Chapter - Project Management 101 Introduction What Is Project Management? Four Steps to Project Management Prowess Project Definition Your Project Plan: The Indispensable Tool Tracking: Your Finger on the Pulse Project Close How Microsoft Project Helps Calculate Most Schedule Details Balance Critical Scheduling Factors with Ease Flag Problems - Before They Impact Your Schedule Create a Project Plan Track a Project Plan Close the Project A Sample Listing of Project Management Reference Guides Microsoft Project 98 – Chapter Page of Introduction Many people who spend part of their work time managing projects shrink from the words "project management." The very idea sounds too big, too complicated, and too time-consuming In reality, though, project management is nothing more than a system for managing tasks, resources, and costs efficiently A good system can help you improve communication and coordination and reduce the overall amount of time you spend managing projects Add Microsoft Project to your project team and you can be even more effective in less time In this chapter we introduce you to basic project management concepts as well as to a tried-and-true, four- phase process for managing projects You can follow this process as is or adapt it to your particular situation By no means is this chapter meant to be a comprehensive thesis on project management; it’s an introduction only If you want more information, take a look at the list of project management reference books at the end of this chapter What Is Project Management? Managing projects is a matter of keeping scope, schedule, and resources in balance Generally this means planning, organizing, and tracking a project’s tasks and identifying and scheduling resources to accomplish those tasks Scope is the range of tasks required to accomplish project goals A schedule indicates the time and sequence of each task, as well as the total project duration Resources are the people and/or equipment that perform or facilitate project tasks Resources usually have costs, such as wages or operating expenses, that you may want to track When scope, schedule, and resources are in balance, you have just the right amount of resources to accomplish all your project tasks on or before the project deadline When you manage projects, you want to be sure that specific project goals are met as efficiently as possible The primary project management tool for achieving this purpose is a project plan But if managing projects isn’t the main part of your job (or your favorite part), you might shy away from creating and using a project plan That’s an option But there is a downside to this approach Without a formal plan, you reduce the likelihood of accomplishing project goals, such as staying within budget or on schedule If you can’t easily track who’s doing what, or when tasks should be finished, you jeopardize your chances of meeting those goals And if something goes wrong — a deadline is missed or a task takes longer than you thought it should — you may encounter needless difficulties in determining the problem’s source, as well as its impact on the schedule Good project management helps you succeed Everyone on the team will benefit from improved coordination and communication, resulting in a stronger focus on results You will earn that reassuring sense of having everything under control Four Steps to Project Management Prowess There’s no single correct way to manage a project In fact, if you ask 10 project management experts to explain the best way to manage projects, you’ll probably get 10 different answers (all of them, of course, true) To help you manage projects effectively, we’ve distilled the essence of project management wisdom down to these four major steps Microsoft Project 98 – Chapter Page of You can use Microsoft Project for steps and 3, creating a project plan and tracking and managing a project But no project management program can give you much help with steps and For step 1, defining a project, you’ll need to write down your goals and limits, such as the number of available resources or the project budget And although you can use Microsoft Project to help you evaluate and store a project at its close, most of what you need to in step 4, closing a project, doesn’t require the use of a project management program Project Definition In the project definition stage, you make all the high-level decisions concerning the project; your conclusions create the soul of your project At this stage, you need to: • Define the project scope What goals you want to accomplish? Which major tasks, and how many tasks, are required to accomplish these goals? • Determine your resources What resources — in particular, people and equipment — are available to help you achieve your project goals? • Determine your schedule’s limits How much time you have to complete the project? What are the project’s milestones and deadlines? Once you’ve decided the goals and broad framework of your project, you flesh it out by creating a project plan Your Project Plan: The Indispensable Tool The project plan is the heart of project management It defines the scope, resources, and schedule in one place, thus enabling you to keep these factors in balance throughout your project A project plan spells out factors such as exactly how many and what tasks need to be done, who’s going to each task, the estimated cost of each task and of the entire project, the task sequence, dependencies between tasks, the estimated duration of each task, and the length of the overall project To put together an effective project plan, you need to: • Identify all the project tasks and who or what will them • • • Get work and time estimates for tasks, preferably from the people directly responsible for those tasks Determine task dependencies For example, find out if one task can’t start until another finishes, if several tasks must start at the same time, or if two tasks must finish at around the same time Enter task and project constraints For example, you might want a task to begin on a certain date The more accurate your information, the more accurate your plan Tracking: Your Finger on the Pulse Microsoft Project 98 – Chapter Page of When your project begins, your plan becomes a valuable tool in helping you direct and fine-tune the project Wielding the plan, you can: • Track project progress, comparing actual data to original estimates • • • • Review resource, scope, and schedule factors to balance your priorities Identify problems that could knock the project off schedule Analyze resource requirements throughout the project, making sure, for example, that no one on your team is overloaded with work Make midstream changes that will help you reach your project goals sooner With a project plan, you can easily analyze what is going right and what is going wrong during the project Project Close Once you’ve achieved your project goals and met all the criteria that signal the project’s end, it’s time to close the project The project close can be as important as the project beginning, if you can apply what you learn during this phase to future projects At the project close, you can: • Compare your original plan to the actual course of project events • • Analyze problems and identify areas for future improvement Archive the project file No project management program can close your project for you, but a project plan you create using Microsoft Project