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Outline

Outline. Take roll Questions? Comments? Conclude yesterday’s slides Lecture The Project Manager. Definitions. Objective measurement – taken by reference to an external standard Subjective measurement – taken by reference to an internal standard

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Outline

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  1. Outline • Take roll • Questions? Comments? • Conclude yesterday’s slides • Lecture • The Project Manager

  2. Definitions • Objective measurement – taken by reference to an external standard • Subjective measurement – taken by reference to an internal standard • Quantitative measurements – may be added or subtracted • Qualitative measurements – cannot be added or subtracted • Reliable measurement – repetitions do not vary significantly • Unreliable measurements – cannot be repeated consistently • Valid measurement – means what we think it means • Invalid measurement – does not mean what we think it does

  3. Project Proposal Process Example • Corporate Manufacturing Technology Investments • Top down – Corporation specifies total amount • Bottoms up • Individual plants create list of project • Groups of plants (divisions) prioritize projects • Division representatives prioritize together • Top down/Bottom up made consistent (Guess who gets their most of their way)

  4. Project examples • Decoding DNA • Cool Vests aid Iraq's military dogs • World Trade Center rebuilding • Three Gorges Dam Hydroelectric Power Plant, China • Intel Centrino • International Space Station • Peking Olympic Torch Relay Project • Web Browser by Google called Chrome • Building a $35 Billion City (South Korea) • Rescheduling Paint Booth Cleaning Reduces Solvent Use &VOC Emissions (General Motors)

  5. Chapter 2 – Strategic Management and Project Selection • Criteria for a model • Realism • Capability • Flexibility • Ease of use • Cost • Ease of computerization

  6. Some definitions • Delphi method • Project Portfolio Process (PPP) • 1. Project Council • 2. Categories and Criteria • 3. Collect Data (ABC – activity based costing) • 4. Resource availability • 5. Reduce the set • 6. Prioritize within categories • 7. Select • 8. Implement

  7. Some definitions (cont) • Decision support system • Expert System • Sensitivity Analysis • Deterministic - Stochastic

  8. Proposals • Format • Summary • Technical Approach • Plan • Support and administration • Experience

  9. Chapter 3 Outline • How do functional managers differ from project managers? • Specialist in an area – Generalist • Analytical approach – Systems approach (see next page) • Direct supervisor – mainly a facilitator • Manage individuals and technology – manages the project

  10. Systems • When we are in the business of running projects, of providing a product or a service, we can view the operation as an open system with inputs and outputs Input: Orders Requests for service Specifications Our resources or system Output: Products Services Processes Adjustments

  11. Responsibilities of a project manager • Organize • Staff • Budget • Plan • Direct • Control • Communication • Categorized into • responsibility to the parent organization • responsibility to the client • responsibility to the project team

  12. Career paths • Where do project managers come from? • Where do project managers go? • What kinds of training should project managers get?

  13. Desirable skills and traits • Drive to complete a task • Interpersonal leadership skills • Oral and written communication skills • Big picture perspective • Political sensitivity • Delegator • Problem solving orientation • Optimistic, can-do attitude • Planner mentality • Committed to continuous improvement • Technical credibility • Administrative credibility • Strong sense of ethics • Handle stress

  14. Input – Top Five • Big picture perspective (Always remember the project's end goals/objectives and not get side tracked or delayed by detailed issues to use a quote from the original Star Wars Movie "Stay on Target") • Optimistic, can-do attitude (Believe that you will succeed in meeting the project's end goals/objectives) • Problem solving attitude (Understand that unexpected problems will arise, and be willing to work through them to hopefully a win/win scenario) • Planner mentality (Prioritize and time sequence tasks per resource and time constraints - not everything should be worked simultaneously nor completed at the same time) • Oral and written communication skills (All of the other skills/traits depend on the PM's ability to communicate with the customer, senior management, and the project team)

  15. Demands on the project manager • Acquire adequate resources • Motivate personnel • Deal with obstacles • Making trade-offs • Deal with uncertainty and risk • Constant communication • Skilled negotiation

  16. Cultural and environmental impacts • Different cultures exist in: • Countries • Ethnic groups • Industries • Regions • Companies • Divisions • Religions • Being aware of them and how they may impact a project is the most important aspect

  17. Dimensions in cultural differences • Power distance • Uncertainty avoidance • Individualism • Empathy • Long term perspective • Context

  18. Another input • Every project that I have been on has had terrible communication between upper level managers and the worker bees. • 2. If you are a subcontractor, chances are very good that you will never serve in a lead position. • 3. The customer always wants more than what they are paying for, and they want it yesterday. • 4. You should try to never take getting cut off of a project personally because it is just the nature of the business. • 5. Projects for the government usually have daily meetings about meetings. • 6. If you are in charge of a meeting with the customer, take detailed meeting minutes and then send them out to all attendees, giving 5 days for attendees to contest any inaccuracies. This helps to document any decisions made by the customer, which are often forgotten at delivery time.

