Rocky Mountain Project Management Symposium

Winning strategies for achieving project success Leadership:

Building the Perfect Schedule

Increasing the Probability of Project Success

Do we have the … ! Commitment? ! Capability? ! Capacity? !  Intent? ! Ability?

Is the Perfect Schedule an Impossible dream?

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The Schedule Tells Us …

"  Where we are going? "  How long it’s going to take to get there? "  What we need along the way to There?

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The perfect schedule must … "  Show what Done looks

like through tangible evidence of success.

"  Show the order of the work needed to get to Done at each stage.

"  Define the needed resources to reach Done.

"  Identify risks to Done and their handling.

"  Measure physical progress toward Done in units meaningful to the decision makers.

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Before We Schedule, We Need A Plan

!  The Plan describes where we are going, the paths we can take to reach our destination, and the assessment points along the way to assure we are on the right path.

!  These assessment points measures the “maturity” of the product or service against the planned “maturity.”

!  This is the measure of progress – not the passage of time or consumption of money.

A Plan Is The Strategy For The Successful Completion Of The Project – Reaching DONE

Our Plan Must Tell Us

"  Who is going to do the work? "  What are the outcomes from this work? "  When does the work need to get performed? "  Where is the work being performed? "  Why are we doing all this? "  How is the work going to actually be performed?

“Six Honest Serving Men,” from The Elephant’s Child, Rudyard Kipling, 1902 6/38  

Let’s start with the Critical Few

What, When, and Who 7/38  

is stated by the Plan, independent of any Domain

Planning a manned spaceflight vehicle, through incremental increases in the product’s maturity.

A Kanban wall chart, planning the deliverables in an incremental and iterative manner.

Traditional

Agile

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What,

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Dave, I’m afraid I can’t let you do that

Tells us how we order of the work must be controlled to successfully execute the program.

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When,

describes the resources needed to deliver the outcome in the planned duration and cost

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Who,

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Let’s get started, Using the Critical Few

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What, When, and Who

Good plans deal with change, our Perfect schedule must show how to manage change

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The Plan Tells Use Where We Are Going

!  What is being delivered. !  What work is needed to produce the

deliverable. !  The order of the work. !  The resources needed to do the work. !  The budget for that work.

The Schedule puts these items into a logic network 13/38  

!  Numbers are the fuel of all project performance management.

!  Numbers are about measuring the Increasing the Probability of Success.

!  Numbers are always better than opinions.

Good Scheduling starts by calculated numbers

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#  Measures Of Effectiveness #  Measures Of Performance #  Cost (Budget & Actual) #  Schedule (Planned & Actual) #  Technical Performance #  Risk And Its Retirement #  Stability of Requirements #  Capacity for Work #  Staff Productivity #  Expected Business Value in

monetized units of measures

What are these numbers?

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The REAL Problem For Every Schedule Is … The Activities And Their Numbers Are Arranged In A

Probabilistic Network With Interdependent Connections Between Work Elements

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Let’s Build Something

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All good scheduling starts with the Work Breakdown Structure

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Here’s a document you need to own

And some others as well…

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The flow of deliverables describes the increasing value of the project

Pilot

Data

Enrollment

Integrators

Quality Monitor

Internal

Router

Data Store Lookup

Data Warehouse

Data Marts

Data Marts

Portals and others

Billing

Demo conversion process, member reconciliation

Shared group matrix reports and interfaces

Shared member crosswalk and members to ERP

Integrators in ERP converted to inventory

Status and trigger conversions

Data in Marts for ERP

Mtrl Mstr cvrtd from legacy

External Interfaces Extrl Vendors cvrtd

Finance Loss TBD

Resale's Vendors from legacy

Emulations Material converted end–to–end

Events / Milestones define the availability of a capability at this point in the Schedule.

Accomplishments define the entry conditions for each Event or Milestone.

