ECE4951 – Design Workshop
Lecture 7: Project Management
Project Management Adages …
•
•
•
•
“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
Organizing the Project
• 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
Organizing continued
• Line up your resources
– Get a commitment from management
– Know your preliminary budget
– Self-assess your skills – 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
Documenting the Project
• 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!
Documenting continued
• 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
Project Timeline
• 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
Timeline continued
• 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
Timeline continued
• 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.
Project Management
• 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
The Project Manager
• 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
Conclusions
• 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.
Summary
• 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
References:
• Chap, James: 5-Steps to Project Success,
v1.1,http://www.youtube.com/JimChap1