Monday, June 14, 2010

2.3 Project Life Cycle and Organisation

  • 2.4 Organisational Cultures and Styles
    • cultural norms influence the project e.g. 
      • 'accepted' way of doing things
      • who is influential  & who makes decisions?
    • culture is an enterprise environmental factor that manifests itself in 
      • values & beliefs, policies & methods, authority structure, work ethic, resource allocation, priorities
    • Structures
      • Functional: PM has little/ no authority, part time, reports to functional manager (has budget), PM role: negotiates resources
      • Weak Matrix: PM has slightly more authority & resources, PM role: coordinator  
      • Balanced Matrix: moderate authority & resources, PM full time, functional & PM share budget
      • Strong Matrix: high auth & resources, PM reports to manager of PMs, project staff are full time on the project
      • Projectised: most organisational resources are in projects, staff report to PMs
      • Composite: mix of matrix and projectised, some PMs report to functional managers & others to PMs
    • Organisational Process Assets
      • Processes & procedures
        • PLCs, standards, policies (e.g. H&S), procedures (e.g. financial/ risk/ change control), guidelines (e.g. for prioritising), templates, communication requirements... 
      • Knowledge base
        • project files, lessons learned database, configuration management, financial DBs...

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

2.2 Project Life Cycle and Organisation

  • 2.2 Projects V Operational Work
    • Work can be categorised as Operational or Project based
    • Characteristics of each type: 
      • individuals do the work
      • have constraints
      • have objectives
      • are planned, executed, monitored & controlled
    • Operations: ongoing, produce repetitive product
    • Project: temporary, unique product
    • generally a lot of interaction between a project team and operational functions
    • project deliverables can change Operations e.g.
      • developing new product/ service to sell
      • developing a new information system
  • 2.3 Stakeholders
    • people or organisations who might be affected by the project
    • stakeholders have different levels of authority over the project & this can change during the project
    • it is essential that the project team identifies all internal and external stakeholders - failure can cause delays and costs
    • key stakeholders
      • customers/users: internal/external, custs & users may be the same people or different
      • sponsor: provides money and authority for the project, champions project, helps develop scope & charter, acts as escalation path
      • portfolio managers/portfolio review board (select projects): review project ROI,value, risks...
      • program managers: support and guide project managers
      • Project Management Office (PMO): centrally manages & supports projects, stakeholder if has direct/indirect responsibility for project outcome: 
      • project managers
      • project team: project manager, project team, subject matter experts (SMEs)
      • functional managers: e.g. finance, HR managers...
      • operations managers: managers in a core business area e.g. R&D, maintenance...
      • sellers/business partners: partners can do training, installation etc for your organisation

2.1 Project Life Cycle and Organisation

2.0 Project Life Cycle and Organisation

  • Aim: understand the broader context in which projects are carried out
  • 2.1 The Project Life Cycle – Overview and Characteristics
    • PMBOK Definition: "Collection of generally sequential and sometimes overlapping phases"... "determined by the management and control needs", "the nature of the project itself, and its area of application"
    • Shaped by the organisation, industry & technologies involved
    • Can be documented by a methodology; framework for managing the project
    • Life cycle structure (phase : end artefact)
      • Starting : Project Charter
      • Organising & preparing : PM Plan
      • Execute : Accepted deliverables
      • Closing : Archived Project Documents
    • Cost & staffing goes from zero, peaks & plateaus in execution, falls to zero by end of closing
    • Stakeholder influences, risk, and uncertainty start high and lower throughout the project life cycle
    • Cost of changes & error correction start low and get steadily greater during project
    • Product V Project Life Cycle Relationships
      • Some parts of Product Life Cycle involve a Project e.g. feasibility study, market research
      • A product can have many associated projects
    • Project phases
      • PMBOK definition: "divisions within a project where extra control is needed"
      • each phase has: IPEC processes (initiating, planning, executing, closing)
      • often sequential but can overlap
      • phase closes with a deliverable handed over
      • Governance
        • method of controlling a project that is described in the PM Plan
        • Project Manager decides how to manage resources and direct the project within the governance structure and constraints
        • initiating a phase
          • each phase is formally started with a management review
          • especially if preceding phase is not finished
          • review activities and processes e.g. procurement...
        • closing a phase
          • phase-end review deliverables (completed, accepted?)
      • 3 types of phase-to-phase relationship
        • sequential
        • overlapping
        • iterative (plan 1 phase at a time; plan for the next phase during current phase; used in uncertain environments like research)

