Project Management

Hello, hola, hallo, bonjour….

Posted on by denise598sum15

We have studied many of the technical parts of a project that make it successful. Good leadership, organization, and communication skills are ideal qualities for a project manager. With the growing diversity in different countries and the coordination of projects with global members, it is important to keep in mind the cultural differences which are unique to each person. Having a good understanding of the people who make up the project can make the project run more smoothly. Tensions sometimes arise when people misinterpret body language or the way that people say things. Misinterpretation of ideas and opinions can lead to project delay and/or poor quality product delivery. According to the article, things like accent, silence, gestures, and eye contact can mean different things for people in different countries. For example, not giving eye contact can mean a sign of respect for people of certain countries whereas in others, it is disrespectful not to look at someone when they are talking.

Not only are project managers dealing with people from different countries, they are also being thrown into a workforce where there are different age groups. There are currently 4 generations in the workforce today. These include veterans, baby-boomers, Gen. Xers, and Nexters. The last two generations are more diverse and flexible because they grew up in a more diverse society.

Although it is important for project managers to have effective communication and be able to balance the differences in their groups, it is also very important for the people forming those groups to be open and flexible as well. They have to be conscious that the people in their group are different from them and that not everyone sees the world the way that they do. This is true even when people are from the same culture. A good PM will get to know every person individually in order to better understand how to effectively communicate with the entire group.

http://www.pmi.org/learning/dealing-cultural-diversity-project-management-129

 

If you’re early, you’re on time. If you’re on time, you’re late.

Posted on by brandon598sum15

In business, the phrase time is money is extremely accurate. Project Managers (PMs) want projects to be of high quality and completed as quickly as possible. Oftentimes, project deadlines are extended and over budget. If time is so valuable in the world of business, why do projects continue to come in late and over budget? The brightest project managers would have trouble answering this question. To counteract this phenomenon, project managers can reduce the amount of time allocated to a project by efficiently utilizing their time.

The text and slides from our course says that project deadlines or critical dates are put into place for several reasons, including but not limited to time-to-market pressures, unforeseen delays, overhead costs, and incentive contracts. Unfortunately, these dates often lead to rushed, low-quality deliverables, produced to obtain bonuses. Every project manager wants to be able to complete a project with high-quality deliverables and move on to the next opportunity. The difficulty arises when project managers are required to present high-quality work with less time. Although the aforementioned concept can come across as unfathomable, it is not. There are techniques that project managers can utilize to reduce a project’s duration. First, a PMs can implement a process known as fast-tracking. Fast tracking is simply working on aspects that are along the critical path as opposed to working on overlapping activities in sequential steps. However, this process can increase cost and is quite risky. Another technique PMs can use is project crashing. This is pouring more resources into the tasks along the critical path. Once again, this process is costly and risky. Lastly, PMs can look for alternative methods such as reducing the scope or increasing staffing to finalize deliverables.

While the aforementioned techniques are effective, they are also costly. Risk averse organizations may want to consider implementing these steps:

  1. Monitoring how people are utilizing their time and removing waste.
    1. PMS should monitor how teams are progressing compared to the developed schedule and determine how staffing is utilizing non-project hours.
  2. Develop a schedule and timeline with purposeful meetings built-in.
    1. Often project teams have meetings that are not useful. Meetings should take place when needed. PMs should also make sure all parties are mentally engaged and actively participating in meeting,
  3. PMs should understand how their staff achieves at their highest level.
    1. Some teams need constant support and contact. While others simply need to be told what to do and they can fulfill the obligation
  4. Focus on the project
    1. Projects are drawn out because teams are gathering and not discussing, focusing or even working on the actual project this is a huge waste of company resources. When teams are together the phones, emails and IMs are set aside. Everyone’s focus should be completing the product

Project time reduction is difficult, but with a plan and exceptional time management skills, it can be done. What experiences have you had with attempting to beat a project deadline or simply trying to meet one?

