KC31103 PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND PROCESS ECONOMICS

CHAPTER 1: PROJECT MANAGEMENT CONCEPTS

Project Attributes
1 Clear objective
2 Series of interdependent activities
3 Various resources
4 Specific time frame
5 Unique, one-time endeavour
6 Sponsor/customer
7 Degree of uncertainty
End product, deliverable, schedule, budget
Non-repetitive activities
People, organizations, equipment, materials, facilities
Requires customization (new product)
Provides fund for the contractor
Plan prepared based on assumptions and estimates cause
uncertainty

Balancing Project Constraints

1 Project scope All the work that must be done
2 Quality Must has quality manner and meet specifications
3 Schedule Timetable that specifies the start and finish of an activity
4 Budget
5 Resources People, materials, equipment, facilities
6 Risk Risk management: assess potential risks, likelihood of occurrence and
potential impact, delineates responses when risk occur
7 Customer satisfaction Ongoing communication with customer to update project progress
8 Stakeholders Individuals/Entities involved (influenced/affected) in the project

Project Manager Actions

- Prevent, anticipate, overcome unforeseen circumstances that may jeopardize the project objectives
- Have good planning and communication
- Be responsible

Project Life Cycle

Initiating phase - Identify need/problem/opportunity

- Selecting project
- Develop charter (rationale, objective, expected benefits,
requirements/conditions)
- Decision to use external resources. RFP preparation to define project
requirements
 Planning phase - Show how project scope will be accomplished
- Baseline plan
- What needs to be done (scope, deliverable)
- How will it get done (activities, sequence)
- Who will do it (resources, responsibility)
- How long will it take (durations, schedule)
- How much will it cost (budget)
- What the risks are
Performing phase - Accomplishing project objectives
- Increase in resources increases the pace
- Monitor and control progress
- Corrective action
- Manage and control changes with sponsor approval
- Achieve customer satisfaction
Closing phase - Collect and make final payments
- Recognize and evaluate staff
- Conduct post project evaluation
- Documentation
- Archiving project documents
- Evaluation of project performance

Project Management Process

1 Establish project objective
2 Define scope
3 Create WBS
4 Assign responsibility
5 Define specific activities
6 Sequence activities
7 Estimate activity resources
8 Estimate activity durations
9 Develop project schedule
10 Estimate activity costs
11 Determine budget
Agreed between sponsor/customer and contractor
Includes customer requirements, statement of work, list of
deliverables, and associated acceptance criteria that can be used
to validate that the work and deliverables meet specifications
Subdivide the project scope into work packages
Detailed activities, to produce any required deliverables
Network diagram to show sequence and relationship of activities
People, materials, equipment
How long will it take to complete each activity
Resource cost, labour cost

Execute the Project Plan

- After planning, perform the work
- Monitor and control progress
- Control changes

Stakeholder Engagement
- Stakeholders: customer/sponsor
- Project team
- Organizations/groups (supportive/adversarial)
- What to create: stakeholder register, issue log
- Stakeholder register includes: key contact information, role or specific topics of interest, expectations,
any known issues, areas of potential influence
 Global Project Management
- Globalization: adds a dimension of complexity, changes project dynamics, requires awareness factors
(cultural differences, currency, codes and regulations, political relations, workforce availability)
- Helpful competency: foreign language skills, knowledges (cultures, geography, world history and
contemporary events, international economics), awareness (customs and etiquette, geopolitical
environment) and technology adoption and translation software
CHAPTER 2: IDENTIFYING AND SELECTING PROJECTS
Project Identification
- Recognize need, problem, or opportunity
- Ways for identification: organizations strategic planning, response to unexpected events, group
organized projects
- Important to identify need to determine if worth pursuing
- Use decision making process to prioritize and select project with greatest need

