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Chapter 5
Developing the project schedule:
● Develop the schedule:
○ Sequence of activities
○ Duration of activities
○ When resources are needed
○ Establishes logical relationships among activities
● Consider project restraints
○ When and how work can be implemented
○ Opportunity to profit from a market window
○ Work within the parameters of expected weather
○ Adhere to government requirements
○ Industry regulations, best practices, or guidelines
○ Time frames for delivery of material
● Project constraints
○ Must start on
○ Must finish on - most restrictive
○ Start no earlier than
○ Start no later than
○ Finish no later than
○ Finish no earlier than
● Assumptions and scheduling
○ New work
○ Risks
○ Force majeure - acts of god
○ Labor
○ Effort
● Risks and the schedule
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Risk is an uncertain event or condition
Knowns and unknowns
Risk analysis affects completion
Risk effects costs and time
Find the Critical Path:
● Schedule Network Analysis
○ Find earliest completion date
○ Find latest completion date
○ Find opportunities to shift resources
○ Find opportunities to delay
○ SWOT - Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats
● Finding Float
○ Float - the opportunity to delay inactivity
○ Free float - an activity can be delayed without delaying the early start of any
successor activities
○ Total float - an activity can be delayed without delaying project completion
○ Project float - a project can be delayed without passing the customer-expected
completion date
● Find paths and durations
○ Project network diagram - shows durations for each task in succession. Longest
path is the critical path
○ Tasks not on the critical path can be free float
○ Critical path cannot be delayed
○ Forward pass: start at beginning: Early start + duration - 1 = Early Finish Path
○ Backward pass: start at end: Late finish - duration + 1 = Late Start Path
○ Start and finish on critical path will be the same for both forward pass and
backward pass
○ Find Float: LF-EF or LS-ES
○ If a task is delayed, the delay must be subtracted from succeeding tasks.
Utilizing the Critical Chain:
● Critical path makes the assumption that all resources are always available when needed
● Critical chain
○ Considers resource limitations and adjusts the schedule
○ Established by analyzing the critical path alongside the needed and available
resources
○ Uses buffers rather than float
● What-if scenario analysis
○ What if x happens?
○ Compute different outcomes
○ Feasibility of project schedule
○ PMIS - Project Management Information System
● Schedule simulation
○ Monte Carlo analysis
■ Risks used to calculate possible schedule outcomes
■ Calculate multiple work package durations
○ Utilizes different:
■ Activity assumptions
■ Constraints
■ Risks
■ Issues
■ Probability distributions
● Gantt Chart
○ Gray activities are done
○ Purple activities haven’t started yet
○ Half and half are in motion
○ Shows how delays affect the schedule
● Using Resource Leveling Heuristics
○ Limits labor in time period
○ Often extends the project schedule
● Using resource smoothing
○ Limits labor except for critical path
○ Tries to adhere to deadline
Optimize the Project Schedule:
● Schedule Compression
○ Crashing adds more people and costs - also adds labor costs
○ Fast tracking adds risk and overlaps
● Crash Course Plotting Methods
○ Techniques for analyzing the crash costs
○ Shows lowest crash cost per week
○ Activities with flatter slopes have relatively larger time savings
○ Crashing may result in increased risk and rework
○ Team needs to identify where it becomes impractical to crash the schedule
Baselining the Schedule:
● Create the baseline schedule
○ Management-approved version of the project schedule
○ Based on schedule network analysis
○ Includes baseline start and finish dates
○ Measuring and reporting schedule performance
● Guidelines for establishing a schedule baseline
○ Preliminary project schedule
○ Project’s start and finish dates
○ Must be accurate and up to date
■ Resources
■ Task duration
■ Calendars
■ Predecessor dates
■ Dependencies
■ Cost estimates
■ Constraints
○ Resources can’t be over allocated
○ Incorporate changes to the schedule baseline
○ Changes to schedule baseline may require resources or time
○ Schedule changes after approval requires formal change process
○ Version the original baseline for variance analysis
Chapter 6
Planning Project Costs:
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How much will the project cost
Planning for expenses
Predicting the project costs
Budgeting the project
Estimating the Project Costs:
● Rough Order of Magnitude (ROM) estimate
○ Developed without any detailed base data and often based on high-level historical
data, expert judgment, or a costing model
○ Accuracy: -25% to +75%
● Range of estimate
○ Alternative to ROM where the accuracy of the estimate is not well known
○ Accuracy: +- 35%
● Approximate estimate
○ Lacks detail required for high accuracy
○ Accuracy: +- 15%
● Budgetary estimate
○ Often used for appropriation purposes
○ Accuracy: -10% to +25%
● Definitive (or control or detailed) estimate
