Effective Project Management Traditional, Adaptive, Extreme Third Edition phần 7 pptx

Penetration into the Middle Third of the Buffer Penetration into the middle third of the buffer does call for some action on the part of the CCPM project manager. In this case, the correct action is to investi- gate the cause of the slippage and put a get-well plan in place. The earlier in the sequence this occurs, the more serious the problem. Penetration into the Final Third of the Buffer Penetration into the final third of the buffer is serious regardless of when in the sequence it occurs. Obviously, if it is in the first third of the duration of the sequence, it is very serious. If it occurs late in the final third, there may be little that can be done. In any case, action is called for. Figure 12.7 is a matrix that can be used to determine schedule slippage sever- ity and need for action as a function of buffer penetration and distance into the task sequence. Figure 12.7 Buffer penetration and action decisions. Second Third Buffer Penetration Task Sequence Penetration NO ACTION Task sequence will be ahead of schedule Monitor the situation for any further penetration First Third First Third Final Third NO ACTION Serious problem; implement the solution A very serious problem exists; aggressive action is needed Define the problem and formulate a solution Serious problem; immediate action required NO ACTION Second Third Final Third Critical Chain Project Management 261 14 432210 Ch12.qxd 7/2/03 9:33 AM Page 261 To grasp the significance of the penetration matrix, let’s first consider the diag- onal from the top left cell to the bottom right cell in Figure 12.7. The cells on the diagonal reflect situations where task sequence penetration is about equal to buffer penetration. The statistician would say that is what we should expect on the average. However, the further we move into task sequence penetration (moving down the diagonal), the more we should be paying attention to the team’s performance on the work being done on the tasks in the sequence. The nearer we are to the ending tasks in the sequence, the less likely it is that we can formulate and execute a get-well plan should things go poorly. For exam- ple, if we are in the second third of the task sequence, it might be a good idea to take a look at the problem situation and formulate an action plan in the event things deteriorate. The problem is not serious, but it does deserve our attention. In the final third of the task sequence, all we can do is closely moni- tor and take action at the slightest aberration in the task sequence schedule. Below the diagonal we’ve been discussing is a great place to be. We could even be experiencing a situation where the task sequence will finish ahead of sched- ule and the time saved can be passed to the successor task sequence. Above the diagonal are situations we are more used to. If we are in the first third of the task sequence and have penetrated into the second third of the buffer, we have a serious problem that needs immediate investigation and solution implemen- tation. There may be some systemic flaw in the project plan, and early inter- vention is needed. If the schedule should continue to slip and we find ourselves having penetrated into the final third of the buffer, we are in real trouble, as the matrix suggests. We could be looking at a significant slippage that may impact the project buffer as well. Track Record of Critical Chain Project Management It was not until the 1997 publication of Eliyahu M. Goldratt’s book Critical Chain (North River Press Publishing Corp.) that people began to see the con- nections between TOC and project management. CCPM has only a five-year history to draw upon for its successes. Leach cites a few of them in his book Critical Chain Project Management. They are briefly summarized in the follow- ing list: Honeywell Defense Avionics Systems. Using critical chain concepts, a team at Honeywell was able to reduce a 13-month project to 6 months. And they did finish it in 6 months. Lucent Technologies. A project that was scheduled using CCPM was to have taken one year. Many said it couldn’t possibly be done in one year. It was, with buffer to spare. Chapter 12 262 14 432210 Ch12.qxd 7/2/03 9:33 AM Page 262 Harris. Harris undertook to build a new manufacturing facility using the CCPM approach. The industry standard for such facilities was that it took 46 months to get the plant up and running to 90 percent capacity. Harris built it and brought it up to 90 percent capacity in 13 months. Israeli aircraft industry. A particular type of aircraft maintenance requires three months on the average. Using CCPM techniques the maintenance team reduced the average to two weeks. Better online solutions. A software package was originally planned to be released to the public in August 1997. The TOC schedule cut it down to May 1, 1997. The actual delivery date was early April 1997. These stories do not in any way validate CCPM as better than TPM. It is too early to tell that, but it is a fact that there have been many successes using it. You be the judge. You decide if CCPM wins out over TPM or if it is just another repackaging of PMBOK. We have simply presented another way of managing resources and leave it up to the project team to decide which approach makes more sense, given the situation. Putting It All Together We have given you enough of an overview of CCPM to be able to use it in your projects. The overview is brief and applied to a simple project. Those of you who are more serious about its application will need to dig deeper into it. Again, we heartily endorse Leach’s book Critical Chain Project Management. Discussion Questions 1. Assume that your organization is interested in using CCPM along with TPM. What criteria would you use to decide which approach makes more sense for a given project? You might try answering this question by con- sidering some of the characteristics of the project that would lead you to one choice over the other. 