  19. Questions from previous class • 1)“Project Management is difficult even when everything goes well.” ----What makes it difficult? If everything goes well, the project manager ought to have resources he need to accomplish the project and handle ad hoc events. • 2)“the model is said to be stochastic rather than deterministic”. ----Does it mean the model created at the beginning will change with the execution of the project? • How to get my own leadership and management style?

  20. Outline • The place of a project in an organization • In a functional area • Matrix organization • Pure Project Organization • The organization of a project team • Members • Human factors

  21. The project as part of the functional organization • What is a functional organization? – Some typical examples • Engineering • Design • Test • Manufacturing • Quality • Operations • Information Systems • Marketing • Sales • Finance • Accounting • Facilities

  22. The project as part of the functional organization (continued) • Any project is housed in one of the functional areas:

  23. Pure Project Organization • The project is separated from the rest of the organization: • On an equal footing with functional areas, or in a program office • Has its own functional areas

  24. Matrix Organization • Developed to obtain synergy from the advantages of functional and pure project organizations • Takes on a wide variety of forms • Strong matrix is similar to a pure project form • PM report to program manager, other individuals assigned to the project are in their functional areas • Weak matrix is similar to a functional form • PM may be the only fulltime person, functional areas assign capacity, not individuals • “Balanced” Matrix – many forms – time share expertise among projects

  25. Matrix Organization (continued) • Strong points of the Matrix form: • The project is central • Reasonable access to technology in all functional areas • Reduced anxiety at termination – everyone (except the PM) has a home • Responsive to clients and the parent organization • Access to administrative procedures • Good balancing of resources among projects

  26. Matrix Organization (continued) • Drawbacks: • Uncertainty where the power lies • Infighting among PMs for resources in a functional area • Projects are difficult to shut down in strong matrices • Division of authority and responsibility is complex • Matrix management violates the principle of unity of command

  27. Input - TB • Having worked in a matrix for two employers, I think that more attention needs to be paid to the issue of dual loyalties. In my, albeit limited, experience, it seems that my “functional manager” does not know what I do, let alone if I do it well. • My loyalty is to my “project manager” from whom I receive direct feedback. Am I failing to be a good employee by not seeking out my functional manager more often? • Or does the burden lie with the functional manager to engage the employee? • I don’t feel like I have much of a career path in a matrix since the person who should be mentoring me knows so little about what I can bring to the team.

  28. How do you chose an organizational form? • Consider: • The nature of the project • The characteristics of the various functional units • The cultural preferences of the parent organization • The prevailing winds • Functional forms are favored for serious applications of technology • Pure project form is preferred when there are many similar projects • When integration of several functional areas is important, the matrix works best

  29. Risk Management - Organization • Uncertainty is a way of life • Dealing with it has come to be known as Risk Management • One mechanism for managing it is the Program Office • Steps: • Decide on an approach • Identify most important ones • Qualitative analysis of potential impact • Estimate probabilities • Develop procedures to reduce threats and enhance opportunities • Monitor, Control and assess new risks • Create a Database for risk management • Can you think of a recent very public example where apparently very little of this was done?

  30. Risk Management – Failure Mode and effect analysis • Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA) (Quoted from Meredith) • FMEA is the application of a scoring model such as those used for project selection in Chapter 2. It is easily applied to risk by using six steps. • 1. List possible ways a project might fail. • 2. Evaluate the severity (S) of the consequences of each type of failure on a 10-point scale where "1" is "no effect" and "10" is "very severe." • 3. For each cause of failure, estimate the likelihood (L) of its occurrence on .II lO-point scale where "1" is "remote" and 10 is "almost certain." • 4. Estimate the ability to detect (D) a failure associated with each cause. Using a 10 point scale, "1" means detectability is almost certain using normal monitoring/control systems and "10" means it is practically certain that failure will not be detected in time to avoid or mitigate it. • 5. Find the Risk Priority Number (RPN) where RPN = S x L x D. • 6. Consider ways to reduce the S, L, and D for each cause of failure with a significantly high RPN.

  31. Risk Management – Project management office • Why have a project management office? (Meredith) • To establish and promulgate good project management processes throughout the organization and be a repository of good project management practice • To transfer project management lessons learned to the rest of the organization • To improve the success rate of projects • To reduce development project lead times and get products/services to market sooner. • To consolidate and simplify project data and provide consistent information on project progress

  32. Risk Management – Project management office • One example is what we called PDP – the Product Development Process. It was developed during the late 80’s and as far as I know is still practiced. • It was a depository of methods and procedures chief engineers (that is, project managers) were expected to follow and were held responsible for. • All senior engineering managers (generally vice presidents or a level below) received extensive and periodic training ranging from 2 days to a full week. • Note that this is consistent with the book’s comment about needing consistent standards

  33. Typical Engineering Project

  34. Conflict • Sources • Priorities • Schedules • Procedures • Personalities and behaviors • Individual disciplines • Phases of a project • Formation • Early program • Main program • Towards end

  35. Motivation • Economic rewards • Promotions • Recognition • Criticism • Management methods • management by objectives • Current acronyms (TQM, etc.) • Team approaches • Self directed, etc.

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