○ Based on detailed information about project work
○ Definitive estimate is developed by estimating the cost for each work package in
the WBS
○ Accuracy: -5% to +10%
● Phased (or rolling wave or moving window) estimate
○ Allows the use of ROM or approximate estimates for later parts of the work,
while work that must be done earlier in the project life cycle is estimated at the
definitive level
○ Accuracy: +- 5% to +-15% in the window closest to present time, +-35% farther
in the future
● Seller Selection
○ Weighting system
○ Independent estimates
○ Screening systems
○ Contract negotiation
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○ Seller rating systems
○ Expert judgment
○ Proposal evaluation
Using Analogous Estimating
○ Analogous estimating relies on historical information (Organizational process
assets)
○ Top-down estimating
○ Actual cost of historical project as basis for current project
○ Form of expert judgment
○ Less time to complete, but also less accurate
Using Parametric Estimating
○ Mathematical model based on known parameters to predict cost
○ Parameters can vary based on the work being completed
○ Measured by cost per cubic yard, cost per unit, etc
○ A complex parameter can be cost per unit, with adjustment factors
○ Cost per square foot
○ Cost per ton
Using Bottom-Up Estimating
○ Bottom-up estimating starts from zero
○ Accounts for each component of the WBS
○ Creates a sum for the project
○ Completed with the project team
○ One of the most time-consuming methods used
○ More expensive to create, because of time invested
○ Most accurate method
○ Project team sees the cost and value of each activity
Three-Point Estimate
○ Finds average of
■ Optimistic
■ Most likely
■ Pessimistic
■ Also called triangular distribution
○ (O+ML+P)/3 = estimate
○ Example: (25+45+75)/3 = 48.33 Hours
PERT Estimates
○ Program Evaluation and Review Technique
○ Also called beta distribution
○ (O+(4ML)+P)/6 = estimate
○ Example: (25+(4x45)+75)/6 = 46.66 Hours
● PERT estimates will always be slightly lower then Three-Point as the Most Likely is
more heavily weighted through a PERT estimate
Create the Cost Baseline:
● Determine Budget
○ Aggregating the estimated costs
○ Cost of work packages and activities
○ Authorized cost baseline
○ Excludes management reserves
○ Includes contingency reserves
● Creating the Cost Baseline
○ BAC = Budget at completion
○ Measures performance
○ Predicts expenses over the project life
○ Usually shown as an S-curve
○ Predicts when monies are spent
○ Discrepancies early are a signal that the project is slipping
● Large projects and the cost baseline
○ May use multiple cost baselines for costs within each phase
○ Predict spending plans
○ Shows cash flows of the project
○ Overall project performance
● Cost Assignment Methods
○ 50/50 percent rule
■ 50% credit is given when the work activity begins and the remaining 50%
credit is given when the work is completed
○ Percentage complete rule
■ Specific reporting intervals
○ Weighted milestones
■ Each milestone has a value
■ Milestone completion
Reconcile Funding and Costs:
● Funding Limit Reconciliation
○ Reconcile planned and actual costs
○ Cost variances
○ Corrective actions
● Establishing project funding requirements
○ Project funding requirements can be mapped to the project schedule
○ Cost baseline helps determine when the project will need cash
■ Phases
■ Milestones (Step funding)
■ Capital expenses
○ Project step funding
● Phases and cost funding
○ Phase gates
○ Stage gates
○ Review gates
○ Kill points
Chapter 7:
Planning Human Resources Management:
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Human resource management
○ Developing and leading the project team
○ Staffing management plan
○ Release of the project staff
Create a Human Resources Plan:
● Plan Resource Management
○ Identify project team needs
○ Reporting relationships
○ Assigning roles and responsibilities
○ Acquiring physical resources
● Project Interfaces
○ Organizational
■ Relationships among different organizational units
○ Technical
■ Relationships among technical disciplines
○ Interpersonal
■ Formal and informal relationships among individuals
○ Logistical
■ Relationships between project team members who are distributed across
different buildings, countries, and time zones
○ Political
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■ Relationships inside an organization where different people have different
interests
Influences on resource management
○ Team environment and politics
○ Communication demands
○ Organizational change management
○ Culture and organization issues
○ Virtual teams
Resource terminology
○ Role is the generic project team name
■ Application developer
■ Technical writer
○ Authority is the level of decision-making ability
○ Responsibility are actions and expectations of to complete work
○ Competency is the role’s depth of skills, knowledge, experience
Organizational charts
○ Hierarchy of an organization
Matrix chart
○ RACI Chart - Responsibility Assignment Matrix Roles and Responsibilities
○ Shows tasks, team members, and assigns responsibilities, accountability,
consulted, and informed for each team member and their relationship to the task.
RACI is very specific.