Sources:

http://www.knowledge-pills.com/comkp1/kp/series/015_project_management/001_fundamentals_of_project_management_anim/pla04/03pla04.htm

http://smallbusiness.chron.com/reduce-project-duration-25320.html

Agile: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Posted on by frank598sum15

According to the Project Management Institute website, the PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP) is their fastest growing certification.

In the Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide), Agile methods are discussed under the Project Lifecycle definition as follows:

“Adaptive project life cycle, a project life cycle, also known as change-driven or agile methods, that is intended to facilitate change and require a high degree of ongoing stakeholder involvement. Adaptive life cycles are also iterative and incremental, but differ in that iterations are very rapid (usually 2-4 weeks in length) and are fixed in time and resources.”

The Agile concept grew out of collaboration between seventeen software developers around 2001. Their ideas evolved into the publication of the Manifesto for Agile Software Development, focusing on “delivering good products to customers by operating in an environment that does more than talk about “people as our most important asset” but actually “acts” as if people were the most important, and lose the word “asset”.”

According to our textbook, “The key point is that traditional PM techniques were developed to operate in the predictable zone where the scope of the project is fairly well defined and technology to be used is established. Agile lives in the unpredictable zone.” (Larson and Gray 584). Key differentiators of Agile include; continuous design, flexible scope, high uncertainty, and self-organizing teams engaged in high customer interaction.

Clearly Agile Project Management has reached the point of mainstream adoption. In our ever shifting, rapidly expanding world, think of the following types of projects which fall into the Agile sweet spot:

  • Where requirements will change drastically during the lifecycle.
  • The customer does not provide the specifics of what they want up front, but has a loose idea instead.

I spoke with a coworker, an experienced Product Manager, who feels that Agile is great in concept, but harder in implementation, especially in large organizations. The Agile model thrives on simplicity, which may be difficult to achieve in a big firm. Our employer is global, so a geographically distributed Engineering and Marketing group makes face-to-face meetings more difficult and prolongs the quick iterations that Agile strives for. Although, technology is helping to bridge the gaps.

Another topic of discussion surrounded total buy-in at the enterprise level. Agile is not something to dip your toes in. Success is realized and repeated through dedicated Agile teams. The Agile model does not necessarily align with a matrix team environment and may end up defeating the purpose due to a lack of team cohesion.

 

Questions / Discussion:

What are your thoughts on Agile Project Management? Good, bad, indifferent?

Feel free to share any personal experiences surrounding Agile, a shift away from Traditional PM or a hybrid approach.

Is it realistic to introduce Agile on a team-by-team basis? Do you see any roadblocks?

 

References:

http://www.pmi.org/certification/agile-management-acp.aspx

http://agilemanifesto.org/

Larson, Erik W. and Gray, Clifford F. (2011). Project Management: The Managerial Process. New    York, NY: McGraw-Hill Irwin.

“Cruising” with Project Management

Posted on by shauna598sum15

Ok, so the title is corny but while on an Alaskan cruise last week I actually thought quite a bit about project management. What I’d like to do is share a few examples of what I saw and then ask for your thoughts on different ways project management enters into our daily lives but that we might completely miss.

This intricate dance begins the minute you check in online. Since there are approximately 2,300 passengers (this doesn’t include crew) who will be sailing, each person is given a 30 minute window during which they can arrive at the dock to board the boat. This really minimizes inefficiency of too many people arriving at once and having to stand in EXTREMELY long lines. See photo below. Once you check in your luggage is taken and put in a room that is organized by floor so that after everyone is on board and has checked in they deliver the luggage right to your room. You don’t have to deal with it or worry about it, it just shows up at your door!

Photo 1

Once we made it to our stateroom we started to look around outside and noticed the two pictures below.

Photo 2 Photo 3

This is a small sample of the food that they bring on board for every cruise and this really made me think about the Food and Beverage Director and how complicated it must be to provide food for 3,300 people (this includes the crew). There are SIXTEEN dining options on board but to help manage it two of the restaurants serve the exact same menu all week, one of the restaurants is a huge buffet serving the same meals all week and then you have a little variety from the other menus, but not many choices.