Thursday, June 3, 2010

1.3 Introduction to Project Management

  • 1.5 Project V Operations Management
    • Operations: 
      • ongoing permanent activities that produce a a product or service repeatedly 
      • e.g. manufacturing ops, accounting ops
      • require Business Process Management
    • Project: 
      • temporary, unique outcome, require a project manager
      • can be used to change processes
    • Intersection of projects and ops can happen during the project (i.e. resources or knowledge pass from one to the other) e.g
      • at phase closeout
      • when project is to change processes
      • when the project is to develop/ change a product or outcome
  • 1.6 Project Manager role
    • Different types of managers
      • Operational: responsible for core business
      • Functional: responsible for administrative area
      • Project: responsible for delivering project objectives
    • Might report to a 
      • functional manager
      • portfolio/ program manager
    • Needs these characteristics:
      • PM knowledge
      • Performance (able to carry out project activities)
      • Personal (attitudes,personality, leadership)
  • 1.7 PMBOK: 
    • describes industry standard tools,techniques,processes
    • a PMIism is a term that is specific to the PMI, that appears in the PMBOK and in the PMP and CAPM exams
    • 5 Project Management Processes: (IPECC) Initiating, Planning, Executing, Monitoring & Controlling, Closing
    • 9 Project Knowledge Areas: Integration, Scope, Time, Cost, Quietly, HR, Communication, Risk, Procurement
    • Other standards
      • The Standard for Program Management
      • The Standard for Portfolio Management
      • Organizational Project Management Maturity Model (OPM3)
  • 1.8 Enterprise environmental factors
    • PMBOK definition: "internal and external environmental factors that surround or influence a project's success"
    • factors to consider when developing the charter e.g. Need to hire in specialised skills? Industry expertise required?
    • include
      • culture, structure, processes
      • legislation and industry standards
      • existing infrastructure (space, equipment...)
      • human capital available (knowledge, skills experience...)
      • HR policy (staffing, performance appraisal...)
      • stakeholder attitude to risk 

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

1.2 Introduction to Project Management

  • 1.4 Project, Program and Portfolio Management
    • Hierarchy is used to align projects with the strategic plan:
      • Higher level portfolio
        • Lower level portfolio and possibly individual projects
          • Higher level program
            • Lower level program and possibly individual projects
              • Projects
    • Portfolio Management
      • PMBOK definition of a portfolio: "a collection of projects or programs and other work that are grouped together to facilitate efective management of that work to meet strategic business objectives"
      • The mix of projects and programs in the portfolio all help meet the strategic objective (e.g. maximise ROI) but might not be directly related or interdependent
      • PMBOK definition of portfolio management: "centralised management of one or more portfolios, which includes identifying, prioritising, authorising, managing, and controlling projects, programs, and other related work, to achieve specific strategic business objectives"
    • Program Management
      • Program PMBOK definition: "a group of related projects managed in a coordinated way to obtain benefits and control not available from managing them individually"
        • Projects are related by sharing a common outcome
        • A project can exist outside of a program, but all programs contain projects
      • Program Management PMBOK definition: "centralised coordinated management" of programs 
        • Focuses on project interdependencies like
          • resource constraints and conflicts
          • shared change management issues
    • Reasons for initiating projects
      • business need (to support strategy)
        • e.g. to operationalise a plan e.g. to improve customer service, to create a new web application, to design and build a process or product, to set up a new sales department in a different country
      • to fulfill an internal or external request
      • legal / regulatory requirement
      • market demand
      • social need
      • technical progress
      • Note: benefits arising from a project can support program, project, strategic objectives
    • Project Management Office (PMO)
      • Primary function is to support PMs including
        • coordination, support, centralised management of projects
        • manage shared resources
        • training
        • communication coordination between projects
        • PM methodology, standards,best practices - and monitoring to ensure compliance
        • Organisational Process Assets (policies, procedures, templates,documentation)
      • can also manage projects
      • can have authority to recommend changes, terminate projects
      • Differences between PM and PMO
        • PM focuses on project, PMO on program changes seen as opportunities to better achieve business objectives
        • PM manages P resources, PMO on shared resources
        • PM manages constraints (scope, Q, schedule, cost…) of individual project, PMO manages methodologies, standards, overall risk/opp, P interdependencies

