management base camp - williams college

Project Management Base CampGrab some refreshments, take a seat, name on both sides of your name plate, meet your neighbors!

Kevin R. ThomasManager, Training & [email protected]

What Do You Mean by Base Camp?

• In 2 hours we can’t climb the mountain, but t i t d t th k dwe can get oriented to the peaks around us.

Project Management Base Camp 1

Program Outline• Planning

– Project mission – Goals– Stakeholder analysis and communication

• Implementation– Milestones – The Planning Fallacy– Work breakdown and dependencies– Project team meetingsProject team meetings

• Completion– After Action Review– Celebration

Let’s Begin at the Ending

• Think of a project you were i l d iinvolved in.

• Complete the worksheet.• What did you learn?


Post Project Review

Project:

1. Did the project meet its stated objectives? Why or why not?

2. How close was the project to meeting its scheduled completion date?

3. How close was the project to being completed within budget?

4. Did the scope of the project change after the project was under way? If so, what was the overall impact of the change of scope? How were changes approved?

5. How was project status communicated during the course of the project?

6. In general, how well did the team members collaborate? Why was this so?

7. At the end of the project, was there a formal process for gathering lessons learned or any sort of review?

8. Overall, would you say that the project was successful? Why or why not?


Definitions

• Project:t ti it d i d ta temporary group activity designed to

produce a unique product, service or result.• Project Management:

the application of knowledge, skills and techniques to execute projects effectively and q p j yefficiently.

Planning

• Project Charter– Mission– Goals– Stakeholder Analysis– Others


Project Charter

a statement of the scope, b dobjectives, and

participants in a project. It provides a preliminary delineation of roles and responsibilities, outlines the project objectives, identifies the main stakeholders, and defines the authority of the project manager.

Project Mission

"If you don't know where you are going you might wind up

• Describes why the project is being

going, you might wind up someplace else." - Yogi Berra

• Describes why the project is being undertaken, and the benefits it hopes to achieve.


Example

• By developing a robust program of HR Analytics, we canwe can:– Fulfill our role as strategic partners to Harvard Library Leadership by identifying strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats with regard to the development of the Harvard Library workforce.

– Prioritize and customize HR Programs and services toPrioritize and customize HR Programs and services to maximize their value to the organization.

– Make powerful impact statements about the nature, volume, and value of our work.

Your Turn!

• Write a mission statement for your project.• Pair up and share your statement with your partner.

• Get feedback on your mission statement from your partner (strengths, opportunities for improvement)improvement)


Mission Statement

Mission statements should be:

• Brief: You could say it in the course of a ride up an elevator with someone. • Concrete: The project is described in terms that are immediately graspable by your

audience. • Impactful: The benefits of the project are vividly described.

and should answer the following questions:

• What? What are the project’s objectives? • Why? Why are we doing this? • How? How will we achieve the project’s objectives?

In the space below, write a mission statement for your project:


Project Goals

• Goals are the concrete accomplishments that will fulfill the project’s mission.

Project Goal Example

• "upgrade the helpdesk telephone system by D b 31 t hi li t itDecember 31 to achieve average client wait times of no more than two minutes"


Your Turn!

• Write one of the goals for your project. Make it t ll f th SMART it isure it meets all of the SMART criteria.

• Pair up with someone else, and share the goal you’ve written.

• Get feedback from your partner.


SMART Goals

Goals are the concrete achievements that will fulfill the project’s mission. Ideally, goals are:

• Specific • Measureable • Attainable • Relevant • Time Bound

In the space below, write one of the goals of your project.


Project Stakeholders• Stakeholder: anyone that

has an interest in or will be i d b h jimpacted by the project.

• Stakeholders have various degrees of power and influence, attitudes towards the project, hopes and fears, strengths and limitations, etc.C i i i h k• Communication is the key to stakeholder management

Your Turn

• Complete the stakeholder analysis worksheet.• What did you learn? How will you communicate with this stakeholder based on your analysis?


Stakeholder Analysis

Project:

Stakeholder:

Using this bulls-eye, mark how critical this stakeholder is to your project:

What are this stakeholder’s hopes for the project? Core

Key

Peripheral

What are their fears for the project?

What strengths, qualities, or resources can this stakeholder bring to your project?

What limitations of this stakeholder most concern you?

How much political power or influence does this stakeholder have?