Project Selection
- Involves evaluating potential projects
- Evaluate needs, costs, benefits and consequences, advantages, disadvantages, plusses and minuses
- Selection of project:
- Develop criteria to evaluate potential projects and support project selection
- List assumptions as the basis of each project
- Gather data to assist in decision making of project selection
- Evaluate each opportunity

Project Charter/Project Authorization/Project Initiation Document

Purpose Possible Elements
Provides sponsor approval Project title Acceptance criteria Major risks
and commits funding for the Purpose Milestone schedule Project manager
project Description Key assumptions Reporting
Summarizes key conditions Objective Constraints requirements
and parameters Success criteria Approval Sponsor designee
Establishes framework to Expected benefits requirements Approval signature
develop baseline plan Funding
Major deliverables

Preparing a Request for Proposal (RFP)

- Decision made to outsource to external resource (contractor)
- Prepared by sponsor/customer
- Describe project requirements: need, problem, or opportunity; allow contractors to develop a
thorough proposal; facilitates the development of evaluation criteria
- May be formal or informal, writing or verbal
1 State project objective/purpose
2 Provide a statement of work Major task the contractor needs to perform
3 Include customer requirements Functional, operational, specifications are met
4 State deliverables the customer expects Need to be provided during and at completion
5 State acceptance criteria Deliverables are completed according to
customers requirements
6 List customer supplied items
 7 State approvals required by customers Major task the contractor needs to perform
8 State type of contract
9 State payment terms
10 State schedule and key milestones
11 List format and content instructions Compare and evaluate different proposals
12 Indicate due date Expect submissions of proposals
13 Include evaluation criteria Criteria used to evaluate proposals
14 Include funds available from sponsor

Soliciting Proposals
Solicitation Conditions
Notify potential contractors Requirements are sometimes
- Identify selected group in advance to send copy communicated verbally instead of a
- Advertise in selected journals, newspapers, websites formal RFP
Maintain competitive situation All RFPs start with identification of a
- Provide equal information to all bidders need, problem, or opportunity
- Hold bidders meeting to answer question

CHAPTER 3: DEVELOPING PROJECT PROPOSALS

Factors Affecting Bid or No-Bid
- Competition - Reputation
- Risk - Customer funds
- Mission - Proposal resources
- Extension of capabilities - Project resources

Proposal Preparation
Proposal Team
Can be one person or many
Various skills and expertise
Proposal manager for large proposals
Proposal Development
Time for writing, review and management approval
Length dependent upon RFP requirements
Cost is part of normal business cost

Proposal Contents
- Three sections: technical, management, cost
- Detail level: depends on complexity of project, requirements from the RFP
Technical Management Cost
Understand the Description of major task Labour Overhead
need Deliverables Materials Escalation
Proposed Project schedule Equipment Reserve
approach/solution Project organization Facilities Fee/profit
Benefits to Related experience Travel Subcontractors/
customer Equipment/facilities Documentation consultants

Pricing Considerations
- Competition
- Price: not overpriced or under-priced
- Factors: reliability of cost estimates, risk, value of projects to contractor, customers budget,
competition level
 Simplified Project Proposal
Complex Simplified
Large number of pages Statement of customers need Resources
Defined sections Assumptions Schedule
Charts and figures Project scope Price
Tables of information Deliverables Risk
Expected Benefits

Proposal Submission and Follow-up

Submission Follow-up
On time Sent in required manner: hard Be proactive
Formatted properly copies, e-mail, electronic form Professional manner
Two sets by different delivery Follow RFP guidelines
methods

Contracts
Contract Types
An agreement between a contractor who Fixed price
agrees to perform project and provide - Price remains fixed
deliverables, and a customer who agrees to - Low risk for customer
pay the contractor - High risk for contractor
Must be signed before starting work - For projects with little risk
Establishes communication Cost-reimbursement
Agreement of deliverables for a certain price - Price for actual costs
- High risk for customers
- Low risk for contractor
- For higher risk projects

