Project Management Basics

1. Project Management Basics

2. 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

3. Shout Outs • Shout out a project……..

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

6. Why we should all Care.. Perverse Incentives

7. 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?

8. Making it Useful….. Mylibrary.us

9. Phases of a Project • INITIATING– let’s decide to do this thing! • PLANNING– majority of heavy lifting should happen here • EXECUTING– let’s do this thing! • MONITORING & CONTROLLING – are we on track? • CLOSING– where did everyone go?

10. Basics • Important Roles • Sponsor • Project manager • Project Team • The Big Three • Scope • Work break down • Risk register • Triple Constraint • can’t always get what you want…

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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

14. PM Applied (Real Life) • Real life lessons learned • Scope is so sosososo important • Planning is so sososo 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)

15. 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

16. Let’s work One • Time permitting • Defining it’s done • Measures of success • Who decides what • Dependencies • Risks

17. Wrap up • Were topic targets covered • Resources for you • Questions? • For a copy of this presentation and resource links visit mylibrary.us