MAKING EVERYTHING EASIER! PROJECT MANAGEMENT FOR DUMMIES ppt

The tools you need for successful project management In today’s time-crunched, cost-conscious global business environment, tight project deadlines and stringent expectations are the n

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3rd Edition

™

Open the book and find:

• Help for defining your project’s goals and expectations

• Guidelines for knowing your project’s audience

• Tips for breaking your project work into manageable pieces

• The latest methods for determining and managing

Stanley E Portny is a project management consultant and a certified

Project Management Professional (PMP®) He has provided training and

consultation to more than 150 public and private organizations, and he

has developed and conducted training programs for more than 50,000

$21.99 US / $25.99 CN / £16.99 UK

ISBN 978-0-470-57452-2

Business/Project Management

Go to Dummies.com® for videos, step-by-step examples,

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The tools you need

for successful

project management

In today’s time-crunched, cost-conscious global business

environment, tight project deadlines and stringent

expectations are the norm So what does it take to succeed?

This hands-on guide introduces you to the principles of

project management and shows you how to put them to

use so you can successfully manage a project from start to

finish And if you’re studying for the Project Management

Institute’s Project Management Professional® certification

exam, you can rest easy knowing that this book is aligned

with the guide that’s the basis for the exam.

• Project management 101 — take a look at the who, what, and

why of a project and discover what it really takes to ensure

success

• Keep an eye on the clock — learn how to create foolproof

schedules and budgets that keep your projects on track

• Put your team to work — get plenty of practical tips and

guidelines for identifying and involving key players

• Drive it home — uncover the best ways to track, analyze, and

report on your project’s activities and bring it to a successful

closure

• Up your project management game — take your skills to the next

level with the use of technology and Earned Value Management

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2nd Edition

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by Stanley E Portny

Certiﬁ ed Project Management Professional (PMP)

Project Management

FOR

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111 River St.

Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774

www.wiley.com

Published simultaneously in Canada

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or

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Stan Portny, president of Stanley E Portny and Associates,

LLC, is an internationally recognized expert in project agement and project leadership During the past 30 years, he’s provided training and consultation to more than 150 public and private organizations in consumer products, insurance, pharmaceuticals, fi nance, information technology, telecommunications, defense, and healthcare He has devel-oped and conducted training programs for more than 50,000 management and staff personnel in engineering, sales and marketing, research and development, information systems, manufacturing, operations, and support areas

man-Stan combines an analyst’s eye with an innate sense of order and balance and a deep respect for personal potential He helps people understand how

to control chaotic environments and produce dramatic results while still achieving personal and professional satisfaction Widely acclaimed for his dynamic presentations and unusual ability to establish a close rapport with seminar participants, Stan specializes in tailoring his training programs to meet the unique needs of individual organizations His clients have included ADP, ADT, American International Group, Burlington Northern Railroad, Hewlett Packard, Nabisco, Novartis Pharmaceuticals, Pitney Bowes, UPS, Vanguard Investment Companies, and the United States Navy and Air Force

A Project Management Institute–certifi ed Project Management Professional (PMP), Stan received his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn He holds a master’s degree in electrical engineering and the degree of electrical engineer from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Stan has also studied at the Alfred P Sloan School of Management and the George Washington University National Law Center

Stan provides on-site training in all aspects of project management, project team building, and project leadership He can work with you to assess your organization’s current project-management practices, develop planning and control systems and procedures, and review the progress of ongoing proj-ects In addition, Stan can serve as the keynote speaker at your organization’s

or professional association’s meetings

To discuss this book or understand how Stan can work with you to enhance your organization’s project-management skills and practices, please contact him at Stanley E Portny and Associates, LLC, 20 Helene Drive, Randolph, New Jersey 07869; phone 973-366-8500; e-mail Stan@StanPortny.com; Web site www.StanPortny.com

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To my wife, Donna; my son, Brian; and my son and daughter-in-law, Jonathan and Marci May we continue to share life’s joys together.

Author’s Acknowledgments

Writing and publishing this book was a team effort, and I would like to thank the many people who helped to make it possible First, I want to thank Tracy Boggier, my acquisitions editor, who fi rst contacted me to discuss the pos-sibility of my writing this third edition of my book Thanks to her for making that phone call, for helping me prepare the proposal, for helping to get the project off to a smooth and timely start, for coordinating the publicity and sales, and for helping to bring all the pieces to a successful conclusion

Thanks to Georgette Beatty, my project editor, and Amanda Langferman, my copy editor, for their guidance, support, and the many hours they spent pol-ishing the text into a smooth, fi nished product And thanks to Anita Griner,

my technical reviewer, for her many insightful observations and suggestions

Finally, thanks to my family for their continued help and inspiration Thanks

to Donna, who never doubted that this book would become a reality and who shared personal and stylistic comments as she reviewed the text countless times while always making it seem like she found it enjoyable and enlightening

Thanks to Brian, Jonathan, and Marci, whose interest and excitement helped motivate me to see the third edition of this book through to completion

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For other comments, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S at 877-762-2974,

outside the U.S at 317-572-3993, or fax 317-572-4002.

Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:

Acquisitions, Editorial, and Media

Development

Senior Project Editor: Georgette Beatty

(Previous Edition: Chad R Sievers)

Acquisitions Editor: Tracy Boggier

Copy Editor: Amanda M Langferman

(Previous Edition: Pam Ruble)

Assistant Editor: Erin Calligan Mooney

Editorial Program Coordinator: Joe Niesen

Technical Editor: Anita E Griner, MBA, PMP

Editorial Manager: Michelle Hacker

Editorial Assistant: Jennette ElNaggar

Cover Photo: iStock

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Composition Services

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Samantha K Cherolis, Joyce Haughey

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Sossity R Smith

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Publishing and Editorial for Consumer Dummies

Diane Graves Steele, Vice President and Publisher, Consumer Dummies Kristin Ferguson-Wagstaffe, Product Development Director, Consumer Dummies Ensley Eikenburg, Associate Publisher, Travel

Kelly Regan, Editorial Director, Travel Publishing for Technology Dummies

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Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services

