7/11/13 Advanced Program Management

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Week 7: Optimal Capacity Utilization and Emerging Project Management Approaches - Lecture

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Trends in Project Management and Emerging Project Management Systems

PgM | Agile | Theory of Constraints—Critical Chain Management | Critical Chain—If It Is So Good, WhyDoesn’t Everyone Use It? | Your Responsibility

Project management, as a profession, is still a factor in our economy. However, a PMP certification is oftenrequired, and many organizations are also requiring solid experience and additional certifications. Some goodadvice includes getting and/or keeping your PMP current and then earn certification in the areas in which you workin project management. An area that has gotten attention is that of combining the roles of project manager andbusiness analyst (PM/BA). Organizations have found that the PM/BA is more astute to the organizational needs inrelation to the project being implemented.

PgM

One area finally being taken seriously by many industries is Program Management (PgM). Research is showingthat organizations will be investing more in PgM training, methodology, and models. Skills that PMs need to befocusing on are critical thinking, communication (formal and informal), change management, and working withvirtual teams. Organizations are putting more emphasis on collaborative software tools for sharing artifacts andWeb-based access.

Other trends that are being noted are

increased lean methodology;increased technology;flatter organizations;empowered employees;more collaboration to manage globalization;greater value on requirement collection; andrisk management for success.

Agile

Agile continues to grow and is being blended with waterfall, creating a hybridapproach. Organizations are looking for agile to show its effectives throughROI. The agile process was coined in 2001 by the Agile Manifesto, and hasso far been used primarily in software development projects. The premise ofthe agile method is that a team of professionals works closely together todevelop, test, and implement the software in small steps called iterations.The iterations are short in time and may last only a day, a week, or a month.The management of the project is different from traditional schedulingmethods in that a project manager isn't scheduling out the entire project atthe outset. Typically, activities have dependencies and don't start until oneactivity has ended. Under the agile process, a team of cross-functionalprofessionals is working together and focusing on just getting a small component of the larger project completed—from development to testing—and then moving on to the next iteration. This can best be clarified using an example.

7/11/13 Advanced Program Management

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In traditional scheduling of a software development, a schedule might consist of Conception => Development =>Testing => Implementation. This project may last for 6 months and the testing portion might not be scheduled untilthe fourth or fifth month. Under the agile method, however, the same project (which may also last for 6 months)may be broken into six or seven iterations, with each iteration corresponding to a specific segment of the software.At the point an iteration is complete, that segment of the software can actually be loaded, tested, andimplemented. For example, you might think of a project to develop software like Microsoft Word. Rather than buildthe entire program and then test the whole thing at once, an agile process might break up the softwaredevelopment into iterations based on the various commands. One iteration might be to get the Clipboard(copy/paste) feature to work. Another iteration might be to get the Mail Merge/Envelope feature to work, and so on.

Being a project manager for a project using the agile method is quite different from being the project manager on atraditional project. An agile project manager is more of a visionary. The project manager has to guide the workflowand make sure the project team has the resources and materials it needs, but under the agile process, it's theteam who is actually driving the schedule. In fact, it has been recognized that the people involved in the work needto be the ones scheduling the work because they, in fact, know how long each process is going to take. This is adeviation from the traditional project, where the project manager enters all of the durations in Microsoft Project andcomputes when tasks should start, stop, or be delayed.

The idea that a project will be scheduled down to the lowest WBS level at the outset also goes out the door withthe agile process. In fact, it is recognized that low-level scheduling should only be done in the short term (i.e., forthe next one or two iterations). The project will still have a due date, and it may have its highest WBS levelsscheduled, but the actual work cannot be planned way out in the future, and neither can resources or cost.

The agile method is definitely a different way of managing a project. Project managers will need to rethink their rolein a project. Resources will need to work together more closely in a cross-functional team environment. Someproponents of agile actually say that these resources need to be organized in an open work space, bullpen style,so that they can interact on a moment-by-moment basis. Because of the close-knit working relationships,destructive conflict needs to be minimized; hence, the project manager's role as a visionary. The project managerkeeps the team focused and on track, but does not dictate the schedule or timing.

Theory of Constraints—Critical Chain Management

Critical chain management was introduced by Dr. Eliyahu M. Goldratt. His book made quite a stir because hechallenges many project management concepts. For example, he discourages multitasking, highly recommendsincluding the human constraint within the project planning, and suggests that many projects will be done moreefficiently if they are done serially rather than in parallel. Critical chain management has wide acceptance in muchof the scheduling done within the manufacturing communities. Through a series of iterative steps, critical chain inmanufacturing attempts to increase efficiency and productivity on the assembly line. The theory of constraints(TOC) has the following attributes:

1. finds the current resource that is most constraining (holding back) throughput in the system (i.e., theconstraint);

2. does everything possible to keep the constraint resource focused on its primary function3. dedicates whatever resources and processes are available to support its productivity;4. "elevates" capabilities of that resource; and5. once the constraint of that resource is "broken," seeks to find other constraints in the system and "loops

back" through these five steps.

So, can this process that has worked so well in the manufacturing environment be just as readily applied to projectmanagement? In some respects, yes; in others, no. The project/program is a unique endeavor with a definitebeginning and end, whereas manufacturing for the most part is a predictable process that produces the same thingall the time. The project has some processes that are predictable, but overall, the project is not a predictableentity.

The above five steps can be applied to project risks, or they can be applied to the critical path. According to thesteps, the project manager should focus all his or her resources on the critical path or on the risks that have

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occurred. According to the TOC, this will ensure the project is progressing. However, there is an issue; if we onlywork on the critical path, we are creating other critical work because we are neglecting the items that also need tobe done. Hence, in theory, we are constantly working in a crisis situation.

Critical Chain—If It Is So Good, Why Doesn’t Everyone Use It?

Critical chain adapts well within the manufacturing environment and it may adapt well for project management.However, it is a radical departure from the tried-and-true processes/procedures readily accepted in projectmanagement. Changing the way program and project managers schedule and organize a project is going to taketime. In addition, the number of large-scale projects that have demonstrated a clear success is not large. This mayhave been because TOC was not clearly understood or the team had a bias against it and discomfort using it. Butremember, it took earned value management over 20 years—and the Department of Defense mandating itsuse—for it to become a standard within the community, so there is hope for critical chain!

Critical chain has not yet been adopted as the de facto standard for project management in the PMBOK Guide.However, the PMBOK Guide does address the critical chain method as a schedule network analysis technique.While the PMBOK does separate critical chain as its own thought process, it's at least a step in the right direction!

Your Responsibility

As graduate students it is your responsibility to continue learning and researching the trends and emergingtechnologies of your profession. Below I have provided links to some areas that may be of interest to you. Keep inmind that your profession is evolving and it is up to you to stay current or be left behind.

What is scrum? (http://www.slideshare.net/tommynorman/project-management-with-scrum)

Compare PMBOK to scrum (http://www.slideshare.net/thush/comparison-of-pmbok-and-scrum-presentation)

Agile PM with scrum (http://www.slideshare.net/aditya.internet/agile-project-management-with-scrum?src=related_normal&rel=743220)

What is agile management? (http://www.slideshare.net/jurgenappelo/what-is-agile-management)

Waterfall method (http://www.slideshare.net/jatinder_dolon/waterfall-10709149)

ALM – Application Life Cycle Management (http://www.slideshare.net/jurgenappelo/agile-alm)

Lean (http://www.slideshare.net/gcaprio/intro-to-lean-software-development)