2. You are a senior project manager in your company. You have 15 years’ experience with them and a solid reputation for delivering successful projects. What might you, acting on your own, do to get your organiza- tion to appreciate the value of CCPM? What obstacles might prevent you from going forward with your plan? Critical Chain Project Management 263 14 432210 Ch12.qxd 7/2/03 9:33 AM Page 263 14 432210 Ch12.qxd 7/2/03 9:33 AM Page 264 Adaptive Project Framework P roject management is at a major crossroads. How we choose to go forward will either endear us to our clients or give them more reasons to dismiss project management as irrelevant to their needs. Changes that have taken place in the past few years in the way businesses operate have given us good reason to pause and reflect on whether or not our traditional approach to project man- agement still satisfies the needs of organizations. We are of the belief that we are not meeting the needs of contemporary organizations and that we must do something to correct that deficiency. These thoughts have dominated our thinking for several years now. We’ve had this feeling that the business world is passing us by, and that what we are offering them isn’t up to expectations. It’s time for some out of the box thinking. Part II of this book rose out of that belief and the need to act. We call this new approach Adaptive Project Framework (APF). It reflects our thinking on an approach to projects that do not fit the traditional project profile. Much of APF is the direct result of working with project managers who are frustrated with their foiled attempts to adapt TPM to projects for which it was not designed. We warn you now that what you are going to read about in Part II is different. We ask you to be open-minded as you read these chapters. What we have done is take parts from the traditional approach and parts from the extreme approach and integrate them in a way that meets the needs of a type of project that is not served by either the traditional or the extreme approaches. There is a new taxonomy of projects. It ranges from the traditional approach to APF and then to extreme project management. As we discussed in the Introduction, projects also follow a taxonomy that maps directly to these approaches. If you would like to reduce the cost of projects to your organization, read this part of the book. We believe it is required reading for Project Office directors and managers, program managers, project managers, project leaders, team members, and those who use the services of any of these professionals. Execu- tives will want to read Chapter 13 and learn that there is something that can be PART TWO 15 432210 PP02.qxd 7/2/03 9:33 AM Page 265 PART TWO 266 done to significantly reduce the high percentage of failed projects without spending any more money. That’s right—without spending any more money. APF does not require any special tools or software or consultant expertise to be implemented. For the traditionalist, APF should be intuitive. Everything you need is in this book. In fact, we hypothesize that the APF approach that is introduced here is actually less costly than the traditional processes now in place in every organization. We first introduce Adaptive Project Framework at a 60,000-foot level. The first chapter of this part describes the five-phase APF approach and briefly explains each phase. This chapter is an excellent introduction to APF for senior-level executives, directors, and managers. They will come away with a good grasp and understanding of why APF is so critically important to our organizations at this time. The following five chapters discuss each of the five phases in detail sufficient for a project team to follow the approach. The final chapter discusses a few variations of APF and focuses mostly on extreme project management (xPM). xPM is a variation of APF in that the goal is not clearly specified in xPM, whereas it is in APF. That slight difference leads to a number of variations in the approach. These are discussed in some detail for the practitioner. Part II is a work in process. We continue to learn and discover the real power behind APF as we discuss it with our colleagues and implement it with our clients. How interesting it is to realize that our project to develop a fully functional version of APF is an APF project. Many strict traditionalist project managers will probably find APF controver- sial. At least we hope to get their attention and open their minds to other possibilities. There is an entire class of projects that we believe is not being served by the traditionalist approach. Recent developments in extreme project management address some of those projects. APF addresses projects that fall in the growing gap between the traditional and agile approaches. In our expe- rience, the majority of projects fall into this middle ground. We claim full responsibility for the contents and any reactions that follow. If nothing else, we hope to get a number of traditionalists excited enough to take a look at what we are presenting. Perhaps they will help us smooth the edges to APF and make it a viable tool in their project management arsenal. If you care to comment, contact Bob Wysocki at rkw@eiicorp.com or Rudd McGary at rmcgary@hotmail.com. We promise you a personal and thoughtful response. 