Creating the Staffing Management Plan
○ Identify the people and resources needed
○ Identified from the resource pool
○ Skill gaps addressed by staff acquisition, training, or procurement
Staffing Management Plan
○ Staff acquisition
○ Resource calendars
○ Staff release plan
○ Training needs
○ Recognition and rewards
○ Compliance
○ Safety
Resource Management Plan
○ Identify human resources and physical resources
○ How physical resources will be acquired for the project
○ How project team members are brought onto and released
○ Account for employee’s time
○ Use employees as needed
○ Define timetables
○ Provide resource calendars
● Resource availability
○ Resource calendar
○ Negotiate for resources
○ Move the related activity
○ Delay the activity or project
○ Find alternative resources
● Creating a Resource Breakdown Structure
○ Like the WBS
○ Utilization of resources
○ Expose resource constraints
○ Identify resource needs
Acquiring Project Resources:
● Acquiring resources
○ Human and physical resources
○ Seller resources correct and delivered
○ Talent management
○ Risk identification
○ Personnel development
○ Release planning
● Contractual agreements
○ Procurement and enterprise environmental factors
○ Employee groups and unions
■ Collective bargaining agreements
■ Constraint on the project
■ People are resources
■ Contracts are constraints
○ Additional reporting relationships
● Acquiring resources
○ Acquire human resources
○ Acquire physical resources
○ Organizational process assets
○ Enterprise environmental factors
Chapter 8:
Planning Project Quality Management:
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Cost for Project Quality Management
○ Most expensive approach is to let the customer find the defects
○ QC keep mistakes away from customers
○ QA examines and corrects processes
○ Incorporate quality planning
○ Create a culture throughout the organization that is committed to quality in processes and
products
Cost of Quality
○ Cost of conformance
■ Safety measures
■ Team development and training
■ Proper materials and processes
○ Cost of non-conformance
■ Liabilities, loss of life or limb
■ Rework/scrap
■ Lost business
Types of Quality Costs
○ Prevention
■ Quality assurance
■ Deliver the exact project scope and the expected quality
■ Examples: training, safety measures, and right tools and equipment
○ Appraisal
■ Quality control
■ Cost of measuring, testing, auditing, and evaluating
■ Time for testing
○ Failure
■ Internal failure
■ Scrap and rework
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Loss of sales, loss of customers, downtime, and damage to reputation
Create a Quality Management Plan:
● Looking at the Big Quality Picture
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What constitutes quality?
Quality is
■ Totality of an entity
■ Satisfies needed abilities
■ Stated or implied needs
Quality terminology
○ Measurable terms
○ Requirements
○ Beware of gold plating
○ Definite terms
■ Fast
■ Reliable
■ Happy
Quality Project Management
○ Customer satisfaction
■ Conformance to requirements
■ Fitness for use
○ Prevention
■ “Quality is planned into a project, not inspected in”
○ Management responsibility
○ Deming’s “Plan-Do-Check-Act”
Quality Management Terms
○ Prevention: keeping errors out of the process
○ Inspection: keeping errors out of the customers’ hands
○ Attribute sampling: results either conforms or does not conform
Leaders in quality management
○ W. Edwards Deming
■ Deming cycle focuses on continuous process improvement in which quality must
be continuously improved in order to meet customer needs
○ Joseph M. Juran
■ Juran Trilogy breaks quality management into quality planning, control, and
improvement
○ Philip Crosby
■ Quality is conformance to requirements rather than a measure of how good a
product or service is
○ Genichi Taguchi
■ Taguchi method emphasizes that quality should be designed into the product;
factors that cause variation can be identified and controlled
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William (Bill) Smith Jr.
■ Six Sigma emphasizes responding to customer needs and improving processes by
systematically removing defects
Determining the Quality Policy
○ Formal quality approaches
■ ISO programs
■ Six Sigma
■ Total Quality Management
○ If a quality policy doesn’t exist the project manager must create one for the project
Standards and Regulations
○ Standards are optional
○ Regulations are requirements
Planning Quality Management:
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Defining project quality
Building a quality management plan
Understanding quality assurance
Prepping for quality control
Exploring Quality Management Tools:
● Manage Quality: Key Tools and Techniques
○ Checklist
○ Alternatives analysis
○ Document analysis
○ Process analysis
○ Root cause analysis (RCA)
○ Matrix diagrams
○ Scatter diagrams
○ Cause-and-effect diagrams
○ Flowcharts
○ Histograms
● Creating a flowchart
○ Flowcharts illustrate the flow of a process through a system
○ Process flowchart does not have to be limited to the project management activities
● Cause-and-effect charts
○ Fishbone Diagram
○ Ishikawa Diagram
○ Facilitates a conversation
● Creating a control chart
○ Typically used in projects or operations with repetitive tasks
■ Manufacturing
■ Testing series
■ Help desks
● Sigma Values and Control Charts
○ The specifications are established by customer requirements
○ Within the customer requirements are the upper control limits (UCLs) and lower
control limits (LCLs)
○ The UCL is typically set at +3 or +6 sigma, while the LCL is set at -3 or -6 sigma
○ Essentially represents a bell curve
● Examining a control chart
● Design of experiments
○ Examines variables to determine best outcome
○ One million postcard
○ The best results win
Exploring the Quality Management Plan:
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Quality Management Plan
○ Control quality: results are monitored for quality standards
■ Poor results need root-cause analysis
■ Quality control is inspection-driven
○ Managing quality: performance must meet quality standards
■ QA maps to a quality policy
■ QA is typically a managerial process
○ Quality improvement: corrective actions improve the project
■ Improvements depend on the quality philosophy of the organization
○ Quality standards
○ Quality objectives
○ Roles and responsibilities
○ Deliverables and processes subject to quality review
○ Quality control
○ Quality tools
○ Nonconformance issues
Quality Metrics in Quality Plan
○ Quality metrics describe a project or product characteristic
○ Control quality to verify compliance
■ Percentage of tasks completed on time
■ Cost performance
■ Failure rate
■ Number of defects per day
■ Total downtime per month
■ Errors found per line of code
■ Customer satisfaction scores
Chapter 9:
Communicating During the Project:
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90% of project management is communication
Communication planning is essential
Communicate more often - and better
Communication model
Identify Communication Methods:
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Communication methods
○ Interactive communication: two or more parties in real time
○ Push communication: sent to specific recipients
○ Pull communication: large complex information sets
○ Interpersonal communication: individuals, typically face-to-face
○ Small group communication: groups of 3 to 6 people
○ Public communication: single speaker to a group
○ Mass communication: minimal connection to groups
○ Network and social computing: many-to-many by social computing technology
Communication model
○ Sender
○ Encoder
○ Medium
○ Decoder
○ Receiver
○ Noise
○ Barriers
○ Acknowledgements
○ Feedback/response
Create a Communications Management Plan:
● Communication Technology
○ Urgency of the need for information
○ Availability of technology
○ Ease of use
○ Project environment
○ Sensitivity and confidentiality of the information
● Communications Channel Formula
○ N(N-1)/2
■ 10(10-1)/2
■ 90/2 = 45
■ How many more communications channels?
