Project Planning & Controlling

September 2009 2

Agenda Overview

• Project Overview– About large-scale Projects– Lessons Learned– Project Organization– Project Milestones

• Resources and Roles– Based on Operational Functions

• Deliverables• Global Integration Concept

September 2009 3

Contact Information

• XumaK– Info@XumaK.com

• Giancarlo F. Berner– gberner@XumaK.com

Don’t hesitate to contact me! Let us exchange ideas, Don’t hesitate to contact me! Let us exchange ideas, plans and whatever interesting topics to make plans and whatever interesting topics to make

Magnolia projects successful!Magnolia projects successful!

September 2009 4

Overview

• Project Scope– Requirements, Time, Budget

• Project Management– Manage “Project Intelligence” to complete and

deploy Requirements with the given Budget in the given Time

• Project Intelligence– Resources and Equipment

September 2009 5

What is a (Web) Project?

• What defines the scope of a Web project?• What factors define a Web project?• When do we talk about a project failure?• What could be the reasons for project

failures?• Project Objectives (Marketing!)

A Project Manager faces many different challenges!A Project Manager faces many different challenges!

September 2009 6

Scope of a Web Project• Amount of Web Sites and Web Pages• Complexity of Functionality• Expected Volume and Traffic

– Note: Hardware size is a result of calculating the amount of Web Users, volume and hits-per-”period”!

• Amount of different Designs• Performance Requirements• Time and Budget

A Project Manager faces a lot of different challenges!A Project Manager faces a lot of different challenges!

September 2009 7

(Web) Project Objectives

• Technical Objectives– Award winning Design, State-of-the-Art

Technology• Monetary Objectives

– Low Maintenance, Real Scalability, Short Development Cycles

• Marketing Objectives– Sales, Branding, Community

September 2009 8

Possible Roles in a Project

Project Project ManagementManagement

PR

Creative / Design

Infrastructure/ Network TestingDevelopment/

ProductionTraining/ Education

Admin QA

Installation

Configuration

Maintenance

Support

Deployment

Requirements

DDD

Coding

Coding Styles

Packaging

Off shoring

Wire Frames

Mockups

Style Guides

Assets

HTML/CSS/ JS Samples

UA/SEO Test

Functional Test

Load Test

Stress Test

Staging/ Production

User Manual

Author

System Admin

Developer

Management

Public Relations

Events Marketing

Information/ News

Management

Progress Meeting

Sign-Offs

Open Questions

Controlling

Budget

September 2009 9

Reasons for Project Failures • Too little time and/or budget

– Complexity impacts time and resources• Underestimation• Skill level of Resources don’t match

Requirements/Complexity• Missing Requirements• Missing Communication• Client Expectations don’t match Results• Project Manager works on the project (!)

We will see more in “Lessons Learned”

September 2009 10

Project Management

• The President of the USA• The President of Magnolia• YOU, the Project Manager

What is the difference between

September 2009 11

No big Differences!

• All manage a large scale project• All have a project scope• All have a time/budget constraint• All have resources/equipment• All have communication lines

Well, not all have the same salary :-)

September 2009 12

What is Project Management?

• Think of a Chess game

““Project Management is the ability to Project Management is the ability to manage and guide manage and guide resources/equipment to produce/deliver resources/equipment to produce/deliver all requirements within a given time and all requirements within a given time and budget.”budget.”

September 2009 13

Churchill's Planning Grid

ImportantImportantUrgentUrgent

Not Important--> Delegate!

Not Urgent--> Delegate!

September 2009 14

Project Manager Tasks

• Define Operational Functions and only then the according OF Resources

• Delegate Planning to OF Leaders• Controlling and Monitoring

– Resources, Time and Budget• Relay between OF and Steering

Committee• Resource Planning and Assessment

September 2009 15

Project Intelligence

• Project Intelligence is the combination of highly qualified resources with state-of-the-art equipment

• Resources are responsible to develop and deploy the project requirements

Acquire Resources carefully! The better Acquire Resources carefully! The better they are the smoother the project will be!they are the smoother the project will be!