15 432210 PP02.qxd 7/2/03 9:33 AM Page 266 Installing Custom Controls 267 Introduction to the Adaptive Project Framework It is a mistake to look too far ahead. Only one link of the chain of destiny can be handled at a time. —Winston Churchill There is no data on the future. —Laurel Cutler, Vice Chairman, FCB/Leber Katz Partners CHAPTER 267 F or those businesses that have only recently realized the pain of not having a project management process in place and are struggling to adapt traditional practices to nontraditional projects, we say, “Stop wasting your time!” We’re not advocating the overthrow of the project management world, but rather asking you to stop and think about what has been happening. It’s time to pay attention to the signals coming from the changing business environment and discover how to survive the fast-paced, constantly changing, high-quality demands of the new business model. NOTE Adaptive Project Framework (APF) incorporates selected tools and processes from tradi- tional project management (TPM). Those tools and processes are not repeated here. This part of the book assumes that the reader is familiar with the TPM approach. A quick review of Part I is suggested for those who do not have a working knowledge of TPM. 13 Chapter Learning Objectives After reading this chapter, you will be able to: ◆ Give a general explanation of APF ◆ Understand the purpose of each of the five phases of APF ◆ Apply the APF core values ◆ Describe the types of projects that are appropriate for APF 16 432210 Ch13.qxd 7/2/03 9:33 AM Page 267 The project survival strategy that we explore in this groundbreaking part of the book is what we are calling Adaptive Project Framework (APF). This is definitely not your father’s project management. It’s new. We don’t even use the word management. APF represents a shift in thinking about projects and how they should be run. For one thing, it eliminates all of the non-value-added work time that is wasted on planning activities that are never performed. Why plan the future when you don’t know what it is? In APF, planning is done just- in-time. Sounds like an oxymoron, doesn’t it? It is a new mind-set—one that thrives on change rather than one that avoids change. APF is not a one-size-fits-all approach; it continuously adapts to the unique character of the specific business situation as it learns more about that business situation. Based on the principle that form follows function, this strategy adapts some of the tools and processes from TPM (discussed in Part I of this book) and extreme project management ( discussed in Chapter 19) to its own special needs. It is a framework based on the principle that you learn by doing and one that guarantees, “If you build it, they will come.” APF seeks to get it right every time. It is client-focused and client-driven and is grounded in a set of immutable core values. It ensures maximum business value for the time and dollars expended and has squeezed out all of the non- value-added work that it possibly could. As a framework that meaningfully and fully engages the client as the primary decision maker, APF creates a shared partnership with shared responsibility between requestor and provider. APF is a framework that works, 100 percent of the time. No exceptions! Do we have your attention? Defining APF APF is an iterative and adaptive five-phase approach designed to deliver max- imum business value to clients within the limits of their time and cost con- straints. The fundamental concept underlying APF is that scope is variable, and within specified time and cost constraints, APF maximizes business value by adjusting scope at each iteration. It does this by making the client the cen- tral figure in deciding what constitutes that maximum business value. At the completion of an iteration, the client has an opportunity to change the direc- tion of the project based on what was learned from all previous iterations. This constant adjustment means that an APF project’s course is constantly corrected to ensure the delivery of maximum business value. In other words, change is embraced, not avoided. Planning takes on a whole new meaning in APF. Initial planning is done at a high level and is component or functionally based. TPM planning is activity- and task-based. In APF, planning at the micro level is done within each iteration. Chapter 13 268 16 432210 Ch13.qxd 7/2/03 9:33 AM Page 268 It begins with a mid-level component or function-based WBS and ends with a micro-level activity and task-based WBS. We like to think of it as just-in-time planning. The underlying strategy to APF planning is not to speculate on the future, because such speculation is a waste of time and energy. A key phrase to keep in mind when applying APF is “when in doubt, leave it out,” meaning that we only include in our detailed planning those activities that clearly will be part of the final solution—that is, at each iteration, include in your detailed plan only what you know to be factual. So, planning is done in segments where each chunk represents work that will require only a few weeks to complete. The five phases that define APF are as follows: ■■ Version Scope ■■ Cycle Plan ■■ Cycle Build ■■ Client Checkpoint ■■ Post-Version Review They are briefly described in the next section. An Overview of the APF The stage is now set to take our first look at APF. Figure 13.1 is a graphic por- trayal of how APF is structured. First, note that APF is an iterative process. We iterate within a cycle and between cycles. Every iteration presents the team and the client with a learning and discovery opportunity. APF is crafted to take advantage of these opportunities. As you continue to study each phase, you will come to realize that is its real strength. Version Scope APF begins with a stated business problem or opportunity. This beginning is the same as TPM. A request has been made to develop a solution to the stated problem or opportunity, and that request has all the earmarks of a project. At this point, we are not at all sure what kind of project this might be or how we might