Comptia Project+ PK0-005

Project

Have a definite beginning and end.

Can be any length of time.

Process and result are unique.

People, Internal Groups & Organizations can be involved.

Require a Purpose.

Project Purposes

Market Demand

Business Need

Technical Breakthrough

Customer Orders

Legal Requirement

Project Results

New Product

New Service

Product Enhancement

Improved Service

New Business Asset

Justifying a New Initiative

Business Case

Value Creation

Business Case

Made by proving the results of a project will fulfill one or more needs.

Value Creation

Dependent on how well it meets needs relative to the costs incurred.

Project Value Types - 8

Financial

Strategic

Social Good

Quality/Resilience

Organizational Empowerment

Customer Satisfaction

Technological Innovation

Intellectual Property

Project Management

Utilization of many different skills, resources, tools, techniques, and accumulated wisdom in order to effectively coordinate project activities and achieve goals.

Project Manager

Must be a good communicator.

Solve Problems

Make Decisions

Share Ideas

Reach Agreements

Resolve Conflicts

Move Forward with Project Work

4 Project Manager Key Activities

Manage Project Requirements

Address Stakeholder Needs

Maintain Communication

Balance Resource Constraints

Project Constraints

Limited resources are present in every project environment.

Effective project managers work to balance constraints and priorities.

Changes to any aspect of a project will impact other aspects where constraints are involved.

6 Key Areas of Project Constraint

Scope

Schedule

Risk

Budget

Quality

Resources

Balance Resource Constraints

Identifying and understanding constraints allows for effective management to take place.

Critical to understand what makes the initiative valuable, and what work most directly leads to this value.

Project Roles and Responsibilities

Clear roles and objectives empower teams to succeed.

Ideal team size and structure will vary based on project goals, scope and methodology.

Teams often change in size as the project life cycle progresses.

Key Project Role Types

Core

Extended

Functional

Operational

Core Team Members

Focused on project-related responsibilities full-time

Extended Team Members

Participate part-time in project activities, predominantly when their expertise is most valuable.

Functional Team Members

Contribute directly to fulfillment of project requirements and value creation.

Operational Team Members

Facilitate the work of functional team members via administrative support.

Key Project Roles

Leader

Facilitator

Sponsor

Product Owner

Business Analyst

Domain SME

Developers & Engineers

Testers & QA Specialists

Customers

End User

PMO

Governance Body

Leader

May be knows as project manager, coordinator, scrum master or by other titles

Primary person responsible for ensuring objectives are met and outcomes are satisfactory

Facilitator

An dditional role often fulfilled by project leader

Responsible for helping team members achieve goals by combating challenges and facilitating progress

Sponsor

Individual or entity responsible for committing organizational resources, providing funding, and certifying project objectives.

Often selects the project leader and other key roles.

Product Owner

The additional role often fulfilled by the project sponsor

Prioritizes requirements for ongoing work based on an understanding of value, risk, and activity dependencies.

Business Analyst

Performs gap analysis, elicits information from stakeholders and defines requirements

Works alongside the project leadership to define goals and explain context

Doman SME

(Subject Matter Expert)

Typically associated with the project for only a portion of its total duration

Provide useful insight in specifying requirements and may assist in implementation activities

Developers & Engineers

Accomplish much of the frontline work in completing requirements and generating new value for customers

Serve as an important resource in gauging resource requirements and identifying activity precedences.

Testers & QA Specialists

Ensure what is created aligns with requirements and meets expectations

May evaluate work using both functional and non-functional requirements.