Lastly, one of the most efficient things they’ve done is to provide you one single card that acts as your room key and your bank card. AT check in you provide a credit card that they then link to your cruise pass and anytime you buy a drink, buy a meal or make a purchase at the duty free, they simply swipe your card and no real money exchanges hands. I also think this is a genius idea from a sales perspective because you really don’t feel like you’re spending money – its when you review your final bill before disembarking that you realize the money you’ve really spent!

I’m curious if others have examples of project management in their everyday lives (besides jobs) that they might overlook but that are truly pretty amazing, like the Davidson Glacier pictured below.

Davidson Glacier

Risky Business

Posted on by kathleen598sum15

 

This week in class we had to turn in our risk assignment for our fundraiser project.  As a financial analyst I work closely with risk on a daily basis.  Something we touched on in class when we created the risk was just the basics. What sort of risk, probability, value of the risk and contingency plan.  In reality, there is so much that goes into risk.  That it why I chose to research risk and see what else there is to know about risk.  I found a great article that talked about the fluidity of risk. The project management realm deals with an ever changing environment, which means risk is changing on an almost daily basis as well.  In my business, the programs I work on are very complex, which makes risk management and analysis complex as well and needs to be continuously re-visited and re-analyzed.

When creating our risk at my company, we don’t know how many out of box failures we may have on a program.  We don’t know how many parts might fail.  That is why over time, it is pivotal to continue to re-visit our risk.  Something I use in my job is called a “gating month”.  It is a month when we think our risk will be retired or OBE (overcome by events).   That being said, looking at risk on a daily basis is so important to monitoring project health.  As a project progresses and evolves, potentially so does the risk.

A personal example from my job as a financial analyst on government programs has to do with gating months.  For example, on my current program, we build and deliver hardware to the customer.  Because of that, a risk we carry has to do with our second sourced suppliers.  If a supplier who makes a part for our hardware build goes out of business or stops making the part, we need to be prepared for the costs that will go into replacing that part.  That includes finding another supplier, validating them and then potentially modifying the part to our specs.  This isn’t just a risk we carry throughout the entire program.  Over time, as we deliver hardware, this risk becomes smaller and smaller.  Why carry risk for 500 deliveries when we only have 50 left?  That is why, as a financial analyst, I work with the PMO to analyze our delivery schedule in relation to our risk items.  I help plan when this risk item should be reduced and when it will be OBE. When that happens the PMO needs to make an important decision.  Do we want to retire the risk to our bottom line or do we want to re-visit the program health and plan risk items for other problems that, over time, have now presented itself?

I have learned through personal experience, class and this article that risk is something that needs to be looked at continuously.  It needs to be managed daily and analyzed daily for any changes to the project and its environment.  It needs to be reduced or increased.  It needs just as much attention as the project execution itself.  In the article I read I found a great chart that shows the fluidity and cyclical nature of risk management and risk analysis:

 

Now a few questions on risk management and risk analysis:

1. Do you use risk at your job?  What sort of risk management and analysis do you perform?

2. Have you experienced a unique risk circumstance? What happened and what did you learn from the experience?

3. Do you have anymore insight and input into risk management and analysis?

4. Any other questions and comments are welcome!

 

http://www.pmoplanet.com/cross-discipline-elements/risk-management/

2 Stories a Day

Posted on by arif598sum15

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=13&v=Hdpf-MQM9vY

 

In 2000 my family contacted a builder in order to build a home. After approximately ten months my family and I were happy to receive a two story home. This translates to approximately one story built every five months. Although this may seem common in the USA, a province in China called Dongting Lake was able to produce a 30 story building in 15 days. This feat was accomplished through a proper management plan and efficient execution. Although the building may have been built in 15 days the project was mapped and planned out long before. Project managers effectively developed an organized strategy, defined the project, estimated project times and costs, developed a project plan, and executed the plan.