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Contents at a Glance

Introduction 1

Part I: Understanding Expectations (The Who, What, and Why of Your Project) 7

Chapter 1: Project Management: The Key to Achieving Results 9

Chapter 2: Clarifying What You’re Trying to Accomplish — and Why 29

Chapter 3: Knowing Your Project’s Audience: Involving the Right People 51

Chapter 4: Developing Your Game Plan: Getting from Here to There 71

Part II: Planning Time: Determining When and How Much 95

Chapter 5: You Want This Project Done When? 97

Chapter 6: Establishing Whom You Need, How Much, and When 129

Chapter 7: Planning for Other Resources and Developing the Budget 151

Chapter 8: Venturing into the Unknown: Dealing with Risk and Uncertainty 163

Part III: Group Work: Putting Your Team Together 183

Chapter 9: Aligning the Key Players for Your Project 185

Chapter 10: Defi ning Team Members’ Roles and Responsibilities 199

Chapter 11: Starting Your Project Team Off on the Right Foot 221

Part IV: Steering the Ship: Managing Your Project to Success 237

Chapter 12: Tracking Progress and Maintaining Control 239

Chapter 13: Keeping Everyone Informed 263

Chapter 14: Encouraging Peak Performance by Providing Effective Leadership 281

Chapter 15: Bringing Your Project to Closure 291

Part V: Taking Your Project Management to the Next Level 303

Chapter 16: Using Technology to Up Your Game 305

Chapter 17: Monitoring Project Performance with Earned Value Management 319

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Chapter 19: Ten Tips for Being a Better Project Manager 339

Appendix: Combining the Techniques into Smooth-Flowing Processes 343 Index 347

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Table of Contents

Introduction 1

About This Book 2

Conventions Used in This Book 2

What You’re Not to Read 3

Foolish Assumptions 3

How This Book Is Organized 3

Part VI: The Part of Tens 5

Icons Used in This Book 5

Where to Go from Here 5

Chapter 1: Project Management: The Key to Achieving Results .9

Determining What Makes a Project a Project 9

Understanding the three main components that defi ne a project 10

Recognizing the diversity of projects 11

Describing the four stages of a project 12

Defi ning Project Management 14

Examining the initiating processes 15

Considering the planning processes 18

Examining the executing processes 19

Examining the monitoring and controlling processes 20

Acknowledging the closing processes 21

Knowing the Project Manager’s Role 21

Looking at the project manager’s tasks 21

Staving off potential excuses for not following a structured project-management approach 22

Avoiding “shortcuts” 23

Staying aware of other potential challenges 24

Do You Have What It Takes to Be an Effective Project Manager? 25

Questions 25

Answers 25

Relating This Chapter to the PMP Exam and PMBOK 4 26

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Chapter 2: Clarifying What You’re Trying to Accomplish —

and Why 29

Defi ning Your Project with a Scope Statement 29

Looking at the Big Picture: How Your Project Fits In 31

Figuring out why you’re doing the project 32

Drawing the line: Where your project starts and stops 40

Stating your project’s objectives 41

Marking Boundaries: Project Constraints 45

Working within limitations 46

Dealing with needs 48

Facing the Unknowns When Planning 49

Chapter 3: Knowing Your Project’s Audience: Involving the Right People 51

Understanding Your Project’s Audiences 51

Developing an Audience List 52

Starting your audience list 52

Ensuring your audience list is complete and up-to-date 56

Using an audience list template 58

Considering the Drivers, Supporters, and Observers in Your Audience 59

Deciding when to involve your audiences 61

Using different methods to keep your audiences involved 64

Making the most of your audience’s involvement 65

Confi rming Your Audience’s Authority 66

Assessing Your Audience’s Power and Interest 67

Chapter 4: Developing Your Game Plan: Getting from Here to There .71

Divide and Conquer: Working on Your Project in Manageable Chunks 71

Thinking in detail 72

Thinking of hierarchy with the help of a Work Breakdown Structure 73

Dealing with special situations 79

Creating and Displaying Your Work Breakdown Structure 82

Considering different schemes for organizing your WBS 82

Using different approaches to develop your WBS 83

Considering different ways to categorize your project’s work 85

Labeling your WBS entries 86

Displaying your WBS in different formats 87

Improving the quality of your WBS 89

Using templates 90

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Identifying Risks While Detailing Your Work 91

Documenting What You Need to Know about Your Planned Project Work 93

Chapter 5: You Want This Project Done When? 97

Picture This: Illustrating a Work Plan with a Network Diagram 98

Defi ning a network diagram’s elements 98

Drawing a network diagram 99

Analyzing a Network Diagram 100

Reading a network diagram 101

Interpreting a network diagram 102

Working with Your Project’s Network Diagram 107

Determining precedence 107

Using a network diagram to analyze a simple example 110

Developing Your Project’s Schedule 114

Taking the fi rst steps 115

Avoiding the pitfall of backing in to your schedule 116

Meeting an established time constraint 116

Applying different strategies to arrive at your picnic in less time 117

Estimating Activity Duration 122

Determining the underlying factors 123

Considering resource characteristics 123

Finding sources of supporting information 124

Improving activity duration estimates 124

Displaying Your Project’s Schedule 126

Chapter 6: Establishing Whom You Need, How Much, and When 129

Getting the Information You Need to Match People to Tasks 130

Deciding the skills and knowledge that team members must have 130

Representing skills, knowledge, and interests in a Skills Matrix 132

Estimating Needed Commitment 134

Using a Human Resources Matrix 134

Identifying needed personnel in a Human Resources Matrix 135

Estimating required work effort 136

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Factoring productivity, effi ciency, and availability

