Project Management Basics

By the time we are done….Attendees should understand

– Why project management is worth caring about

– What is and isn’t a project– Phases of a project– Understand core components

of project management (the must do components)

– Resources available regarding project management

Shout Outs• Shout out a project……..

Why I Care!• Has to be a better way!• Increase likelihood of success• So….what’s up with libraries?

Why we should all Care..

PERVERSEINCENTIVES

What is (and isn’t )a Project? • Formal definition

“A project is a temporary endeavor with a defined beginning and end (usually time-constrained, and often constrained by funding or deliverables), undertaken to meet unique goals and objectives, typically to bring about beneficial change or added value”

• Ok…..but what does that really mean?

Making it Useful…..

Mylibrary.us

Phases of a Project

1. INITIATING – let’s decide to do this thing!

2. PLANNING– majority of heavy lifting should happen here

3. EXECUTING– let’s do this thing!

4. MONITORING & CONTROLLING – are we on track?

5. CLOSING – where did everyone go?

Basics

• Important Roles– Sponsor– Project manager– Project Team

• The Big Three1.Scope 2.Work break down3.Risk register

• Triple Constraint– can’t always get what you

want…

Basics: Scope

• Mapping out your effort– WHY – why are we doing this?– WHO – needs to be involved

• Who makes the call (clear decision structure)• Positive and negative stakeholders

– WHAT - will define ‘done’, what will be in place, what is and is not included

– WHEN - milestones (high level)– HOW – communicate (communications

plan)– Other components

• Rough costs• Assumptions • Dependencies - what will this impact or be

impacted by

Basic: Work break down • Building a driving plan • The details

– What happens when– Dependencies – Who is responsible– Back schedule – PM Responsibility: to build a

REALISTIC plan

Basics: Risk Register• This will NEVER work

because…….• Plan for the bad stuff

– identify the risk– define how to mitigate the risk – define a response plan if it

happens

PM Applied (Real Life)• Real life lessons learned

– Scope is so so so so so important

– Planning is so so so so important– Make qualitative quantitative– Ask the tough questions – Yes, it’s work (but it’s better to do

work and realize success then to ‘wing it’ and fail)

Practical take Aways• Get a scope document template

and try it out for one of your projects.

• For riskier projects, use and excel template to create a risk register. Work through mitigation and response steps.

• Play with projectmanager.com or another tool. Try to setup a basic work break down where you create a couple of dependencies.

• Visit myhighplains.us for all resources from today

Let’s work One• Time permitting

– Defining it’s done– Measures of success– Who decides what– Dependencies– Risks

Wrap up • Were topic targets covered• Resources for you • Questions?• For a copy of this presentation

and resource links visit mylibrary.us