1 Minimal

2 3 4 5 Middling

6 7 8 9 10 High

How opposed or in favor of the project is this stakeholder?

1 Strongly Opposed

2 3 4 5 Neutral

6 7 8 9 10 Strongly In Favor

Based on what you know of this stakeholder, what strategies could you use to best enlist them for your project? How will you communicate with them? How often?


Other Planning Elements to Consider

• Take a look at the rest of the definitions. • Complete Project Charters often describe all of these elements.


Project Management Definitions

Term Definition Assumptions

Documents the important conditions of the project environment that are considered to be fundamental. Essentially, project assumptions are low probability risks.

Charter

A statement of the scope, objectives, and participants in a project. It provides a preliminary delineation of roles and responsibilities, outlines the project objectives, identifies the main stakeholders, and defines the authority of the project manager. It serves as a reference of authority for the future of the project.

Critical Path

The sequence of scheduled activities that determines the duration of the project. Represents the minimum amount of time needed to complete a project.

Goals

The concrete accomplishments that will accomplish the project’s mission.

Milestones A marker for the completion of a key phase of a project. Mission

A brief description of why the project is being undertaken, and the benefits it hopes to achieve.

Planning Fallacy

The tendency for people and organizations to underestimate how long they will need to complete a task.

Project

A temporary group activity designed to produce a unique product, service or result.

Project Management

The application of knowledge, skills and techniques to execute projects effectively and efficiently.

Risk Analysis

The identification, assessment, and prioritization of risks that may impact the project, in order to inform action planning.

Scope The features and functions that characterize a product, service, or result. Sponsor

An organizational leader who is responsible for success of the project, and who is most interested in the project’s success.

Stakeholder

Anyone that has an interest in or will be impacted by the project.

Stakeholder Analysis

The process of identifying the individuals or groups that are likely to affect or be affected by a proposed action, and sorting them according to their impact on the action and the impact the action will have on them. This information is used to assess how the interests of those stakeholders should be addressed in a project plan, policy, program, or other action.

Task Dependencies

Work that must be completed before work can begin on a given task.

Triple Constraint

Time, cost, and quality. Project scope should be limited to what can be accomplished within these constraints.

Work Breakdown Structure

A hierarchical analysis of the tasks needed to accomplish milestones and project goals.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Policy

Implementation

• Milestones• Planning Fallacy• Work breakdown and task dependencies• Team meetings• Managing people

Milestones

• Mark the completion of key h f th j tphases of the project.

• Aid in gauging the timeliness of project completion.

• Create an occasion for mini‐celebrationscelebrations


Example

STYLE

PACK

PATCH&

PAINT

MOVE10/26

STYLE

OPEN HOUSE11/3

ExamplePACKTODAY:

Buy

PATCH&

PAINT

MOVE10/26

STYLEOPEN HOUSE11/3

Boxes and

Painting Materials


Your Turn!

• What are the key milestones of your project, d th d dli i t d ith th ?and the deadlines associated with them?


Project Management Base Camp

Milestones Exercise

Use this space as a canvas. Use sticky notes to indicate the main milestones of your project. You can add dates and key task owners if you know them. Use arrows to show which milestones depend on each other. Be creative … whatever works best for you and gives you perspective on your project.


Beware the Planning Fallacy• The first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary was scheduled to take two years to complete...

• Five years later they had only reached the word “ant.”

• Psych. research has shown we systematicallyshown we systematically underestimate how long it will take to achieve goals.

Addressing the Planning Fallacy

• Others are more accurate at predicting than l k ll f tiwe are ourselves, so ask a colleague for a time

estimate.• Or:

– Make a prediction now, later see how accurate it was.

– In the future, multiply your time estimate by your personal planning fallacy multiple.


Work Breakdown and Dependencies

• Work Breakdown Structure• Dependencies: tasks that cannot be started until other tasks are complete.

• Track the task, dependencies, who is assigned, due date, and current status.

Project Team Meetings

• With some regularity (daily, weekly, monthly), ll t b th t t lk b tall team members gather to talk about:– What they have done since the last meeting– What obstacles they may have encountered– What they plan to do by the next meeting

• Choose someone to take notes and reviewChoose someone to take notes and review action commitments at the end of the meeting.


When They Don’t Do What They’re Supposed To …

• People are complicated.• All projects mean change.• “Yes” does not always mean “Yes”.