into work-effort estimates 137

Refl ecting effi ciency when you use historical data 138

Accounting for effi ciency in personal work-effort estimates 140

Ensuring Your Project Team Members Can Meet Their Resource Commitments 142

Planning your initial allocations 142

Resolving potential resource overloads 145

Coordinating assignments across multiple projects 147

Chapter 7: Planning for Other Resources and Developing the Budget 151

Determining Nonpersonnel Resource Needs 151

Making Sense of the Dollars: Project Costs and Budgets 154

Looking at different types of project costs 154

Recognizing the three stages of a project budget 156

Refi ning your budget as you move through your project’s stages 157

Determining project costs for a detailed budget estimate 158

Chapter 8: Venturing into the Unknown: Dealing with Risk and Uncertainty 163

Defi ning Risk and Risk Management 163

Focusing on Risk Factors and Risks 165

Recognizing risk factors 166

Identifying risks 169

Assessing Risks: Probability and Consequences 170

Gauging the likelihood of a risk 171

Estimating the extent of the consequences 173

Getting Everything under Control: Managing Risk 176

Choosing the risks you want to manage 176

Developing a risk-management strategy 177

Communicating about risks 178

Preparing a Risk-Management Plan 180

Chapter 9: Aligning the Key Players for Your Project 185

Defi ning Three Organizational Environments 185

The functional structure 186

The projectized structure 188

The matrix structure 189

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Recognizing the Key Players in a Matrix Environment 192

The project manager 192

Project team members 194

Functional managers 194

Upper management 195

Working Successfully in a Matrix Environment 195

Creating and continually reinforcing a team identity 195

Getting team member commitment 196

Eliciting support from other people in the environment 196

Heading off common problems before they arise 197

Chapter 10: Deﬁ ning Team Members’ Roles and Responsibilities 199

Understanding the Key Roles 199

Distinguishing authority, responsibility, and accountability 200

Comparing authority and responsibility 200

Making Project Assignments 201

Delving into delegation 201

Sharing responsibility 206

Holding people accountable when they don’t report to you 207

Picture This: Depicting Roles with a Responsibility Assignment Matrix 210

Introducing the elements of a RAM 210

Reading a RAM 212

Developing a RAM 213

Ensuring your RAM is accurate 214

Dealing with Micromanagement 216

Realizing why a person micromanages 216

Helping a micromanager trust you 217

Working well with a micromanager 218

Chapter 11: Starting Your Project Team Off on the Right Foot .221

Finalizing Your Project’s Participants 222

Are you in? Confi rming your team members’ participation 222

Assuring that others are on board 224

Filling in the blanks 225

Developing Your Team 226

Reviewing the approved project plan 227

Developing team and individual goals 228

Specifying team member roles 228

Defi ning your team’s operating processes 229

Supporting the development of team member relationships 230

All together now: Helping your team become a smooth-functioning unit 230

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Laying the Groundwork for Controlling Your Project 232

Selecting and preparing your tracking systems 232

Establishing schedules for reports and meetings 233

Setting your project’s baseline 234

Hear Ye, Hear Ye! Announcing Your Project 234

Setting the Stage for Your Post-Project Evaluation 235

Chapter 12: Tracking Progress and Maintaining Control 239

Holding On to the Reins: Project Control 239

Establishing Project Management Information Systems 241

The clock’s ticking: Monitoring schedule performance 242

All in a day’s work: Monitoring work effort 248

Follow the money: Monitoring expenditures 252

Putting Your Control Process into Action 256

Heading off problems before they occur 256

Formalizing your control process 257

Identifying possible causes of delays and variances 258

Identifying possible corrective actions 259

Getting back on track: Rebaselining 259

Reacting Responsibly When Changes Are Requested 260

Responding to change requests 260

Creeping away from scope creep 261

Chapter 13: Keeping Everyone Informed 263

I Said What I Meant and I Meant What I Said: Successful Communication Basics 264

Breaking down the communication process 264

Distinguishing one-way and two-way communication 265

Can you hear me? Listening actively 265

Choosing the Appropriate Medium for Project Communication 267

Just the facts: Written reports 268

Move it along: Meetings that work 270

Preparing a Written Project-Progress Report 272

Making a list (of names) and checking it twice 273

Knowing what’s hot (and what’s not) in your report 273

Earning a Pulitzer, or at least writing an interesting report 274

Holding Key Project Meetings 276

Regularly scheduled team meetings 276

Ad hoc team meetings 277

Upper-management progress reviews 278

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Preparing a Project Communications Management Plan 279

Chapter 14: Encouraging Peak Performance by Providing Effective Leadership 281

Comparing Leadership and Management 281

Developing Personal Power and Infl uence 282

Understanding why people do what you ask 282

Establishing the bases of your power 284

You Can Do It! Creating and Sustaining Team Member Motivation 285

Increasing commitment by clarifying your project’s benefi ts 286

Encouraging persistence by demonstrating project feasibility 287

Letting people know how they’re doing 288

Providing rewards for work well done 289

Chapter 15: Bringing Your Project to Closure 291

Staying the Course to Completion 292

Planning ahead for your project’s closure 292

Updating your initial closure plans when you’re ready to wind down the project 293

Charging up your team for the sprint to the fi nish line 293

Handling Administrative Issues 294

Providing a Good Transition for Team Members 295

Surveying the Results: The Post-Project Evaluation 297

Preparing for the evaluation throughout the project 297

Setting the stage for the evaluation meeting 298

Conducting the evaluation meeting 300

Following up on the evaluation 301

Chapter 16: Using Technology to Up Your Game 305

Using Computer Software Effectively 305

Looking at your software options 306

Helping your software perform at its best 310

Introducing project-management software into your operations 312

Making Use of E-Mail 313

Distinguishing the pros and cons of e-mail 313

Using e-mail appropriately 315

Getting the most out of your e-mail 315

Supporting Virtual Teams with Communication Technology 316

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Chapter 17: Monitoring Project Performance with

