Project Management

Se utiliza la plataforma a distancia de Berkeley. En el 2009 la han mejorado mucho (Ahora es sobre la plataforma Angel Learning):

• Materiales on-line (Syllabus / Modules): cada unidad tiene unos objetivos, contenidos y lecturas recomendadas
• Actividades/Tests/Trabajos (Modules / Calendar)
• Participación (Communication): para envío y consulta de mensajes (uno o varios foros)

Los datos generales del curso:

• Nombre: X470 Project Management (841510)
• Metodología: A Distancia (Internet)
• Precio: 730 USD (unos 490 euros)

Y la organización del curso :

• Contenidos: 8 Módulos
• Duración: 8 semanas (del 27 Oct al 21 Dic)
• Dedicación:
  • Estimada: Son 2 créditos (semester units) (Continuing Education Units).
    Yo calculo unas 50h de dedicación. Unos 2 créditos ECTS
  • Real: 43h / B+
• Libros Referencia
  • PMBOK (un coñazo)
  • Project Management de Gary Heerkens (recomendable)
• Evaluación:
  • Participación en los foros (20%)
  • 4 Tareas sobre un proyecto ejemplo (20% cada una)

Es uno de los cursos para adquirir la certificación del PMP del PMI (a mí no me interesa de momento)

1.The Project Management Context

• Basics:
  • Project, Programme and Product
• Organization
  • Role of Project Manager (PM): Everything !
  • Project Management Office: Knowledge Base, Portfolio Management, Project Administration
  • Structures and Organization
• Life Cycle (PMI)
  • Basic: Execution / Fix Defects
  • Complete:
    1. Project Definition
    2. Planning
    3. Design
    4. Construction
    5. Testing
    6. Close-Out
  • From PMI (Process Groups)
    1. Initiating
    2. Planning
    3. Executing
    4. Controlling
    5. Closing

2.Project Integration Management

• Project Plan (Charter / Definition ): What is it? What for? Why now?
• Five Questions: 5Ws / H
• Adaptative Management: Plan - Do - Check - Act (Deming Cycle)
• Sync Expectation and Reality
• Definition Plan : High Level Balance of Scope / Time / Funding of an Idea (or problem)
  • Project Overview. What Problem Solves?
  • Project Approach. How?
  • Project Objectives. Business Goals
  • Major Deliverables. Tangible Things Created (5 to 7) leading to Final Output
  • Constraints. Possible Environment problems
  • Risks and Feasibility.
• Tipical Sequence:
  1. Project Charter
  2. Project Scope Statement
  3. Project Management Plan: Scope, Schedule, Cost, Quality, Staffing, Communication, Risk and Procurement Management Plans
• Change Management:
  • Define Change (because it'll occur)
  • Define a Process (formal) to control it
  • Look for Approval
  • Make Decissions

3.Project Scope and Time Management

• Nuts and Bolts of PM: Take scope and detail it in tasks (work)
• Works expands to fill wherever time available you have (no limit, infinite work)
• Initiation:
  • Look for Approval (auth)
  • Decide with Business Rules (ROI?)
• Define Scope (Requirements)
  • Identify/Define Deliverables
  • Define: deadlines, resources/cost and tasks needed
  • Approve (Communicate)
  • Scope Control: changes in funding, budget and schedule
• WBS: tasks and deliverables
  • High-Level (Deliverables / Goals) to Low-Level (structures taks)
  • Divide and Conquer Tecnhique with 100% rule
  • Tactical approach (how-to) to achieve project scope and goal
  • Informal Hierarchy: Phase, Activity, Task, Sub-Task
• Verify and Control Scope:
  • Check your WBS with Stakeholders: milestones and deliverables
  • Changes:
    • Before is better (rise the bar when the end is closer)
    • Avoid arbitray Changes (auth)
• Project Time Management
  • Iterating Task to produce Project Schedule (WBS + effort + duration)
  • Define Tasks (work needs to be done) > phase (deliverable)
  • Define Deliverables (typically related with phases)
  • Define Task's Sequences (finish, start, lag, lead)
  • Define/Estimate Resources
    • Different Personnel: full/part-time, consultants, contract staff
    • Services or Materials: machinery, offices, trasportation, facilities and so
    • Grade Levels: availability / skills / requirements
  • Define Activity Durations
    • Effort: work time needed (estimated hours)
    • Duration: calendar units (start/end)
• Develop Schedule:
  • Per Activity: Who, How long (days/weeks), How much (h), When (day) and Risks
  • Review in detail: precedence, dates and commitments
  • Typical Schedule Problems:
    • Tasks longer than 40 h
    • Too many hours allocated per day (resource availavility 6h/day)
    • Too many resources (Nine women cannot carry and give birth to one baby in one month)
    • Assign time to Delivery Reviews
  • Add to WBS and assign date (at least start date)
  • Check critical path (and network)
  • Check Resource Availability (leveling)

