Project Management
Afternoon Delight on Saturday, May 8th
Train the Trainer 2010
Formal Definitions
What is a project?
A temporary endeavor undetaken to create a
unique product, service, or result.
What is project management?
The application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project
activities to meet the project requirements.
Translated into English…
A project is any non-routine task that has a start and end date. Project
management involves doing whatever it takes to make sure the project’s
objectives are met, on time and on budget!
Train the Trainer 2010
Today’s Session
1. Introduction
2. Work Breakdown Structures
3. Determining the Critical Path
4. Adaptive Management with the Triple Constraint
5. Review
Train the Trainer 2010
Today’s Session in Plain English
1. Introduction
2. Work Breakdown Structures Doing the right things
3. Determining the Critical Path Doing things in the right order
4. Adaptive Management with the Triple Constraint Assessing
whether the things you’re doing, and the order in which
you’re doing them, are still right
5. Review
Train the Trainer 2010
Origins of Project Management
Manhattan Project
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Navy Polaris
Project Management at Rare
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Goal of Project Management
Complete projects on time, on budget, and meeting requirements…
Time
Quality
Budget
Scope
…by implementing standard processes, templates, policies, tools, etc. to:
• Clarify roles and responsibilities
• Ensure focus on critical activities
• Improve communications
• Reduce the occurrence of unforeseen issues and tasks
• Reduce duplication of effort
• Increase control
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The Methodology
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Nature of Today’s Session
Main Points
• Strive to balance cost, schedule, and scope
• Prioritize the most essential activities
• Planning and implementation are cyclical. Work plans must
always be revised to account for changes.
• PMI is cool! http://www.pmi.org/Pages/default.aspx
Structure
• We’ll focus less on terminology, more on
meaning and concepts.
• Your examples, questions and comments
regarding how these concepts apply to
our campaigns will be very helpful.
• Processes, tools, etc. come straight from
PMI.
Train the Trainer 2010
Today’s Session
1. Introduction
2. Work Breakdown Structures
3. Determining the Critical Path
4. Adaptive Management with the Triple Constraint
5. Review
Train the Trainer 2010
Example of a Work Breakdown Structure
A Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is a hierarchical decomposition of tasks and activities
that make up a project, with no regard to when they occur.
Project: make a home-made cake
for dinner tonight
Procure Materials
Go to
supermarket
Go
home
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Find
ingredients
Make
payment
Bake the cake
Mix
ingredients
Put mix
in oven
Present the cake
Remove
cake &
let cool
Preheat
oven
Ice
cake
Put in
tray
Purpose of the WBS
What’s the point of listing out every activity in
advance?
• Reduce “scope creep” (when a project takes on
more tasks that aren’t essential to the goals).
• Identifies tasks that might otherwise have been
overlooked.
Why not just plan activities in order?
• We don’t know the most efficient order of
events until we know exactly what has to
happen
• You might not notice activities that don’t fit in
with the project’s objectives
• You can break down a project by phases
though, if you find that useful.
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Excerpt from a more familiar WBS
Project: Convince farmers to
stop selling land to logging
companies
Community outreach
about the threat of
logging
In-person
outreach
Farmer
visits
School
Visits
Training in alternative
livelihoods
Materials
outreach
Design
materials
Workshops
on
sustainable
agriculture
Radio shows on
farming techniques
Distribute
materials
Progress
measurement
Conduct postcampaign
survey
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Monitor forest
cover; logging
company sales
Rules of Thumb
• Document any major omissions.
• Don’t force subdivisions – the level
of detail that you go down to in your
Work Breakdown Structure will
depend on the length of the overall
project, and on your planning needs.
Brush
teeth
8
strokes
on top
row
8 strokes
on
bottom
row
Train the Trainer 2010
8
strokes
in
middle
Wash
mouth
Activity: Create a WBS
In teams, create a work breakdown structure for one of the following with post-it notes and poster paper. Break
activities down to the level that you’d be comfortable managing.
Si, se puede, Oswaldo!
Project charter: Oswaldo Contreras has decided to run for Mayor of Guadalajara in 2011. He has a base
of environmentally-conscious supporters, but these make up only about 10% of the population. He is
known in the community for being an upright citizen, unlike some of his opponents in the election. You
are his Public Relations team. Design a work breakdown structure for his marketing campaign.