Contract Terms and Conditions

- Misrepresentation of costs - International considerations - Patents
- Approval of subcontractor - Termination - Disclosure of proprietary information
- Customer furnished - Terms of payments - Notice of overruns/schedule delays
equipment/information - Bonus/penalty payments - Changes

Measuring Proposal Success

Measures Strategies
Win ratio Submit many to win fair share
- Number won/number submitted - Increase chance of winning
Total dollar value Bid on potential successes
- Value won/value submitted - Have bid/no-bid process

CHAPTER 4: DEFINING SCOPE, QUALITY, RESPONSIBILITY, AND ACTIVITY SEQUENCE

Establish Project Objective
- Planning process: based on project objective, establish what is need to be completed, often stated
in project charter or RFP, is the tangible end product
- Project objective: includes expected benefits, deliverables, completion date, budget
- Changes agreed upon by customer and contractor
 Define Project Scope
Project Scope Project Scope Document
Defines what needs to be done Usually contains customer requirements, SOW,
Includes items contained in project charter, RFP, deliverables, acceptance criteria, WBS
contractors proposal and more Establishes baseline plan
Establishes common understanding of scope Change control system (process and
with project stakeholders procedures) to avoid scope creep (informal
Prepared by contractor changes to project scope without approval)

Plan for Quality

- Complete work according to specifications and standards, deliverables meet acceptance criteria
- Including: references for specs/standards, written procedures for quality tools and techniques
- Key aspects: monitor project progress, do work correctly instead of rework

Create Work Breakdown Structure

- Decomposition of project work scope into work packages
- Organize work packages to produce deliverables
- Create logical groupings
- Subdivided into: deliverable, resource requirements and durations, accountability
- Presented by graphic chart or indentured list

Assign Responsibility
- Responsibility assignment matrix: designate responsible individuals (primary and support), associate
responsibility for each work item and each individual
- Only one primary per work item

Define Activities
- Breakdown work packages to work items, level needed to perform deliverable
- Comprehensive activity list: not always require expenditure of effort, could be wait time
- Sequence activities
- Network diagram: defines SOA and relationships
- Techniques: PERT, CPM, PDM

Network Principles
Activities: represented by a box, consume time, Dependent relationships: activities linked in
described by verb, one activity one box serial sequence, complete concurrently
 Loops and Laddering
Illogical relationship among
activities
Loops

Repeats itself perpetually

Not acceptable
Repeating activities for several
consecutive times
Serial sequence: one work, two
wait

Can be performed at the same

time
Laddering

Not possible (need three

resources)

Allow for shortest possible time

for completion
Best use of the three
workers/expert

Create Network Diagram

Tips and Techniques
Logical sequence of activities
Show dependent relationships
Elaborate as project progresses
Use subnetworks for similar activity sequences
and relationships
Development of Diagram
Define each work package
Draw summary level network then add detail
Detail to responsibility or deliverable change
Duration less than project progress review

Planning for Information Systems Development

Definition Process
Computer-based system: accepts data as input, Problem definition System development
processes the data, produces useful System analysis System testing
information System design System implementation
Computerized order entry, e-commerce

Project Management Information Systems

- Wide variety of systems available
- Plan and control projects in interactive mode
- Plan and test different options
- Create reports, diagrams, charts
- Interface with other software applications
CHAPTER 5: DEVELOPING THE SCHEDULE
Estimate Activity Resources
- Resources: people, materials, equipment, facilities
- Influence on duration: availability and types of resources, sufficient quantities of resources,
potential conflicts with other projects
- Involve person with expertise in resource estimate
- Estimates influence costs

Estimate Activity Durations

- Must be total elapsed time (time for work to be done plus waiting time)
- Based on estimated quantity of resources required to perform activity

Establish Project Start and Finish Time

- Define overall window for project completion
- May not want to commit to a specific date: delay in contract signing
- Set finish time as number of days from project start