Earned Value Management 319

Defi ning Earned Value Management 319

Understanding EVM terms and formulas 320

Looking at a simple example 323

Determining the reasons for observed variances 325

The How-To: Applying Earned Value Management to Your Project 326

Determining a Task’s Earned Value 329

Part VI: The Part of Tens 333

Chapter 18: Ten Questions to Ask Yourself as You Plan Your Project 335

What’s the Purpose of Your Project? 335

Whom Do You Need to Involve? 336

What Results Will You Produce? 336

What Constraints Must You Satisfy? 336

What Assumptions Are You Making? 337

What Work Has to Be Done? 337

When Does Each Activity Start and End? 337

Who Will Perform the Project Work? 338

What Other Resources Do You Need? 338

What Can Go Wrong? 338

Chapter 19: Ten Tips for Being a Better Project Manager 339

Be a “Why” Person 339

Be a “Can Do” Person 339

Think about the Big Picture 340

Think in Detail 340

Assume Cautiously 340

View People as Allies, Not Adversaries 340

Say What You Mean, and Mean What You Say 341

Respect Other People 341

Acknowledge Good Performance 341

Be a Manager and a Leader 342

Appendix: Combining the Techniques into Smooth-Flowing Processes 343

Index 347

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Projects have been around since ancient times Noah building the ark,

Leonardo da Vinci painting the Mona Lisa, Edward Gibbon writing The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Jonas Salk developing the polio

vaccine — all projects And, as you know, these were all masterful successes

(Well, the products were a spectacular success, even if schedules and resource budgets were drastically overrun!)

Why, then, is the topic of project management of such great interest today?

The answer is simple: The audience has changed and the stakes are higher

Historically, projects were large, complex undertakings The first project to use modern project-management techniques — the Polaris weapons system

in the early 1950s — was a technical and administrative nightmare Teams

of specialists planned and tracked the myriad of research, development, and production activities They produced mountains of paper to document the intricate work As a result, people started to view project management as a highly technical discipline with confusing charts and graphs; they saw it as inordinately time-consuming, specialist-driven, and definitely off-limits for the common man or woman!

Because of the ever-growing array of huge, complex, and technically lenging projects in today’s world, people who want to devote their careers to planning and managing them are still vital to their successes Over the past

chal-25 to 30 years, however, the number of projects in the regular workplace has

skyrocketed Projects of all types and sizes are now the way that

organiza-tions accomplish their work

At the same time, a new breed of project manager has emerged This new breed may not have set career goals to become project managers — many among them don’t even consider themselves to be project managers But they do know they must successfully manage projects to move ahead in their careers Clearly, project management has become a critical skill, not a career choice

Even though these people realize they need special tools, techniques, and knowledge to handle their new types of assignments, they may not be able or willing to devote large amounts of time to acquiring them, which is where this book comes in I devote this book to that silent majority of project managers

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About This Book

This book helps you recognize that the basic tenets of successful project management are simple The most complex analytical technique takes less than ten minutes to master! In this book, I introduce information that’s nec-essary to plan and manage projects, and I provide important guidelines for developing and using this information Here, you discover that the real chal-lenge to a successful project is dealing with the multitude of people whom

a project may affect or need for support I present plenty of tips, hints, and guidelines for identifying key players and then involving them

But knowledge alone won’t make you a successful project manager — you need to apply it This book’s theme is that project-management skills and tech-niques aren’t burdensome tasks you perform because some process requires

it Rather, they’re a way of thinking, communicating, and behaving They’re an integral part of how we approach all aspects of our work every day

So I’ve written the book to be direct and (relatively) easy to understand But don’t be misled — the simple text still navigates all the critical tools and techniques you’ll need to support your project planning, scheduling, budget-ing, organizing, and controlling So buckle up!

I present this information in a logical and modular progression Examples and illustrations are plentiful — so are the tips and hints And I inject humor from time to time to keep it all doable My goal is that you finish this book feeling that good project management is a necessity and that you’re determined to practice it!

Conventions Used in This Book

To help you navigate through this book, I use the following conventions to help you find your way:

✓ I use italics to point out new words and to alert you to their definitions,

which are always close by On occasion, I also use italics for added emphasis

action parts in numbered lists

When this book was printed, some Web addresses may have needed to break across two lines of text If that happened, rest assured that I haven’t put in any extra characters (such as hyphens) to indicate the break So, when using one of these Web addresses, just type in exactly what you see in this book, pretending as though the line break doesn’t exist

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What You’re Not to Read

Of course, I want you to read every single word, but I understand your life is busy and you may have time to read only what’s relevant to your experience

In that case, feel free to skip the sidebars Although the sidebars offer esting and real-life stories of my own experiences, they’re not vital to grasp-ing the concepts

inter-Foolish Assumptions

When writing this book, I assumed that a widely diverse group of people will read it, including the following:

proj-ect team

who’ve had none

experi-ence and people who’ve just entered the workforce

I assume that you have a desire to take control of your environment After reading this book, I hope you wonder (and rightfully so) why all projects aren’t well managed — because you’ll think these techniques are so logical, straightforward, and easy to use But I also assume you recognize there’s a

big difference between knowing what to do and doing it And I assume you

realize you’ll have to work hard to overcome the forces that conspire to vent you from using these tools and techniques

pre-Finally, I assume you’ll realize that you can read this book repeatedly and learn something new and different each time Think of this book as a comfort-able resource that has more to share as you experience new situations

How This Book Is Organized

Each chapter is self-contained, so you can read the chapters that interest you the most first — without feeling lost because you haven’t read the book from front to back The book is divided into the following six parts

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Part I: Understanding Expectations (The Who, What, and Why of Your Project)

In this part, I discuss the unique characteristics of projects and the key issues you may encounter in a project-oriented organization I also show you how to clearly define your project’s proposed results, how to identify the people who will play a role, and how to determine your project’s work

Part II: Planning Time: Determining When and How Much

In this part, I cover how to develop the project schedule and estimate the resources (both personnel and nonpersonnel) you need I also show you how

to identify and manage project risks

Part III: Group Work: Putting Your Team Together

In this part, I show you how to identify, organize, and deal with people who play a part in your project’s success I explain how to define team members’

roles and get your project off to a positive start

Part IV: Steering the Ship: Managing Your Project to Success

In this part, I explain how to monitor, track, analyze, and report on your project’s activities I also show you how to establish and maintain effective communications between you and all your project audiences and how to demonstrate leadership that energizes your project team Then I discuss how

to bring your project to a successful closure

Part V: Taking Your Project Management

to the Next LevelHere, I discuss how to use available technology to help you plan, organize, and control your project I also discuss a technique for evaluating activity performance and resource expenditures on larger projects

