140 likes | 350 Views
Lecture - Project Management. Project Management - Micro. The day-to-day operation of the project Project status report Action items SMART. Meeting Agenda. You will have a project meeting every week with the instructor and the meeting should: Every meeting starts with an agenda!
E N D
Project Management - Micro • The day-to-day operation of the project • Project status report • Action items • SMART
Meeting Agenda • You will have a project meeting every week with the instructor and the meeting should: • Every meeting starts with an agenda! • Every meeting starts with reviewing action items/schedule status. • Every meeting concludes with assignment of next action items. • A project schedule is both for planning and tracking. • A project schedule has no value if it is not used after creation.
Project Status Self-Assessment Examine your list of project learning action items… • Is each of the schedule items SMART? Make it SMART if not already? • Do each of the schedule items have an owner? A due date? • Is the pace of project learning going to support the snapshot day milestone? • Is the balance of effort ok? • Add any missing key items. GROUP WORK
Project Management - Macro • Project = an endeavor to create a unique product or service • Micro - deals with day to day operations • Macro - deals with planning and vision
Why Projects Fail • They run out of Schedule or Budget (time or money) • “The death of a thousand cuts.” • Not usually a single catastrophic event (“the rocket blew up”) • Usually a sequence of small delays that add up, bleed project to death • Catastrophic event the night before the due date is a failure to plan for catastrophe.
Project Inputs and Outputs • Inputs = resources: time, materials, people • Time => complete tasks. • Keyword: Schedule • Materials => money. • Keyword: Budget • Output = deliverables: prototype, thesis, new house, … • Successful project: • Scope, Schedule and Spend to complete work • Deliver result on time, within budget
Tools for Documenting Schedule • Gantt charts (MS Project, http://www.ganttproject.biz/) • Spreadsheet (pm_template.xls) • Project management document concepts: • resources • tasks • milestones • dependencies • % complete • hierarchy
Project Decomposition • A project can be broken into milestones • Milestones help us get things done. • A project and a milestone is too big to address in one step • Decomposition helps define describable and actionable chunks. • This is called the work breakdown structure (WBS). • The individual assignable item - action items. • An action item is a small chunk of work that is very well defined and assigned for completion on a certain date.
Identifying Milestones • What are some key milestones for your project? • What are some key elements of the WBS? GROUP WORK
Other Milestones • specs complete (end of phase) • specs approved • design review • prototype created/tested • concept selected • report due • assignment due • and more! (milestones drive the project!)
Other Resources • Wikipedia: Search for “Project management” and follow the links • A Short Course in Project Management: • http://office.microsoft.com/enus/project/HA102354821033.aspx • Tools - ms project, http://www.ganttproject.biz/ • See capstone website for good examples like this
Forming Initial Schedule • Form the initial schedule (on paper) given the milestones and WBS. • Bring a completed schedule to the next meeting. GROUP WORK