Customers

May also serve as the product owner depending on the nature of the project

Represents the primary beneficiary of project work, defines values and verifies deliverables are acceptable

End User

May or may not be the same as the customer

Will be most directly impacted by the project's implementation and is an important source of perspective in planning and validating work

PMO (project management office)

Provides support, resources, and access to best practices to many project teams within the enterprise

Level of authority and oversight of project work may vary significantly depending on organizational norms

Governance Body

May be internal to the team or organization or may be an external regulatory authority

Ensures project work and results are in compliance and may provide approval in cases of formal review

Program Management

Optimizes the allocation of resources and talents and the prioritization of several projects to achieve a set of related goals

Programs unlock benefits not available by managing projects individually

Focus on project interdependencies, finding optimal combined approach to accomplishing several projects

Portfolio Management

Optimizes resources throughout the enterprise, coordination efforts across programs and projects to achieve strategic goals and organizational vision

Maximizes value across programs and projects

Aligns programs and projects to top-level organizational objectives

Sets organization-wide policies, procedures and resource allocations

The Project Management Lifecycle

May contain programs with many projects as well as individual projects not associated with a program.

Operations

top layer across the organization that takes care of accounting, human resources, the legal department, facility maintenance, etc.

Project Manager Skill Types

Business Skills

Technical Skills

Leadership Skills

Difference between Project Management & Project Leadership Skills

Not synonymous, but both essential to project success

Management involves directing team members to accomplish activities in order to meet objectives

Leadership involves guiding and influencing team members and stakeholders to meet objectives.

Project Leadership

Must develop consensus and build support for change initiatives to succeed - ability to communicate why it's important.

Incorporation of stakeholder perspective is central - their Motivations, Needs & Capabilities

Taking these into account affects how we Disseminate Information, Allocate Resources & Prioritize Actions

Leadership Goals

Gain stakeholder trust & respect

Develop a reputation for ethical behavior and fairness

Accomplish work on schedule and in line with expectations

Consistently deliver high-value, quality results

Adapt to changing circumstances and organizational needs

Core Project Management Skills

Leadership Skills

Communication Skills

Facilitation Skills

Political Skills

Analytical Skills

Technical Skills

Business Skills

Leadership & Communication Skills

Set the basis for any project management to take place

Facilitation Skills

helping others to accomplish the work they've been tasked with by providing the resources, confidence, support and detail necessary for them to accomplish their roles effectively

Political Skills

Necessary for effective leaders, need to understand perspective of others, build coalitions in support of the change we are orchestrating

Analytical Skills

Essential to our ability to know how the work is progressing, if we are on schedule, maintaining budget, and if we have met the criteria of the requirements themselves, do we perform at the level we expected or do we need to refine our work in order to achieve higher level objectives

Technical Skills

Must have sufficient context to understand perspectives of our SMEs. Don't need to code better than team members but do need to understand, difficulty levels, time requirements, what are practical requests, what are the limitations and challenges faced.

Business Skills

Accounting

Create Effective Presentations

Marshall resources into a meeting, facilitated toward a set agenda to share and generate information

Emotional Intelligence

Self Awareness

Social Awareness

Self Management

Self Awareness

Understanding our own emotional state at any given time, the stress that we might be under as we bring all these people together and the ways we present that stress to others

Social Awareness

Understanding the context of stakeholders. Be aware of transition period, training necessary and no downtime. Provide indisputable value

Self Management

Understanding our own emotional state as well as others allows us to understand what the best approach is to our own emotional presentation should be.

Relationship Management

Curate the relationship between ourselves and others, and between others and the project itself. Convincing all to work together in good faith toward a set of shared goals that benefits everyone.

Project Management Methodologies

Waterfall

Agile

Choosing a Project Methodology

Predictive

Iterative

Adaptive

Predictive Methodology

Clearly different work takes place in each phase

Major changes to team composition often take place at project milestones

Preferred when deliverable is well understood, based on established practices, and lacks value until fully complete

Iterative Methodology

Develop a product through series of repeated cycles

Incremental development process with careful change management

Helpful when objectives and scope are subject to change

Adaptive Methodologies

Similar to iterative model, but on a faster pace, often of 2-4 week cycles

Ideal in rapidly changing environments when scope is hard to define fully in advance

Often used when partially completed products offer value to stakeholders as development continues