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Part VI: The Part of Tens

Every For Dummies book has this fun part that gives you tidbits of

informa-tion in an easy-to-chew format In this part, I share tips on how to plan a project and how to be a better project manager I also include one additional nugget of information: The appendix illustrates systematic processes for planning your project and for using the essential controls that I discuss throughout this book

Icons Used in This Book

I include small icons in the left margins of the book to alert you to special information in the text Here’s what they mean:

This icon leads into hypothetical situations illustrating techniques and issues

I use this icon to point out terms or issues that are a bit more technical

I use this icon to point out important information you want to keep in mind as you apply the techniques and approaches

This icon highlights techniques or approaches you can use to improve your project-management practices

This icon highlights potential pitfalls and danger spots

Where to Go from Here

You can read this book in many ways, depending on your own agement knowledge and experience and your current needs However, I sug-gest you first take a minute to scan the table of contents and thumb through the sections of the book to get a feeling for the topics I address

project-man-If you’re new to project management and are just beginning to form a plan for

a project, first read Parts I and II, which explain how to plan outcomes, activities,

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schedules, and resources If you want to find out how to identify and organize your project’s team and other key people, start with Chapter 4 and Part III If you’re ready to begin work or you’re already in the midst of your project, you may want to start with Part IV Or, feel free to jump back and forth, hitting the chapters with topics that interest you the most.

The most widely recognized reference of project-management best practices

is A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK), published

by the Project Management Institute (PMI) The fourth and most recent

edi-tion of PMBOK (PMBOK 4) was published in 2008 The Project Management

Professional (PMP) certification — the most recognized project-management credential throughout the world — includes an examination (administered by

PMI) with questions based on PMBOK 4.

Because I base my book on best practices for project-management activities,

the tools and techniques I offer are in accordance with PMBOK 4 However, if

you’re preparing to take the PMP examination, use my book as a companion

to PMBOK 4, not as a substitute for it.

As you read this book, keep the following points in mind:

✓ PMBOK 4 identifies what best practices are but doesn’t address in detail

how to perform them or deal with difficulties you may encounter as you try to perform them In contrast, my book focuses heavily on how to per-

form the project-management techniques and processes

discussed and all the terminology used to describe those tools and

tech-niques are in agreement with those used in PMBOK 4.

specifies where the topics in the chapter are addressed in PMBOK 4.

✓ PMBOK 4 often contains highly technical language and detailed processes,

which people mistakenly dismiss as being relevant only for larger ects My book, however, deliberately frames terms and discussions to

proj-be user-friendly As a result, people who work on projects of all sizes can understand how to apply the tools and techniques presented

No matter how you make your way through this book, plan on reading all the chapters more than once — the more you read a chapter, the more sense its approaches and techniques will make And who knows? A change in your job responsibilities may create a need for certain techniques you’ve never used before Have fun and good luck!

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Part I

Understanding Expectations (The Who, What, and Why of Your Project)

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The most difficult part of a new project is often

decid-ing where to begin Expectations are high, while time and resources are frequently low

In this part, I identify how a project differs from other activities you perform in your organization, and I present

a snapshot of the steps you need to take to plan, organize, and control your project I offer you specific techniques and approaches to define clearly what you want your proj-ect to accomplish and who needs to be involved Finally, I show you how to determine the work you have to do to meet the expectations for your project

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Project Management: The Key

to Achieving Results

In This Chapter

▶ Characterizing projects

▶ Breaking down project management

▶ Coming to grips with the project manager’s role

▶ Determining whether you have what you need to be a successful project manager

Successful organizations create projects that produce desired results in

established time frames with assigned resources As a result, businesses are increasingly driven to find individuals who can excel in this project-oriented environment

Because you’re reading this book, chances are good that you’ve been asked

to manage a project So, hang on tight — you’re going to need a new set of skills and techniques to steer that project to successful completion But not

to worry! This chapter gets you off to a smooth start by showing you what projects and project management really are and by helping you separate projects from nonproject assignments This chapter also offers the rationale for why projects succeed or fail and gets you into the project-management mindset

Determining What Makes

a Project a Project

No matter what your job is, you handle a myriad of assignments every day:

prepare a memo, hold a meeting, design a sales campaign, or move to new offices Or maybe your day sounds more like this: make the information

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systems more user-friendly, develop a research compound in the laboratory,

or improve the organization’s public image Not all these assignments are projects How can you tell which ones are and which ones aren’t? This sec-tion is here to help

Understanding the three main components that define a project

A project is a temporary undertaking performed to produce a unique product,

service, or result Large or small, a project always has the following three components:

✓ Specific scope: Desired results or products (Check out Chapter 2 for

more on describing desired results.) ✓ Schedule: Established dates when project work starts and ends

(See Chapter 5 for how to develop responsive and feasible project schedules.)

✓ Required resources: Necessary amounts of people, funds, and other

resources (See Chapter 6 for how to establish whom you need for your project and Chapter 7 for how to set up your budget and determine any other resources needs.)

As illustrated in Figure 1-1, each component affects the other two For ple: Expanding the type and characteristics of desired outcomes may require more time (a later end date) or more resources Moving up the end date may necessitate paring down the results or increasing project expenditures (for instance, by paying overtime to project staff) Within this three-part project definition, you perform work to achieve your desired results

exam-Figure 1-1:

The tionship between the

rela-three main components

of a project

Product

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Although many other considerations may affect a project’s performance (see the discussions in the “Defining Project Management” section later in this chapter for more), these three components are the basis of a project’s defini-tion for the following three reasons:

scope

successful performance — the desired result must be provided by a certain time to meet its intended need

project can produce

A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, 4th Edition (PMBOK 4),

elaborates on these components by

pro-duced (for example, a new training program or a new prescription drug),

as well as its required characteristics (for example, the topics that the

training program must address), which are defined as its quality

resources, such as people, equipment, raw materials, and facilities

PMBOK 4 also emphasizes that risk (the likelihood that not everything will

go exactly according to plan) is an important consideration when defining a project and that guiding a project to success involves continually managing tradeoffs among all these factors

