approved this deliverable network, we have avoided the activity

trap and can:



Develop our technical requirements from the business

events that are necessary to deliver the measured deliverables in

our plan

Exercise more effective change control because we can

evaluate all requirements and changes from the perspective of

whether or not they contribute to the specific measured results

the user has approved

Develop a budget and duration that is based on data, not

on dates and dollar figures “plucked from the sky”

Work with the users in a trade-off environment where we

can quantify the impact of every change or feature they request.

But climbing out of the activity trap is difficult for several

reasons. First, the project manager has been talking to the wrong people. In most organizations it is very difficult to get upper-

level decision-makers to spend time doing strategic planning for

projects. Second, it is difficult to get these decision-makers to

commit to a precise definition of what measures define project

success. Third, the lower-level decision-makers to whom project

planning is usually delegated, do not know how their bosses will

measure the project’s success so they can't tell us.

At the same time we face all of these obstacles, there is

tremendous pressure to start work. Usually the user defines

starting work producing deliverable they can look at. But if we

fall into the activity trap, we're almost certainly doomed to have a

dissatisfied user at the end of the project. If we start work

quickly, they will be very happy with us at the beginning of the

project and we will avoid the hard decision-making and

necessary conflict that accompanies digging ourselves out of the

activity trap. Perhaps the main reason that so many projects get

lured into the activity trap is that it is the easiest path to take at

the beginning of a project.

Achieving consistent success on projects requires that before we

start work, we do the thinking with decision-makers to define the

business outcomes, not the features. Let’s examine the

techniques we need to get this done.

Strategic planning at the right level

We need to accomplish three things to avoid the activity trap:



We need to gain access to, and time from, the customer’s

upper-level decision-makers who are sponsoring this project

We need to secure their commitment to the measured

definition of project success, the scope

We need to get their formal approval of a network of

business deliverables (HLD) that will yield that end result.

Gaining Access In many organizations, gaining access to upper-level decision-

makers is difficult. In more formal hierarchical organizations,

executives may not be accustomed to spending time with low-

ranking project managers. There may be organizational culture

norms of executives working primarily with their peers and direct

subordinates, not lower-ranking people from other organizational

units or outside vendors/contractors. Second, some project

managers may have trained executives to avoid planning

meetings like the plague. The executives who have experienced

planning sessions consisting of nothing but technical mumbo

jumbo and technical details have little interest in attending

another. With that sort of prior experience, we should not be

surprised when executives insist on delegating the planning chore

to lower-level decision-makers or even hire technical interface

people so they don't have to sit through all the technical talk that

is irrelevant to the pressures they face.

If we have these access problems, we can use three techniques

depending on the culture of the organization. First, unless it

would cause trouble for your boss or the firm you work for, you

might directly approach the executive decision-maker and ask for

time to do strategic project planning. In some organizations this

direct approach would not be an issue. In other organizations,

you need to work your way up the chain of command because

approaching an executive directly might offend all of that

executive’s subordinates who might feel that you have "gone

around them to the boss." If we can directly approach the

decision-maker, we ask for a limited amount of time for strategic

project planning, using phrases like, "I need strategic direction on

where you want this project to go." Or, "Before I can get started,

I need to understand exactly what business results you want to

buy and how you will evaluate the business results of this

project." We also might try, "I'll certainly be working with your

people on the details but I need to start with an understanding of

your strategic vision of where this project will take (the

company, your division, this department).”

The second option for gaining high-level access is to work your

way up the decision-making hierarchy. This route is much more

time-consuming than trying for direct access to the executive but

is politically safer in the sense that we don't cause resentment on

the part of bypassed decision-makers. The other difficulty with

working our way up the hierarchy is that we can easily be

blocked. We may encounter a middle manager or technical staff

person who won’t let you past them to their boss. Their reasons



for blocking our access to higher levels may be rooted in a

concern that they will look like they "can't do their job."

Technical staff people working whose job is to interface between

technical project teams and executives can be particularly

difficult. If they help the PM gain access to executive-level

decision-makers, it may appear that they are not doing their job.

So working our way up the user's decision-making hierarchy can

consume a great deal of time and still cause us to fail to reach the

executive-level decision-makers we seek.

Our third tactic is to use our superiors. Because of their higher

rank, they may have a better ability to reach user executives than

we do. With this alternative, we have to work through another

person and possibly suffer the clarity problems that result from

this process of information translation and indirect access.

Let's see how we might gain access in our Ridgeway project.


