Project Management

Techniques and tools

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Project PlanningWhat is a project?

“A project is a temporary endeavour undertaken to achieve a particular aim and to which project management can be applied, regardless of the project’s size, budget, or timeline.”

http://www.pmi.org/info/PP_WhatIsAProject.asp

Project PlanningPeople undertake projects constantly:

Decorating a roomPlanning a partyLearning to driveWriting a piece of courseworkCooking a Sunday roastOrganising a holiday

Project Planning

In the workplace:

Designing a new financial systemDeveloping a system to automatically contact customersDesigning and planning a new office buildingInstalling a networkUpgrading all of the computer hardware

Project Planning

It doesn’t matter how large or small the project is, or whether it is for a personal or business reason, it will need some planning in order for it to be successful.

Project Planning

Imagine trying to cook a Sunday roast with no planning:

The Yorkshire Puddings are put into the oven before the meat.You come to make the stuffing and realise that you forgot to buy the ingredientsYour peas are overcooked and resemble green bulletsYou are serving up the food when you realise that you forgot to tell Auntie Mavis what time to arrive

Your lovely meal has turned into a bit of a disaster

Project PlanningYou want to decorate the lounge and decide to make a start

this weekend, but….

You forgot to strip the walls so most of the weekend is spent getting the old wallpaper offYou didn’t order enough wallpaper and find you are two rolls short. The shop is out of stock and the next batch is a slightly different shade.You bought white matt paint for the doors instead of white glossYou didn’t work out the costs of things and you don’t have quite enough money to buy all of the carpet you need – never mind – the sofa will cover up the hole!

Somehow, the finished effect isn’t going to be quite as you imagined.

Project PlanningWith a bit of planning before you started those

projects, you could have saved yourself time, money and stress!

The examples given were for small scale projects. Look at the potential for things to go wrong even with a little project. Imagine how many things could go wrong with a major project in the workplace? Imagine what the consequences could be of making mistakes in a multi-million pound project.

And don’t think that it doesn’t ever happen …………

Project Planning

Passport fiasco cost taxpayers £12m The cost of a passport could rise as a result of the chaos The National Audit Office says at least 500 holidaymakers missed their departure dates, following problems with a new computer system, which left the agency unable to issue passports on time.

NEWS STORY

Project Planning

Air traffic blur has Glasgow-bound flight heading to Wales

Passengers on a flight to Glasgow nearly ended up in Wales because air traffic controllers could not make out the characters on their new computer screens…..

NEWS STORY

Project Planning

Government faces £1.5bn bill for IT failures

The government's bill for failed IT projects has soared to £1.5bn since coming to power

The figure is the total cost of cancelled or over-budget schemes over the last six years, according to the survey published in the trade magazine Computing.

NEWS STORY

Project PlanningThe examples given were from real news stories

about some major IT projects which have gone horribly wrong.

Mistakes can be very expensive, they can even lead to bankruptcy or as you just saw, a potential disaster.

The key to any successful project, no matter who it is for, no matter what the cost or value, is PLANNING.

Without planning – things WILL go wrong!

Project PlanningSo what should you plan when you are

embarking on a project?

Project management can be broken down into four main areas:

BudgetDeadlinesSystemsPersonnel

Planning for these, will help to minimise mistakes

Budget

It may be that extra budget has to be allocated or costs need to be cut back.

Budget Monitoring

010000

200003000040000

5000060000

Time

Bud

get S

pend

ing

predicted spend

actual spend

•All projects should have a fixed budget set right at the outset.

•The actual spending on the project needs to be constantly checked against the forecast of spending. Use of graphs with ‘predicted spend’ graphed against ‘actual spend’.

•If the ‘actual spend’ is starting to rise above the forecast, things need to be looked at again.

DeadlinesWhen a business is going to embark on a project, they need to have some idea of how long it will take them to complete it.

Large scale projects cannot be completed by just one person. Teams of people with the required skills are normally formed right at the start of a project.