■ N represents number of stakeholders
● Other planning considerations
○ Cross cultural communication
○ Differences in communication styles
■ Working methods
■ Age
■ Nationality
■ Professional discipline
■ Ethnicity
■ Race
■ Gender
■ Cultural differences
○ Sender’s emotional state
○ Knowledge
○ Background
○ Personality
○ Biases
○ Same for receiver
● Creating the communications plan
○ Communications requirements by the stakeholders
○ What is to be communicated, format, content, and detail
○ How information flows through the project
○ Modality and security
○ Methods: emails, memos, reports, press releases
○ Schedules of communication
○ Status meetings
○ Escalation processes and time frames
○ Methods of retrieving information
○ How the communication management plan can be updated
○ Flowchart of communication flow
○ Communication restraints
○ Project glossary
● Communication artifacts
○ Notice boards
○ Newsletters or in house magazines
○ Letters to staff and volunteers
○ Press releases
○ Annual reports
○ Emails and intranets
○ Web portals and information repositories
○ Phone conversations
Chapter 10:
Planning for Risk:
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Defining project risk
Risk identification
Risk planning
Qualitative and quantitative analysis
Risk Management Planning Considerations
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What is risk?
○ Risk and reward
○ Risk is not always bad
○ Business risk
○ Pure risks - only have a negative outcome
Planning for risk management
○ Risk appetite risk tolerance
○ Risk threshold
○ Stakeholder tolerance
○ Utility function
Two levels of risk
○ Individual project risks
○ Overall project risks
○ Looking for risk exposure
■ Threats
■ Opportunities
Effect-Based risk classification
○ How a risk can affect the project success
○ Risk can affect:
■ Time
■ Cost
■ Quality
■ Scope
Source-Based risk classification
○ Determining where risks have started
○ Internal or external
○ Technical or nontechnical
○ Industry-specific or generic
Business risk vs Insurable-risk
○ A business risk is one that is inherent in a business endeavor
■ Profit or loss
■ Return on investment
○ Insurable risk has only potential for loss
■ Errors and omission insurance
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■ Liability insurance
Types of uncertainty
○ Known
■ Can roughly predict the nature and extent of the effect
○ Known-unknown
■ Could affect project objectives, but not able to predict how or how much
○ Unknown-unknown
■ Items that are beyond an ability to foresee, predict, or prepare for
Create a Risk Management Plan:
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Risk management plan
○ Defines how risk management activities will occur
○ Risk activities in relation to project importance
○ Some risks will be delegated to the project team
○ Risks may be escalated to higher levels
○ Enterprise wide risk management
○ Risk efficiency part of organization
Risk planning and stakeholder tolerance
○ Risk tolerance is the willing risk exposure by an organization
○ Launch of the project
○ Written policy statement
○ Low tolerance and high risk exposure
○ Risk appetite in hopes of the reward the risk will bring
○ Organization risk threshold is for go/no go decisions
Risk tolerance among stakeholders
○ Risk averter
■ Not likely to take a risk that is considered a high risk
○ Risk neutral
■ Proportional to the amount of money at stake
○ Risk seeker
■ Accepts an uncertain outcome and may be willing to take a high risk regardless
of the consequences
Planning meetings and analysis
○ Project manager, project team, stakeholders
○ Cost elements
○ Schedule activities
○ Risk management plan
Creating the risk management plan
○ Project manager
○ Project team leaders
○ Key stakeholders
○ Personnel specific to risk management
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○ Persons of authority
Risk management planning
○ Project’s risk management activities
○ Cost of risk elements
○ Risk schedule activities
○ Assignment of risk responsibilities
○ Templates for risk categories
○ Definitions for the level of risk
○ Probability and impact matrix
Risk management plan
○ Risk identification
○ Qualitative analysis
○ Quantitative analysis
○ Resources and funds needed
○ Scheduling risk management activities
○ Risk categories
○ Risk appetite
○ Documentations and reports
○ Risk response planning procedures
○ Risk monitoring
○ Tracking risks
○ Ongoing risk management activities
Methodology for risk management
○ Tools to use for risk management
○ Approaches for the organization
○ Data sources used for risk management
○ Approach for the project
○ Flexibility for the project
Risk categories
○ Risk Breakdown Structure
○ Technical, quality, or performance risks
○ Project management risks
○ Organization risks
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External risks
Identify Project Risks and Triggers:
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Risk Register Specifics
○ Risks: identification of the risks
○ Potential responses: initial risk identification process possible solutions and responses to
identified risks
○ Triggers are warning signs
○ Potential risk owners: person or role who will own the risk
○ Additional data:
■ Risk category
■ Status
■ Root cause(s)
■ Triggers
■ WBS references
■ Timing
■ Deadlines
Using the Delphi Technique
○ Anonymous method
○ Survey results analyzed by a third party
○ Several rounds of anonymous discussion
○ Goal is to gain consensus on risks
○ Takes away fear of retribution
Identifying risks through interviews
○ Subject matter experts
○ Project stakeholders
○ Interviewees’ experience
○ WBS and assumptions
Ishikawa (Fishbone) Diagrams
○ Cause and effect diagram
○ Root-cause analysis
○ Effect, not symptom
Perform Qualitative analysis:
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Perform Qualitative Risk Analysis
○ Fast, subjective approach to analysis
○ Qualify the risk for more analysis
○ Can be done as risks are identified
○ Cardinal or ordinal scale
