Project Management

Project is something complicated that you haven't done before.

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12 Steps to define a Project

Define a project very clearly
List all the tasks
Breaking down the task you have never done before to
simple tasks that you have done before
Estimate the time and costs
Add up all the time and costs
Adding up the cost is relatively easy (adding up the sum of
the tasks), but time is a bit more tricky, because some tasks
happen at the same time. Tip: Using a Critical Path Diagram
Shorten the project plan
Draw a Gantt Chart
Calculate Resource Requirement over time
Assess risk and prepare action plans
Monitor progress
Monitor cost
Reschedule
Review

Fig 1 : Defining a Project

Defining the Project:

The problem
customers always want something fantastic in as quick a time as they
can have it and for the minimum budget, so you're being squeezed in
all three directions and that's a problem.
The three circles
cost
quality
time
Reality
You cant have all three. we need to make sure we're not going to
promise something we can't deliver, and we need to find out which is
the top one, known as the key driver.
Example
Olympics: Key driver is Time. Something has to be delivered on
date. Whatever it costs, we have to pay it. If we have to reduce the
quality slightly, then we might. But the point is we have to deliver the
start of the Olympic games on a certain date.
key driver isn't about what you want, it's about what you must
have.
Probing for the Key Driver
So the question is, which of these am I prepared to negotiate on? To find
that out, what you should do as a project manager is ask your
customer, or your boss, if he's your customer, you should ask the three
cunning questions.
Example
Why? if the budget's $20,000, we already know that's not the key
driver because that's a round number they'veprobably just roughly
estimated, there.
What if? Ask What if we take a bit longer? What if we had to spend a bit
more? see whether they fall off their chair with horror or say, "Well, you
know, we'll just have to "carry on for a bit longer,"
Can we trade? Help the customer think clearly about what they want
from project. Keeping within the budget or delivering a brilliant
job? Offering trade forces the customer to choose between those

Fig 2: The three cunning

questions

Planning the meetings:

Go through steps 2-8

Planning the project:

The

Steps
Brainstorm
Write out a WBS
Ask other people

Example
Suppose the electrical work on a house was ongoing.The electricians
perform a whole job doing various things. If it is part of plan, it means
there is no control over electricians. If there is a need to check after a
couple of weeks, and there's wires everywhere. How do we know they're
on schedule or not.
So the fact is that the "O" word for electricians means that we need to
granulate them down, break their work down into smaller subtasks. Once
that is done, we have control and can see how long each task is meant to
take, and we can keep up with the schedule. So the good thing about
awareness of the fact you mustn't say the "O" word, is that it's a sign, it
tells you when you need more granularity. Divide that task down into

Solution
Think about the project you're working on at the moment. Are there any
tasks that you are currently referring to as "ongoing?". what you're really
saying is you don't know when it's going to finish. And if you think about
it, if you're going to plan a project, you have to know when every task
starts and finishes.And therefore, granulate those tasks down into smaller
pieces and get more control of them? That's what I want you to do. Ask
yourself do you ever use the "O" word? Are you using it at the
moment, and could you use granularity as a substitute?

Estimating Time and

Cost
Situation
We have to estimate tasks going to cost and how long its going to
take. So we're talking about the money and time in exactly the same way.
This might be how many weeks it takes to do the project, and it also
might be how many thousand dollars it costs. So it's exactly the same for
the money and the time.
Problem
What are we going to tell our customer about our estimation?

Fig 3: A graph of probability distribution of product journey

Example
What would be the probabilitydistribution of all journeys? it'll most probably be a skewed normal d

Solution
Estimate with 90% confidence interval, between average and worst-case

Using Network diagrams to add up

costs
The need
A network diagram is a flow chart depicting the sequence in which
a project's events are to be completed by connecting elements and
their dependencies. The critical path is the longest route through
the diagram, and is the quickest you can do the entire project
Types of critical path analysis
Activity on arrow or PERT
Activity on node or CPM

Fig 4: PERT

Fig 5: CPM

The Steps

Consider dependencies and draw the CPA network: and find the
float of the non-critical tasks
PERT is customer focused, CPM is more focused on the person
doing the work.
You can add milestones or events to your CPM diagram if you
wish, and once the diagram is make into a Gantt chart then you
can have as many events as you want, so the lack of events on
CPM is not really an issue.
Make the diagram by putting post-its onto a white board or large
sheet of paper, with a group. Its another chance to involve your
Example
team.
For a distribution centre:

Fig 6: Network diagram for a distribution centre w/ critical

path

Gantt Charts
Purpose
Communication: to show everyone when their tasks will be started
and finished
Loading: to be able to look vertically at any given week or month
and consider whether you have the resources for all the tasks
being done at that time
Monitoring Progress: by colouring in the Gantt chart and trying to
keep up with the Today line

Fig 7: Example of a Gantt chart

The steps
Draw the critical path and put the floating tasks (see A & B) around
it
Adjust floating tasks in order to level the load profile (e.g. swivel B)
Then issue the Gantt chart for everyone to see how they fit in the
Importing
The Gantt chart can then be imported to a computer in an excel
spreadsheet and color coded to express the needs and timelines

Planning for risk

Once we've got a list of all the possible risks, assess which ones to
worry about. A good way to do this is to give scores for how likely
and how serious, both out of five. If the multiplied score goes into
double figures, then it is a risk you should be concerned about. If it's
not very likely or not very serious, you probably won't need to worry
about it.
For reducing risks. You can either make it less likely to happen, or
less serious if it does happen. Either one of those is fine, the
objective is to get it down below the double figures.
Keep risk plan up to date throught thee project. Some of the risks
that you identify at the start will reduce over time past danger

Speeding up the process

Monitoring Costs
Assume linear spend, but then just in the back of your mind, bear in
mind that sometimes spend isn't linear and you need to just keep an
eye on that. So there we are, that's how to monitor the finance of your
project. And what I recommend is have a look at your existing project
now, have a look at the finance figures that you've got coming in, but
pair them up with the Gantt chart and see what they've really
mean,and never again judge projects just by the money, always look at
the Gantt chart as well.

Review/Reschedule