Recognizing the diversity of projectsProjects come in a wide assortment of shapes and sizes For example, projects can

• Training all 10,000 of your organization’s staff in a new action policy is a project

affirmative-• Rearranging the furniture and equipment in your office is also a project

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✓ Be defined by a legal contract or by an informal agreement

• A signed contract between you and a customer that requires you

to build a house defines a project

• An informal promise you make to install a new software package

on your colleague’s computer also defines a project

• Conducting your organization’s annual blood drive is a project

• Having a dinner party for 15 people is also a project

No matter what the individual characteristics of your project are, you define it

by the same three components I describe in the previous section: results (or scope), start and end dates, and resources The information you need to plan and manage your project is the same for any project you manage, although the ease and the time to develop it may differ The more thoroughly you plan and manage your projects, the more likely you are to succeed

Describing the four stages of a projectEvery project, whether large or small, passes through the following four stages:

✓ Starting the project: This stage involves generating, evaluating, and framing

the business need for the project and the general approach to performing

it and agreeing to prepare a detailed project plan Outputs from this stage may include approval to proceed to the next stage, documentation of the need for the project and rough estimates of time and resources to perform

it (often included in a project charter), and an initial list of people who may

be interested in, involved with, or affected by the project

✓ Organizing and preparing: This stage involves developing a plan that

specifies the desired results; the work to do; the time, the cost, and other resources required; and a plan for how to address key project risks Outputs from this stage may include a project plan documenting the intended project results and the time, resources, and supporting processes to help create them

✓ Carrying out the work: This stage involves establishing the project

team and the project support systems, performing the planned work, and monitoring and controlling performance to ensure adherence to the current plan Outputs from this stage may include project results, proj-ect progress reports, and other communications

✓ Closing the project: This stage involves assessing the project results,

obtaining customer approvals, transitioning project team members to new assignments, closing financial accounts, and conducting a post-project evaluation Outputs from this stage may include final, accepted and approved project results and recommendations and suggestions for applying lessons learned from this project to similar efforts in the future

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For small projects, this entire life cycle can take a few days For larger projects,

it can take many years! In fact, to allow for greater focus on key aspects and to make it easier to monitor and control the work, project managers often subdi-vide larger projects into separate phases, each of which is treated as a mini-project and passes through these four life cycle stages No matter how simple

or complex the project is, however, these four stages are the same

In a perfect world, you complete one stage of your project before you move on to the next one; and after you complete a stage, you never return to it again But the world isn’t perfect, and project success often requires a flexible approach that responds to real situations that you may face, such as the following:

✓ You may have to work on two (or more) project stages at the same

time to meet tight deadlines Working on the next stage before you

complete the current one increases the risk that you may have to redo tasks, which may cause you to miss deadlines and spend more resources than you originally planned If you choose this strategy, be sure people understand the potential risks and costs associated with it (see Chapter 8 for how to assess and manage risks)

✓ Sometimes you learn by doing Despite doing your best to assess

fea-sibility and develop detailed plans, you may realize you can’t achieve what you thought you could When this situation happens, you need to return to the earlier project stages and rethink them in light of the new information you’ve acquired

A project by any other name — just isn’t a project

People often confuse the following two terms

with project:

✓ Process: A process is a series of routine

steps to perform a particular function, such

as a procurement process or a budget cess A process isn’t a one-time activity that achieves a specific result; instead, it

pro-defines how a particular function is to be

done every time Processes like the ties that go into buying materials are often parts of projects

✓ Program: This term can describe two

differ-ent situations First, a program can be a set

of goals that gives rise to specific projects, but, unlike a project, a program can never

be completely accomplished For example,

a health-awareness program can never completely achieve its goal (the public will never be totally aware of all health issues

as a result of a health-awareness program), but one or more projects may accomplish specific results related to the program’s goal (such as a workshop on minimizing the risk of heart disease) Second, a program sometimes refers to a group of specified projects that achieve a common goal

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✓ Sometimes things change unexpectedly Your initial feasibility and

benefits assessments are sound and your plan is detailed and realistic

However, certain key project team members leave the organization without warning during the project Or a new technology emerges, and it’s more appropriate to use than the one in your original plans Because ignoring these occurrences may seriously jeopardize your project’s suc-cess, you need to return to the earlier project stages and rethink them in light of these new realities

Defining Project Management

Project management is the process of guiding a project from its beginning

through its performance to its closure Project management includes five sets

of processes, which I describe in more detail in the following sections:

✓ Initiating processes: Clarifying the business need, defining high-level

expectations and resource budgets, and beginning to identify audiences that may play a role in your project

✓ Planning processes: Detailing the project scope, time frames, resources,

and risks, as well as intended approaches to project communications, quality, and management of external purchases of goods and services ✓ Executing processes: Establishing and managing the project team, com-

municating with and managing project audiences, and implementing the project plans

✓ Monitoring and controlling processes: Tracking performance and taking

actions necessary to help ensure project plans are successfully mented and the desired results are achieved

✓ Closing processes: Ending all project activity

As illustrated in Figure 1-2, these five process groups help support the ect through the four stages of its life cycle Initiating processes support the work to be done when starting the project, and planning processes support the organizing and preparing stage Executing processes guide the project tasks performed when carrying out the work, and closing processes are used

proj-to perform the tasks that bring the project proj-to an end The figure highlights how you may cycle back from executing processes to planning processes when you have to return to the organizing and preparing stage to modify existing plans to address problems you encounter or new information you acquire while carrying out the project work Finally, monitoring and control-ling processes are used in each of the four stages to help ensure that work is being performed according to plans

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Figure 1-2:

The five project-management

process groups that support the four project

life cycle stages

Planning processes

Executing processes

Closing processes

Initiating processes

Monitoring and controlling processes

Starting the project

Organizing and preparing

Carrying out the work

Closing out the project

Successfully performing these processes requires the following:

✓ Information: Accurate, timely, and complete data for the planning,

per-formance monitoring, and final assessment of the project ✓ Communication: Clear, open, and timely sharing of information with

appropriate individuals and groups throughout the project’s duration ✓ Commitment: Team members’ personal promises to produce the

agreed-upon results on time and within budget

Examining the initiating processesAll projects begin with an idea Perhaps your organization’s client identifies

a need; or maybe your boss thinks of a new market to explore; or maybe you think of a way to refine your organization’s procurement process

Sometimes the initiating process is informal For a small project, it may sist of just a discussion and a verbal agreement In other instances, especially for larger projects, a project requires a formal review and decision by your boss and/or other members of your organization’s senior management team

con-Decision makers consider the following two questions when deciding whether to move ahead with a project:

✓ Should we do it? Are the benefits we expect to achieve worth the costs

we’ll have to pay? Are there better ways to approach the issue?