approach it from a methodology perspective. A Conditions of Satisfac- tion (COS) conversation takes place between the requestor and the provider to define more clearly exactly what is needed and what will be done to meet that need. The result of that conversation is a decision as to which project manage- ment approach will be followed: traditional (covered in Part I), extreme (covered in Chapter 19), or APF. We have decided that APF is the approach to be taken, so a project scoping document, specifically, a Project Overview State- ment (POS), is written. Introduction to the Adaptive Project Framework 269 16 432210 Ch13.qxd 7/2/03 9:33 AM Page 269 Figure 13.1 The Adaptive Project Framework. Develop Conditions of Satisfaction Prioritize Functional Requirements & Develop Mid-Level WBS Write Project Overview Statement Prioritize Scope Triangle Develop Next Cycle Build Plan CYCLE PLAN VERSION SCOPE Schedule Cycle Build Build Cycle Functionality Monitor/Adjust Cycle Build Conduct Quality Review with Client Review the Version Results CYCLE BUILD CLIENT CHECKPOINT POST-VERSION REVIEW Chapter 13 270 16 432210 Ch13.qxd 7/2/03 9:33 AM Page 270 [...]... Force Ranking of 10 Pieces of Functionality FUNCTIONALITY # A B C D E F RANK SUM FORCED RANK 1 2 5 3 2 1 6 19 2 2 4 3 2 7 9 10 35 6 3 7 4 9 8 6 3 37 7 4 1 8 5 1 2 2 19 3 5 3 6 8 4 7 5 33 5 6 8 9 10 9 10 8 54 9 7 5 1 1 3 3 4 17 1 8 6 2 4 5 4 1 22 4 9 10 10 7 10 8 9 54 10 10 9 7 6 6 5 7 40 8 290 Chapter 14 The individual rankings from each of the six members for specific functions (or subfunctions) are... also have the sense that they are determining the direction that the project is taking At the extreme, this value would mean having the client take on the role and responsibilities of the project manager Such an extreme will not happen very often, but there are occasions when this will occur An effective arrangement is to have co -project managers—one from the client and one from your organization In... rationale for why the project was undertaken in the first place Think of these outcomes as success criteria Introduction to the Adaptive Project Framework 275 That is, the undertaking will have been considered a success if, and only if, these outcomes are achieved In many cases, these outcomes cannot be measured for some time after the project has been completed Take the case of the project impacting... organization In this arrangement, both individuals share equally in the success and failure of the project There is a clear and established co-ownership Practice tells us that this is a key to successful implementation We say that this is a key factor to successful projects Introduction to the Adaptive Project Framework 277 Incremental Results Early and Often In the spirit of prototyping, we want to deliver a... new way of thinking about an important class of projects It is our hope that you find it a valuable addition to your arsenal Discussion Questions 1 Under your leadership, your organization has spent considerable effort to adopt a traditional approach to project management It has reached maturity level three, that is, there are fully documented project management processes and templates and everyone... management colleagues You have noticed a number of projects where the client has requested and gotten approval for several changes throughout the project These have cost significant money and time, the loss of e-business market share, and the subsequent loss of revenues As Director of the Project Support Office, you have come to realize that APF is the approach that should have been taken on this project. .. forward with mid-level project planning Identifying the Business Problem or Opportunity A well-defined need and a clear solution pathway planned to meet that need define a project that the traditionalist would die for A rather vague idea of a want coupled with a vague idea of how it will be satisfied define a project that the agilest (an agilest is one who aligns their project management approach with... version If not, kill the project right now No need to send good money after bad money There is also a lesson here for all of us If projects are limited in scope and they fail and there is no way to rescue them, we have reduced the dollars lost to failed projects The alternative of undertaking larger projects is that we risk losing more money If there is a way of finding out early that a project isn’t going... Contrary to what you might think, the creation of the cycle build plan is a lowtech operation While you could certainly use project management software tools, we have found that a whiteboard, Post-It notes, and marking pens are just as effective It does keep the maintenance of a project file down considerably and allows the team to focus on value-added work This advice may sound heretical to those of... and cost of the latter cycles NOTE would find out a project wasn’t working only after all the money was spent, and TPM then a great deal of trouble might be involved in killing the project The traditional thought goes, “After all, there is so much money tied up in this project, we can’t just kill it Let’s try to save it.” How costly and unnecessary  276 Chapter 13 The APF Core Values APF is more than . deliverables. The result is to change the project going forward in the next cycle. Introduction to the Adaptive Project Framework 277 16 432210 Ch13.qxd 7/ 2/03 9:33 AM Page 277 Don’t Speculate on the Future APF. class of projects that we believe is not being served by the traditionalist approach. Recent developments in extreme project management address some of those projects. APF addresses projects. your plan? Critical Chain Project Management 263 14 432210 Ch12.qxd 7/ 2/03 9:33 AM Page 263 14 432210 Ch12.qxd 7/ 2/03 9:33 AM Page 264 Adaptive Project Framework P roject management is at a major