EMBA
Strategy Implementation
• Morning
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Introduction to project management
Work Breakdown Structure
Building the Project Plan
Implementing the Project Plan
• Afternoon
• Two advanced exercises
• A project is a temporary endeavor
undertaken to create a unique result
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Projects have a beginning and end
A project has specific deliverables
Teams are usually disbanded at the end
Operations are repetitive and on-going
• Projects are an increasingly important
means of implementing strategy
• Project goals can be progressively elaborated
over time
• Project management is “the application of
knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to
meet project requirements”.
• Now an IEEE Standard (IEEE1490)
• Project Management Institute
• Guide to the Project Management Body of
Knowledge (PMBOK)
• PM is seen in a broad context
• Management of team, risk, quality & external
stakeholders as well as cost and time
• Most projects are over time and over
budget (often significantly)
• On average only 25% of projects meet all of
their goals, around 25% fail completely
• According to the CHAOS report the average
project in 2001 was:
• 163% over time
• 145% over budget
• PM can:
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Justify work and changes
Improve tracking of critical variables
Identify tasks at differing levels of complexity
Decrease project costs
Let everyone know how they fit in
Improve client reporting
Decrease development time/costs and increase
productivity and reusability
“If you fail to plan then plan to fail”
Scope
Time
Cost
Quality/
Risk
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Initiating
Planning
Executing
Controlling
Closing
• Project scope management
• Defining and controlling what is, or is not,
included in the project deliverables
• Project charter
• A written statement of project scope that is
formally agreed with stakeholders and
shared with the team
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Problem/opportunity
Project name, sponsor, manager
Singular Project Goal
Objectives that are Specific, Measurable,
Assignable, Realistic, Time based (SMART)
• Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
• Success criteria
• Assumptions, risks, obstacles
• Scope Verification
• A process should be defined for how the
stakeholder will formally accept that
deliverables have been achieved
• Can verify at various stages or phases
• Verification may be conditional
• Scope Change
• A process should also be defined for how
scope can be adjusted and the resulting
impacts on cost, time, and risk quantified.
• A WBS is a categorization and
decomposition of project deliverables
• Work packages are the lowest level of the
structure
• They are the smallest deliverables
• 8-80 hours of work (1 day-2 weeks per person/team)
• Can be further decomposed into activities or
tasks
• The WBS is the input to all other project
plans
• Work that is not in the WBS is not in the project !
• Ideally a team-based activity (offline with
whiteboard)
• Break the project into phases
• By lifecycle, milestones, or obligations
• Decompose the phases into discrete
deliverables
• Decompose the deliverables into work
packages using the 8/80 rule
• Must be able to assign time and resources
• Create WBS diagram
Screen clipping taken: 10/29/2007, 12:43 PM
Screen clipping taken: 10/29/2007, 12:56 PM
• Next steps
• Include milestones to mark end of each
phase
• Convert WBS to MS Project to create
timeline (see Donaldson example)
• Present to project sponsor and key project
stakeholders
• Get formal approval
• Begins with a lifecycle of major phases
• I work the WBS in iterative cycles
• Start with high level activities
• Add sub-activities
(note that activities are not really part of WBS)
• Decompose as deeply as you need
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Down to one individual working 1-10 days
The lowest level should have one individual
A list of assignments and accountabilities
Let the team fill in low-level activities
• Length of time predicted from personal
experience, historical data and team
• In your teams, create a WBS for the EMBA
trip next year
• Use MS Project to determine how early the
planning needs to start if the trip must start no
later than December 4, 2008
• MS Project Skills
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Enter phases, tasks, and durations
Link phases (create dependencies)
Set milestones
Set start date
• By now, we have the project charter,
scope, and WBS
• We need to add:
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Schedule and cost estimates
Performance measurement baselines
Milestones and target dates
Required staff
• Extras
• Risk, quality, staffing, communications
• Technically, the WBS contains only
deliverables not activities
• The work packages need to be
decomposed into activities (even subactivities)
• Choo’s advice is useful – 1 person for 1
to 10 days
• Once the activities have been defined
they need to be sequenced
• Constraints (see advanced tab)
• Do what? Start/Finish
• When? No earlier than/ No later than/ On
this date / As Soon as Possible /As Late as
Possible
• Lag time is also possible
• Double click on a task to set all task
information
• Once sequencing has been done, the
“work” required for each activity has to
be estimated
• Estimates based on experience/history
• Time units –m, h, d, w, mo
• Work is the total number of actual, physical,
hands-on time required to complete an
activity or task
• By default,
• One day equals 8 hours, one week equals 40
hours, and one month equals 20 working days.
• 8:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. is the default work day.
