Breaking the Project Failure Cycle with Deliverables Based Planning ®

1. Breaking the Project Failure Cycle with Deliverables Based Planning® “Enterprise projects are not just larger small projects. They are completely different beasts” – Radical Project Management, Rob Thomsett

2. Projects and Their Plans • The integrity of any project starts with a Credible Plan: • The Plan defines the strategy for the successful completion of the project • The Plan is tool for communicating between the project team participants and the stakeholder about “done” • The Plan evolves as decisions and strategies evolve from project’s contact with “reality” Building project success around a credible plan is a good start. Executing that plan comes next. But the plan can not guide the execution if it is not credible. It’s the combination of a credible plan and a competent execution team that gives a fighting chance of being successful

3. Without a Plan Root Causes of Project Failure appear • Unrealistic deadlines • Communication deficits • Uncontrolled scope changes • Unmitigated resource competition • Uncertain dependencies • Failure to manage risk • Insufficient delivery skills • Lack of accountability for the outcomes • Disengaged customers or stakeholders • Lack of business vision and goals

4. Project success starts with 4 Processes Identify Needed Business Capabilities 4 core processes must to be in place to break the project failure cycle. All are important. All are mandatory. All must be delivered with the highest quality. None guarantee success. Business Value Stream Capabilities Based Plan Business Value Stream Establish a Requirements Baseline Technical Requirements Establish a Performance Measurement Baseline Technical Performance Measures There is no such thing as guaranteed success, just increased probability of success. Technical Performance Measures Earned Value Performance Execute the Performance Measurement Baseline

5. The Four Processes Work Together To Break The Project Failure Cycle

6. Core Questions that should be asked daily of any Project Manager • How much will this project cost? • When will it be done? • What is the risk we won’t reach the end within our budget and schedule? • What are we doing about these risks and how much will that cost? • What do we get when we’re done? • Does the customer agree that these deliverables are meaningful? Deliverables Based Planning® is the foundation of a successful project management process. The deliverables define what Done looks like. They are the measure of progress They must be meaningful to the customer.

7. Deliverables Based Planning®Can Answer These Questions Customers measure progress in terms of business value – the currency of this business value are the project deliverables, not the passage of time or consumption of money.

8. The 4 steps of Deliverables Based Planning® Define the business capabilities in terms of beneficial outcomes rather than features and functions. What would you do with an IT system if it existed? What business processes would be improved, enhanced, reduced? How would you recognize these improvements. What capabilities do we need to address emerging IT based business processes? Identify Needed Business Capabilities Define the technical and operational requirements that must be in place for the business capabilities to be fulfilled. Define these requirements in terms isolated from any implementation. What technical and operational requirements are need to fulfill the capabilities? Establish the Requirements Baseline Build a time–phased network of schedule activities describing the work to be performed, the budgeted cost for this work, the organizational elements that produce the deliverables, and the performance measures showing this work is proceeding according to plan. A baselined schedule whose delivers create the services that meet the requirements Establish the Performance Measurement Baseline Execute work packages, while assuring all performance assessment are 0%/100% complete before proceeding. No rework, no forward transfer of activities to the future. Assure every requirement is traceable to work and all work is traceable to requirements. Weekly, bi–monthly, or Monthly measures of physical percent complete Execute the Performance Measurement Baseline

9. The 4 Steps for Identifying the Needed Business Capabilities Define Operational Concepts • Partition capabilities into classes of service within operational scenarios • Connect capabilities to business strategy using Balanced Scorecard • Define measures of Effectiveness and Measures of Performance at the strategy level • Define scenarios for each capability • Connect these scenarios into a Business Process Value Stream Map • Assess value flow through the map for each needed capability • Identify capabilities mismatches Define Capabilities Need To Implement Concepts Assess Needs and Costs Simultaneously • Assign costs to a need using a business model • Assure risk, probabilistic cost and benefit performance attributes are defined • The future behaviors must include increased variance on cost and benefits • Make tradeoffs that connect cost, schedule and technical performance • Measures of Effectiveness and Measures of Performance are the raw materials for these tradeoffs Explicit, Balanced, and Feasible Alternatives

10. The 5 steps for Establishing the Requirements Baseline † Fact Finding • Overall statement of the problem context • Overall objectives of the target system • Boundaries and interfaces of the target system Gathering and Classification • Required capabilities, functional, nonfunctional, environment, and design constraints. • Build a Top Down Capabilities and Functional decomposition of the requirements in a Requirements Management System. Evaluation and Rationalization • Answer the question “why do I need this?” in terms of business benefits. • Build a cost benefit / model using probabilistic assessment • For technical requirements perform a risk assessment to cost and schedule. Prioritization • Determine criticality for the functions for the business mission. • For technical items prioritize on cost and dependency. Integration and Validation • Address completeness by removing all “TBD” requirements. • Validate requirements agree with business capabilities, goals, and mission. • Resolve any requirements inconsistencies and conflicts † “Issues in Requirements Elicitation,” Michael G. Christel and Kyo C. Kang, CMU/SEI–92–TR–012. IBIS is Issue–Based Information System, is a structuring method which allows the rationale underlying requirements to be organized and tracked.

