UCF MAN 4583 Exam 1

What is a project?

A temporary endeavor that has a specific and unique goal, and usually a budget

Has an end goal: Product/Service/Outcome/Scheduling System

Has a budget

Operations

Work that's the same day after day, producing the same results

Ex: Admitting patients into the hospital

What is project management?

Answers several questions:

What problem are you solving?

How are you going to solve it?

What's your plan for getting the project done?

How can you tell when you are done?

How well did the project go?

Role of project manager

Skills

Technical

Business expertise

Problem-solving

Interpersonal

Leadership

Sphere of Influence

Are the people in your network with whom your option holds some weight.

Could be friends, peers, coworkers, or management

Project management's sphere of influence

closes- to the farthest sphere of influence

You

Project team- people you share information with

Sponsors/Suppliers/Shareholders- found & make decisions

Waterfall Project Management

When each process group occurs one after another, works best when goals are clearly defined

Project is:

Simplicity

Low risk

Familiar technology

Experienced resources

Clear solution of the project

Agile Project Management

A project where you figure out as you go

Iterations produce deliverables at regular intervals

Value delivered sooner

more customer involvement

Small independent team

Developt a detailed plan for each iteration

Monitoring/controlling more closely

Nonclear soluton of the project

Triple constraint concept

Cost/Schedule/Scope/ (Triangle)

Quality (Middle)

If you increase the need or importance of one, the others get stressed and need attention too

Program

Related projects, subsidiary programs, and program activities that are managed in a coordinated manner to obtain benefits not available from managing them individually

Portfolio

Projects, programs, subsidiary portfolios, and operations managed as a group to achieve strategic objectives

Directly aligned with the organization's strategic goals

Project management life cycle

Process Groups:

Initiating

Planning

Executing

Monitoring and Controlling

Closing

Initiating

Define your project, assess scope, resources needed, identify stakeholders, ask for approval

Planning

Answers

What are we going to do?

How are we going to do it?

How will we know when it's done?

Executing

Launch project, put the plan into action

Monitoring and Controlling

Check progress of project

Compare to what was planned- is it off track?

Closing Process

Get client to accept project is complete

Document project performance

Close contracts

Help resources move to next assignment

Knowledge Area

Collection of processes- with their own inputs, outputs, and tools and techniques- that must be completed for project success

Tailoring

Determining the appropriate combination of processes, inputs, tools, techniques, outputs, and life cycle phases to manage a project

Methodology

A system of practices, techniques, procedures, and rules used by those who work in a discipline

Project Success

Answers:

What does success look like?

How will success be measured?

What factors may impact success?

Hierarchy Organizational Structure

PM has almost no authority

Functional manager in charge of budget

Resources do not report to PM

PM has divided responsibilities: project & work

Matrix Organizational Structure

PM has some authority

Resources report to functional and project managers

PM and staff work full time in a strong matrix

3 types of matrix: weak, balanced, strong

Projectized Organizational Structure

PM has almost complete authority

Resources are dedicated to a project

PM and admin staff work full time

Organizational Culture

Set of factors that guide people's behaviors and decisions within an organization

Mission statement

Leadership

Work environment

Navigating Culture

In projects:

Know the boundaries

Respect change management

Respect local culture- people's culture

A company's ongoing operations and maintenance are crucially important for providing a healthy environment for a project's product to be created and delivered. Ongoing operations and maintenance should:

not be viewed as part of a project

All of the following are activities conducted as part of stakeholder management EXCEPT:

Providing extra work to guarantee satisfaction

Who will the project manager ALWAYS report to?