Your Turn

• Think of a time (present or past) when did ’t d thi thsomeone didn’t do something they were

supposed to do.• Complete the worksheet.• If you answered “Don’t Know”, how could you find out?find out?

• If you answered “Yes”, what could you do to influence this factor?


16 Reasons They’re Not Doing What They’re Supposed to Do

Adapted from Coaching for Improved Work Performance by Ferdinand Fournies

Could this be an issue?

Yes No

Don’t Know

1. They don’t know what they’re supposed to do.

2. They don’t know how to do it.

3. They don’t know why they should do it.

4. They think they are doing it, but they are not.

5. There are obstacles beyond their control.

6. They think it will not work.

7. They think their way is better.

8. They think something is more important.

9. There is no positive consequence to them for doing it.

10. There is a negative consequence to them for doing it.

11. There is a positive consequence to them for not doing it.

12. There is no negative consequence to them for not doing it.

13. Personal limits (capacity)

14. Personal problems

15. Fear (they anticipate future negative consequences for doing it)

16. No one could do it.


Task Completion

• Post Project Review• Celebration

Post Project Review

• Why would this be important?• Meet with project team, discuss and record:

– What went well– What you might have done differently

• Write up into a report for project sponsor


Celebration• Keep the team motivated and looking forward to completion• Leave people with a positive feeling about being on your

project team• Plan and budget your celebration like any other part of the

project.• Ideally, go to your celebration right after your post project

review.

Conclusion• Project Manager is:

– Cheerleader– Team Builder– Nudge– Politician– Time and Resource Engineer– Troubleshooter

• Every project you manage is an opportunity for you to develop and communicate values:develop and communicate values:– Accountability– Cooperation– Communication– Resilience


Thank You!

• Program evaluation link will be emailed to you t dtoday.

Kevin R. ThomasManager, Training & Development

[email protected]


Simple Project Task Management Using Excel

• Use a spreadsheet like this to track the status of action steps for your project. • Use the dependencies column to identify what may be delaying start on a particular item. • Regularly distribute updated spreadsheet to project team, so everyone knows who is

accountable for what.

Milestone Task ID # Action Needed Assigned To Due Date Status DependenciesTopic Selection 1.1 Write proposal for training series topics and objectives Kevin 12/1/2013 CompleteTopic Selection 1.2 Approve proposal Martha 12/7/2013 Complete 1.1Event coordination 2.1 Room reservation Colleen 12/15/2013 CompleteEvent coordination 2.2 Room setup Colleen 1/21/2014 Complete 3.4Event coordination 2.3 Catering Colleen 1/21/2014 Complete 3.4Communication & Registration 3.1 Web page and registration form Kevin 12/17/2013 Complete 1.2, 2.1Communication & Registration 3.2 Daily messages for series Kevin 12/18/2013 Complete 3.1Communication & Registration 3.3 Daily message for event Kevin 1/15/2014 Complete 3.1Communication & Registration 3.4 Finalize registration list Kevin 1/20/2014 CompleteCommunication & Registration 3.5 Pre‐work email to registrants Kevin 1/25/2014 Complete 3.4Design 4.1 Lesson plan Kevin 1/15/2014 Complete 3.1Design 4.2 Finalize Power Point Kevin 1/27/2014 Complete 4.1Design 4.3 Finalize Job Aids Kevin 1/27/2014 Complete 4.1Design 4.4 Finalize participant guide Kevin 1/28/2014 4.2, 4.3Delivery 5.1 All materials copied Kevin 1/29/2014 4.4Delivery 5.2 Presentation on backup usb stick Kevin 1/29/2014Delivery 5.3 Name Tents Kevin 1/29/2014Delivery 5.4 Flip chart Kevin 1/29/2014Delivery 5.5 Sign in sheet Kevin 1/29/2014 3.4Delivery 5.6 Remote Kevin 1/29/2014Delivery 5.7 Flip chart Kevin 1/29/2014Delivery 5.8 Post it notes Kevin 1/29/2014Delivery 5.9 Facilitate Program Kevin 1/29/2014Evaluation & Reporting 6.1 Create eval form Kevin 1/29/2014 4.1Evaluation & Reporting 6.2 Send link to participants Kevin 1/29/2014 6.1Evaluation & Reporting 6.3 Review results Kevin 2/14/2014 6.2Evaluation & Reporting 6.4 Data entry on PeopleSoft Doris 2/7/2014 5.7