11. The 6 steps for Establishing the Performance Measurement Baseline Decompose Scope Decompose the Project Scope into a product based Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), then into Work Packages describing the production of all deliverables Assign Responsibility Assign Responsibility to Work Packages (the groupings of deliverables) for the owners accountable for the management of resource allocation and cost baseline Arrange Work Packages Arrange the Work Packages into a well formed network with defined deliverables, milestones, internal and external dependencies Develop BCWS Develop Time–Phased Budgeted Cost for Work Scheduled (BCWS) from labor and material costs in each Work Package and the Project as a whole Assign Performance Measures Assign Objective Performance Measures for each Work Package and summarize these for the Project as a whole Set Performance Baseline Establish a Performance Measurement Baseline used to forecast Work Package and Project ongoing and completion cost and schedule metrics

12. The 5 steps for Executing the Performance Measurement Baseline Define RACI • Build the Responsibility, Accountability, Consult, and Inform matrix. • Each Work Package has a single Accountable person for its successful delivery Sequence the Authorized Work • Release work in the proper sequence through Work Packages with 0%/100% criteria • “Late Starts” almost always mean “Late Finish” • Have a plan to get back on schedule at all times – “Getting to Green” is the mantra Progress Equals Physical % Complete • The passage of time and consumption of resources is not a measure of progress. • Pre–Defined Physical Percent Complete is part of the Work Package description • Use probabilistic forecasting from past performance to adjust plans for the future • Each deliverable in the time–line of the project, has an expected level of maturity • Measure and adjust performance by the compliance to the expected level • Discount progress by non–compliance – rework, unfinished work, off spec work Define Product or Service Maturity • “How long are you willing to wait before you find out you are late?” • Ask and answer this question at ½ the interval you are willing to wait • Establish a continuous assessment of physical percent complete, a “get to green” plan • Maintain a risk adjusted master schedule for all deliverables Periodically Report Physical Progress

13. Putting Deliverables Based Planning® to Work Managing projects requires a definition of done, how to recognize done, the attributes of done and the units of measure of those attributes

14. A Sobering Statistic A Study of 400 enterprise class projects revealed that project performance does not tend to improve once the project has passed the 15% completion point. It often gets even worse!

15. Goal of any Project Management Process must be to … • Produce no surprises for the customer or the supplier • Build trust with free and frank discussions about • Risk, resources, planned effort, capabilities, commitment • Performance – financial, technical, personnel, maturity • Fully engage with customer’s strategies • Communication of needs to solution providers • Requirements traceable to business benefits • Understand risk management is how adults manage projects • Identify, analyze, plan, and mitigate • Risk informed management processes

16. Breaking the Project Failure Cycle • Define “done” in terms of measurable business value • These units of measure must be agreed to by the business • Measure progress to plan only in these units • Deliverables produced for invested cost • Do not use passage of time or consumption of resources as the primary metric. These are interesting to cost accounts, but not project managers If we’re going to avoid project failure, then we have to start out on the right foot. Describe what done looks like. Only perform work that produces “done.”

17. Project Failure Root Causes and Some Tools Based Approaches

18. Risk Management is How Adults Manage Projects • Build the process for managing risk • Allocate responsibilities at the project level • Determine What is to be Risk–Managed • Define the Decision–Making Process • Iterate the analysis to select mitigation Planning Identification Analysis Handling Communication and Tracking • Do a comparative analysis of the risks • Assign risk attributes • Assign risk ownership • Evaluate the impact of each risk • “A” Risk • “All” Risks • Prepare risk decision–packages • Keep everyone aware of decisions made • Track progress • Evaluate effectiveness of the risk management processes “Risk Analysis Techniques, Schedule, Cost and Other Aspects, INCOSE Heartland Chapter October 24, 2001, Futon Corporation

19. Probability Density Function Monte Carlo Simulation Tool is Mandatory Cumulative Distribution Function 1.0 .8 .6 .4 .2 0 Days, Facilities, Parts, People Connecting Cost, Schedule, and Technical Performance into a Credible Plan for Success Cost, Schedule, Technical Model† • Research the Project • Find Analogies • Ask Endless Questions • Analyze the Results • What can go wrong? • How likely is it to go wrong? • What is the cause? • What is the consequence? Days, Facilities, Parts and People WBS Task 100 Task 101 Task 102 Task 103 Task 104 Task 105 Task 106 † This is a Key concept. This is the part of the process that integrates the cost and schedule risk impacts to provide the basis of a credible schedule.

20. Just a Reminder • Tools are necessary, • Process are necessary, • Putting tools and process together is necessary, • But more is needed: • Skill • Experience • Innovation • A bit of Luck

21. Breaking the Project Failure Cycle • As a project manager, when your project makes you feel like this, it’s time to reconsider your approach … • Define the deliverables • Measure progress by measuring the deliverables • Make measurement meaningful to the business

22. Breaking the Project Failure Cycle Lewis & Fowler 8310 South Valley Highway Suite 300 Englewood, Colorado 80112 www.lewisandfowler.com