It is entirely dependent on the organizational structure

Initiate

Obtain commitment to start a project

Assign a project manager

Prepare project charter

Project stakeholders

Has a stake in the outcome of your project

Customer

Project Sponsor

Departments

Team Members

Project Customer

Person or group with a problem to solve

Founds the project

Informs what needs to be done

Approves deliverables

Project Sponsor

Wants project to succeed, have enough formal authority to make that happen

Prioritize objectives

Talk to stakeholders

Suggest improvements

Functional Managers (Line Manager)

Achieve department goals

Manage team members

Team Members

Their jobs depend on their assignments and may depend. on how well they perform

Departments

Invested and affected by project outcomes

Stakeholder Analysis

What is their:

Department/Company- how they are connected to the project

Position: where are they in the organization

Advisers: whom do they listen to

Objectives: their goals, requirements

Influence: interest in the project

Project contribution: how did they contribute

Resistance: whom to turn to for thing they need

Project Goal

Defines the end result that the project wants the customer to deliver

Solves the problem

Takes advantage of opportunity

Problem Statement

Clearly defines the problem or opportunity

Project Objectives

Define the project scope, the approach you choose, and the success criteria you have to meet.

Business objectives

Financial objectives

Quality objectives

Technical objectives

Performance

Business objectives

Support organization's goals

Financial objectives

All about money

Increase revenue/Decrease cost

Quality objectives

Specify how good results need to be

Ex: decrease staff infections by 80%

Technical objectives

Technical specifications for equipment

Performance Goal

Finish project before a specific day

Documenting Objectives.

SMART Criteria

S- Specific

M- Measurable

A- Achievable

R- Realistic

T- Time Related

Choose a strategy

- Brainstorming- free flow of ideas, avoid evaluation

- Evaluate- how well does it satisfies the project objectives

-Rate the performance for each objective

-Is this feasible?

-Is this acceptable?

-Does it fit the culture?

Gather requirements

Describe specifically that the project must deliver

Requirement Challenges

Incorrect requirements

Inconsistent requirements

Missing requirements

Unnecessary requirements

Customers don't commit time

Technics to gather information

Interviews

Focus groups

Observe

Surveys

Analyze existing documents

Then

Clarify with stakeholders

Documenting Requirment

Project deliverables

Results the project supposed to deliver

Success Criteria

To determine whether deliverables are what they are supposed to be

Definition of what success looks like

Define scope

Measure progress

Assumptions

Use to fill missing information

Revisit and modify as necessary

Identified assumption, get assumptions out in the open

Risk

A situation or event that might occur

Identified risk early in the project

Project Scope

It describes the boundaries of the project, what is included in the scope of the project, and what isn't included

Get it in writing to avoid scope creep

Reminds stakeholders what was agreed upon

Helps track for change management

Scope Creep

Additional unexpected deliverables

Project Charter

This document authorizes and publicizes the project

Project name

Purpose

High level project description

High level milestone schedule

Rough cost estimate

Stakeholders

Sponsor's suport

PM's-

Name

Responsibilities

Authority

Who provides guidance and support to the project manager regarding matters related to the project?

The project sponsor

You're in the lunchroom at work one day, 3 weeks into the execution of a project you are managing, and your project sponsor approaches you to see if you can squeeze in another feature on his project. This is an example of...

Scope Creep

Project proposals should always begin with the business case and the _____________

Scope statement

What is the general purpose of the Scope Management knowledge area?

Understanding, clarifying, and qualifying what the project team should be working on

Planning out project in detail

Identifying the work that must be done into bite-size pieces (Task)

-Who going to do the task?

-How long will each task take?

-How much does each task cost?

Project Plan

Used over the course of the project

Directs people's tasks

Tracks project's progression

Aids in course corrections

Communicates progress with stakeholders

Change Management Plan

When a new requirement is suggested

1) Identify what you want to control

2) Define a change management process

Consider setting thresholds (small request) and process for emergency changes

Baseline Documents

Versions you control

Project scope

Requirements

Schedule

Project Plan

Define a change management process

Receive change request form

Evaluate change request

Reviewed by the change review board

Track change request

Project Baseline

Approved project documents. It's everything you want to control in the project with change management process

Change request

Any changes to baseline documents

Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

A hierarchical decomposition of the total scope of work to be carried out by the project team. ( Break the project into smaller pieces)

Help estimate time and cost

Have summary task and work packages

Work Packages

Lowest level sub-tasks in the work breakdown structure

Breakdown in 8-18 hour task

Match to the frequency of status reports

Determining breakdowns in WBS are at the right level

Time and cost are easy to estimate

Status is easy to measure

Task duration are shorter than reporting periods

Details are manageable

Defining work packages

Work packages document- describe the work that needs to be done & how the task is complete in detail

Communication Plan

Identify your audiences, and what do they need and want to know

Communication distribution- how often, the methiods you use, and the formate

Management Stakeholder

Care about a project achieving its objectives.