○ Prioritizing individual project risks for further analysis or action
○ Assessment of probability of occurrence and impact
○ Focuses efforts on high priority risks
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○ Fast and quick
Preparing for risk analysis
○ Qualitative risk analysis “qualifies” the risks
○ Examines and prioritizes the risks based on probability
○ Impact on the project
○ Broad approach to ranking risks
○ Facilitator aware of bias
Qualitative risk analysis considerations
○ Risk management plan is the key input
○ Process, methodologies, and the scoring model
○ The status of the project
○ Early in the project
■ Number and type of risks
■ Time available for risk analysis
○ Project type affects risk analysis
○ Accuracy and source of risk data
Assumptions analysis and stakeholders
○ Assumptions log
○ Assumptions will be evaluated
○ Stakeholder register serves as an input
○ Certain stakeholders may be risk owners
Probability Impact Matrix
Risk parameter considerations
○ Urgency of the risk
■ How long before the risk may happen?
○ Proximity
■ How long before the risk will affect a project objective?
○ Dormancy
■ How long before its impact is noticed?
○ Manageability
■ How easily can the risk be managed?
○ Controllability
■ How easily can the outcome be controlled?
○ Detectability
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■ How easily can the risk’s occurrence be detected?
○ Connectivity
■ How connected is a risk to other risks?
○ Strategic impact
■ What size of impact will the risk have on strategic goals?
○ Propinquity
■ What is the risk perception by key stakeholders?
Charting risk acceptability and response
○ Bubble chart
Outcome of qualitative risks
○ Imminent risks are usually higher urgency than distant risks
○ Identifies risks that require additional analysis
○ Identifies risks may proceed directly to risk response planning
○ Identifies not critical risk, but still documented
Perform Quantitative Analysis:
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Perform quantitative risk analysis
○ Quantifying the identified risks
○ Usually for the more serious risks
■ Probability
■ Impact
○ Helps with risk response planning
Goals of quantitative analysis
○ Identify the risks with largest impact
○ Likelihood of reaching project success
○ Likelihood of reaching project objective
○ Project’s risk exposure
○ Contingency reserve
○ Determine realistic time, cost, and scope targets
Performing quantitative analysis
○ Interviewing stakeholders and experts
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○ Risk distributions
○ Sensitivity analysis
○ Expected monetary value
○ Modeling and simulation
○ Expert judgment
Applying sensitivity analysis
○ Examines each project risk on its own merit
○ Analysis process to determine which risks have greatest effect
○ All other risks in the project are set at a baseline value
○ Individual risk is then examined to see how it may affect the success
○ Goal is to determine which individual risks have the greatest effect
Using a decision tree
○ Which of two or more decisions is the best to make
■ Buy vs build scenarios
■ Lease or purchase equations
■ In house resources rather than outsourcing
Using a project simulation
○ What if games without affecting production
○ Monte Carlo simulation
Monte Carlo Analysis
○ Software program
○ Simulates a project with values for all possible variables to predict the most likely model
○ Monte Carlo simulations can create and S curve, to show the likelihood of a desired
outcome
Finding the expected monetary value
○ Based on the probability of outcomes that are uncertain
■ A risk may cost an additional $10k if it occurs
■ 20% chance of occurring
■ Expected monetary value if $2000
Probability impact matrix
○ Cardinal scale
○ Risk exposure
○ Sum of contingency reserve
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“Hedging bets”
Develop a Risk Response Plan:
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Plan risk responses
○ Enhance opportunities
○ Reduce risks
○ Documents risk responses
○ Tracks outcome for lessons learned
Responding to negative risks
○ Escalate
○ Avoidance
○ Transference
○ Mitigation - most common
○ Acceptance
Managing positive risks
○ Escalate
○ Exploiting
○ Sharing
○ Enhancing
○ Accepting
Contingent responses
○ When certain events occur
○ Certain predefined conditions
○ Triggers
○ Risk registers
○ Contingency plans
○ Fallback plans
Risk register updates
○ Response strategies
○ Specific actions
○ Triggers, warning signs, conditions
○ Budget, schedule
○ Risks, owners, responsibilities
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○ Contingency plans
○ Fallback plans
Managing risks
○ Residual risks - manage a big risk, creates smaller risks
○ Secondary risks - solve one risk, creates new risks
○ Risk response contracts
○ Justifying risk reduction
Chapter 11:
Planning Project Procurements:
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Not every project needs procurement
Understand your organization’s processes
Standard procurement flow
Buy or build decisions
Build or Buy:
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Key concepts for Procurement Management
○ Purchasing the products and services for the project
○ Planning
○ Acquiring the products or services
○ Choosing a source
○ Administering the contract
○ Closing the contract
Reasons to buy or build
○ Less costly
○ Use in house skills
○ Control of work
○ Control of intellectual property
○ Learn new skills
○ Available staff
○ Focus on core project work
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Teaming agreement
○ Legal contractual agreement between two or more parties
○ Joint venture
○ Internal or external
Create a Procurement Management Plan:
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Planning for procurement
○ Four considerations for procurement
■ Whether procurement is needed
■ What to procure
■ How much to procure
■ When to procure
Typical procurement actions