GAINING ACCESS

We left Pat, our project manager, in the boss’s office complaining about the grim prospects for the 'partial' CEP project. They were discussing the sky-high user expectations and how lower-level decision-makers in the user organization had already assembled an endless list of features, reports and functionalities. This is the

point at which Pat must take the steps necessary to avoid the activity trap.

"Where we’re headed," Pat said to the boss, "is for monumental failure. This project and its scope will grow to infinity because we have no ability to identify the business results the executives want. I have to get access to the EVP to find out what the end result of the project should be. That will allow us to limit our scope and give ourselves a reasonable chance of success and hitting their time frame and budget."

This was not what the boss wanted to hear and responded, "You know the EVP is going to delegate this downward to that steering committee."

"I know. But on this project it will be a disaster for everyone. Let me try to meet directly with the Executive Vice President."

The boss frowned, "All that will happen is that I'll get a phone call wondering why you're contacting the EVP directly."

"Okay, so why don't you contact the EVP and see if you can arrange a time when we can meet?"

"Then my boss will get a phone call wondering why I was trying to meet directly with the EVP."



Pat continued, "Then why don’t we ask your boss to contact the EVP and set up this meeting?"

The boss frowned, "You're pushing this a little too hard. Maybe we ought to start work on the detailed requirements and see if we can't finesse this planning a little later on."

Pat said, "If we don't get this strategic planning done upfront, this project will fail. And if we start work now on this mess of detailed requirements with no strategic picture of the desired end business result, we’ll never get a planning meeting."

Trying Another Approach Our project manager has pushed the issue of strategic planning

pretty hard with the boss. If that avenue doesn't open up the

necessary access, Pat might pursue working up the user area

hierarchy. The tactics to use when we pursue this alternative are

based on building some shared concern with lower-level

decision-makers about the high odds of project failure if we don’t

know the end business result the executives want. Specifically,

we need to talk about the fact that we are flying blind in terms of

how upper management will evaluate the success of the project.

This sets up a situation where we really can't proceed with the

detailed specifications until we understand what upper

management wants to achieve. These sessions are often difficult

because middle managers in the user areas don’t like to admit

that they don't know the specific objectives upper management

has in mind. They also are prone to the activity trap listing of

requirements because that is what other project managers may

have taught them.

We need to create a community of interest where we and the user

managers are collectively trying to avoid project failure by

getting a better understanding of how project success will be

evaluated. Our project manager is also taking the right view of a

project’s customers (stakeholders). Rather than trying to narrow

the number of individuals involved in planning, Pat is broadening

the group to include anyone who has an interest in the project’s

outcome. Involving all the stakeholders now, including users,

team members, vendors, employees affected by the changes and

their managers is the key to avoiding problems and surprise

requirements later.

If Pat can convince the customer’s lower-level decision-makers

that it would be a mistake to proceed without better guidance

from above, these individuals can be a bridge to higher-level

decision-makers who are also important stakeholders.




WORKING OUR WAY UP THE HEIRARCHY

Pat is meeting with first or second-level decision-makers in the user organization to discuss the project and starts the discussion like this:

"Before we get into the details," Pat said, "tell me a little bit about how the CEP system is supposed to affect your unit. What performance measures are you expecting to improve?"

"Well,” responded the Billing supervisor, “I have this list of the changes we want in the screen displays and in how the system works."

Pat smiled and said, "Those are very important and we will certainly get to them but I need to have a big picture of how the system is supposed to change the performance of your unit. Once I understand that, I’ll have a better perspective on these details."

"There is nothing wrong with the performance of my department!"

"Oh, I’m not saying that there is. But the company wants to spend all this money on the CEP system. We both need to know

what aspects of your performance they want changed or neither of us is going to be successful. If I can understand exactly what your boss wants, then we can work together to achieve it. If we start on the details without understanding what the people upstairs want, then we’re both going to fail."

The supervisor thought for a moment and then said, "People have talked about improving service to customers and better communication and information flow between divisions. They’ve even mentioned cutting operating costs but I'm not sure I know what they really want.”

"Well, then I think we’d better find out before we start doing a lot of detailed work. Could you and I go meet with your boss?"

Working our way up the hierarchy is difficult. We need to

convince each level of management in the user hierarchy that it

will be beneficial for them if they help us gain access to the next

level up. The important point to remember is that each time we

move up a level in the hierarchy we are better off than if we had

limited our strategic planning to lower-level decision-makers. In

some project situations, none of the tactics we have discussed for

reaching up to executive decision-makers may work. But even if

we only make it halfway to the top, we are far better off than if

we must do all our planning with the lowest-level decision-

makers.

Documents

Senior Construction Project Management Certification...Two-course construction project management certification that prepares people to pass the PMP exam and teaches them how to plan,