Rough timeline: 1 year
Rough budget: 25 million pesos (~2 million USD)
Environmental relief in the gulf
Project charter: Oil has just hit shore in the gulf, and is expected to do so for another month. You work at
the National Audubon Society in Mississippi, which is coordinating relief efforts to reduce the
environmental impact and protect animals, when oil hits the shore. You need to clean a wetlands
reserve near the Missippi coast by August, when aquatic birds’ mating seasons end. You’ll also need to
ensure that direct effects of the oil on birds are mitigated. There are large numbers of untrained people
willing to volunteer. Design a work breakdown structure for the environmental relief effort, from now
until the end of August.
Rough timeline: 4 months
Rough budget: $200,000 (not including salaries of 10 local Audubon employees, office costs, etc.)
Eco-lodge on Serena Island
Project charter: The Forestry and Wildlife department of the island nation Andrea has decided to build
an eco-lodge on Serena Island, as a pilot project to test out Serena’s ecotourism potential. The
department expects the lodge to provide tourists with great access to, and knowledge of, Serena’s
endemic species such as the quail dove and hairy fig. You are Jacob Parker, Jo Smith, and Susan Dikins,
and you have been tasked with building the eco-lodge. Design a work breakdown structure for the job.
Rough timeline: 2 years
Rough budget: 2 million Andrean dollars (roughly equivalent to USD)
Today’s Session
1. Introduction
2. Work Breakdown Structures
3. Determining the Critical Path
4. Adaptive Management with the Triple Constraint
5. Review
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Critical Path
The critical path is the longest (in duration) chain of events that must
occur between a project’s start and end.
The critical path has helped me with 3 out of 4 of the following
thoughts:
• “I have so much to do, but don’t know where
to start…”
• “I have a lot to do, but have to wait for that
expense report to come in…”
• “Even though I said I wouldn’t do X until Y was
ready, I’m just going to do it!”
• “Why does Heidi stay with Spencer? Doesn’t
she watch past seasons of the Hills to see
what he does when she’s not around?”
Train the Trainer 2010
Prerequisites to the Critical Path
Before determining the ideal sequence of your activities, you usually
need to consider:
a) The duration of each activity
b) The cost of each activity
c) Other resource requirements for each activity (materials, staff,
contractors, etc.)
d) Which activities depend on others
Train the Trainer 2010
A Quick Overview of Dependencies
The Project Management Body of Knowledge identifies four types of dependencies
(temporal relationships between activities):
1) Finish – Start. One activity has to finish before the next can start. This is the most
common type of dependency – especially in the Pride planning process.
Concept
Model
F-S
Threat
Ranking
2) Start – Start. One activity has to start before the next can start. This is also fairly
common.
S-S
Roll out of
Quality
RarePlanet
Assurance
3) Finish – Finish. One activity has to finish before another can finish. Less common.
Fourth University
Phase
F-F
Write weekly flash
reports
4) Start – Finish. One activity has to start before the next can finish. This is only common
when replacing things.
S-F
Hire new IT
Outsource IT
Director
management
Mapping Dependencies
Project schedules, or flow charts, show the path of activities over time, and also show what
activities must start or finish before others can start or finish.
0
15
Baking a cake in two hours
0
Project
Start
Pre-heat
oven (15)
20
60
Go to
supermarket (20)
20
Find
ingredients
(10)
30
30
35
Make
payment (5)
35 55
55
Go
Home
(20)
75
Mix
ingredients
(20)
105
115
Remove cake &
let cool (10)
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75
75 105
Put mix
in oven
(30)
115 120
121
Ice cake
(5)
Put in
tray
(1)
Project Close
A more complex project schedule
0
32
Weekly radio
show (32)
0
7
F-S
3
Design
campaign
logo (3)
0
3
Design key
messages
(3)
Produce
sermon sheets
(4)
7
F-S
F-S
3
7
Test logo and
messages with
farmers (4)
F-S
Set up sustainable
agriculture
demonstration plot
(8)
8
8
F-S
Produce
badges (5)
Monitor yield
of demo plot
(20)
F-S
Produce
posters (4)
32
28
F-S
11
Run workshops
for farmers on
sustainable
agriculture (24)
S-S
F-S
37
Widely distribute
collateral at events
(24)
12
7
8
13
13
7
F-S
F-S
Produce tshirts (6)
F-S
Project
Start
0
11
Project
Close
32
S-S
35
Produce new
posters with
pictures of farmers
on demo plot (3)
S-F
Finding the Critical Path
0
32
Weekly radio
show (32)
5
0
7
Design
campaign
logo (3)
0
F-S
Produce
sermon sheets
(4)
F-S
9
7
37
3
3
Design key
messages
(3)
F-S
F-S
3
11
7
Test logo and
messages with
farmers (4)
7
F-S
Produce
badges (5)
13
11
9
5
13
8
8
F-S
S-S
32
28
Monitor yield of
demo plot (20)
17
37
F-S
Project
Close
13
Run workshops
for farmers on
sustainable
agriculture (24)
13
F-S
Produce
posters (4)
F-S
Set up sustainable
agriculture
demonstration plot
(8)
F-S
37
Widely distribute
collateral at events
(24)
12
8
7
8
13
13
13
Produce tshirts (6)
Project
Start
0
F-S
37
12
S-S
15
Produce new
posters with
pictures of farmers
on demo plot (3)
30
33
S-F
Activity: Find the Critical Path
Returning to your teams, please follow the steps below to turn your
work breakdown structures into project schedules with an identified
critical path.