Later on, they want to know about progress, how much you've spent, and the overall project result.

Project Sponsor

Need to know the objectives

Communicated more often maybe in face to face meetings

Functional Managers

Need to know the skillsets you need, when you need them, and other things like cost constraints. Also well as when those people will be done.

Skillsets

Milestones

Constraints

Schedules

Team Member

Need to know what they're supposed to do.

Assignments

Upcoming tasks

Changes

Best practices

Good communication

Tell your audience why they should pay attention

Make your point before they lose interest

Keep Message relevant

Be positive and proactive

Communication Tips

Listen

Watch for unspoken communication

Keep an open mind

Paraphrase

Email effectively

Change management systems are designed to accomplish which of the following?

Reflect scope changes in baseline and performance measures

Identify expected effects of proposed changes on schedule and budget

Review, evaluate, and approve/disapprove proposed changes formally

Track all changes that are to be implemented

Acceptable approach to organizing tasks into groups

Geographical Locations

Key Work Product

Project Phases

According to best practice, which of the following is a well-worded task?

Install Flooring

You are holding a document that includes the stakeholders' communication requirements; language, format, content and detail of information required by stakeholders; time frame and frequency of communication; and glossary of common terminology used in the project.

What is this document?

Communication Management Plan

Which one of the following is the project management knowledge area that includes processes required to ensure timely and appropriate planning, collection, creation, distribution, storage, retrieval, management, control, monitoring, and the ultimate disposition of project information?

Project Communications Management

Parametric Model

Estimate work and cost based on a measured unit

Works best when you have data from many similar projects

Delphi Technique

When a project represents uncharted territory.

Counts on several heads being better than one

1) Ask several experts to produce estimates independent of one another, and keep the estimates anonymous

2) Ask everyone to estimate again, repeat this step few more times and use the average of the last round as the final estimated value.

Top Down

Estimate phases or major components and then break those estimates into smaller pieces until you get to individual tasks

Bottom Up

Estimate each task and then add them up until you have the estimate for the entire project

Choosing Estimate Value

Don't use the average value (means you are likely to fail as you are to succeed), worst or best case estimate

Use: halfway between average and worse case value

Incrases the chance of success, pick higher value

Estimate Activity Durations

Those doing the work should make the estimates

Duration of an activity depend on many variables

Assigned resources

Team member's experience level

Percentage of time the resources are assigned

Availability

Estimation Factors

Law of diminishing returns

Number of resources

Advances in technology

Staff motivation

ITTO

Input, Tools & Techniques and Output

Input

Things that we use in the project to implement it.

Schedule management plan

Scope baseline; WBS dictionary

Activity list

Activity attributes

Resource requirements

Project team assignments

Resource calendars

Risk register

Milestone list

Resource breakdown structure

Assumption log

Lessons learned

Enterprise environmental factors

Organizational process assets

Tools and Techniques

Are methods, charts, techniques, and tools that are used throughout a project's lifecycle to take process inputs and turn them into process outputs

Expert judgment

Meetings

Analogous

Parametric

Three-point

Bottom-up

Decision making

Reserve analysis

Output

Duration estimates

Basis of estimates

Project documents updates

Task Dependencies

One task controls the timing of another

Predecessor

Task in control

Successor

Task being controlled

Finish to Start Dependencies

The finish of one task controls when the other task starts

Ex: You have to analyze the current scheduling processes before you can start designing new ones