The project managers involved in this undertaking understood the organization’s strategy and were able to align the projects with the firm’s mission. These managers needed to respond to various environmental factors as well as navigating resource scarcities. Managers could possibly use the SMART pneumonic to remember to be specific in targeting objectives, establish measurable progress checks, make sure the objective is assignable to specific individuals, develop a realistic idea of what can be done with the given resources, and understand the time duration to achieve the objective. This step is crucial in project management in order to lay the foundation of the entire project.

Managers properly defined the project, established priorities, and created an effective work breakdown structure. As you can see in the video, components of the building were developed off-site and were assembled on the land afterwards. This focused the project by created a plan, schedule, and budget that is able to be effectively managed at the respective organizational levels.

Many times projects may be properly defined and aligned with the organization’s strategy but when it comes to estimating the projects there may be a difference of opinions. Top-down estimates are generally made from top managers who have limited knowledge on process where as bottom-up approach is generally derived from individuals who have a great deal of knowledge of the process and can provide a check on various costs in the work breakdown structure. In my organization, we do not utilize the bottom up approach very often. When making decisions about work processes without fully understanding the work process seems to create inefficiencies in the organization. I think that process individuals should be included in the estimation as well as the development of the project plan. These individuals would be able to identify critical activities as well as provide a basis for scheduling other activities. This plan can then be managed by top management. With a proper plan, management can effectively manage various activities and deliver the project.

Execution is key to any project, especially when constructing a building. Some individuals may be worried about entering a building which was built in fifteen days, however when understanding the planning and management involved and witnessing the execution I would not be worried, would you?

 

 

Project Management for Accountants

Posted on by denise598sum15

The Journal of Accountancy has an interesting article about Project Management for Accountants. As a Master of Accountancy student, I was intrigued on how project management can be applied to consulting or audit work when you work for a firm. This article explains that having a project management framework can allow your clients to see results instead of setting up your engagements through time sheets.

The definition provided by the journal is “a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result.” It further explains that we must understand a project to be temporary so we recognize that there is a clearly defined end. The uniqueness of every project reflects that every audit, tax return, or consulting engagement is going to be different in their goals, objectives, and constraints.

As we have learned in class, the three important variables in a project are scope, cost and time. It is called the “Triangle of Truth” or the “Triple Constraint”. They emphasize that if you change the value of one of the variables, one of the two other angles, or both, must change to compensate. Many times, the focus is on cost and time versus scope and that is when issues can arise during the project. Scope creep was also mentioned but it was interesting to note that even though it seems there is a scope creep issue, it may not always be the case. If you do not have a clearly defined scope document, there cannot be scope creep because the scope was never properly defined. This can cause a project to go over-budget. If there is scope creep, it usually happens when the CPA allows more scope to be added without adjusting the other two variables of the triangle.

More and more, different areas of business are using project management to replace their old methodologies. Accounting firms are starting to use a project management framework instead of billing by the hour or using time sheets. I think this is an effective way of focusing on the scope of the engagement while keeping an eye on budget and time. With time sheets and billing by the hour, a CPA can lose sight of the main focus of the engagement. By having a project manager on top of the engagement and making sure the project is on track, the CPA can focus on doing the relevant testing and audit. An interesting measurement of success that is discussed is called the “Percent OOB”. This is calculated by taking the number of completed issues and dividing by the number that were completed on or before the original estimated completion date. This allows the project manager to predict whether the project is on track and alerts the PM if there is an issue. With the billable hours method, a red flag usually only occurs after you have already exceeded the projected time frame. To summarize, having a project management framework allows firms to provide their clients with a more accurate timeline on when their engagement will be completed. It allows the CPA/PM to adjust and consult with the client if the three variables during the engagement are starting to affect the other two.