○ Create a procurement statement of work (SOW) or terms of reference (TOR)
○ A high level cost estimate to determine the budget
○ Advertise the opportunity
○ Identify qualified sellers
○ Create and issue bid documents
Typical procurement actions
○ Seller creates a proposal
○ Buyer does a technical evaluation of proposal
○ Buyer does cost evaluation of the proposal
○ Buyer examine combined quality and cost evaluation
○ Buyer and seller negotiate sign contract
Letter of intent
○ From the buyer to the seller
○ Indicating that the seller will be awarded the contract
○ Buyer intends to do business with the seller
○ Not a legally binding contract
Chapter 12:
Planning for Change and Transitions:
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All projects are about change
Predictive projects
Adaptive projects
Planning for the inevitable
Develop an Integrated Change Control Approach:
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Considerations of change
○ Schedule
○ Cost
○ New or existing risks
○ Requirements
○ Quality
○ Resource
○ Scope
Organization change factors
○ Mergers or acquisitions
■ Top level executives or your project sponsor
○ Demergers or splits
■ Top level executives or your project sponsor
○ Business process change
■ Official processes for getting things done might affect how funding and
resources are approved
○ Internal reorganization
■ Personnel and functional managers are reassigned might affect the
project team’s members
○ Relocation
■ Project team member leaves the organization or is transferred to another
department
■ Organization relocations
○ Outsourcing
■ Procure services from an external resource, this might disrupt the project
Correcting actions of change
○ Corrective action
■ Future project performance requirements back on track
■ Conform with the current project management plan
○ Preventive action
■ Action to diminish the effects of any negative risk
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Defect repair
■ Address the defects in the project components
■ Fix and review the defect
Change and configuration management
○ Configuration management
■ Manages changes to features of functions of the product
■ Controls product iterations
■ Ensures that product specifications are current
■ Review and approves prototypes, testing standards, drawings, or
blueprints
Defining Integrated Change Control:
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Integrated change control
○ Happens throughout the project
○ Responsibility of the project manager
○ Happens after a baseline established
○ Examines the effect of change on the entire project
○ Verbal changes happen, but should be documented
○ Change requests
■ Entered into change management systems
■ Or configuration management system (features and functions)
■ Approved
■ Deferred
■ Rejected
○ Change approval level defined in project plan
○ Change control board may be utilized
○ over/under change approval/rejections
Develop a Transition Plan:
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Product transition
○ A formal hand-off of a project’s outcome
○ Project outcome is transferred to the next level for sustainment
○ Contract based activities
Transition plan
○ Scope of the transition
○ What must be included or excluded
○ Stakeholders that must receive the transferred products
○ Project benefits are measured and the benefits sustainment plan
○ Ensuring that the products are transferred on schedule
○ Resource release plan specifies what the resources must do after the product is
transferred
○ Financial closure plan describes the requirements for the closure of project
finances
○ Contract closure requirements are consistent with the contract(s)
○ Communication the requirements for project closure
○ Documenting the impacts of project closure
Transition planning
○ Transition dates
■ The date when the project product, service, or result will be handed off
■ Specified in the plan so that the products are transferred at the right time
○ Product training events
○ Demonstrations provided by the company on a product or service
■ Instructor led training
■ Videos
■ Walkthroughs
■ Manuals
■ Demos
Chapter 13:
Executing the Project:
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Direct the project execution
Assemble the project team
Develop the project team
Manage stakeholders’ relationships and expectations
Direct Project Execution:
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Planning to execution
○ Needed roles and skillsets identified
○ Project documents have been completed, reviewed, and signed off
○ Planning issues have been resolved
○ Project is still feasible
○ Stakeholders expectations are aligned with the project plan
Utilizing a PMIS
○ A project management information system
■ Gather
■ Analyze
■ Communicate
■ Store project information
○ Overlap between communication management plan and PMIS
■ MS Project
■ Basecamp
■ Primavera
Work Performance Data
○ Raw data and facts about project work
○ Status of project work assignments
■ Percent complete
■ In progress
■ Start and finish dates
○ Data can include
■ Cost of the activities
■ Number of change requests
■ Defects
■ Durations
Work performance reports
○ Work performance information in communicable formatting
○ Status reports
○ Memos
○ Dashboards
○ Project updates
○ Helps stakeholders make decisions
Work authorization systems
○ Communicates permission to begin work on an activity
○ Includes the necessary processes, documents, tracking systems, and approval
levels required to provide work authorizations
○ Smaller projects may only require verbal authorization
○ Can be integrated with a PMIS
Execute Quality Assurance:
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Determining the quality policy
○ Formal quality approaches
■ ISO programs
■ Six Sigma
■ Total Quality Management
○ If a policy doesn’t exist, the project manager must create one for the project
Tailoring the quality management processes
○ Policy compliance and auditing
■ What quality policies and procedures exist in the organization?