Develop Project Schedule

- Before schedule development: estimate activity duration and overall window of time for project
- Developing schedule timetable: ES and EF times based on estimated start date, LS and LF based on
required completion date

Earliest Start and Finish; Latest Start and Finish

Calculated forward the network diagram
Earliest Start Earliest time an activity can begin EF = ES + Estimated Duration

Earliest time an activity can be

Earliest Finish
completed

Calculated backward through network diagram

Latest time an activity must be LS = LF - Estimated Duration
Latest Start
started

Latest time an activity must be

Latest Finish
completed

Total Slack (TS) (Float)

- Difference between EF time of last activity and the project required completion time
- Negative slack: lack of slack, amount of time of activity must be accelerated
- Positive slack: max amt of time activity can be delayed without jeopardizing on-time completion
- Total slack = LF EF = LS ES
 Critical Path
- Longest path in overall network diagram
- Finds which activities have the least slack

Free Slack (Free Float)

- Time an activity can be postponed without delaying ES of successor activities
- Calculation:
- Find lowest value of total slack for all activities entering a specific activity
- Subtract value from values of total slack for other activities entering into that same activity

Project Control Process

- Meetings occur regularly
- Gather data on actual performance and compare to planned performance
- Record changes
- Monitor progress
- Take corrective action

Incorporate Changes into Schedule

- Changes: initiated by customer/project team, result from unanticipated occurrence
- Early change may have less impact than later change
- Manage requested changes: estimate impact, obtain customer approval, revise project plan, schedule,
costs

Update Project Schedule

- Generate forecasts for project finish: use actual finish dates of completed activities, enter project
changes, update project schedule
- Determine if any changes occur in critical path

Control Schedule
Schedule Control
Analyse the schedule for needed corrective
action
Decide specific corrective actions to be taken
Revise the plan to incorporate corrective actions
Recalculate the schedule to evaluate the effects
of the planned corrective actions
Actions
Repeat steps if results are not accepted
Apply efforts to paths with negative slack: near-
term activities, long estimated durations
Change may shift critical path
Trade-off costs and scope

Scheduling for Information Systems Development (Common Problems)

- Failure to identify all user requirements and user requirements properly
- Continuing growth of project scope
- Underestimating learning curves for new software packages
- Incompatible hardware
- Logical design flaws
- Poor selection of software
- Failure to select the best design strategy
- Data incompatibility
- Failure to perform all phases of SLDC
CHAPTER 6: RESOURCE UTILIZATION
Technical-Constrained Planning
- Serial relationship: performed in sequence

Resource-Constrained Planning
- Available resources allow for concurrent tasks
- Limited resource availability constrains project

Resource Requirements Plan

- Illustrates the expected resource use by period
- Indicate the amounts and types of resources needed to perform each activity

Resource Levelling
- Minimize resource requirement fluctuations
- Resources applied uniformly as possible
- Attempt to keep the project schedule within required time
- Delay starts of noncritical activities
- Use positive slack
- Project management information systems assist
- If delay is beyond slack and on critical path, project will be delayed beyond completion time

Resource-Limited Scheduling
- Develop shortest schedule
- Not exceed fixed available resources
- Extend the project completion time if necessary
- Give activities with the least slack priority
- Delay lower priority activities

Resource Requirements for Information Systems Development

- Five basic required resources: people, hardware, software, data, and network
- The more accurate the resource assessment, the more likely the project can be completed on time
- Overallocation: resources assigned to multiple tasks at the same time, conflict results in lengthening
the time

Project Management Information Systems

- Handle resource considerations within a project
- Create and maintain a list of resources
- Store availability, rate, and costs for resources
- Assign resources and calculate cost
- Assign calendar to record availability
- Resolve overallocations for best solution
CHAPTER 7: DETERMINING COSTS, BUDGET, AND EARNED VALUE
Estimate Activity Costs
Elements Good Practices
Labour Subcontractors and Have the person responsible estimate costs
Materials consultants Use historical data to inform current project
Equipment Travel Be reasonable and realistic
Facilities Reserve Estimate near-term activities more accurately
Elaborate other costs as additional information known