September 2009 16

Typical Resource Errors

• Too few Resources– Huge Requirements in a short time

• Skill Level not compliant with Project Requirements

• Fluctuation in long-term Projects• Week leaders of Operational Function

Sections

September 2009 17

Equipment in a Web Project

• The infrastructure hardware is not part of the Project Equipment

• Equipment does not play a very big role in Web Projects

• Typically Equipment is used for– Communication (e.g. Meetings)– Computers for Development, Planning and

Documentation

September 2009 18

Steps to Implement Magnolia Successfully

• Project Scope and Business Goals• Gather Requirements• Realistic Planning• Resources• Development/Deployment Process

– Parallel Development

• Testing• Education• Documentation• Support/Quality Assurance

September 2009 19

Development Phase in a Project• Define Business Requirements• Define Functional Specification• Design Phase• Define Functionality/Component Matrix• Define Time Calculations• Write DDD’s

– Detailed Design Documents• Development• Testing (Load-, Stress-, User-Acceptance Tests)• Education (Author Training)• Documentation

September 2009 20

General Project Failures• Project is underestimated• Too little or missing Requirements

– Business Requirements, Functional Specifications• Transition between “static Web Site” and

“dynamic Page creation” is missing• Too view Resources• Weak Operation/Team Leaders• Resources have too little (or no) Magnolia and

Repository experience• Lack of communication between stake holders

September 2009 21

General Recommendations• Overestimate the project and reduce (resources)

later• Add only skilled resources to the project

– Or plan a significant learning curve• Implement communication paths between teams• Gather as many requirements as possible• Document (and sign-off with Steering

Committee) all required development and deployment steps

September 2009 22

Project Management Failures• Missing Requirements

– Cause unnecessary amount of “clarification meetings”

• PM defines tasks for OF Team Leaders• Missing “Worst Case Scenarios”

– What happens on “Resource drop-out”, “Infrastructure failures”, etc.

• Business Expectations and Results are different• Key Resources have no equivalent substitutes• Fire-Fighter, causing dangerous bottle-necks

September 2009 23

Define a Plan!• Yes, also Project Organization needs planning!• Structure Project into Operational Functions• Define Responsibilities

– Which OF is responsible to manage/deliver what

• Define Delegation/Communication Path– Which OF delegates what to which OF task– Which OF task reports to which OF

• Elect a Steering Committee – Controls Progress, Budget, Exceptions, Feasibility

September 2009 24

Project Organization Chart

Project Project ManagementManagement

PR

Creative / Design

Infrastructure/ Network TestingDevelopment/

ProductionTraining/ Education

Admin QA

Installation

Configuration

Maintenance

Support

Deployment

Requirements

DDD

Coding

Coding Styles

Packaging

Off shoring

Wire Frames

Mockups

Style Guides

Assets

HTML/CSS/ JS Samples

UA/SEO Test

Functional Test

Load Test

Stress Test

Staging/ Production

User Manual

Author

System Admin

Developer

Management

Public Relations

Events Marketing

Information/ News

Management

Progress Meeting

Sign-Offs

Clarify Questions

Controlling

Budget

September 2009 25

What YOU can Control/Monitor

• Processes within Operational Functions– OF defines optimal processes– Optimize/Ease reporting and meetings

• Deliverables– Compare Documents to Requirements– Use Checklists

• Progress/Results– Plan for Exceptions! (Halted Progress, “wrong” Results)

September 2009 26

PM Recommendations

• 2 Project Managers– One to interact with Steering Committee,

Creative and non-Magnolia related teams– One PM to interact with Magnolia

Development and Infrastructure/Architecture team

• Use Business Analysts to gather Business Requirements

• Delegate Detail-Planning to OF Teams

September 2009 27

PM Recommendations

• Plan “Parallel Flows”– Divide Magnolia Development into phases and

develop them in parallel– Start testing immediately on completed phases

• PM “only” Controls and Monitors the project. Let Lead Resources do the detailed planning!– Let e.g. Lead Developers plan development– Avoid Lead Resources do Q & A sessions directly

with the Steering Committee, Project gets unmanageable!