4.Cost and Human Resource Management

• Managing Project Costs: Actual vs Budget
• Beware of OverHeads (administrative, facilities, etc)
• Total Costs: By Resource (by task, phase, activity)
  • Human Resources: hours x €/h
  • Material/Services: €
  • ... and more
• Funds pay Costs (not the same)
• Set a Baseline Cost (or BL Budget)
• Costs Control:
  • Tight Schedules so tight Budgets (schedule vs cost)
  • Compare Progress with Budget/Schedule (Change Approvals)
  • Task-in Control Process (Variance Control):
    • Original Projection
    • Actual Value (time/money)
    • Estimate To Complete (ETC)
    • Estimate At Completion (EAC)
  • Too much variance, so Act (Don't wait)
  • Budget (PV), Actual Cost (AC), Remaining Cost
• Human Resources Plan
  • Internal and External Staff
  • Human Interfaces
    • Organizational
    • Technical
    • Interpersonal
    • Logistical
    • Political
  • Responsability and Assignments Matrix
    • Roles: Owner, Participant, Review Required
    • Assignments: Tasks / Deliverables / ...
  • Acquire Project Team: Assign name to resource
  • Screening Candidates for your team
  • We need to know: resource (skills), duration (h) and schedule (dates)
  • Team Development Process (Tuckmann Model)
  • Team Building: question of trustfulness
  • Manage Project Team: Track and Act (Reward or correct)

5.Procurement Management

• Outsourcing Work (Not always a good decision)
  • Do they have the knowledge and the experience?
  • Can they do it in a cost effective way?
• Working with vendors in order to
  • Reduce costs
  • Obtain particular Skills
  • Keep staffing levels constant
• Dangers of external contract (High Vendor Influence after selection process)
• At some time your schedule depend on external so you have to manage it
• Procurement is a phase in our schedule
• Plan Ahead
  • Weekly Status Reports
  • Milestones/Deliverables Commitment Dates
  • Specific Requirements
  • Control with payments
• Requesting Bidders: RFI (gather info), RFP (invitation to bid) and RFQ
• Administer Procurements: Think as a whole process (Kanban Signals / JIT)
• Close Contract: lessons learned, final payments and docs closure

6.Quality Management

• Quality is a whole process
• Key Quality Principles (Deming):
  • Design early, don't test afterwards (it's cheaper)
  • Everybody Responsability
  • Extend to Project`s Processes
  • Continuous improvement
• Quality Plan:
  • It has a scope, a budget and schedule (a project)
  • It has measures (standards and metrics)
  • It has outputs (achivables and measurables)
  • It is a continuous process
• Quality Balance:
  • Assurance: design and assure project's processes (think before)
  • Control: test project's outputs (test after)
• Quality Audits: Check/Test process (beware to not screw up the process itself)
• Quality Improvement: bring improvements to the project (don't waste your time)
• Quality Defects Categories:
  1. Must Fix (possible danger)
  2. Should Fix (poor performance)
  3. Would like to fix (improvements)
  4. Fix it Sometime (cosmetic)
• Time-Fixing Bar: earlier you fix cheaper you do (Focus on first 2 thirds)
• Time-Fixing bar depends on project (not the same for construction or software)
• You should do Quality Plan at the very beginning (don't wait)

