Traditional versus nontraditional projects

February 26, 2015 ~ LINUS FERNANDES

Executive View of Project Management
Old View	New View
Project management is a career path.	Project management is a strategic or core competency.
We need our people certified as PMP®s.	We need people certified in project management, business processes and possibly other areas such as program management and risk management.
Project management is a process for executing work.	Project management has evolved more into a business process than a pure project management process.
Our project managers need traditional organizational behavior training.	We need specialized training in organizational behavior, including such topics such as virtual teams, stakeholder relations management, and managing diversity.

*Traditional versus NonTraditional Projects*
Managing Traditional Projects	Managing NonTraditional Projects
Single-person sponsorship	Governance by committee
Possibly a single stakeholder	Multiple stakeholders
Project decision-making	Both project and business decision-making
An inflexible project management methodology	Flexible or “fluid” project management methodology
Periodic status reporting	Real-time reporting
Success is defined by the triple constraints of time, cost and scope.	Sucess is defined by competing constraints and value.
KPIs are derived from the earned-value measurement system.	Unique value-driven KPIs.

Source: Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling and Controlling by Harold R Kerzner (11^th edition).

Standard Project Estimating

February 13, 2015 ~ LINUS FERNANDES

*Standard Project Estimating*
*Estimating Method*	*Generic Type*	*WBS Relationship*	*Accuracy*	*Time to prepare*
Parametric	Rough Order of Magnitude (ROM)	Top Down	-25% to +75%	Days
Analogy	Budget	Top Down	-10% to +25%	Weeks
Engineering (grass roots)	Definitive	Bottom up	-5% to +10%	Months

Source: Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling and Controlling by Harold R. Kerzner (11th edition).

English: Project development stages (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Unmanaged versus managed changes

February 9, 2015 ~ LINUS FERNANDES

*Unmanaged versus Managed Changes*
	*Where time is invested*	*How Energy is Invested*	*Which Resources Are Used*
Unmanaged Change	Back-end	Rework Enforcement Compliance Supervision	Senior management and key players only
Managed Change	Front-end	Education Communication Planning Improvements Value Added	Stakeholders (Internal) Suppliers Customers

Source: Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling and Controlling by Harold R Kerzner (11th Edition).

Risk Interdependencies

January 31, 2015 ~ LINUS FERNANDES

Action	Possible Benefit	Risk
Work overtime	Schedule compression	More mistakes; higher cost and longer schedule
Add resources	Schedule compression	Higher cost and learning curve shift
Parallel work	Schedule compression	Rework and higher costs
Reduce scope	Schedule compression and lower cost	Unhappy customer and no follow-on work
Hire low-cost resources	Lower cost	More mistakes and longer time period
Outsource critical work	Lower cost and schedule compression	Contractor possesses critical knowledge at your expense

Source: Project Management: A Systems Approach To Planning, Scheduling and Controlling by Harold R. Kerzner

Response Options for Risks and Opportunities

January 15, 2015 ~ LINUS FERNANDES

Summary of Response Options for Risks and Opportunities
Type of Response	Use for Risk or Opportunity	Description
*Avoidance*	*Risk*	*Eliminate risk by accepting another alternative, changing the design, or changing a requirement. Can affect the probability and/or impact.*
*Mitigation(Control)*	*Risk*	*Reduce probability and/or impact through active measures.*
*Transfer*	*Risk*	Reduce probability and/or impact by transferring ownership of all or part of the risk to another party, use of insurance and warranties, by redesign across hardware/software or other interfaces, etc.
*Exploit*	*Opportunity*	*Take advantage of opportunities.*
*Share*	*Opportunity*	*Share with another party who can increase the probability and/or impact of opportunities.*
*Enhance*	*Opportunity*	*Increase probability and/or impact of opportunity.*
*Acceptance*	*Risk and Opportunity*	Assume the associated level of risk or opportunity without engaging in any special efforts to control it. Budget, schedule, and other resources must be held in reserve in case the risk or opportunity is selected.

Source: Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling, and Controlling.

by Harold R Kerzner.