can help set a successful course for your next project How Microsoft Project Helps Microsoft Project is a powerful tool that helps you organize and track the myriad peculiarities of your project Calculate Most Schedule Details Balance Critical Scheduling Factors with Ease Flag Problems — Before They Impact Your Schedule Create a Project Plan Track a Project Plan Close the Project Calculate Most Schedule Details You enter relatively few pieces of information, and Microsoft Project takes care of the rest For example, if you specify a task’s length, Microsoft Project calculates the task’s start and finish dates Automatically Or, if you define a resource’s workday as hours, Microsoft Project can alert you if there are days when that resource will be working additional hours Moreover, when you change any factor, Microsoft Project recalculates the schedule so you can see the effect of the change almost instantly Keep in mind, though, that Microsoft Project’s scheduling competence is only as good as the information you give it, so be sure your information is complete and accurate Balance Critical Scheduling Factors with Ease On the project level, Microsoft Project helps you maintain a balance among scope, resources, and time: Have more tasks been added to your project but not more time? A quick look at your Microsoft Project schedule shows you if existing resources have enough free time to accomplish the new tasks, without extending the project deadline On the task level, Microsoft Project helps you maintain a balance between the hours it takes to complete a task, the assigned resources, and the overall task length For example, if a task that takes one person days to complete needs to be done in days, Microsoft Project makes it easy to assign a second person Flag Problems — Before They Impact Your Schedule The ability to look ahead and avoid scheduling problems before they occur can mean the difference between project success and failure Your project plan helps you identify and correct problems such as overloaded resources, tasks that threaten to bust your budget, and scheduling conflicts that could push out the project deadline Microsoft Project 98 – Chapter Page of In these and other ways Microsoft Project helps you manage projects of any degree of complexity efficiently, ensuring that you spend less time on project management details and more on the work that’s of most importance to you Once you’re ready to develop your project plan, Microsoft Project turns into your all-in-one project management assistant Although it can’t define your project — only you can that — it does most of the work for creating and tracking a project plan, and it smoothes project closing Create a Project Plan During this phase you enter tasks, estimate how many days or hours it will take to complete each task, specify when one task should start relative to another, and assign resources to tasks Microsoft Project will: • Schedule each task and calculate the project finish date • • Calculate the time required to complete each task Balance scope, resources, and time — or show you where they’re out of balance Track a Project Plan When you track your project, you monitor task progress and, often, compare what has occurred with what you planned That way, you know if you need to adjust the schedule so that you can keep to the original deadline Microsoft Project will: • Display both your original estimates — such as the length of a task — and the actual data • • • Calculate and display the difference between your original estimates and actual data Simplify the process for updating your plan with actual data Calculate the effect of updates on the schedule Close the Project At the close of a project, you typically resolve outstanding issues, identify what worked well, identify problems and areas for future improvement, and document your findings Although Microsoft Project doesn’t provide direct support for these activities, it can: • Save a copy of your original plan to help you identify problem areas • • Store notes about tasks and resources, which you can refer to when analyzing problems and performance Supply project information you need to document your findings When you use Microsoft Project to manage your project, you stay in control of your schedule during each project phase with a minimum of time and effort A Sample Listing of Project Management Reference Guides This chapter briefly introduced one effective process for managing projects In the space of one chapter we couldn’t begin to cover project management in as comprehensive a manner as it deserves To help you get more detailed information about project management, we deliver you into the hands of top project management experts The following list represents only a small sample of the books available on project management Inclusion of a book in the list in no way implies a specific endorsement by Microsoft for that book You may discover other books that you find to be equally as helpful as the books listed here • Cleland, David I Project Management: Strategic Design and Implementation 2nd ed McGraw-Hill, Inc., 1994 A leading-edge guide to both the theory and practice of project management, this management assistant includes new chapters on team management, product-process design teams, and the future of project management Microsoft Project 98 – Chapter Page of • • • • • • Clough, R.H., and G.A Sears Construction Project Management John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1991 This book describes a tested strategy for the management control of project planning, time, cost, resources, and finance It emphasizes the use of computers Kerzner, Harold P Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling and Controlling 5th ed Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1995 A long-recognized leader in the project management field brings you the fifth edition of his comprehensive guide to project management This roll-up-your-sleeves reference continues to provide in- depth, leading-edge coverage of all aspects of project management Kimmons, R.L., and J.H Loweree Project Management: A Reference for Professionals Marcel Dekker, Inc., 1989 Chapters written by 116 internationally recognized experts address the full range of project management tasks and responsibilities — from the project manager’s point of view Lientz, Bennet P., and Kathryn P Ross Project Management for the 21st Century Academic Press, 1995 The focus in this comprehensive reference is on how to use technology to deal with the economic climate of the near future It tells you how to set up and manage a project as well as how to deal with the 100 most common project management problems Whitten, Neal Managing Software Development Projects 2nd ed John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1995 Armed with effective solutions to problems that afflict software development projects, this state-of-the- art guide provides practical advice for project managers who want results Wideman, R Max Cost Control of Capital Projects and the Project Cost Management System Requirements 2nd ed BiTech Publishers Ltd., 1995 This comprehensive reference describes how to control costs from the beginning to the end of a project It provides guidelines for contracting strategies, work breakdown, project cost accounting and forecasting, and handling changes, risk, and the impact of delays Microsoft Project 98 – Chapter Page of