Project Management

Project Management Afternoon Delight on Saturday, May 8th Train the Trainer 2010

Formal Definitions What is a project? A temporary endeavor undetaken to create a unique product, service, or result. What is project management? The application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities to meet the project requirements. Translated into English… A project is any non-routine task that has a start and end date. Project management involves doing whatever it takes to make sure the project’s objectives are met, on time and on budget! Train the Trainer 2010

Today’s Session Introduction Work Breakdown Structures Determining the Critical Path Adaptive Management with the Triple Constraint Review Train the Trainer 2010

Today’s Session in Plain English Introduction Work Breakdown Structures Doing the right things Determining the Critical Path Doing things in the right order Adaptive Management with the Triple Constraint Assessing whether the things you’re doing, and the order in which you’re doing them, are still right Review Train the Trainer 2010

Origins of Project Management Manhattan Project Navy Polaris Train the Trainer 2010

Project Management at Rare Train the Trainer 2010

Goal of Project Management Complete projects on time, on budget, and meeting requirements… Time Quality Budget Scope • …by implementing standard processes, templates, policies, tools, etc. to: • Clarify roles and responsibilities • Ensure focus on critical activities • Improve communications • Reduce the occurrence of unforeseen issues and tasks • Reduce duplication of effort • Increase control Train the Trainer 2010

The Methodology Train the Trainer 2010

Nature of Today’s Session • Main Points • Strive to balance cost, schedule, and scope • Prioritize the most essential activities • Planning and implementation are cyclical. Work plans must always be revised to account for changes. • PMI is cool! http://www.pmi.org/Pages/default.aspx • Structure • We’ll focus less on terminology, more on meaning and concepts. • Your examples, questions and comments regarding how these concepts apply to our campaigns will be very helpful. • Processes, tools, etc. come straight from PMI. Train the Trainer 2010

Example of a Work Breakdown Structure A Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is a hierarchical decomposition of tasks and activities that make up a project, with no regard to when they occur. Project: make a home-made cake for dinner tonight Procure Materials Bake the cake Present the cake Go to super-market Go home Find ingred-ients Make payment Mix ingred-ients Put mix in oven Remove cake & let cool Pre-heat oven Ice cake Put in tray Train the Trainer 2010

Purpose of the WBS • What’s the point of listing out every activity in advance? • Reduce “scope creep” (when a project takes on more tasks that aren’t essential to the goals). • Identifies tasks that might otherwise have been overlooked. • Why not just plan activities in order? • We don’t know the most efficient order of events until we know exactly what has to happen • You might not notice activities that don’t fit in with the project’s objectives • You can break down a project by phases though, if you find that useful. Train the Trainer 2010

Excerpt from a more familiar WBS Train the Trainer 2010

Rules of Thumb • Document any major omissions. • Don’t force subdivisions – the level of detail that you go down to in your Work Breakdown Structure will depend on the length of the overall project, and on your planning needs. Brush teeth 8 strokes on top row 8 strokes on bottom row 8 strokes in middle Wash mouth Train the Trainer 2010

Activity: Create a WBS In teams, create a work breakdown structure for one of the following with post-it notes and poster paper. Break activities down to the level that you’d be comfortable managing. • Si, se puede, Oswaldo! • Project charter: Oswaldo Contreras has decided to run for Mayor of Guadalajara in 2011. He has a base of environmentally-conscious supporters, but these make up only about 10% of the population. He is known in the community for being an upright citizen, unlike some of his opponents in the election. You are his Public Relations team. Design a work breakdown structure for his marketing campaign. • Rough timeline: 1 year • Rough budget: 25 million pesos (~2 million USD) • Environmental relief in the gulf • Project charter: Oil has just hit shore in the gulf, and is expected to do so for another month. You work at the National Audubon Society in Mississippi, which is coordinating relief efforts to reduce the environmental impact and protect animals, when oil hits the shore. You need to clean a wetlands reserve near the Missippi coast by August, when aquatic birds’ mating seasons end. You’ll also need to ensure that direct effects of the oil on birds are mitigated. There are large numbers of untrained people willing to volunteer. Design a work breakdown structure for the environmental relief effort, from now until the end of August. • Rough timeline: 4 months • Rough budget: $200,000 (not including salaries of 10 local Audubon employees, office costs, etc.) • Eco-lodge on Serena Island • Project charter: The Forestry and Wildlife department of the island nation Andrea has decided to build an eco-lodge on Serena Island, as a pilot project to test out Serena’s ecotourism potential. The department expects the lodge to provide tourists with great access to, and knowledge of, Serena’s endemic species such as the quail dove and hairy fig. You are Jacob Parker, Jo Smith, and Susan Dikins, and you have been tasked with building the eco-lodge. Design a work breakdown structure for the job. • Rough timeline: 2 years • Rough budget: 2 million Andrean dollars (roughly equivalent to USD)

Critical Path The critical path is the longest (in duration) chain of events that must occur between a project’s start and end. The critical path has helped me with 3 out of 4 of the following thoughts: • “I have so much to do, but don’t know where to start…” • “I have a lot to do, but have to wait for that expense report to come in…” • “Even though I said I wouldn’t do X until Y was ready, I’m just going to do it!” • “Why does Heidi stay with Spencer? Doesn’t she watch past seasons of the Hills to see what he does when she’s not around?” Train the Trainer 2010