 

http://www.journalofaccountancy.com/Issues/2010/Apr/20092306.htm

 

Project management “Dirty Secrets”

Posted on by kunal598sum15

http://www.cio.com/article/2941023/project-management/the-dirty-secrets-of-project-management-revealed.html

I found this article very interesting and it did somewhat relate to the projects that I was handling when I was running an animation firm. This article talks about the dirty secrets in which the project managers are more than willing to go over the budget than missing the project deadline as their bonuses and commissions depend on the revenue and earnings for that quarter. Additionally, the article also includes the ideas that can be used to avoid the schedule crisis.

When I was running a small animation firm, mostly all the projects came with a strict deadline. Most of the customers wanted their projects to be done quickly and always stressed the deadline. Since our projects involved going back and forth with customers to get the approval on every milestone (such as story boarding, character designing, background designing and compilation) of the project, it delayed our project. Every time when we were closer to the deadline we had to rush the project and finish it on time. We followed the same tactics as mentioned in the article to expedite the project. Some of them were:

  • Don’t worry about the quality; try to finish as quickly as you can.
  • Have the employees work in double shift to finish the project.
  • Skip some approvals required from customer.
  • Hold other projects and have every one work on the current project.
  • Pay overtime.

All of these tactics helped us the finish the project on time but it did reduced the quality of work and we had to rework on some parts eventually. Also, as we had all the employees working on the same project we were late on the other projects. Now, I wish I had followed some of the guidelines mentioned in this article and it could have helped me in avoiding the schedule crisis. Some of the ideas I really liked from the article were:

  • “Do the reality-therapy thing”: I really liked the idea of giving demos to the executive sponsor at the end of each sprint and inform the sponsor (customer, in my case) about the expectation of the schedule of the project. This way the customer has an option to choose between the quality and time as the project proceeds towards the completion.
  • “Do the prioritization thing”: I completely agree that the by prioritizing the task at the beginning of the project can help in reducing the deliverables along the way and also help in reducing the load.
  • “Un-do the kill-the-messenger thing”: I think it is important that at every milestone review, the team members should be allowed to disclose the negative information about the project. This can help in estimating the realistic time for the projects and risks.

Are there any other ideas or guidelines that you want to share with me and are not mentioned in the article? Or are any of ideas that are mentioned the article have been useful to you in avoiding schedule crisis in past?

How Creepy Was That?

Posted on by brandon598sum15

Our textbook describes a project’s scope, or parameters, as a definition of the end result or mission of a project. These end results usually include some sort of objective, milestone, or deliverable. A project statement is critical as it makes all parties aware of the objective of a project. Project statements are often plagued by scope creep. Scope creep is the tendency for the project scope to expand over time due to changing requirements, specifications, and priorities. Avoiding scope creep is a major challenge for most Project Managers. However, many projects fall victim to scope creep. How does this happen? According to Project Smart, the main causes for scope creep are:

  • Poor Requirement Analysis – Clients are often unsure of what they want, which can lead to an unnecessary strain on resources
  • Lack of Change Control – Project managers should expect some form of scope creep to take place. To deal with this Project Managers can utilize a change control form and keep record of project modifications with a change log.
  • Gold Plating – This is known as trying to supersede the scope of the project. People often believe that if they over deliver it will add value. To defeat gold plating, Project Managers should make sure team members are focusing on providing the client with what is requested in the scope and nothing more.

In summation, Project Managers should expect to encounter some sort of scope creep and develop a plan for dealing with it. Additionally, Project Managers should make sure the team is focused on delivering what is stated in the project scope.

As an undergraduate at Northern Illinois University, I obtained the opportunity to work on a team of Junior Consultants for YUM! Brands. The purpose of this project was to provide recommendations on how to improve disclosure to investors and communicate Yum’s global growth story more effectively. During this six-month project, the team was often guilty of scope creep. Being six eager undergrads, we constantly tried to gold plate the project scope. We continuously looked for ways to provide the client with more than what they asked for, this often lead to useless discussions and wasting time and energy on items that did not make the final deliverable. Fortunately for us, our Project Manager would often ask, is this part of the project’s scope? Most of the time the item being discussed was irrelevant and we moved on to more pressing matters. In my personal opinion, I believe it is easy to try to overachieve when you are working on a project that you are very excited about, but this often leads to deliverables that are not focused.