1. Take the bottom level of your work breakdown structure and
place the notes on a new sheet of poster paper.
2. “Guesstimate” the amount of time each activity will take.
3. Map your project schedule, and try to calculate leads and lags.
4. Determine the critical path.
Train the Trainer 2010
Today’s Session
1. Introduction
2. Work Breakdown Structures
3. Determining the Critical Path
4. Adaptive Management with the Triple Constraint
5. Review
Train the Trainer 2010
Triple Constraint?
Darkness
Bloody Mary
Mirror
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Chant Name
More like athletics
Skill
A High Quality Athlete
Conditioning
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Mindset
Triple Constraint
Time
A High Quality Campaign
Budget
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Scope
2 out of 3 Ain’t Bad
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Adapting to Change
A significant change in any one of the following areas requires (a) an
update to your work plan and (b) communication to stakeholders:
• Time
• Scope (requirements or objectives)
• Budget
Changes in the following are likely to significantly change at least one of
the three factors above:
• Resource Availability
• Addition/loss of staff or contractors
• Formation or termination of a partnership
• Discovery of previously unknown issues, problems or opportunities
• Uncontrollable external events (e.g. hurricane, earthquake, outcome of
an election)
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Applying your Contingency Plan
Each campaign should have a contingency plan, as taught in Module 3 Unit 5 of the
curriculum…
Activity
Event/Situation
Risk
Alternative
Alternative Action
Action – Plan A
– Plan B
Ice cake
There is a severe
icing shortage
before Halloween
A
Won’t be
able to ice
cake
Pretend the cake Bake brownies
is a healthy
dessert
…which can be used as the basis for updating your work plan.
Update to the Work Breakdown Structure
Update to the Project Schedule & Critical Path
Present the cake
Put
chopped
fruit on top
Ice
cake
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Put
in
tray
?
Communicating Changes
Relevant parties must be notified of changes to the work plan. Ideally, notifications will be
carried out in accordance with a formal communications plan, to ensure that no one is left out.
People
Pam & Katie
Reasons
•Their timeline for the Module 4 curriculum is now
pushed back two weeks.
•They must coordinate with UTEP.
Daniel & Sean
•They won’t have to update RarePlanet, Master
Campaigns List and internal/external reports yet.
•Formal review of cohort is now pushed back two weeks.
Laurie, Lindsay and •They’ll need to notify trustees and/or donors that
Ted
they’ve invited to attend graduation.
•They can’t send out inaccurate marketing letters.
BINGO partner
•Ensure their information on the campaign is accurate for
their internal communications.
•They might be planning to attend graduation.
Activity: Respond to Changes
See if the following issues require updates to the work breakdown structure and project schedule. If
you do update your work plan, whom would you inform?
Si, se puede, Oswaldo!
Opponents of Oswaldo Contreras just uncovered a story from his past, which just
appeared in a news article in Guadalajara. As a teenager, Oswaldo used to
singlehandedly wrestle crocodiles for fun. Some environmentalists, who are part of
his core group of supporters, consider this to be animal abuse.
Environmental relief in the gulf
BP has decided to pay for about 50 specialists to help at the site, including
experienced veterinarians and bird handlers to experts in chemical dispersants
that break up oil.
Eco-lodge on Serena Island
There is a severe shortage of timber on Serena Island. Although timber is usually
shipped from neighboring Caribbean islands, they have been shipping overseas,
where their wood fetches higher prices. It is very difficult and time-consuming to
get logging permits on Serena Island.
Train the Trainer 2010
Today’s Session
1. Introduction
2. Work Breakdown Structures
3. Determining the Critical Path
4. Adaptive Management with the Triple Constraint
5. Review
Train the Trainer 2010