Dashboards and scorecards

January 8, 2015 ~ LINUS FERNANDES

Comparing features of dashboards and scorecards
Feature	Dashboard	Scorecard
Purpose	Measure performance	Charts progress
Users	Supervisors, specialists	Executives, managers and staff
Updates	Right-time feeds	Periodic snapshots
Data	Events	Summaries
Display	Visual graphs, raw data	Visual graphs, comments

Three Types of Performance Dashboards
	Operational	Tactical	Strategic
Purpose	Monitor operations	Measure progress	Execute strategy
Users	Supervisors, specialists	Managers, analysts	Executives, managers, staff
Scope	Operational	Departmental	Enterprise
Information	Detailed	Detailed/summary	Detailed/summary
Updates	Intra-day	Daily/Weekly	Monthly/quarterly
Emphasis	Monitoring	Analysis	Management

Source:- Project Management: A Systems Approach To Planning, Scheduling and Controlling by Harold R Kerzner.

Myths and realities of schedule compression

December 23, 2014 ~ LINUS FERNANDES

Compression Technique	Myth	Reality
Use of overtime	Work will progress at the same rate on overtime.	The rate of progress is less on overtime; more mistakes may occur; and prolonged overtime may lead to burnout.
Adding more resources (i.e., crashing)	The performance rate will increase due to the added resources.	It takes time to find the resources; it takes time to get them up to speed; the resources used for the training must come from the existing resources.
Reducing scope (i.e., needed. Reducing functionality)	The customer always requests more work than actually needed.	The customer needs all of the tasks agreed to in the statement of work.
Outsourcing	Numerous qualified suppliers exist.	The quality of the suppliers’ work can damage your reputation; the supplier may go out of business; and the supplier may have limited concern for your scheduled dates.
Doing series work in parallel	An activity can start before the previous activity has finished.	The risks increase and rework becomes expensive because it may involve multiple activities. Parallel Realities (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Source: Project Management: A Systems Approach To Planning, Scheduling and Controlling by Harold R. Kerzner.

Twenty project management proverbs

November 29, 2014 ~ LINUS FERNANDES





#493397129 / gettyimages.com

Twenty project management proverbs:

You cannot produce a baby in one month by impregnating nine women.
The same work under the same conditions will be estimated differently by ten different estimators or by one estimator at ten different times.
The most valuable and least used word in a project manager’s vocabulary is “NO.”
You can con a sucker into committing to an unreasonable deadline, but you can’t bully him into meeting it.
The more ridiculous a deadline, the more it costs to try and meet it.
The more desperate the situation, the more optimistic the situatee.
Too few people on a project can’t solve the problems—too many create more problems than they solve.
You can freeze the user’s specs but he won’t stop expecting.
Frozen specs and the abominable snowman are alike: They are both myths, and they both melt when sufficient heat is applied.
The conditions attached to a promise are forgotten, and the promise is remembered.
What you don’t know hurts you.
A user will tell you anything you ask about—nothing more.
Of several possible interpretations of a communication, the least convenient one is the only correct one.
What is not on paper has not been said.
No major project is ever installed on time, within budget, with the same staff that started it.
Projects progress quickly until they become 90 percent complete; then they remain at 90 percent forever.
If project content is allowed to change freely, the rate of change will exceed the rate of progress.
No major system is ever completely debugged; attempts to debug a system inevitably introduce new bugs that are even harder to find.
Project teams detest progress reporting because it vividly demonstrates their lack of progress.
Parkinson and Murphy are alive and well—in your project.

Source: Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling and Controlling by Harold R Kerzner (11th Edition).

Mentoring

December 19, 2011 ~ LINUS FERNANDES

Sir Salman Rushdie (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

If mentors and mentees are too similar, there may be little value for mentees in terms of knowledge,awareness or capability due to the lack of ‘stretch’ in the relationship.

If mentors and mentees are too far apart,then there is a risk of scheme breakdown due to a lack of empathy, credibility and motivation in both directions.

Both mentor and mentee gain more from the relationship if the mentee takes the initiative and if he or she expects developmental (as against directive) behaviours from the mentor.

The more passive the mentee and the more directive the mentor, the less successful the relationship.

Salman Rushdie writes:

Those who do not have the power of the story that dominates their lives—power to retell it, rethink it,deconstruct it,joke about it, and change it as times change—truly are powerless because they cannot think new thoughts.

Mentoring can help us explore our story, think new thoughts and realize a new future. Mentoring gives us an opportunity not to be condemned to repeat our pasts.

Mentoring is essentially a voluntary activity.

Mentoring is for the mentee.Attempts to impose agendas on the mentee result in manipulation and social engineering.

Mentors should reflect on their own ethical approach. References can be both external (e.g. a professional body) and internal (own values, situational ).

(Excerpted from Mentoring in Action—A Practical Guide (2nd Edition) [Chapter 1: The Mentoring Framework] by D Megginson,D Clutterbuck, B Garvey,P Stokes and R Garrett-Harris.)