✓ Can we do it? Is the project technically feasible? Are the required

resources available?

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If the answer to both questions is “Yes,” the project can proceed to the nizing and preparing stage (see the following section), during which a project plan is developed If the answer to either question is a definite, iron-clad

orga-“No,” under no circumstances should the project go any further If nothing can be done to make it desirable and feasible, the decision makers should cancel the project immediately Doing anything else guarantees wasted resources, lost opportunities, and a frustrated staff (Check out the later side-bar “Performing a benefit-cost analysis” if you need extra help determining the answer to the first question.)

Suppose you’re in charge of the publications department in your organization

You’ve just received a request to have a 20,000-page document printed in ten minutes, which requires equipment that can reproduce at the rate of 2,000 pages per minute

You check with your staff and confirm that your document-reproducing equipment has a top speed of 500 pages per minute You check with your suppliers and find out that the fastest document-reproducing equipment available today has a top speed of 1,000 pages per minute Do you agree to plan and perform this project when you know you can’t possibly meet the request? Of course not

Rather than promising something you know you can’t achieve, consider asking your customer whether she can change the request For example, can she accept the document in 20 minutes? Can you reproduce certain parts of the document in the first ten minutes and the rest later?

During some projects, you may be convinced that you can’t meet a particular request or that the benefits of the project aren’t worth the costs involved Be sure to check with the people who developed or approved the project They may have information you don’t, or you may have additional information that they weren’t aware of when they approved the request

Performing a benefit-cost analysis

A benefit-cost analysis is a comparative

assess-ment of all the benefits you anticipate from your project and all the costs to introduce the project, perform it, and support the changes resulting from it Benefit-cost analyses help you to ✓ Decide whether to undertake a project or decide which of several projects to undertake

✓ Frame appropriate project objectives

✓ Develop appropriate before and after

mea-sures of project success

✓ Prepare estimates of the resources required to perform the project work

You can express some anticipated benefits in monetary equivalents (such as reduced operat-ing costs or increased revenue) For other bene-fits, numerical measures can approximate some,

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but not all, aspects If your project is to improve staff morale, for example, you may consider associated benefits to include reduced turnover, increased productivity, fewer absences, and fewer formal grievances Whenever possible, express benefits and costs in monetary terms to facilitate the assessment of a project’s net value.

Consider costs for all phases of the project

Such costs may be nonrecurring (such as labor, capital investment, and certain operations and services) or recurring (such as changes in per-sonnel, supplies, and materials or maintenance and repair) In addition, consider the following:

✓ Potential costs of not doing the project ✓ Potential costs if the project fails ✓ Opportunity costs (in other words, the potential benefits if you had spent your funds successfully performing a different project)

The farther into the future you look when forming your analysis, the more important it is

per-to convert your estimates of benefits over costs into today’s dollars Unfortunately, the farther you look, the less confident you can be of your estimates For example, you may expect to reap benefits for years from a new computer system, but changing technology may make your new system obsolete after only one year

Thus, the following two key factors influence the results of a benefit-cost analysis:

✓ How far into the future you look to identify benefits

✓ On which assumptions you base your ysis

anal-Although you may not want to go out and design

a benefit-cost analysis by yourself, you nitely want to see whether your project already

defi-has one and, if it does, what the specific results

of that analysis were

The excess of a project’s expected benefits over its estimated costs in today’s dollars is its

net present value (NPV) The net present value

is based on the following two premises:

✓ Inflation: The purchasing power of a dollar

will be less one year from now than it is today If the rate of inflation is 3 percent for the next 12 months, $1 today will be worth

$0.97 12 months from today In other words,

12 months from now, you’ll pay $1 to buy what you paid $0.97 for today

✓ Lost return on investment: If you spend

money to perform the project being sidered, you’ll forego the future income you could earn by investing it conservatively today For example, if you put $1 in a bank and receive simple interest at the rate of 3 percent compounded annually, 12 months from today you’ll have $1.03 (assuming zero-percent inflation)

con-To address these considerations when mining the NPV, you specify the following num-bers:

✓ Discount rate: The factor that reflects the

future value of $1 in today’s dollars, ering the effects of both inflation and lost return on investment

✓ Allowable payback period: The length of

time for anticipated benefits and estimated costs

In addition to determining the NPV for different discount rates and payback periods, figure the

project’s internal rate of return (the value of

dis-count rate that would yield an NPV of zero) for each payback period

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Beware of assumptions that you or other people make when assessing your project’s potential value, cost, and feasibility For example, just because your requests for overtime have been turned down in the past doesn’t guarantee they’ll be turned down again this time.

Considering the planning processesWhen you know what you hope to accomplish and you believe it’s possible, you need a detailed plan that describes how you and your team will make it happen Include the following in your project-management plan:

include.)

describe desired results.)

different types of constraints a project may face.)

to frame assumptions.)

required project work.)

10 explains how to describe roles and responsibilities.)

schedule.)

equip-ment, facilities, and information) (Chapter 6 illustrates how to estimate resource personnel needs, and Chapter 7 takes a close look at estimat-ing nonpersonnel needs and developing your project’s budget.)

uncer-tainties (Chapter 8 explains how to identify and plan for risks.)

everyone who’s involved in your project up-to-date.)

prog-ress and maintain control of your project throughout its life cycle so as

to achieve success.)Always put your project plans in writing; doing so helps you clarify details and reduces the chances that you’ll forget something Plans for large projects can take hundreds of pages, but a plan for a small project can take only a few lines

on a piece of paper (or a tablecloth!)