7.Communications Management

• Best Communication Flow Best Decissions (right people at right time)
• Basic Questions:
  • Who? Stakeholders
  • When? (How often). It depends
  • What? Mostly Data (objective), brief and oriented to decissions
• Communication Matrix:
  • Stakeholder / Communication / Frequency
  • Communication / Recipients / Frequency / Format
• Communication Specs:
  • Frequency: tipically daily, weekly or monthly (depend on project and stakeholder
  • Format: written / verbal, formal / informal, internal / external and so on
  • Communication Examples:
    • Status on Budget, Schedule and Scope
    • Any Changes (Requested / Approved)
    • Work Assignments
    • Any Serious Issues
    • Publicity Docs / News
• Report Performance:
  • Earned Value: Cumulative Variance
  • Track Variance between Planned Value and Actual one
  • Track Schedule and Budget
  • Think in Report Tables for people (not nerds)
  • Based on work we've completed, are we ahead, behind, or on schedule and budget?
  • Project Status Report:
    • Scope / Schedule / Budget (with green/yellow/red warnings)
    • Brief Explanation
    • Budget Report: Resource (Or Task) / Work Planned / Work Performed / Actual Work Completed / Cost Variance / Cumulative Cost
    • Schedule Report: Milestones / Planned Completion / Actual Completion / Scheduel Variance / Cumulative
    • Change Orders: number / date requested / Change Description / Impact / Definition / Status
    • Issues: number / date identified / description / who / impact / definition

8.Risk Management

• Projects are inherently Risky (If affect Schedule / Budget / Scope)
• Risk Response and Ownwership: only knowing risk's cause
• Plan Risk Management
  • Issues (reality) vs Risks (likelyhood) : Impact
  • Risk Planning
    • Recognize Impact
    • Decide Approach
    • Communicate Changes
  • Risk Decissions:
    • Scheduled Reviews
    • Transfer Risk (Insurance)
    • Alternate Sources (Supply / Staffing /)
    • Scope Reduction
    • ReSchedule Deliverables
  • Risk Tolerance: depend on Organization (or SH or sponsors)
  • PMI Risk Management Plan: Methodology, Roles/Responsabilities, Budgeting, Timing, Scoring, Thresholds, Report Format, Tracking/OwnerShip
  • Identification: Brainstorming / Experience / Interviewing
  • Risk Register:
    • List Fields: Description, Severity, Likelihood, Category, Impact, Response Strategy, Response Plan
    • Keep Manageable (in number, in one list ...
    • Focus
    • Schedule / Budget / Scope are areas of risks (affected by)
  • Qualitative Analysis:
    • Severity
      • Low: Slight Delay (< 1 week) / Slight Increase (< 1%) / Slight Loss of Functionality
      • Medium: < 2 weeks / < 5% / Lose Secondary Functionality
      • High: > 2 weeks / > 10% / Lose Primary Functionality
    • Likelihood
      • Low: probability < 40%
      • Medium: 41% < P < 70%
      • High: P > 70%
  • Quantitative Analysis:
    • Typical Tools: Interviewing, Sensitivity Analysis, Decission Tree Analysis, Simulation, Expected Monetary Value Analysis
    • Probability Impact Matrix: Risk / Severity / Likelihood / Rating
    • Score Risk: f.ex H (.7) / M (.5)/ L (.3)
    • Risk Threshold (ability to absorb risk): f.ex 0.2
    • Simplified Matrix: Severity vs Likelihood
    • Too much Risk + Poor ROI: abort
  • Plan Risk Responses: Description / Date Identificated / Cause / Sev / Lik / Type / Impact / Date to Res / Owner / Response
  • Risk Response (only risks > risk threshold)
    • Avoidance: Change Project Plan
    • Transference: Shift Responsability
    • Mitigation: Reduce Probability
    • Acceptance: Active / Passive
  • The Important Thing: Decissions
  • Track Risks: Risk Log
  • Less Risks (but more hard) at the end
• Administrative Closure: Document for Learning (History)