Develop Cumulative Budgeted Cost (CBC)

- Planned Value (PV) or Budgeted cost of work scheduled (BCWS)
- Distribute each total budgeted cost (TBC) over work package duration
- Create time-phased budget
- Calculate cumulative budgeted cost (CBC)
- Provides a baseline against which actual cost and work performance are measured

Determine Actual Cost

- Actual cost: collect data regularly for funds actually expended, charge to work package numbers
- Committed/obligated/encumbered costs: periodically assign portion of total cost to actual cost,
include costs for items that will be paid later
- Compare actual cost to budgeted cost: calculate CAC then compare to CBC

Determine Value of Work Performed

Earned value = value of work actually performed
Cumulative earned value (CEV) = value of work actually performed up to a specific point of time
= TBC x % work estimated to be completed

Analyse Cost Performance

- TBC, CBC, CAC, CEV
- Used to analyse project cost performance

Cost Performance Index

- Measure of cost efficiency with which the project is being performed
- CPI = CEV/CAC

Cost Variance
- Indicator of cost performance
- CV = CEV CAC

Estimate Cost at Completion (EAC)

FCAC = TBC/CPI
FCAC = CAC + (TBC CEV)
FCAC = CAC + Re-estimate of
remaining work
TCPI = (TBC CEV)/(TBC CAC)
Assuming work to be performed will be done at the same rate
of efficiency as the work performed so far
Assuming the work performed on the remaining portion of the
project/work package will be done according to its budget
Re-estimate the costs for all the remaining work to be
performed
To-complete performance index
 Control Costs
- Analyse cost performance on regular basis: determine which work package require corrective action,
decide what specific corrective plan, revise the project plan
- Evaluate negative cost variance
- Take corrective actions: near-term activities, activities with large cost estimate
- Reduce costs of activities
- Evaluate the trade-off of cost and scope

Manage Cash Flow

- Ensure sufficient funds/payments are received from customer in time so that there is enough money
to cover the costs of the performing project
- Ensure that cash comes in faster than it goes out
- Negotiate payment terms with customer: provide a down payment, make equal monthly payments,
provide frequent payments
- Avoid only one payment at the end of project
- Control outflow of cash

Cost Estimating for Information Systems Development (Common Errors)

- Underestimating the work time necessary to complete an activity
- Requiring rework to meet the user requirements
- Underestimating growth in the project scope
- Not anticipating new hardware purchases
- Making corrections to flaws in excess of the reserve planning
- Changing the design strategy
- Increasing resources to fast-track phases of the SLDC

CHAPTER 8: MANAGING RISK

Identify Risks
- Uncertain event that can jeopardize accomplishing the project objective
- Brainstorm source of risks
- Establish categories for risks and evaluate
- Use historical information to identify risks
- Potential impacts of risk to be estimated
- Progressively elaborate and identify new risks as more information becomes available

Assess Risks
- Determine the likelihood the risk event will occur
- Evaluate degree of impact on the project objective
- Prioritize the likelihood of occurrence and the degree of impact and the position relative to the critical
path

Plan Risk Responses

- Set of actions to prevent/reduce the likelihood of occurrence/impact of a risk and implemented if the
risk event occurs
- Establishes a trigger point for implementing an action
- Assigns responsibility for implementation
- Avoid, mitigate, or accept risk
- Include a contingency fund to cover implementation cost
 Managing Risks for Information Systems Development
- Categories: technological, human, usability, project team, project, organizational, strategic and
political