Prerequisites to the Critical Path Before determining the ideal sequence of your activities, you usually need to consider: The duration of each activity The cost of each activity Other resource requirements for each activity (materials, staff, contractors, etc.) Which activities depend on others Train the Trainer 2010

A Quick Overview of Dependencies • The Project Management Body of Knowledge identifies four types of dependencies (temporal relationships between activities): • Finish – Start. One activity has to finish before the next can start. This is the most common type of dependency – especially in the Pride planning process. • Start – Start. One activity has to start before the next can start. This is also fairly common. • Finish – Finish. One activity has to finish before another can finish. Less common. • 4) Start – Finish. One activity has to start before the next can finish. This is only common when replacing things. Concept Model F - S Threat Ranking Roll out of RarePlanet S - S Quality Assurance Fourth University Phase F - F Write weekly flash reports Hire new IT Director S - F Outsource IT management

Mapping Dependencies Project schedules, or flow charts, show the path of activities over time, and also show what activities must start or finish before others can start or finish. 0 15 Baking a cake in two hours Pre-heat oven (15) 0 20 Project Start Go to supermarket (20) 60 75 20 30 30 35 35 55 55 75 75 105 Find ingredients (10) Make payment (5) Go Home (20) Mix ingredients (20) Put mix in oven (30) 105 115 115 120 121 Remove cake & let cool (10) Ice cake (5) Put in tray (1) Train the Trainer 2010 Project Close

A more complex project schedule 0 32 Weekly radio show (32) 7 11 F - S Produce sermon sheets (4) F - S 13 37 Widely distribute collateral at events (24) 0 3 7 13 F - S Design campaign logo (3) 3 7 Produce t-shirts (6) F - S F - S Test logo and messages with farmers (4) 7 12 F - S Produce badges (5) 0 3 F - S F - S Design key messages (3) 7 11 Project Start F - S Project Close F - S Produce posters (4) 0 8 8 32 32 35 S - F Set up sustainable agriculture demonstration plot (8) Run workshops for farmers on sustainable agriculture (24) Produce new posters with pictures of farmers on demo plot (3) F - S S - S S - S 8 28 Monitor yield of demo plot (20)

Finding the Critical Path 0 32 Weekly radio show (32) 7 11 F - S Produce sermon sheets (4) F - S 5 37 13 37 9 13 F - S Widely distribute collateral at events (24) 0 3 7 13 F - S Design campaign logo (3) 3 7 Produce t-shirts (6) F - S Test logo and messages with farmers (4) 7 12 F - S Produce badges (5) 0 3 F - S F - S Design key messages (3) 8 13 7 11 Project Start F - S Project Close F - S Produce posters (4) 9 13 0 8 8 32 12 15 S - F Set up sustainable agriculture demonstration plot (8) Run workshops for farmers on sustainable agriculture (24) Produce new posters with pictures of farmers on demo plot (3) F - S S - S 5 13 S - S 13 37 30 33 8 28 Monitor yield of demo plot (20) 17 37

Activity: Find the Critical Path Returning to your teams, please follow the steps below to turn your work breakdown structures into project schedules with an identified critical path. 1. Take the bottom level of your work breakdown structure and place the notes on a new sheet of poster paper. 2. “Guesstimate” the amount of time each activity will take. 3. Map your project schedule, and try to calculate leads and lags. 4. Determine the critical path. Train the Trainer 2010

Triple Constraint? Darkness Bloody Mary Mirror Chant Name Train the Trainer 2010

More like athletics Skill A High Quality Athlete Conditioning Mindset Train the Trainer 2010

Triple Constraint Time A High Quality Campaign Budget Scope Train the Trainer 2010

2 out of 3 Ain’t Bad Train the Trainer 2010

Adapting to Change • A significant change in any one of the following areas requires (a) an update to your work plan and (b) communication to stakeholders: • Time • Scope (requirements or objectives) • Budget • Changes in the following are likely to significantly change at least one of the three factors above: • Resource Availability • Addition/loss of staff or contractors • Formation or termination of a partnership • Discovery of previously unknown issues, problems or opportunities • Uncontrollable external events (e.g. hurricane, earthquake, outcome of an election) Train the Trainer 2010

Applying your Contingency Plan Each campaign should have a contingency plan, as taught in Module 3 Unit 5 of the curriculum… …which can be used as the basis for updating your work plan. Update to the Work Breakdown Structure Update to the Project Schedule & Critical Path Present the cake ? Put chopped fruit on top Ice cake Put in tray Train the Trainer 2010

Communicating Changes Relevant parties must be notified of changes to the work plan. Ideally, notifications will be carried out in accordance with a formal communications plan, to ensure that no one is left out.

Activity: Respond to Changes See if the following issues require updates to the work breakdown structure and project schedule. If you do update your work plan, whom would you inform? • Si, se puede, Oswaldo! • Opponents of Oswaldo Contreras just uncovered a story from his past, which just appeared in a news article in Guadalajara. As a teenager, Oswaldo used to singlehandedly wrestle crocodiles for fun. Some environmentalists, who are part of his core group of supporters, consider this to be animal abuse. • Environmental relief in the gulf • BP has decided to pay for about 50 specialists to help at the site, including experienced veterinarians and bird handlers to experts in chemical dispersants that break up oil. • Eco-lodge on Serena Island • There is a severe shortage of timber on Serena Island. Although timber is usually shipped from neighboring Caribbean islands, they have been shipping overseas, where their wood fetches higher prices. It is very difficult and time-consuming to get logging permits on Serena Island. Train the Trainer 2010

Project Management