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The success of your project depends on the clarity and accuracy of your plan and on whether people believe they can achieve it Considering past experi-ence in your project plan makes your plan more realistic; involving people in the plan’s development encourages their commitment to achieving it.

Often the pressure to get fast results encourages people to skip the planning and get right to the tasks Although this strategy can create a lot of immediate activity, it also creates significant chances for waste and mistakes

Be sure your project’s drivers and supporters review and approve the plan in writing before you begin your project (see Chapter 3) For a small project, you may need only a brief e-mail or someone’s initials on the plans For a larger project, though, you may need a formal review and signoff by one or more levels of your organization’s management

Examining the executing processesAfter you’ve developed your project-management plan and set your appropri-ate project baselines, it’s time to get to work and start executing your plan

This is often the phase when management gets more engaged and excited to see things being produced

Preparing

Preparing to begin the project work involves the following tasks (see Chapter

11 for details):

✓ Assigning people to all project roles: Confirm the individuals who’ll

perform the project work, and negotiate agreements with them and their managers to assure they’ll be available to work on the project team

✓ Introducing team members to each other and to the project: Help

people begin developing interpersonal relationships with each other

Help them appreciate the overall purpose of the project and how the ferent parts will interact and support each other

✓ Giving and explaining tasks to all team members: Describe to all team

members what work they’re responsible for producing and how the team members will coordinate their efforts

✓ Defining how the team will perform its essential functions: Decide how

the team will handle routine communications, make different project decisions, and resolve conflicts Develop any procedures that may be required to guide performance of these functions

✓ Setting up necessary tracking systems: Decide which system(s) and

accounts you’ll use to track schedules, work effort, and expenditures, and set them up

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✓ Announcing the project to the organization: Let the project audiences

know that your project exists, what it will produce, and when it will begin and end

Suppose you don’t join your project team until the actual work is getting underway Your first task is to understand how people decided initially that the project was possible and desirable If the people who participated in the start

of the project and the organizing and preparing stages overlooked important issues, you need to raise them now When searching for the project’s history, check minutes from meetings, memos, letters, e-mails, and technical reports

Then consult with all the people involved in the initial project decisions

Performing

Finally, you get to perform the project work! The performing subgroup of the executing processes includes the following tasks (see Chapters 13 and 14 for more details):

✓ Doing the tasks: Perform the work that’s in your plan.

✓ Assuring quality: Continually confirm that work and results conform to

requirements and applicable standards and guidelines

✓ Managing the team: Assign tasks, review results, and resolve problems.

✓ Developing the team: Provide needed training and mentoring to

improve team members’ skills

✓ Sharing information: Distribute information to appropriate project

✓ Comparing performance with plans: Collect information on outcomes,

schedule achievements, and resource expenditures; identify deviations from your plan; and develop corrective actions

✓ Fixing problems that arise: Change tasks, schedules, or resources to

bring project performance back on track with the existing plan, or tiate agreed-upon changes to the plan itself

✓ Keeping everyone informed: Tell project audiences about the team’s

achievements, project problems, and necessary revisions to the lished plan

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estab-Acknowledging the closing processesFinishing your assigned tasks is only part of bringing your project to a close

In addition, you must do the following (see Chapter 15 for a discussion of each of these points):

special project accounts)

ect achievements and to discuss lessons you can apply to the next ect (At the very least, make informal notes about these lessons and how you’ll use them in the future.)

proj-Knowing the Project Manager’s Role

The project manager’s job is challenging For instance, she often coordinates technically specialized professionals — who may have limited experience working together — to achieve a common goal Although the project man-ager’s own work experience is often technical in nature, her success requires

a keen ability to identify and resolve sensitive organizational and sonal issues In this section, I describe the main tasks that a project manager handles and note potential challenges she may encounter

interper-Looking at the project manager’s tasksHistorically, the performance rules in traditional organizations were simple:

Your boss made assignments; you carried them out Questioning your ments was a sign of insubordination or incompetence

assign-But these rules have changed Today your boss may generate ideas, but you assess how to implement them You confirm that a project meets your boss’s (and your organization’s) real need and then determine the work, schedules, and resources you require to implement it

Handling a project any other way simply doesn’t make sense The project manager must be involved in developing the plans because she needs the opportunity to clarify expectations and proposed approaches and then to

raise any questions she may have before the project work begins.

The key to project success is being proactive Instead of waiting for others to tell you what to do,

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✓ Seek out information because you know you need it.

Staving off potential excuses for not following a structured project-

management approach

Be prepared for other people to fight your attempts to use proven management approaches And trust me: You need to be prepared for everything! The following list provides a few examples of excuses you may encounter as a project manager and the appropriate responses you can give

✓ Excuse: Our projects are all crises; we have no time to plan.

Response: Unfortunately for the excuse giver, this logic is illogical! In a

crisis, you have limited time and resources to address the critical issues, and you definitely can’t afford to make mistakes Because acting under pressure and emotion (the two characteristics of crises) practically guarantees that mistakes will occur, you can’t afford not to plan

✓ Excuse: Structured project management is only for large projects.

Response: No matter what size the project is, the information you need to

perform it is the same What do you need to produce? What work has to be done? Who’s going to do it? When will it end? Have you met expectations?

Large projects may require many weeks or months to develop satisfactory answers to these questions Small projects that last a few days or less may take only 15 minutes, but, either way, you still have to answer the questions

✓ Excuse: These projects require creativity and new development They

can’t be predicted with any certainty

Response: Some projects are more predictable than others However,

people awaiting the outcomes of any project still have expectations for what they’ll get and when Therefore, a project with many uncertainties needs a manager to develop and share initial plans and then to assess and communicate the effects of unexpected occurrences

Tiêu đề	Making Everything Easier! Project Management For Dummies PPT
Tác giả	Stanley E.. Portny
Trường học	Wiley Publishing, Inc.
Chuyên ngành	Project Management
Thể loại	slide presentation
Năm xuất bản	2010
Thành phố	Hoboken

Định dạng
Số trang	389
Dung lượng	5,78 MB