■ What quality tools, techniques, and templates are used in the
organization?
Quality management plan
○ Control quality: results are monitored for quality standards
■ Poor results need root-cause analysis
■ Quality control is inspection-driven
○ Managing quality: performance must meet quality standards
■ QA maps to an organization’s quality policy
■ QA is typically a managerial process
○ Quality improvement: corrective actions improve the project
■ Improvements depend on quality philosophy of the organization
Quality management plan
○ Quality standards
○ Quality objectives
○ Roles and responsibilities
○ Deliverables and processes subject to quality review
○ Quality control and quality management activities
○ Quality tools
○ Nonconformance, corrective actions,and continuous improvement
Manage quality
○ Executing process
○ Sum of the planning and implementations
○ Sometimes referred to as quality assurance
○ QA should occur before and during the project
○ Continuous process improvement
○ Managing quality is everyone’s responsibility
○ QA department could complete the QA activities
Manage Quality: Key Tools and Techniques
○ Checklist
○ Alternatives analysis
○ Document analysis
○ Process analysis
○ Root cause analysis
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○ Matrix diagrams
○ Scatter diagrams
○ Cause and effect diagrams
○ Flowcharts
○ Histograms
Completing a quality audit
○ Document the best practices used
○ Document any variances
○ Recommend best practices
○ Implement recommendations
○ Document quality audit in lessons learned
Executing quality assurance
○ Ensure that random and scheduled quality audits are conducted by qualified
auditors
○ Quality parameters must be valid
○ Operational definitions must be adequate and appropriate
○ Testing methods must be implemented correctly
○ Data is interpreted, recorded, and fed back into the system
Assemble the Project Team:
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Project manager roles
○ Leader
○ Planner and controller
○ Communicator
○ Negotiator
○ Problem solver
○ Organizational change agent
Acquiring the project team
○ Negotiate and influence
○ Wrong resources affect success
○ Alternative resources
■ Costs
■ Competency
■ Training
■ Legal, mandatory, or regulatory
○ Preassignment
○ Negotiation
○ Acquisition
Results of team acquisition
○ Project staff assignments
○ Physical resources acquired
○ Resource calendars
○ Project management plan updates
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○ Project document updates
Negotiating for resources
○ Availability: project team members available
■ Confer with functional managers
○ Costs: cost of each team member
■ Direct costs or indirect costs (resource that can be shared and cost
shared)
○ Ability: competency, proficiency
○ Experience: experience of the project team members
○ Knowledge and skills
■ Tacit - based on experience, understanding of nuances
■ Explicit - easy knowledge i.e. how to turn on the lights
○ Attitude: interested in working on this project
○ International factors: multiple countries, culture, time zones, and languages
Challenges for resource negotiation
○ Organizational structure
○ Functional management
○ Other project managers
○ Operational schedules
○ Unnecessary project team roles
Acquiring staff
○ Preassigned staff
○ Preassigned as part of the project charter or planning processes
○ Availability
○ Part of a competitive project
○ Required as part of the project charter of an internal project
○ Opportunity for on the job training
Project negotiation tactics
○ Analyze the situation
○ Differentiate needs and wants
○ Focus on issues and interests
○ Be realistic in proposals
○ Give concessions of value
○ Ensure a win win situation
○ Communicate appropriately
Working with virtual teams
○ Geographically dispersed individuals
○ Experts in different geographical areas
○ Inclusion of workers from home offices
○ Members with varying schedules
○ People with mobility handicaps
○ Reduction of travel expenses
○ Non-collocated teams
○ Communication is paramount
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Technological solutions
Develop the Project Team:
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Leading team development
○ Interpersonal skills - soft skills
■ Communication
■ Emotional intelligence
■ Conflict resolution
■ Influence
○ Training the project team
○ Team building activities
○ Ground rules
○ Colocation - tight matrix
○ Recognition and rewards
■ Money
■ Throughout the project
■ Avoid zero sum rewards
○ Personal assessment tools
■ Attitudinal surveys
■ Structured interviews
Team performance assessments
○ Improvement in skills
○ Team competency
○ Reduced staff turn over rate
○ Team cohesiveness
Creating team building activities
○ Develop the team through facilitated events
○ Often off site activities
○ Budget and schedule
○ Larger projects and new teams
Team building activities
○ Training the project team
○ Team involvement during the planning processes
○ Defining rules for handling team disagreements
○ Offsite activities
○ Quick team involvement activities
○ Activities to improve interpersonal skills
Naturally developing project teams
○ Teams move through a process
○ Bruce Tuckman, 1965
○ 5 phases to team development
○ Forming
■ Team comes together and high level formation happens
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Storming
■ Possible hostility toward the project leader, challenge ideas
■ Debate varies depending on if project team is willing to work together
Norming
■ Team accepts their roles and project begins to produce work and settle
■ Rely on one another to complete their project assignments
Performing
■ Team acts cohesively and performs well together following the leader and
achieving results
■ If a project team can reach the performing stage of team development,
they trust one another and work well together, and issues and problems
are resolved quickly and effectively
Adjourning
■ Finishing as a team
Reward the Project Team:
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Rewarding the project team
○ Promotes good performance and behavior
○ Formal, achievable approach
○ The reward and the power to achieve should not be limited