CHAPTER 9: CLOSING THE PROJECT

Project Closing Actions
Payments from customers
- Have activity listed to perform collection
- Assure that all the payments have been received
Payment to others
Collect and make
- Verify all payments have been made
final payments
- Record actual costs
Account closing
- Perform financial analysis on the project
- Compare actual costs versus baseline budget
End project with recognition and celebration
- Recognize team members for contributions
Recognize and - Celebrate the success of the project
evaluate staff Prepare individual performance evaluations
- Knowledge expanded during project
- Identify areas that need further development
Review/evaluate performance and identify improvement for future projects
Conduct post-
Hold individual/project team meetings
project evaluation
Prepare written report with lessons learned and recommendations
To identify and document
- Capitalize on knowledge and experience gained
- Improve performance on future projects
Document lessons Knowledge based system or repository
learned - Retrieve lessons learned from prior projects
- Easily access information by category or subject
Record keeping throughout project
- Capture lesson at time of lesson instead of end of project
Organize, file, and archive appropriate documents
Organize and Organize system to make information easily retrievable
archive project Create database of common data elements
documents - Analyse elements for trends
- Examine records for bidding, planning, and performing future projects

Customer Feedback
Determine if the expected benefits are provided
Assess the level of customer satisfaction
Post-project evaluation
Obtain any feedback with open-ended questions
meeting with customer
Discuss future opportunities
Secure permission to use as reference
Key project team members
Participants Key customer representatives
Project manager
 Early Project Termination
- Can be caused by increase in project costs and a change in companys financial situation
- Project can be terminated by sponsor/customer because of dissatisfaction
- Can hurt a contractors business

CHAPTER 10: THE PROJECT MANAGER

Project Manager Responsibilities
- Provides leadership to the project team to accomplish the project objectives
Defines the project objective, reaches agreement with customer on the objective
Communicates the project objective to the project team
Planning Spearheads development of a plan to achieve the project objective
Reviews the plan with customer to gain endorsement
Sets up project management information systems
Decide the tasks: which need to be performed by internal staff, which need to be
outsourced to subcontractors/consultants
Organizing Assigns responsibility and delegates authority to specific individuals/subcontractors
Designates leaders for specific work packages/group of tasks
Creating an environment where individuals are highly motivated to work together
Implements a project management information system to track actual progress and
compare it with a planned progress
Controlling Takes immediate action if actual progress falls behind planned progress
Obtains input and advice from team members regarding suitable corrective actions
Must intervene and be proactive, resolving problems before they become worse

Project Manager Skills

Inspires others to work as a team to implement plan, accomplish project objective
Empowers individuals to make decisions within their responsibility
Leadership
Establishes clear guidelines and if appropriate, any limits
ability
Understands what motivates team members and creates a supportive environment
Recognizes project team as a whole and of individuals
Provides opportunities for learning and development by encouraging individuals
Ability to
Identify situations which the less experienced can learn from the more experienced
develop people
Develops people by having them attend formal training sessions
Communicates regularly with project team, subcontractors, customer, stakeholders
Communicates by meetings, informal conversations, provide written reports
Communication Establishes ongoing communications with customer/stakeholders
skills Communicates timely, honest, and unambiguous while maintaining discretion
Provides timely feedback to the team and customer
Creates an atmosphere that fosters timely and open communication
Establishes clear expectations of project team
Interpersonal Develops a relationship with each team member
skills Tries to learn about personal interest of each team member
Uses open-ended questions and do a lot of listening
Cannot panic, has to remain unruffled
Ability to Acts as a buffer between team and customer/stakeholders/upper management
handle stress Protects team members from external interferences that may divert their attention
or impede their performance
 Problem- Encourages team to identify problems early and solve them on their own
solving skills Recognizes that best solution often emerges from difference of ideas/opinions
Able to make persuasive case and clearly articulate own position on issues
Negotiating
Is flexible and willing to compromise
skills
Takes cultural differences into consideration when negotiating
Time Needs to have self-discipline
management Be able to prioritize
skills Shows willingness to delegate