Friday, April 30, 2010

1.1 Introduction to Project Management

  • 1.2 a project is "a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product,service, or result" (PMBOK definition)
    • temporary 
      • it has a beginning and end, it is not ongoing like business operations. 
      • not necessarily of short duration
      • the product, service other deliverable of the project might be long lasting or ongoing, but the project ends when its objectives are met, if it has not been terminated before that
    • it can create a unique
      • product or sub component
      • "capability to perform a service" e.g. a team or a new sales department in a newly entered country
      • a outcome e.g. a document (research, report...)
    • Characteristics
      • done at every level of an organisation
      • it may involve some repetition but the outcome is fundamentally unique
      • company operations produce a repeated outcome, a project produces a unique outcome 
  • 1.3 What is project management? 
    • PMBOK definition: "the application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to project activities to meet project requirements"
    • 5 phases of a project: Initiating > Planning > Execution > Monitoring & Controlling > Closing

    • it includes
      • defining and documenting requirements
      • dealing with stakeholders' needs
      • managing the constraints
      • constraints
        • give and take: if one constraint must be changed then others will have to yield 
        • the mix of constraints is unique to each project
        • forget 'triple constraints' and focus on the 'competing restraints', including:
          • cost, scope, quality, risk, resources, time, + others particular to the project CSQRRT
          • balance the needs of these with stakeholder needs and goals of project
          • e.g. if the scope is expanded then you will need more time and cost will go up, that or quality will come down

Friday, April 23, 2010

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Thursday, April 22, 2010

PMBOK chapter 1

  • A project is "a temporary endeavour undertaken to create a unique product, service or result"
  • Temporary: defined beginning and end (when objectives met or project terminated); not necessarily short duration; refers to project, not the product/service created

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Project failure: Standish Group – Chaos report 1995

  • 31.1% of projects will be cancelled before they ever get completed.
  • 52.7% of projects will cost 189% of their original estimates.
  • Tip of the iceberg - The lost opportunity costs are not measurable, but could easily be in the trillions of dollars.
  • in 1995 American companies and government agencies will spend $81 billion for cancelled software projects.
  • These same organizations will pay an additional $59 billion for software projects that will be completed, but will exceed their original time estimates.
  • On average 16.2% of software projects that are completed ontime and on-budget; only 9% in larger companies
  • Projects completed by the largest American companies have only approximately 42% of the originally-proposed features and functions.
  • Smaller companies do much better. A total of 78.4% of their software projects will get deployed with at least 74.2% of their original features and functions.

Project failure: The Robbins-Gioia Survey (2001)


  • 232 respondents spanning multiple industries including government, Information Technology, communications, financial, utilities, and healthcare.
  • 51 % viewed their ERP implementation as unsuccessful
  • 46 % of the participants noted that while their organization had an ERP system in place, or was implementing a system, they did not feel their organization understood how to use the system to improve the way they conduct business.
  • 56 % of survey respondents noted their organization has a program management office (PMO) in place,
  • and of these respondents, only 36 % felt their ERP implementation was unsuccessful
  • Note: in this survey project failure is not defined by objective criteria but by the perception of the respondents.

CHAOS Report 2009 Project Success Factors

The chart below (from the same source) shows trends in IT project success from 2000 to 2008. It is sourced from the 2009 Chaos report summary

http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/document/690719/chaos_summary_2009_pdf




















The following is a top ten list of factors that contribute to project success from the same source.

1. User Involvement

2. Executive Support

3. Clear Business Objectives

4. Emotional Maturity

5. Optimization

6. Agile Process

7 Project Management Expertise

8. Skilled Resources

9. Execution

10. Tools and infrastructure



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