John marinaro pm_process

www.nasa.gov

National Aeronautics Space Administration

7-Step Project Management Process

Mr. John MarinaroNASA Safety Center

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Project Management – Two Options

CHAOS

CONTROL

or

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Project Management Facts

And because of this –Each Project is a Career-defining Opportunity for the Project Manager and Team Leadership

Standish Group’s CHAOS 2009 Report Successful projects are defined as projects

delivered on time, on budget, with required features and functions.

Challenged projects are defined as late, over budget, and/or with less than the required features and functions.

Failed projects are defined as cancelled prior to completion or delivered and never used.

All projects begin very successfully (meeting most or all requirements, on cost, on schedule); but statistically many quickly take a turn for the worse…

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Agenda

The NASA Safety Center Technical Excellence Office’s

7-Step Project Management Process: Establish your vision Describe the end result Use “backward planning” Use “forward action planning” Identify metrics Rely on your team Communicate frequently

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STEP 1 – Establish Your Vision for the Project

Why it’s Important

No project can make serious progress without a clear understanding of where it is going and what it is trying to achieve.

It is too easy to start developing the solution before you fully understand the problem!

Sage Advice

“Your Vision should fit on the back of your business card” (to be clear and concise)

– Professor Bart Timm, Georgetown University

Executive Leadership Program

What it is

"A project vision is the picturing of the project's deliverable as the solution to the stated need or problem.”

Vision Statement: Should be forward-

thinking and reflective Provides a long-term view Used by the leader to

communicate mission clarity & to help avoid misunderstandings by the team

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Methodology A project vision requires a mission that leads to goals

Goals should be SMART– Simple, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-bound

Where does the project vision come from? Ideally, it should come from the project's sponsor, but doesn't always. Vision means leadership and leadership must come from the project manager. So it is up to the project manager to gain a proper understanding of the sponsor's intent and interpret that into the project vision. Clearly that requires access to all the relevant information.

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STEP Example

My Vision for STEP (SMA Technical Excellence Program):Create the NASA University for Safety and ultimately become the Harvard and MIT of NASA Safety.

Other Examples “I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal,

before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth.” – JFK, Moon Speech

"I Have a Dream” – MLK, "I Have a Dream" speech

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STEP 2 – Develop Project Success Criteria

Why it’s important

NPR 7120.5 tells us:“The Project Manager is then responsible for the evolution of the project concept and ultimate project success.”

Sage Advice

“Begin with the end in mind”

– Stephen Covey Author, 7 Habits of

Highly Effective People

Develop your project success criteria for all four dimensions at the beginning of the project.

What it is

Statements that provide objectives, guidelines, procedures, and standards that are to be used to execute the development, design, and/or implementation portions of a project.

Project Success Dimensions Include:

Accomplishing Minimum Science/Technical Objectives

Keeping On Cost Staying On Schedule Meeting Safety and Risk

Factor Criteria

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Methodology Project Success Criteria: Criteria that should be clearly defined and

agreed before significant development is initiated.

These may be defined in a number of ways such as: – Project Objectives (or goals)– Requirements – typically technical (performance) requirements– Critical Success Factors – typically measurable factors that, when present in

the project's environment, are most conducive to the achievement of a successful project

– Key Performance Indicators – typically measures upon which the project will be judged

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STEP Examples STEP Level 1 designed, developed, tested, and rolled out by Sept. 30, 2009 Appropriate for everyone from the Administrative Assistant to the Administrator;

focused on NASA Safety Approximately 25 hours in duration; all web-based Levels 2 – 4: 137 hours of coursework; courses to be available on SATERN as

online learning by Oct 2010

Other ExamplesTo meet the mission objective of landing on the moon with 99.7-percentprobability of success, the guidance system had to be able to correct for offnominal initial-condition errors, for system errors during the descent, and foruncertainties of the lunar terrain on approach to the landing area – Apollo 11

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STEP 3 – Apply the “Backward Planning Process”


It’s often easier to view a complicated project when you start by visualizing the successful outcome. This ensures that every intermediate action is focused on achieving that final outcome.

Sage Advice

“If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there.”

-Lewis CarrollAlice in Wonderland

What it is

Starts with a critical event or deliverable; all of the major actions leading up to it are planned in reverse order based on time required to complete the action.

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MethodologyBackward Planning Process

Identify the critical event Identify all the preliminary actions Arrange the preliminary actions in chronological order Estimate the time needed for each action Schedule the critical event first and then all preliminary actions Check for feasibility

DON’T forget to do contingency planning and MAKE SURE that you factor contingency into each element of the plan.

Recommendation -- Do this in a facilitated session, on a whiteboard, with all of your key staff/team leads (and contractor leads, if possible) present.

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STEP Example6. STEP Level 1 Rollout NLT Sept. 30, 2009.

5. STEP Level 1 Operational Beta Test conducted at two operational Centers

4. Internal Level 1 Curriculum Beta Test

3. Unit/Module Level Test

2. Level 1 Curriculum and Individual Module Development

1. Level 1 Re-baseline and Scheduling Exercise

Other Examples7120.5

6. Launch Date (Not Later Than xx/xx/xxxx with contingency built in)

7. Launch Readiness Review and Launch Preparations

4. Initiate System Testing (NLT xx/xx/xx)

8. Initiate Final Design and Fabrication

2. Initiate Preliminary Design

1. Initiate Concept and Technology Development

Remember: 80% on time is better than 100% late.