Methodology Choice Factors

Budget and schedule constraints may influence methodology selection

Formal bid/proposal processes may necessitate a more predictive approach

Uncertainty about requirements may necessitate a more agile approach

Predictive (Waterfall)

Work best when requirements are known, or can be developed, with reasonable certainty

Steps are followed in a mostly linear order from chartering through completion

May be used in projects where all delivery occurs at the end or when major phases can offer value

Allows for high efficiency and for efforts to be replicated when requirements are fixed in nature

Can and must still adapt to change when value to customer exceeds costs to implement

Progressively elaborating plans as new information becomes available and greater detail becomes necessary buys any project initiative time to respond to change

Predictive (Waterfall) Steps

Gather Requirements

Generate Plans for Action

Execute on Project Plans

Monitor and Control Work

Maintain Change Controls

Deliver and Support Results

Gather Requirements

Meet with customer to document project requirements thoroughly and reach agreement on project outcomes

Design

Layout

Needs

Schedule

Delivery Date

Generate Plans for Action

Determine how, and in what sequence, project requirements should be implemented to meet objectives

Resource Constraints

Scheduling windows

Sequence

Respect Prerequisites

Execute on Project Plans

Implement work according to plans, deviating minimally at all times

Monitor and Control Work

Ensure plans are being followed and that completed work meets objectives

Maintain Change Controls

Ensure any deviations to plans are understood, communicated, approved and appended to project plans

Deliver and Support Results

Turn over completed work to customer all at once or at phase gates where validation results in acceptance

Progressive Elaboration

The iterative process of increasing the level of detail in a project management plan as greater amounts of information and more accurate estimates become available

Iterative Project Managment

Iterative approaches focus on delivering value incrementally through a process of refinement and expansion over time

Iterative projects may continue their work until marginal benefit is exceeded by marginal cost

Agile Project Management

Heavy focus on adaptability

Encourages change as a strategic benefit

Team organically self-organizes

Provides user value incrementally

Agile Key Principles

Individuals & Interactions > Processes & Tools

Working Software > Comprehensive documentation

Customer Collaboration > Contract Negotiation

Responding to Change > Following a plan

Individuals & Interactions

No detailed processes governing operations

No roles for team members strictly defined

Nurturing more organic relationships and work methods leads to innovations

Working Software (Product)

Time spent creating documentation is better spent creating simpler interfaces and generating new value

Documentation should follow functionality to minimize risk of rework as requirements change

Customer Collaboration

Change initiatives create value for customers

Deep and continuously updated understanding of what offers customers value should drive work

Responding to change

Needs and environmental factors may shift considerably during change initiatives

Just-in-time planning ensures minimal wasted work and optimal strategic alignment

Agile Assumptions

Changes always welcome

Problem definable as addressable needs

Team Continuity

Colocation - collaboration tools necessary

Engaged customers and empowered SMEs

Multidisciplinary team members

Continuous improvement

Delivery of value

Cadence of Delivery

Common interval: 2-4 weeks

or

Time to create substantial new value for customers on a sustainable basis

Questions for determining iteration interval or cadence of delivery

Are we delivering a similar amount of work on a consistent basis?

Is our delivery cadence sustainable?

Can we maintain high quality outcomes at this pace?

Agile Frameworks

DevOps

(XP) Extreme Programming

Kanban

(PRINCE2) Projects IN Controlled Environments

(SDLC) Software Development Life Cycle

(SAFe) Scaled Agile Framework

Scrum

DevOps

Method of integrating development and operations in a way that facilitates quick feedback and evolution for software-oriented projects

Removes barriers between "dev" and "ops" staff allowing for closer coordination and better learning

Variant term DevSecOps may be used when security and quality-related functions are also fully integrated into the team

Extreme Programming (XP)

Prescriptive methodology focused on adapting agile principles to certain software engineering settings

XP extols the virtues of communication, simplicity, feedback, courage and respect in agile development