Criteria are the exit conditions for Work Packages

Work  Package  

Work  Package  

Work  Package  

Work  Package  

Work  Package  

Work  Package  

Work  Package  

Work  package  

The Topology of our Perfect schedule

The flow of deliverables generates business value or mission fulfillment

Pilot

Data

Enrollment

Integrators

Quality Monitor

Internal

Router

Data Store Lookup

Data Warehouse

Data Marts

Data Marts

Portals and others

Billing

Demo conversion process, member reconciliation

Shared group matrix reports and interfaces

Shared member crosswalk and members to ERP

Integrators in ERP converted to inventory

Data in Marts for ERP complete

Mtrl Mstr cvrtd from legacy

External Interfaces Extrl Vendors cvrtd

Finance Loss TBD

Resale's Vendors from legacy

Emulations Material converted end–to–end

Milestone that produces business value

Significant Accomplishment needed for the entry criteria to the Event or Milestone

Accomplishment Criteria is the exit criteria for the Work Package and its Tasks that produce the outcomes defined in the Significant Accomplishment

Status and trigger conversions

1.  Build a credible Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) for the deliverables of the project – not the functional activities that produce the deliverables.

2.  Define the Packages of Work that will produce each of the Products or Services.

3.  Define the Outcomes of each “Package of Work” in units of measure needed to assess maturity, compliance, or fulfillment of the requirements.

4.  Start arranging these packages of work (the Work Packages) in the logical order.

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Business Need Process Invoices for Top

Tier Suppliers

1st Level Electronic Invoice

Submittal

1st Level Routing to Payables

Department

2nd Level Payables Account

Verification

2nd Level Payment Scheduling

2nd Level Material receipt

verification

2nd Level “On hand” balance

Updates

Deliverables defined in WP

Now We Need to Measure the Increasing Maturity of the Content of

each Work Package

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We must discover the numbers that measure the performance of

our Perfect schedule

!  How are we going to measure performance of our work efforts?

!  How are we going to calculate the needed budget and schedule duration?

!  How are we going to determine the risk of not meeting our cost and schedule goals?

Our Perfect Schedule must contain this information, so we see how we are progressing

toward DONE. 27/38  

! Tangible evidentiary materials measure progress to plan.

! Pre–defined existence of this evidence in meaningful units of measure established before starting work.

! Progress is defined in these same units of measure.

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“Coming  to  Grips  with  Measures  of  EffecFveness,”  N.  Sproles,  Systems  Engineering,  Volume  3,  Number  1,  pp.  50–58  

!  Late, over budget, or both.

!  Not compliant with the technical performance measures.

!  Failing to provide the needed capabilities.

!  Not performing at a level that will get us to a soft landing at the end of the project.

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The Perfect Schedule gives us the ability to forecast future performance

!  Credible Earned Value Baseline !  Risk retirement plans !  Visibility to the Capacity for work !  Measures of Effectiveness !  Measures of Performance Newsweek, February 24, 1958 31/38  

What’s the real purpose of our Perfect Schedule

# What DONE looks like through all the individual outcomes.

#  How to produce those outcomes.

# What resources are needed.

# Where are the risks?

#  How are we’re measuring progress?

1. Build the WBS 2. Define Project Events 3. Define Significant

Accomplishments need for DONE

4. Define Success Criteria for the Outcomes

5. Develop the Work Packages for Outcomes

6. Identify Interdependencies between Work Packages

7. Assemble Integrated Master Schedule

8. Iteratively and Incrementally tune the schedule in the presence of risk retirement, mitigation activities, and past performance, and emerging requirements.

Boyd developed the concept to explain how to direct one's energies to defeat an adversary and survive. 33/38  

† Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union Sergey Georgiyevich Gorchakov

"  Start with a clear mission statement and objectives for the project.

"  Plan at the deliverables level. "  Build the schedule around

these deliverables using accomplishments and criteria of success

"  Bake the cake and then put on the icing

Capabilities ! What do we want the project outcome(s) to

do? ! What capabilities do we want to posses

when we’re done?

Requirements !  What are the technical and operational requirements that

implement these capabilities Planning and Scheduling !  What’s the perfect schedule to implement these requirements Execution ! How are going to perform the work? Continuous Risk Management ! How are we going to handle or retire the risks?

"  PASEG, http://bit.ly/lBXKGN "  MIL–STD–881–C "  PMI Scheduling Practice Guide "  PMI Risk Management Guide "  PMI Earned Value Management Practice Guide "  Practical Schedule Risk Analysis, David Hulett "  Integrated Cost–Schedule Risk Analysis, David Hulett

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38/38  Glen B. Alleman, Niwot Ridge, 303.241.9633, glen.alleman@niwotridge.com