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Project Management. Tejas Patel Crew Advisor Crew 114. What is a project?. A project is a complex, non-routine, one-time effort limited by time, budget, resources, and performance specification designed to meet specific needs.
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Project Management Tejas Patel Crew Advisor Crew 114
What is a project? • A project is a complex, non-routine, one-time effort limited by time, budget, resources, and performance specification designed to meet specific needs. • Examples include construction of a chemistry department building, holding a teacher development workshop, creating a new French dining experience • Projects have a set of characteristics in common • A clearly stated objective • A specific life span with beginning and end • Multiple people working together • Must be done within specific time, cost and performance requirements
Project Characteristics • A clearly stated objective • The scope / goals should be well constrained and definitive, providing a singular purpose for the project • A specific life span with beginning and end • The project life-cycle phases include design, development, fabrication, testing and operation • Multiple people working together • Includes people with different expertise working as a team, coordinating their effort to address the project needs • Specific time, cost and performance requirements • Constraints drive accountability and can force trade-offs
Inspiration Operation A miracle occurs Two End Points in a Project How does this miracle occur??
Why manage a project? • Accomplish objectives of project within constraints • Balancing time, cost and performance • These three constraints can be mutually exclusive • An effective balance is necessary for project success • Anticipating, identifying and handling the unexpected • Unexpected events will happen throughout a project (Murphy’s Law) • Risk planning is an essential component to project management
Establishing Influence • In the real world actions by individuals almost always can not be commanded. • Influence is a non-monetary currency that can be traded and used to affect action (i.e. quid pro quo). • A good leader will naturally build influential relationships with all stakeholders. • Providing resources, assistance, cooperation, information • Acknowledging accomplishments, providing visibility • Inspiring others with a vision, with standards of excellence and ethical behavior • Listening to others’ issues, providing friendship & emotional backing • Sharing tasks, letting others have ownership, expressing appreciation
Lead by Example • By her own actions, a project manager will demonstrate to others how they should work on a project. • Performance • Ethics • Priorities • Cooperation • Problem solving • Urgency • Setting the example also establishes competency and builds trust Figure from “Project Management” by Gray and Larson
Stages of Team Development • Forming: Get acquainted stage when ground rules, roles and interpersonal relations are established • Storming: Conflict stage when group control, decision making, group & project constraints are contested • Norming: Stage when close relationships develop and the group demonstrates cohesiveness • Performing: Established expectations of how to work together and the group begins channeling energy into achieving project goals • Adjourning: Attention is focus on completing the project and could include conflicting emotions
Building a Project Team • Early on establish ground rules such as the following • How will the project be planned? • What will be the specific roles and responsibilities? • How will progress be assessed and tracked? • How will project changes be documented and instituted? • How, when and where will meetings be scheduled and run? • Conduct project meetings that are regular, crisp, have a focused agenda and are time constrained • Identify and create a shared vision • Facilitate group decisions by identifying underlying problems, generating alternate solutions, fostering a consensus and following-up on solution implementation • Accepting, managing and encouraging functional conflict
Project Team Pitfalls • Project teams and managers need to be aware of various pitfalls that can lead to poor decisions. • A team can become convinced that its decisions are infallible. • Fail to examine alternate solutions and problems that might arise from the current plan. • Stereotype outsiders negatively so that external concerns, issues or solutions remain unconsidered. • Opposition by a member to a particular direction or solution might be repressed by the team.