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STEP 4 – Use “Forward Action Planning”


It helps communicate the:

What Who When Why

It helps prioritize and balance the load across the team.

It is a key contributor to project success.

Sage Advice

“Expect the best, plan for the worst, and prepare to be surprised.”

– Denis WaitleyMotivational Speaker and

Author

What it is

“A formal action planning and tracking process”

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Methodology

Forward Planning Process List all critical events (actions) Determine the performance outcomes Assign implementers and monitors for each item Estimate the time needed for each action Create a schedule with milestones for completion Maintain the plan and review periodically

Don’t forget to establish clear closure criteria for each action.

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STEP Example

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STEP 5 – Measure, Measure, Measure


Managers can and should use performance measures to evaluate, control, budget, motivate, promote, celebrate, learn, and improve.

Sage Advice

“What you can measure, you can manage.”

– unknown

What it is

Identify specific metrics to instill confidence and to measure and communicate progress .

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Methodology Determine what outcome and activity measures would tell the story In project management, performance metrics are used to assess the

health of the project and consist of the measuring of six criteria: time, cost, resources, scope, quality, and actions.

Neville Turbit, 2008 – Measuring Project Health Include customer success criteria in the performance measurements

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STEP Example

Other ExamplesEmpire State building (ESB) specs:

Exceed the height of the Chrysler Building Completion in one and a half years

Empire State building (ESB) outcomes: Completed in one year and 45 days... (ahead of schedule); Cost $40,948,900 (including land) but under budget, due to depression Met the design specifications. Project was a success; building was a rental failure. Took 17 yrs to become

profitable.

Pre-STEP STEP

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STEP 6 – Rely on Your Team


A well constructed and well organized team of competent individuals can accomplish much more together than they could as individuals working on independent, loosely-coupled activities.

They are able to provide real-time advice and peer review capabilities for difficult and complex activities.

Sage Advice

Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. The ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results.”

Andrew Carnegie

What it is

Team – group of people working toward a common objective

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Methodology

A strong and sound team: Focuses on Stakeholder outcomes Applies “SMART” goals Has committed leadership Achieves mutual trust Collaborates to set direction and solve problems Obtains individual commitments Establishes discipline of personal accountability Identifies and removes barriers

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STEP Example Organized the team around clear roles and responsibilities Implemented formal organizational development and teambuilding activities Facilitated Team meeting to focus on strategic planning, near-term activities, and

individual common program standardization and functionality Balanced the Action item distribution and Task lead/monitoring Included our contractor leads in all key program decision-making sessions

Other Examples The Great Pyramid of Giza, constructed around 2,650 BC, represents a clear

example of sustained high performance teamwork by an estimated 100,000 workers over a span of 20 years.

“It was the teamwork that had been forged in mission control over the years that helped make that rescue possible.” – Gene Krantz, Apollo 13

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STEP 7 – Communicate Frequently


Many projects are short-term, and therefore project communication is temporary. This means that communication systems need to be established quickly in shorter periods of time. It is just as important to develop a communication plan for the project as it is to develop task planning.

Sage Advice

"Leaders who make it a practice to draw out the thoughts and ideas of their subordinates and who are receptive even to bad news will be properly informed.

Communicate downward to subordinates with at least the same care and attention as you communicate upward to superiors.”

- L. B. Belker

What it is

Communication not only keeps everyone up-to-date on the project progress, but also facilitates buy-in and ownership of major project decisions and milestones.

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Methodology Communication not only keeps everyone up-to-date on the project

progress, but also facilitates buy-in and ownership of major project decisions and milestones.

To ensure the success of a project much information, including expectations, goals, needs, resources, status reports, budgets and purchase requests, needs to be communicated on a regular basis to all the major stakeholders.

Another challenge is that projects often include cross-functional or inter-organizational teams. Project teams are not normally natural teams and sometimes do not even reside in the same geographic location.

http://www.corneliusassoc.com/CA/new/impact/April2002/pmcommun.htm

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STEP Example Weekly PM Staff Meetings were established to communicate left/right and

up/down – keep everyone informed and include contractors Focus sessions established for key programmatic elements Webcasts used to inform the customers and stakeholders simultaneously Visited every Center SMA Director personally prior to rollout and established

Center SMA Liaisons amongst Team

Other ExamplesThe Latimer Group:

As business gets more complex, great leadership is more dependent than ever on simple and clear communication.

As we think about the examples of great leadership we have seen, the common denominator among them is always great communication.

The realities of the 21st century place a disproportionate level of importance on communication skills.

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Remember Simple STEPs

In Closing

A couple of other key considerations for new Project Managers: Disenfranchising a new team – discounting and trashing everything that they

have worked hard on to date before you got there (Guaranteed to lose your team at the Starting Line)

Lead the team –– Challenge them– Motivate them– Help them when they need it– Make the assignments, get out of the way, and let them do their jobs– Roll up your sleeves and get dirty with them– Don’t ask anyone to do anything you are not willing to do yourself– Cultivate them– Recognize them– Celebrate with them and let them recharge their batteries and sharpen their tools

from time to time– Remind them to go home and enjoy their families