Project Management Workshop

1. Project Management Workshop

2. Project Management Workshop • Nick Cook • Citigroup Corporate and Investment Bank • European Technology Business Office Manager • Edinburgh University • April 2002

3. Introduction • Who am I? • What are we here to do?

4. Goals of the workshop • understand the nature of projects • have a feel for the key activities involved in project management • understand how effective management can help provide an effective solution to the final year project • NOT TO TURN YOU ALL INTO EXPERT PROJECT MANAGERS

5. Agenda • Overview • Project lifecycle • SLDC and project lifecycle • Project roles • Project planning • Project tracking and control • Reporting progress • Project risk

6. Overview • What is a project? • How do we manage projects and why is project management important? • Why is project management important? • Much of project management is common sense - but procedures and tools can help

7. Project Lifecycle • start up • establishes the need for the project and agrees the main tasks • plan • agrees what is to be produced sets up the plans and schedules that will be used to track project activities and • execute • main activities of the project against plans to make sure the project meets its goals • close down • bring project to a close in a orderly fashion

8. IT Development SDLC • SDLC = Software Development Life Cycle • This cycle is different from the project lifecycle - most of the SDLC activities will be completed during the Project Execute phase • What are the typical IT development SLDC phases?

9. SDLC Phases • initiation • definition • technical design • construction • validation • implementation • review

10. Project Roles • Projects typically involve the interaction of a number of people in different roles - • eg project sponsor, project manager, team leader, team member • Concentrating on the project manager - what are the key responsibilities?

11. Project Manager - Responsibilities • manage the production of the required goods • plan and monitor • direct and motivate the team • manage project risk • initiate corrective action where needed • provide progress reports • agree and ensure quality is achieved • on occasion - terminate the project when necessary

12. Project planning • How do you plan the project • determine and agree the project goals - what are you going to produce • Break the project down and identify the main project tasks - and estimate the time it will take to perform each task • Record the tasks in a logical order • Develop target start and end dates/times for each task • Use a GANNT chart to show how the tasks will run in logical sequences • Identify project risks and build additional time into task duration to take account of these

13. Project planning (2) • Task breakdown - example

14. Project planning (3) • Scheduling • Gantt chart examples using MS Project

15. Project planning (4) • Resource planning • who will be doing what and when • consider the skills you have available in the project team - don’t ask the plumber to do the plastering!!! • Pay particular attention to scarce resource - can only 1 person in the project team complete a particular task?

16. Project planning (4) • Risk management - planning projects without considering risk is a common mistake • generic risk • eg resource risk - right people not available at the right time. Use you project plan to find alternative solutions • project-specific risk • these will be peculiar to your project and you need to identify them and have ideas/solutions in case the problems occur

17. Project control • Murphy’s law - “if everything seems to be going well, you obviously don’t know what’s going on …..”

18. Project tracking and controls • What should you monitor • time • you Gantt chart should have milestones - are you meeting these? • cost • are you spending more than you planned - is each task taking more effort then you estimated • quality • harder to measure, but is the quality of the product you are developing in line with the original goals

19. Project monitoring - corrective action • if the project starts to go off track against the plan - what can you do? • Assess the situation • analyse the problems • implement solutions and monitor • refine the project schedule in the light of changes

20. Project monitoring - corrective action (2) • 5 choices of action • brainstorm an alternative approach - eg code something in a different way • put in place contingency plans • or change the key project parameters - cost, time, quality • apply more resource - but will cost more • move the end date - but will deliver late • provide less functionality than planned - but will dilute quality

21. Reporting progress • communication during the project is vital • consider the following types of communication activities: • project meetings • project status reports • informal reviews and discussions

22. Project risk • planning risk mitigation is key - see above • consider the following • scale of the risk • probability of the risk • significance of the risk • try brainstorming to identify risks and solutions

23. Summary • Key aspects • Planning • ‘those who fail to plan, plan to fail’ • Monitoring and control • ‘you can’t control what you can’t measure’