Project Management and Course
Deliverables

• “Plan the Work, then Work the Plan”
• “Well Begun, Half-Done”
• “Work Smarter, not Harder”
• “A job worth doing is worth doing well”
• In other words, everyone has trouble managing projects and managing people

• Understand the project
– Does the project have a clear purpose or meet a specific need ( P&N )
– If not, can it be modified (at the beginning!) to have one? And can it be limited to only that purpose or need?( Scope )
– Develop a vision of the completed project and get excited about seeing it through
– RULE OF THUMB : If you can’t summarize the project in one sentence, the project purpose needs to be refined
– All projects must make “business sense” – the benefits outweigh the development cost

• Line up your resources
– Get a commitment from management
– Know your preliminary budget
– Self-assess your skills (and those of your team) – Are they sufficient to meet the demands of the project?
– If not, can you get training in time to meet the demands or can you pick team members that have the skills needed for the project?
– If neither of these options is available, ethically you need to respectfully decline the project or line up a consultant

• All engineering projects create a paper trail.
• Well documented projects can be easily understood from conception to completion by following the paper
• Projects with good documentation NEVER need to be repeated ( Never invent the wheel more than once )
• It takes time to document. It wastes time to not document!

• START at the BEGINNING
– Meet with the customer (end-user of the project) to identify all Needs and Wants
– Identify the components that constitute a completed project (i.e. a working prototype, an operating manual, etc.).
These are called “ Deliverables ”.
– Date your documentation and mark with a Revision number

• With the project well defined by it’s deliverables and the customer’s needs, start breaking it up into tasks
• Engineers invest time at the front end of the project to thoroughly think it through in as much step-by-step detail as possible, documenting all along the way
– There would be no space program or skyscrapers without engineers designing and troubleshooting ON PAPER prior to construction.
The cost and risk would outweigh the benefit

• With the project broken into tasks, a timeline for completion is created
– Start with the completion Deadline
– Then work backward toward the present
– Each task must be assigned ownership to a team member
– Each task must also be assigned a completion date, based on the workload of the team and impact the task has on the completion of other tasks and overall completion of the project
– DOCUMENT THIS PROCESS

• A well planned timeline becomes a project schedule.
• Set reasonable tasks and task deadlines, then
MEET THEM
• Make sure team members understand their tasks and have the resources to complete them
• Tasks can be considered mini projects. Team members should apply the project management principles to the tasks as well, breaking them into sub-tasks and scheduling their completion.

• With a detailed and documented Timeline in hand, revisit the Budget, making a detailed engineering estimate of time and materials .
• With Timeline and Budget fully developed and communicated to team members, management and the customer, the project is ready to start.
• With a good timeline, the project is Trackable . It becomes a contract that binds everyone to meeting deadlines. It allows you to see where, when and why a project gets into trouble.
• ALL PROJECTS GET INTO TROUBLE

• A Good Project Manager is:
– First and Foremost a good communicator , sharing information, conveying a vision for the project, convincing management to commit and team members to work
– Secondly, willing to invest the time to plan, document and track the project – Fussy
Details
– Motivated by the vision of the completed project and able to find ways to motivate others to share that vision

• The ability to break the project into clear and reasonable tasks is essential to making progress (Most common shortcoming of Project Management)
• Clear and reasonable tasks can only result from a deep understanding of a project that has been properly defined in scope
• Deep understanding of a project TAKES
TIME . Be willing to invest the time and energy.

• Determine the Project’s Purpose and Necessity and limit its Scope to that P&N
• Start the Documentation Process by assessing the
Customer’s Needs and Wants and what you will Deliver.
• Think through the project, identifying Tasks. Develop a detailed cost estimate.
• Assemble your resources and develop a reasonable timeline.
• Track, Track, Track
• Document, Document, Document
• Celebrate upon successful completion

• Chap, James: 5-Steps to Project Success, v1.1, http://www.youtube.com/JimChap1

• www.d.umn.edu/ece/students/index.html

• Write to a Specific Audience
• Make an Outline for the entire paper
• The First Page is Priceless! Write it last.
Summarize.

• Use plain English. Limit the length of phrases.
• Use strong Verbs (show confidence)
– Weak: It is hoped that the design demonstrates robustness.
– Strong: The design demonstrates robustness.
• Test the document with the intended audience
– (proof read by you and at least one other person)

• Format to emphasize important information
( bold , bullets , color , etc)
• Invest time in the quality of your illustrations and the way you describe them. Don’t write a long paragraph when a picture and one sentence says more!
• Avoid common grammar and punctuation errors:
– Do a word search for every instance of your common mistakes
– My pet peeves: to, too ; your, you’re their, there, they’re

• Professional Documents are written in the third person:
• Professional Documents are written in a single tense (Usually past tense)
– Good: “The experiment was performed to the specified parameters with satisfactory results.”
– Poor: “We performed the experiment satisfactorily . And it is good.”

• 1 st draft of final paper: November 23
• Abstract and Presentation Announcement due in ECE office the week of Dec 3
• Demonstration fully operational: Dec 5
• Draft of oral presentation: Dec 7
• Presentation/Battle Royale: Week of
December 10

Each Person will Write a P&N for the project.
- 1 Page (Quality, not Quantity!)
- Convince me that the world will stop turning unless I approve your project
- If you use a picture, make SURE you credit the source
- If you direct quote anyone, cite your source
- Include a budgetary estimate of the time and materials necessary to do the project

• Familiarize yourself with the Digilent
NEXSYS 2 eval board by doing several of
Dr. Kwon’s EE 1315 labs, available at: http://www.d.umn.edu/~tkwon/course/1315
_fpga/1315lab.html