September 2009 28

PM Recommendations

• Define “Worst Case Scenarios”!– Management by Exception– Key positions have always 2 resources– Work out “B-Plans” for possible “Exceptions” (e.g.

Resource drop-out, Hardware or Performance issues)• Intensify Communication and Relaying between

Steering Committee and Team Leaders

September 2009 29

Business Requirements• Defines the expectations the client has• Allows the client to measure against delivered results• The more precise, the better results will be• Business Requirements are client-based documents• Compare RFP Proposal with Requirements• Let client define Business Requirements in their

marketing language

September 2009 30

Business Requirements Recommendations

• Gather as many requirements as possible• Ask for an example of a requirement, not

only a description• Ask for a priority level

– Remember, we can develop different phases at the same time

• Add contact details for requiring more information

September 2009 31

Business Requirement Recommendation

• 2 Business Analysts to interact with Steering Committee to gather– Business Requirements– Define Functional Specifications

• BA’s represent Steering Committee• 1 BA defines “Master Site” requirements• 1 BA defines “Country Site” requirements

September 2009 32

Design Phase Failures

• Too much budget used for Design– Might be ok for “static sites”, but not when

pages are generated dynamically• Deliveries often are just one big JPG• No assets available or assets are to heavy

– E.g. 500kB (or more) images• No HTML/CSS samples for the Design

September 2009 33

Design Phase Recommendations

• Define complete set of Wire Frames• Layout and Mockups for “must” pages• Define a complete Style Guide• Get a set of the “static” assets (images,

flash, etc.)• Get HTML/CSS/JS samples• Define the Site Map with how the pages

interact

September 2009 34

Lead Architect(s)

• Plan Infrastructure– Hardware Sizing, Security, Backup/Failsafe

• Define Functionality/Component Matrix– Component = Template or Paragraph

• Define Time Calculations for each Component

September 2009 35

Functionality Component Matrix

QuickTime™ and a decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

September 2009 36

Time Calculation

QuickTime™ and a decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

September 2009 37

Lead Developer(s)• Review development time and skill requirements

for each Template/Paragraph• Write the Detailed Design Documents (DDD) for

each Template/Paragraph• Make sure DDDs are approved by Business

prior to handing out to developers• Define coding styles and control coding quality• Plan and monitor development team• Focus on maintainability and reusability• Reports directly to Project Manager

September 2009 38

Developer Team

• Must have Magnolia experience!!– Dynamic page generation– Templates/Paragraphs/Dialogs– Repository Technology

• Must have Java/JSP experience!

September 2009 39

Trainer Recommendations

• Deep knowledge of Magnolia• Training experience• Trains the project team in the beginning• Leads “Train-the-Trainer” program for

Europe wide content contributors• Writes User Manuals

Education Goals: Create Excitement! Education Goals: Create Excitement!

September 2009 40

Deliverables

• Business Requirements (Business Analysts)

• Functional Specs (Bus/Analyst / Architect)

• Functional/Component Matrix (Architect)

• Resource/Time Planning (Architect)

• Detailed Design Document (Lead Developer)

• Deployment Document (Sys Admin/Architect)

September 2009 41

Global Integration• Low-cost Development Capacity

– E.g. 1 Team leader, 2 Java Developer, $99/h• Offsite Development

– Low Infrastructure Costs• High-Quality, Magnolia trained Resources

– We are the writers of the Magnolia Technical Trainings

• Integrate into, and part of your Team– Direct contact with known Resources

• Develop according DDD