Notes on Project Management

1
Notes on Project Management

• Prepared for the entrepreneurship
• course at WIU, Feb. 23, 2006
• by Brian M. Davies, Physics Dept.

2
Characteristics of Projects

• Goal something not done before
• Product a specific accomplishment
• Resources people and things
• Size program gt project gt tasks gt jobs
• Marketplace personal or family,
  organization-sponsored, customer-sponsored,
  subcontracted, or government.

3
Project Management Process- has 5 major stages

• Defining the projects goals
• Planning - how to satisfy Triple Constraint
• Leading - guidance to human resources,
  subordinates, subcontractors
• Monitoring - measure, control, correct plan
• Completing - meet goals, documentation

4
The Triple Constraint on Projects

• Project manager must consider 3 constraints
• Performance specifications (technical folks may
  focus too heavily on this)
• Time schedule (due dates)
• Money budget - dollars for materials, supplies,
  internal support, subcontracts, etc., and for
  labor hours (equivalent to dollars !)

5
Obstacles to satisfying the constraint on
performance

• performance problems - fail to meet specs !
• poor communication between customer and
  contractor (definitions, culture, detail)
• overly optimistic assumptions (ambition)
• poor design, mistakes in carrying out the
  contract, errors by workers and managers,
  accidents.

6
Obstacles to satisfying the constraint on time
schedule

• overemphasis on performance vs. meeting time and
  budget constraints (engineers may try to achieve
  breakthroughs and ignore time and budget required
  by customer)
• resources not available when needed
• performance specs changed mid-project
• subordinates fail to give proper priority

7
Obstacles to satisfying the constraint on cost
and budget

• Failure to meet time constraint usually costs
  more because of lack of efficiency.
• Reducing cost estimates to win bid causes a
  built-in cost overrun from the start.
• Initial cost estimates are often too optimistic.
• Mistakes, bad cost management, cash flow.

8
Stage 1 defining project goals

• Framework - reject losing projects
• Requirements, feasibility, value of project
• Proposal - winning the competition
• Proposal process - S.O.W, plan, checklists
• Negotiations and contracts
• Legal issues and regulations

9
Stage 2 planning the project

• a. Where are you now?
• b. Where do you want to go?
• c. Define the way to get from here to there.
• Plans will include
• Resource requirements people, things,
• Timing scheduling these resources

10
Coordinate and communicate!

• People who will do the work know more about it
  than others get them to help plan!
• Plan to make it their task as well as yours.
• Money, commodities, and some internal support may
  be easy to obtain.
• Human resources may not be available at any
  reasonable cost (hiring is not easy).

11
Establish a basis for control

• Sufficient authority needed for resource
  allocation, not based on mutual favors.
• Methods of monitoring progress of project are
  needed to allow adjustment when deviations from
  plan are recognized.
• Plan better - to avoid continual crises and the
  need for constant firefighting.

12
Some planning issues

• Uncertainty and risk checklists, contingencies,
  participant assumptions.
• Choices between options during project
  performance, early ordering of supplies, (example
  of assigning subordinate tasks).
• Planning is a way of simulating the project.

13
Work Breakdown Structure

• SOW - Statement of Work contains the three
  constraint topics deliverables (with specs if
  needed), schedule, and budget.
• WBS divide project into tasks or activities.
• The WBS should be divided into tangible
  deliverable items (hardware items, software
  packages, interim reports in R D).

14
Scheduling Tools

• Bar charts (Gantt charts)
• Milestones (based on key events)
• - but both of these are useless for specifying
  interdependencies and clarifying activities.
• Network diagrams - PERT, CPM, etc. show
  interdependencies and precedence.

15
Example of a Gantt chart from a proposal
16
A shorter Gantt chartNote how it fails to
indicate dependencies. No task assignments are
shown. Milestones might be inferred from the
endpoint of the timeline for each task.
17
Task A
Task B
Task C
now
6 months

• Bar charts can show percentage completion and can
  be used to estimate schedule performance, but
  fail to indicate dependencies that could cause
  project to be late.

18
PERT diagrams

• Program Evaluation and Review Technique
• Event-oriented - events labels go in the nodes of
  the diagram, surrounded by boxes, ovals, or other
  closed curve.
• Often used in R D where time needed for an
  activity is uncertain (aerospace, science,
  leading-edge engineering projects)

19
PERT/CPM diagram conventions

• Event labels go in the nodes of the diagram,
  surrounded by boxes, ovals, or other closed
  curve.
• Activities are labeled on the arrows of the
  diagram, with nodes to delimit start and finish.
  

Activity
Start activity
Finish activity
20
CPM - Critical Path Method

• Activity-oriented (activity labels go on the
  paths between nodes)
• Often used in construction where the time needed
  for an activity can be controlled.
• Dummy activity labels can indicate precedence
  requirements.
• The critical path is often highlighted it is a
  path through the network which contains
  activities which must stay on schedule.

21
Critical path method (without time-base).
Critical path is shown as the thickest line.
A1
A2
B
H
D2
C
D1
G
F
E1
E2
Precedence condition is indicated by a
dummy activity (long-dash).
Slack is shown as dotted lines.
22
Further reading

• Rosenau, Milton D., Project management for
  engineers
• (Belmont, Calif. Lifetime Learning
  Publications, c1984).
• WIU Library Main Collection - Malpass Library
  TA190 .R531984
• Kerzner, Harold., Project management a systems
  approach to planning, scheduling, and
  controlling , 6th ed
• (New York Van Nostrand Reinhold, c1998).
• WIU Libraries Regional Center REGIONAL HD69.P75
  K471998
• and many more, even for Dummies.
• Programs are available Microoft Project ()
  or IMSI TurboProject ()
• (the last resort always try to do planning by
  hand first)