Generally, the more people that are allocated to a project team, the faster the project will be completed.

DeadlinesThe project will need to be broken down into different stages. Each stage will be set its own deadline. It is vital that the actual time which tasks take to complete are monitored and that this is compared against the projected time plan. That will enable the project manager to be alerted if the deadlines are starting to ‘slip’

Teamwork is dependent on people keeping to their deadlines. If one team fails to complete their task on time, any delay can mean that the second team can’t begin their work on time. This can have a considerable knock on effect on the final deadline

IntroductionThere are various techniques and tools which can be used to assist in ensuring that a project is carried out efficiently. This should have the effect of

Ensuring that the project doesn’t over run

Delays are spotted quickly and steps taken to rectify them

Keep within the allocated budget

Software & Techniques

Project Management Software

Critical Path Analysis

Gantt ChartPERT

Project Management Software

Software that allows you to construct and build CPA, PERT and Gantt charts.

Software allows lines of responsibility to be drawn and teams to be allocated.

Deadlines and tasks can be set and monitored.

Reports on all aspects of the project created – personnel, deadlines, financial.

Critical Path Analysis (CPA)

The critical path of a project is the path from start to end – longest path in the project.

Establishes all the tasks required to complete a project.

Allows an overview of tasks and schedules and moves overdue tasks into the critical path allowing extra resources/monitoring of the task.

Critical Path Analysis

Planning and Monitoring Tool

Critical Path Analysis

May be used as part of the decision making processEnables a firm to plan and monitor operationsTime related – identifies the maximum time for an operation to be completedIdentify potential problems in implementing operationIdentifies where and when resources (including human ones) are needed

Critical Path Analysis

AdvantagesMaximise efficiency in the use of time

Improve efficiency and generate cost saving in the use of resources

Beneficial to monitoring cash flow

DisadvantagesUsefulness may be limited in complex and large scale operations

Necessity of having clear and reliable information

Skilled management and team philosophy is essential

The Process

CPA – the Process

Identify and prioritise the activitiesIdentify which activities MUST be done before othersEST – identify earliest start timeLFT – identify latest finish timeIdentify the FLOAT – tasks which can be completed outside the critical pathIdentify the critical path – points connecting ESTs and LFTs (where these are the same)

Critical Path Analysis

Nodes: Show the start and finish of a task

1 2

Node numbers showing order of activities in the left hand semi-circle of each node.

3

Earliest Start Time (EST)

5

Latest Finish Time (LFT)

A

3

B

5

Arrows indicate the order of the tasks, the letter above shows the order, the time period below the arrow

The Critical Path

Gantt ChartThe ability to communicate is a definitive prerequisite for successful management of a project. Graphical displays such as gantt-charts usually make the information easy to identify and thus are the prime means for tracking cost.

The gantt-chart is a mean of displaying simple activities or events plotted against time. An activity represents the amount of work required to proceed from one point to another. Events are described as either the starting or ending point for either one or several activities.

Gantt-charts are advantageous in that they are simple to understand and easy to change. They are the least complex means of portraying progress (or lack of it) and can easily be expanded to identify specific elements that may be either behind or ahead of schedule

Benefits of Gantt Charts

The benefits for project management, that gantt-charts can result in, include:

Cutting project cost and reducing the time scale Coordinating and expediting planning Eliminating idle time Obtaining better scheduling and control for subcontractor

activities Developing better troubleshooting procedures Cutting time for routine decisions, but allowing more time for decision making

PERT - Program Evaluation Review Techniques

Shows relationship and dependencies between tasks.

Videos

Some useful videos that will help you understand how project management and Gantt charts work:

Gantt Charts in Excel

Project Management

Project Management Tutorial

Gantt charts & PERT charts

Try it yourself!

Here are some online Project Management Tools that you can try free. All sites have lots of information about the benefits of using PM software, so make sure you take some notes while you work.

www.planprojects.com/

www. comindwork.com

www.aceproject.com