In your previous professional and educational experiences, have you dealt with scope creep, and if so how did you overcome this? How would you deal with a client that is pushing the boundaries of a project statement?

Sources:

http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/stop-scope-creep-running-away-with-your-project.php

http://www.villanovau.com/resources/project-management/project-management-scope-creep/#.VaKSFPlViko

http://www.cob.niu.edu/elc/webbook.pdf

Soft Power for Success

Posted on by kathleen598sum15

I found a very interesting article written by Mike Griffin, PMP.  He talks about the importance of using soft power, a concept developed by Joseph Nye of Harvard University.  Nye defines soft power as the “ability to get people to work with you by attracting them to be part of what you stand for; rather than to coerce, force or pay them”  (Griffin).  To force or coerce someone would be an example of using hard power; a project manager using his/her title to get individuals to do what they want.  Either way, at the end both project managers will see results.  The point that Griffin makes is that soft power gives better project results than hard power.  A project manager can exhibit soft power through his/her personality, ethics and values and proven ability to deliver projects successfully.  Griffin states that if you use soft power, people will be more inclined to work with you and even go the extra mile if they believe in the project manager’s ability, ethics/morals or personality.  To his point, he believes you will get better results as a project manager if you exhibit soft power influence over hard power.

As I was reading the article, I found myself nodding my head in agreement.  I am sure many of us can think of examples of when we were faced with hard or soft power project managers.  I know that I have worked with both types.  I remember feeling more involved and motivated when I have a project manager who I liked asked me to do something versus a project manager who sort of wielded their title like a weapon.  I felt forced to provide reports for them versus with the soft power managers where I WANTED to provide the reports… and do a good job with them too!

I saw, albeit not direct, some parallels between Griffin’s article and the accounting firm case study we did in class.  Here we have two different type of project managers trying to get one employee to do work on each of their individual projects.  In the end, it is pretty obvious that Crosby “won” as Olds chose to work on his consulting project full time.  I started to wonder from a power stand point why that was.  In the case, I think Crosby uses soft power to get Olds on board with his consulting project.  It’s almost as if he knew from the beginning when he said he would take the mornings with Olds while Palmer got the afternoon.  He immediately formed more of a relationship with Olds because there was no “pulling” if you will.  Olds was always there first thing in the morning because that was where he was supposed to be.  Because of that Crosby was able to form more of a personal relationship with Olds.  In contrast, Palmer was forced to then “pull” Olds over to him in the afternoon.  He was seen as more of the agitator of the two.  I feel that Palmer was definitely demonstrating more of a hard power technique.  It is almost like since he was a new manager he felt he needed to impress more, wield his power a little more.  Palmer gets paranoid about how Crosby and Olds golf together on the weekend and how Crosby does events for his team.  An example of this would be inviting everyone to the baseball game one afternoon.  Palmer puts his foot down and finally says no, which is an obvious demonstration of hard power.  It should be no surprise that Olds chooses to go work with Crosby full time.  The man showed more interest in him as a person so that Olds was able to rally behind his ideas and consulting project .  Palmer being new to management has not yet acquired the soft skills that Crosby had in order to best get work done from people on his team.

I feel that this accounting firm case study is a great example of hard power versus soft power.  Even though it seems to fit Griffin’s point directly, that doesn’t mean there aren’t exceptions to the rule.  So given that, here are my questions:

1. Do you agree or disagree with Griffin’s findings that soft power is superior to hard power?

2. What examples have you seen in your workplace where soft and/or hard power has been used effectively or ineffectively?

3. Is there ever a situation where hard power would be more effective?  Make more sense?

4. Any comments, suggestions or ideas?  Feel free to add…

 

A link to the article by Griffin:

http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/soft-power-for-success.php