Developing Project Manager Competence

- Gain experience - Conduct a self-evaluation and - Join organizations
- Learn from others learn from mistakes - Read
- Interview project managers - Get a mentor - Earn a credential
who have the skill that you - Participate in education and - Volunteer
want to develop in yourself training programs

Delegations
- The act of allowing individuals to carry out assigned tasks successfully
- Empowering team to accomplish project objective and each member to achieve their expected results
- Project manager creates the condition necessary for cooperation and teamwork
- Requires effective communication skills
- Involves selecting team members who are best qualified to perform each task
- Project manager needs to establish a project management information and control system

Managing Changes
- May be initiated by customer/sponsor or project team (subcontractor, consultants, vendors)
- Caused by unanticipated occurrences during performance of the project
- Required by the users of the project results
- Impact may be affected by when during the project the change is identified
- A change control system needs to be established at the start of project for process/procedures that
define how changes will be documented, approved, and communicated

CHAPTER 11: THE PROJECT TEAM

Acquiring the Project Team
- Sponsor/Contractor selects the project manager
- For smaller projects, PM may identify/acquire the entire project team at the beginning
- For larger project/longer time span, PM may select/identify a small team of key people or leaders
- Team members are selected based on expertise, experience, and availability
- PM may need to hire subcontractors/consultants to fill the gaps in skills/quantities
- Project teams should be kept as small as feasible throughout the entire project

Project Team Development

Individuals on team start to get acquainted
Group begins to establish an identity, tries to define/plan the tasks that need to be done
Forming Little actual work is accomplished
PM needs to provide direction and structure
PM should have a project kick-off meeting with the team as early as possible
 Project objective and scope become clearer
Work begins to progress slowly
Storming
PM still needs to be directive, but less directive than in the forming stage
PM has to provide guidance and foster conflict resolution
Relationship among team members and between members-PM become settled
Norming Project procedures are improved and streamlined
PM minimizes directiveness and takes on a more supportive role
Level of work performance is high
PM fully delegates responsibility and authority
Performing
PM concentrates on project performance with respect to scope, budget, and schedule
PM acts as a mentor, supporting professional growth/development of team members

Project Kick-off Meeting

- Welcome and introduction: self-introductory, experience and expertise
- Project overview: project charter, proposal, contract, other background documents/information
- Roles and responsibilities
- Processes and procedures: documentation requirements, approval requirements and processes,
communication protocol
- Expectations: discussing the stages of team development to help manage expectations
- Closing comment

Effective Project Team

Clear understanding of the project objective: scope, quality, budget, schedule
Characteristics Clear expectations of roles and responsibilities: accepts responsibility on own part
of effective Results orientation: has strong commitment
teams High degree of cooperation/collaboration: open, frank, and timely communication
High level of trust: understand interdependency, accept that everyone is important
Unclear vision and objective
Unclear definition of roles and responsibilities: ambiguous, overlapping roles
Lack of project structure: no established procedures for team operation
Barriers of
Lack of commitment: PM needs to recognize teams accomplishments
team
Poor communication: project documents need to be kept up to date
effectiveness
Poor leadership: PM needs to be willing to solicit feedback from team periodically
Turnover of project team members
Dysfunctional behaviour: inappropriate behaviour exhibited by individuals
 Plan, control, and feel accountable for their individual work efforts
Effective team
Participate and communicate
members
Help to create a positive, constructive project environment
Developing a group of individuals into a team to accomplish the project objective
Physically locating team members in one office area for the duration of project
Team building
Initiate social events to celebrate project events
Periodically call team meetings (not the same as project meetings)
Age/Generation Job status
Appearance Marital and parental status
Valuing team
Ethnicity/Ancestry Race
diversity
Gender Religious affiliation
Health Other aspects

Ethical Behaviour
- Providing a training session on ethical behaviour
- PM should discuss about the importance of ethical behaviour
- Team members should consult PM if they are being hesitant about a possible ethical situation