○ Rewarding for good work only
○ Should not be rewarded for completing a crucial assignment on schedule if the
work is unacceptable because of quality issues
○ People are motivated when they feel they are valued
○ Money is a tangible aspect of any reward system
○ Intangible rewards could be equally or even more effective
○ Team members are motivated by an opportunity to grow
○ Give the team recognition throughout the life cycle
Culture and rewards
○ Culture should be considered
○ May be inappropriate to reward individual team members over and entire group,
or vice versa
○ Be aware of cultural environment
○ Zero-sum rewards - not just one person
Assessing the Team Performance:
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Completing assessments
○ Team members need feedback
○ Organizational policies and procedures
○ Labor contracting requirements, and qualifies for appraisals
○ 360 degree feedback approach
■ Offers appraisals from more than just the project manager
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■ Peers
■ Supervisors
■ Managers
■ Subordinates
Goals for assessments
○ Improvements in skills to perform assignments more effectively
○ Improvements in competencies that help team members perform
○ Reduced staff turnover rate
○ Increased team cohesiveness
Managing the Project Team:
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Manage project team
○ Tracking team member performance
○ Offering feedback to team members
○ Managing team changes
○ Influencing team
○ Resolving conflict
Utilizing organizational process assets
○ Certificates of appreciation
○ Newsletters
○ Project websites
○ Bonus structures
○ Corporate apparel
Conflict management
○ Conflict is natural
○ Team issue
○ Openness resolves conflict
○ Focus on issues, not personalities
○ Focus on present, not past
Managing conflict
○ Relative importance of the conflict
○ Time pressure for conflict resolution
○ Portions of each person involved
○ Motivation to resolve conflict for short term or long term
Solving problems
○ Collaborative problem solving
○ Forcing or directing
○ Compromising or reconcile
○ Withdrawal or avoiding
○ Smoothing or accommodating
Relying on interpersonal skill
○ Leadership - aligning, motivating, inspiring
○ Influencing - organizational structure and authority
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■ Persuasive
■ Active and effective listening
■ Awareness of project team interactions and issues
■ Maintaining trust while managing the project team
Making effective decisions
○ Focus on project goals
○ Follow a logical decision making process
○ Study environmental factors
○ Analyze information
○ Develop personal qualities
○ Stimulate team creativity
○ Manage risk
○ Be approachable
Management styles
○ Autocratic: the project manager makes all decisions
○ Democratic: the project team is involved with the decisions
○ Laissez faire: the project manager allows the team to lead and make decisions
○ Exceptional: the project manager manages by exception and is reactive
More Project Team Management:
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Action items
○ Work that needs to be performed by a resource
■ Not important enough to be in the issue log
■ Does not qualify as an activity in the project schedule
○ Can result from meetings or related to any project objective
■ Can happen throughout the project
■ Likely not formally documented
Managing the project team
○ Team members clear on roles and responsibilities
○ Communicate ground rules
○ Establish good communication among team
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Issues and challenges of virtual teams
Use proper email etiquette
Cultural sensitivity training for global project teams
Adjust the communications plan to meet needs of the team
Ensure that the project team is informed about key milestones
Monitor performance of team member on an ongoing basis
Speak individually and directly to each team member
Develop a set of metrics to measure team performance
Provide constructive feedback to team members on a frequent basis
Consider training for team members who need it
Consider a quality audit to verify quality requirements
Establish how conflicts will be resolved or escalated
Manage conflicts
Allow people to have their say
Encourage an agreeable win win resolution to the problem
Find areas where both sides are in agreement
Actively listen
Focused on finding a resolution
Set ground rules
Confront problems head on
Issues log to track issues
Distribute Project Information:
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Communications management
○ Sender receiver models
○ Choice of media
○ Writing style
○ Meeting management
○ Presentations
○ Facilitation
○ Active listening
Communication tools
○ Communication technology
○ Communication methods
○ Communication skills
○ PMIS
○ Project reporting
○ Interpersonal and team skills
Reporting performance
○ Cost
○ Schedule
○ Risks
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Issues
Quality
Performance reports
Forecasting
Change requests
Recommended corrective actions
Manage Stakeholder Relationships and Expectation:
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Project meetings
○ Agendas should be written and distributed before the meeting
○ Meetings should be led by someone who is familiar with the topics
○ Discuss any topics outside the agenda at the end of the meeting
○ Meetings should begin and end on time
○ Meeting minutes should be prepared, distributed, and archived
Project kickoff meeting
○ Reinforcing project assignment
○ Introducing team members
○ Communicate project goals and expectations
○ Sharing contact information of the team members
○ Establishing timelines and assigning project tasks
○ Discussing potential project
○ Setting the ground rules
Stakeholder analysis
○ Power interest grid
○ Power influence grid
○ Influence impact grid
○ Salience model
■ Power
■ Urgency
■ legitimacy
Chapter 14:
Executing the Procurement Plan:
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Request Vendor Responses:
Select the Project Vendor:
Procurement Workflow:
Contracts and Projects:
Chapter 15:
Monitoring and Controlling Project Performance: