Project Management Techniques for Completing Projects On-Time and Within Budget

1. Project Management Techniques for Completing Projects On-Time and Within Budget • Jennifer McNeill, Office of the CTO • Oracle Public Sector State and Local Government 1

2. Why Do IT Projects Fail? • Software Challenges • Consulting Challenges • Project Failure • Communication Failure • Executive Support • Project Best Practices

3. Building a Project Management Library • Use Methodologies that work for your organization • Build a library to re-use (don’t re-invent the wheel) • A living repository (dynamically changing) • Use Requirements Management tools if possible • Use PMI Certified trainers if you don’t have historical data to build the library • Training Program should include: • Cost Management • Assessment • Requirements Management

4. Building a Project Management Library • Use standard industry standard material to build the library • Use resources such as the PMI Body of Knowledge as reference material • ISO 9000 Certification standards will also assist • Capability Maturity Model (CMM) information can be utilized as well • Possibly use pieces of resources to build your personalized methodology

5. Do it Right or Do it Over • Less than ½ of organizations have a Project Management Plan they have integrated into their business processes • Many Project Management plans are started and then not carried through • Management at times wants the project done quickly which deters the use of best practices

6. The Reason Projects Fail • Project teams are not static (constantly changing staff or reducing the size of the project team • Lean resource availability jeopardizes the project team • Pressure to deliver causes people to panic, skipping important parts of the original project plan • The end result is shoddy • Repairing the errors created by sloppiness takes more time than dealing with the issues in the appropriate manner

7. Keys to Successful Project Management • Planning does not have to take an enormous amount of time • Draw boundaries to create a prioritized set of deliverables • Draw from lessons learned from yours and other projects • Don’t try to reinvent the wheel • Use strong communication • Divert anything that takes away from project goals • Find repeatable processes and communicate these to all levels of the organization

8. Keys to Successful Project Management • Executive Management Support • Best Practice use within the project • Key resource planning and utilization • Utilization of communication skills in an effective manner • Keeping the team on-board • Thorough understanding of the project requirements • Appropriate planning that reviews business processes and future requirements for the organization

9. Project Management Best Practices • Understand the scope of the project • Does this make sense for the organization • Are there deterrents for successful completion of the project (including political issues) • Perform an Enterprise Risk/Benefit study to determine the value of the project • Determine the technological impact of the project

10. Project Management Best Practices • Follow a structured initiation plan • Gain Executive understanding and Commitment • Make sure there is a designated project champion • Gather the necessary business and technical requirements to justify the project • Ensure that support from all levels is available throughout the life of the project • Create a structured project plan to determine overall scope and challenges

11. Project Management Best Practices • Project Planning • Plan even with a smaller lifecycle of the project • Involve the stakeholders, sponsors and project team in planning meetings to ensure they understand the scope, challenges, etc. • Explain risks, deterrents with the organization and challenges the project will face

12. Project Management Best Practices • Planning • Maintain realism in planning • Determine short-term “must-haves” • Include long-term planning as well • Create plan for weekly meeting with team and stakeholders to ensure communication is flowing

13. Project Management Best Practices • Assess Requirements • Perform stakeholder interviews to determine the business issues around the project • Hold collective review planning continually to keep the project team focused and on the correct path (this also manages stakeholder’s expectations throughout the project) • Automate the requirements management process whenever possible to provide a central location for audit reports and status management

14. Project Management Best Practices • Don’t Overload Milestones • Keep milestones actionable and close together (ideally no more than 3 weeks apart) • Closely spaced milestones provide opportunity for fast recovery

15. Project Management Best Practices • Publicize your Plans • Distribute regular status reports in an efficient manner (email, intranet pages, project management software) • The more people are intimately familiar with the project plan, the more support there is for the project • Broad access increases the chance of finding a potential pitfall before it is too late

16. Project Management Best Practices • Delegate Tasks • A project manager should not do it all (control freaks don’t work well as PMs) • Have system architects and lead architects manage the overall technical part of the project • Project Manager should manage and coordinate administrative and project planning issues

17. Project Management Best Practices • Manage Your Vendors • Critical to have communication with vendors during planning phase • Especially true if the project is being outsourced or external resources are being used • For project execution, a single source is critical (Vendor’s PM or Lead Architect that will be full time) • Clarify requirements for reporting, time management, issue management, and penalties for not meeting these expectations (in writing)

18. Project Management Best Practices • Execution and Control • Small team approach works best even in a big project (allows flexibility and communication is easier) • Empower Project and Team leaders to manager their areas of expertise (They need clout!) • Meet formally weekly to review milestones and measure progress • Meet informally each day with appropriate parties where problems may be occurring

19. Project Management Best Practices • Automate whenever possible • Use requirements automation tools such as: • Telelogic Doors or Borlands Caliber RM • Use effective Project Management tools (preferably those already in use in the organization)

20. Project Management Best Practices • Collaborate, Collaborate, Collaborate! • Team members will perform much better with effective communication • If a team is scattered, use software such as Webex for meetings • Eliminate excuses for team members to miss meetings (remove obstacles such as other project issues, etc.)

21. Project Management Best Practices • Use Audits • Hold biweekly audits when possible to review progress (use separate resources for this practice) • Include in these estimates costs of actual versus budgeted resources • Keep audits short and sweet • Non personalize audits – ensure audit resources have the personality to eliminate team members taking things personally

22. Project Management Best Practices • Measure Productivity • Develop standard criteria for measuring productivity (part of planning process) • Measure: • Deliverables • Costs being incurred • Defect detection • Resource utilization

23. Project Management Best Practices • Practice Change Control • Use software configuration management • Utilize requirements management tools • Establish chain of command for any scope changes (during planning stages) • Ensure business and technical lead is consulted for every scope change

24. Project Management Best Practices • Test • Test early and often • Hold walkthroughs periodically throughout the project • End user style demonstrations • Peer to peer code inspections • Information inspections • Allow time for acceptance testing and beta testing • Minimum amount of testing for a project should be 15% • If new technology or architecture is being used, testing should be 30% of the project

25. Project Management Best Practices • Design concise implementation procedures • Develop step by step implementation procedures including: • Production test procedures • Installation Requirements • Develop contingency plans for problem management • Backout procedures • Production support steps

26. Project Management Best Practices • Conduct a postmortem • Discuss issues that will improve the project • Collect all issues that have caused problems or delays in the project • Ensure they don’t become personalized

27. Project Management Best Practices • Assess Project Temperature • Perform this process several times after completion of project • Document either successes or failures • Check requirements and design phases

28. Questions? www.ciphersoftinc.com