Kanban

Translates to "signboard" or "signal" in English

Task board posted in a highly visible location or on a shared website

Provides at-a-glance updates on status of all work in progress

Allows for work in progress (WIP) limits to be set more easily

(PRINCE2) Projects IN Controlled Environments

Compatible with agile or predictive approaches

Focuses on a set of aspects and principles that relate to a set of tools and processes

PRINCE2 Agile tailors the framework for agile settings

(Can earn a certificate)

Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)

Describes at a broad level the process software teams follow for the duration of a project initiative

Tasks in order:

Defining requirements

Design and prototyping

Development

Testing

Deployment

Operations and maintenance

(SAFe) Scaled Agile Framework

Facilitates agile transformation at an organizational level through a variety of principles and best practices

May be applied at several levels, encapsulating work at the team level, initiative level, portfolio level, or enterprise level

Scrum Framework

Iteration Planning

- Brief period to learn about and self-organize around tasks

Daily Stand-ups

-What was done yesterday?

-What gets done today?

-What are the obstacles?

Iteration Retrospectives

-Captures lessons learned that may be immediately applied

Impact of Environmental Factors

All methodologies must be tailored to project needs and environmental factors in order to be most effective

Factors are largely out of the team's control but materially impact how work may be undertaken

Factors may be internal or external to the organization

Recognizing the impact of these factors help leaders craft an optimal approach to project work

Leaders must remain aware of changes to factors

Internal Environmental Factors

Organizational

Geographic Dispersion

Infrastructure and Equipment

Tooling & Software

Resource Availability

Employee Capabilities

Organizational Factors

Structure of Organization

Formal authority reach as Project Manager

Resources available

Goals & Deadlines

Geographic Dispersion Factors

How dispersed are workers, locations, etc.

Warehouses, Fabrication centers, outsourced workers in other timezones

Tooling and Software Factors

Restricted to certain tool sets

Maybe you need to explain why other tools and equipment are needed

External Environmental Factors

Market Conditions

Cultural Influence

Legal Restrictions

Financial Limitations

Sources of Information

Research and Results

Standards and Best Practices

Physical Environment

Financing and Project Methodology

Financing is often tied to meeting certain objectives

Can impact Methodology or vice-versa

Agile $ either replenished at stages of development or may be continuous

Funding should be approved as part of the chartering process

Gap Analysis

Consider where we're at and what kind of future we want to create

Needs assessment

Find and recommend solutions

Document and Manage requirements

Plan and execute implementation

Business Case for Action

Describes the opportunity we seek to address and how we intend to take advantage of it

Composing Strong business cases leads to better decision-making and saves resources that might be wasted on more advanced chartering efforts

Allows disparate proposals to be evaluated on a more even basis

Typically templated in order to allow for easier comparison with other cases

-Defines Problem or opportunity

-Situation Analysis

-Recommended Action

-Conducting Evaluations

Develop Project Charter

Founding document that allows project work to begin

Should be created before significant work is completed

Explain the underlying need and why the project team has assembled

High-level requirements and milestones should be present

High-level budgetary and time restrictions

be signed off on by management with the authority to assign needed resources

May only be a page or two in length, but still critical to any serious project

-Statement of Works

-Business Case

-Contract

-Project Overview

-Project Approach

-Project Approval

Minimum Viable Product

The earliest version of our work that can offer some useful value

Benefiting from Existing Assets and Precedents

Make our work creating something new a little easier

Using Gap Analysis

-Analyze Stakeholders

-Conduct Business Analysis Activities

-Assess Environmental Factors

Ensure Requirements Traceability

Supporting the Business Case

-Payback Period = time until breakeven point

-Return on Investment = estimated net benefit divided by investment

-Internal Rate of Return = Estimated annual yield of project investment including ongoing costs

-Net Present Value = Sum of all expected future benefits with the time value of money taken into account

Project Overview

Background and Context; lays out business case

Outlines project scope and boundaries

Names key stakeholders and sponsor