• Change Tools:Options:Schedule
• Default task type: Fixed work
• Show assignment units as: Decimal
• Change Gantt chart/entry table
• Hide start/finish dates, add “Work” column
• Window: Split, View: Task Details Form
• Duration = Work/Resource Units
• If a resource’s workday is eight hours and he or she
is assigned to work on a task at 100% Units (for
eight hours of work), then the Duration is eight
hours (one day by default).
Now let’s say you change the Units to 50%. Then
the Duration becomes 16 hours or two days,
because if a person is working half of an eight-hour
day on this task, then it will take them 16 hours (two
days) to complete eight hours of work.
• We can fix duration, work or units
• I prefer fixed work – so duration and resources float
• Working with units of time rather than
specific dates allows more flexibility
• We have used Gantt charts, a project
network diagram is an alternative way of
representing a project.
• Establishes the “critical path”
• Contingency planning
• Allows the team to “tinker” with alternate
dependencies and constraints
• Network Diagram Example
• The critical path is the longest duration from
project start to finish
• If any activity on the critical path is delayed the
project is going to be late
• Slack is the limit an activity not on the
critical path can be delayed
• Free slack – the time a single activity can be
delayed without delaying successors
• Total slack – the time an activity can be delayed
without delaying the entire project
• Project slack – the time the project can be
delayed before missing the customer deadline
• Fast tracking
• Parallel rather than sequential (FS to SS)
• Can add some lag to second task to create
a partial overlap
• Can be risky if first task delayed
• Crashing
• More resources – but not all tasks can be
shortened with more resources
• Always reflect the accurate amount of time
it should take to complete a task
• Don’t inflate time to allow for mistakes, rework,
and late activities
• Parkinson’s law – work will expand to fill the
time available
• A management reserve is an artificial task
at the end of a project
• 10-15% of total time
• Overruns are applied to the reserve
• A resource is defined as any people,
equipment, or materials
• View Resource Sheet, Table: Entry
• Key variables
• Type – work (per hour), material (per unit), or
cost (per activity)
• Max Units: 50% or 3 engineers
• Rates –per time period (m, d, mo, y) or per use
• Double click for resource information
• Flexible availability, costs, calendar
• Accrual methods – start, prorated, end
• Insights
• Includes 12-15% variance for unknowns
• Assessing time required and assigning
resources with no slack (or over-allocation)
are the toughest tasks
• Consult team members so you don’t create
a schedule you can’t deliver
• Don’t be too generous though
• On going deliverables and communication
with client can make a difficult project easier
• Take your WBS from the first exercise
and convert it to a project schedule by
adding activities using the 8/80 rule
• Assign resources
• Keong, Dean Jarley, Jan, Bob, Travel Agent,
Other Internal & External Parties
• Find the critical path and then try shortening
• What risks does this entail?
• Team has to be motivated and monitored
• Project status meetings (usually weekly)
• Reporting,
• Generating a sense of responsibility &
ownership (peer pressure helps the former)
• Acknowledgements and thank yous
• Review of status and risks
• Remediation (if necessary)
• Tools to track include:
• E-mail, spreadsheets, web forms, MS
project direct, MS project server
• Each report should include costs and %
of total work completed
• If work is getting off schedule
• Add additional resources
• Invoke the management reserve (reduce the
reserve and add time to late task)
• Reassign the work unit
Term
Definition
Sample Value
Budget at Completion (BAC)
Estimated total cost of project
$100,000
Percent actual complete (%A)
Actual reported amount of work 20%
completed
Percent planned complete (%P)
Planned proportion of work that 25%
should have been completed
Earned Value (EV)
%A x BAC
$20,000
Planned Value (PV)
%P x BAC
$25,000
Actual Costs (AC)
Funds actually expended
$15,000
Term
Definition
Sample Value
Cost Variance
EV-AC
+$5000
Schedule Variance
EV-PV
-$5000
Cost performance index (CPI)
EV/AC
20/15 = 1.33
Schedule performance index (SPI) EV/PV
20/25=0.8
Estimate at completion (EAC)
BAC/CPI
100/1.33=75.19
Estimated time
Total Est time/SPI
6 mths/.8=7.5mths
• Lack of supervision is fatal
• Coming in on time and budget is bloody
difficult
• Try using dynamic digital dashboards for
feedback (especially when team is
dispersed)
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Throttle resources up and down as needed
Ongoing reward and recognition
Communication and feedback is the key
Learn from lessons learned – after action
• Complete Exercise 3b on page 310
• In your teams, complete
• the Blue Zuma Project Parts 1-5
• The Conveyor Belt Project
• You are free to leave when the exercises
are completed!
• I will for consultation on all issues (except
the answers)
• Baseline, tracking, leveling