PROJECT MANAGEMENTLIKE DRINKING FROM A FIRE HOSE AND SYNCHRONIZED SWIMMING…ALL AT ONCE….

THANKS TO DR. BILL OAKES & PAMELA DEXTER FOR PUBLICLY SHARING THEIR LESSONS.

WHERE DO YOU BEGIN?

A large project with lots of people = CONFUSION

What must a group do to ensure success?

•Designating leaders, groups, and sub-groups

•Outlining goals, subgoals, and creating a list of tasks

DEFINE YOUR GOAL

•Make sure everybody in the team understands what the end

product (deliverable) is supposed to be.

•Keep all deliverable requirements and specifications in mind

•Plan out what the deliverable will look like and how it will

function (design) and how the end user will interact with it.

Keep customer service in mind!

QUESTIONS YOU NEED TO ANSWER NOW

•What do you and/or your team need to do first? What should come next? Figure out a basic flow of accomplishments.

•How many people do you need to accomplish your project? What resources do you need to accomplish your project?

•How long will it take? Estimate time for sub-tasks too!

•When does the project need to be finished? Set other deadlines for project milestones along the way.

•How will you know when you are done with the project? What are your indicators for success?

CREATE A PROJECT CHARTER• Project Charter = document that outlines overall project and acts as a guide

throughout

• Use the answers to the questions in the last slide to guide its creation

• The elements of a charter include:• Description of Objectives (what are you trying to accomplish?)

• Outcomes or deliverables (describe the finished product)

• Duration (how long will all this take? include sub-tasks and milestones within the project)

• Community Partners (will you need to reach out to others to help complete this project?)

• Stakeholders (who are you doing this for? what do they want?)

• Team membership and roles (who will lead, who will support, how are you organizing groups and sub-groups?)

• Planning information (when and how will your teams meet? what tools will you use to collaborate?)

TEAM ROLES (IN GENERAL)

• Team Leader/Project Manager – Organization of the team and project tasks

• Project Leaders – If you have multiple projects you may need to break the

leadership down into project leaders

• Liaison – Primary contact with outside groups/partners

• Financial Officer – Manages the team’s budget

• Webmaster – If your team would like to create a webpage you might want to

assign a webmaster

• Can you think of other positions that would be useful for a group project?

GRAPHIC ORGANIZATION

•PERT Charts

•Flow Charts

•Chronograms

•Gantt Charts

•Calendars

PERT CHARTS (PROGRAM EVALUATION & REVIEW TECHNIQUE)

• Items are listed in blocks

• What it is

• Duration

• Who is responsible

• Used to determine what tasks can

be done in parallel and what have

to be done in series

FLOW CHARTS

• Like PERT charts, but simpler.

• One flow of events

• Any event is dependent upon the

previous event’s completion

• Due date

• Who is responsible?

First Goal

• Due Date

• Who is responsible?

Second Goal

• Due Date

• Who is responsible?

Third Goal

CHRONOGRAMS

• Lists out all tasks in order

• Keeps track of due dates, start

dates, and completion dates

• Fill-as-you-go style is good for

recording progress

GANTT CHARTS

• Rows represent tasks or deadlines

• Columns represent time

• Visually show sequences and timing

• Assigns responsibility

• Shows progress relative to planning

Project Tasks 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

Bring new team members up to speed on MagRacer (all)

Solve FET prolem in demo track (Brad/Julie)

Concept of MagRacer2 cabinet (Syed/Erin)

Meet with IS people/ visit IS (all)

Finalize track/coil assembly (Syed/Julie)

AutoCAD drawings of MagRacer2 cabinet (Erin/Brad)

Finalize display concept (Julie)

Deliver working test track (Syed/Julie)

Week 4 Demo (all)

Milestone: Submit MR2 drawings to WP (Erin/Brad)

Complete PCB layout (Syed/Julie)

Milestone: Submit PCB layout for fabrication (Syed/Julie)

Final order of all circuit material (Syed/Julie)

Construct coils (Julie/Syed)

Construct track mounting hardware (Erin/Brad)

Construction of visual display (Julie)

Week 8 Progress Report (Brad)

Exected delivery of MG2 cabinet from WP (4wk) (WP - Erin)

Expected delivery of PCBs (3wk) (Syed)

Spring Break (all)

Final assembly of MagRacer2 (all)

Week 11 Design Review (all)

Milestone: Delivery of completed MagRacer2 (all)

Troubleshoot MagRacer2 (Syed/Julie)

Prep documentation for MagRacer2 (Brad/Erin)

Week 16 End of Semester reports due (Brad)

MagRacer 2.0 Timeline (weeks)

CALENDARS

• Very popular recently thanks to

Google Calendars

• Good visual representation of due

dates

• Interactive calendars (like Google)

also have built-in reminders and task

lists

FOLLOW-UP MEETINGS & ACCOUNTABILITY

• Industry standard: “80 hour rule”

• Meet on a regular basis to update each other on progress

• Teams and subgroups should have products/milestones to present at every

meeting

• Adjustments can/should be made to overall schedules during these meetings;

new due dates set; unforeseen events clarified; new resources considered; etc.

• Project Managers and Team Leaders should keep track of all progress,

informing leaders above them. Also responsible for helping subgroups catch

up and stay on time

GOOD PLANNING• Check points/milestones/gates

• At this time, the following will be functional/completed…

• Provides accountability and process checks

• Are we on time?

• Being honest with the team

• Is a subgroup behind

• “Not behind if we are ahead of the others…”

• Honest appraisals

• Short tasks that break things up

THIS CLASS

•Many professional companies have their own system for Project Management

•We will be making ours up as we go along, documenting the whole process!

• Let’s explore many different ways to plan, schedule, and document