Conflict on Projects
Work scope: how much, how, and level of work should be done
Resource assignments: assigned individuals or quantity of resources
Schedule: sequence of which work to be done, how long the work should take
Cost: how much the work should cost
Sources of
Priorities: when people are assigned to several projects concurrently, when various
conflict
people need to use a limited resource at the same time
Organizational issues: poor/ambiguous communication, lack of information sharing
Stakeholder issues
Personal differences: differences in individuals values, attitudes, personalities
Avoiding/Withdrawing: retreat from situation to avoid actual/potential disagreement
Competing/Forcing: win-lose, handles conflict by exerting power over the other
Handling
Accommodating/Smoothing: emphasizes the search for agreements within conflict
conflicts
Compromising: search for solution that will bring satisfaction to each individual
Collaborating, confronting, or problem solving: win-win, confront issues directly

Problem Solving
1. Develop a problem statement
2. Identify potential causes of the problem
3. Gather data and verify the most likely causes
Approach to 4. Identify possible solutions
problem 5. Evaluate the alternate solutions
solving 6. Determine the best solution
7. Revise the project plan
8. Implement the solution
9. Determine whether the problem has been solved
All group members contribute spontaneous ideas in a non-judgemental environment
Brainstorming Quantity of ideas generated is more important than the quality of ideas
No discussion and no judgemental comments
 Time Management
- Identify goals to be accomplished the following week at the end of each week
- Make a to-do list for the next day at the end of each day
- Read the to-do list first thing in the morning and keep it in sight all day
- Control interruptions
- Learn to say no
- Make effective use of waiting time
- Try to handle most paperwork and electronic messages only once
- Reward self at the end of each week if all goals are accomplished

CHAPTER 12: PROJECT COMMUNICATION AND DOCUMENTATION

Personal Communication
Can be face-to-face or via phone or computer
Usage of body language
Verbal
Be careful not to make remarks or phrases that are considered inappropriate
communication
Should be clear, concise, honest, and ambiguous
Timing is important
Internal (project team) and external (customers/stakeholders) correspondences
Normally transmitted through e-mail or hard copy
Written
Should be used mostly to inform, confirm, and request
communication
Clear, concise, and not include lengthy dissertations or unnecessary attachments
Spelling and grammatical errors, inappropriate language will give poor impressions
Dos: Donts:
Focus on person talking Pretending to listen Impatience
Effective
Engage in active listening Distractions Jumping to conclusions
listening
Ask questions Bias and closed-
Do not interrupt mindedness

Meetings
Types of Project Meetings
Project kick- 1. Welcome and introductions 3. Roles and responsibilities 5. Expectations
off meeting 2. Project overview 4. Processes and procedures 6. Closing comments
Accomplishments since last meeting Stakeholder issues update
Status review Cost, schedule, and work scope (status, Corrective actions
meetings trends, forecasts, variances) Opportunities for improvement
Risk assessment update Action item assignment
1. Develop a problem statement 6. Determine the best solution
Problem- 2. Identify potential causes of the problem 7. Revise the project plan
saving 3. Gather data and verify the most likely causes 8. Implement the solution
meetings 4. Identify possible solutions 9. Determine whether the problem
5. Evaluate the alternative solutions has been solved
Design 1. Preliminary DRM: to get sponsors/customers agreement and to gain approval
review 2. Final DRM: to gain approval from sponsor/customer before starting to build,
meetings assemble, and produce the project deliverables
Post-project Determine if the expected benefits are provided Discuss future opportunities
evaluation Assess the level of customer satisfaction Secure permission to use as
meeting Obtain any feedback with open-ended questions reference
 Effective Meetings
Determine whether a meeting is really Distribute an agenda well in advance of
necessary the meeting
Before
Determine the purpose of meeting Prepare visual aids or handouts
Determine the participants of the meeting Make meeting room arrangements
Start the meeting on time Facilitate, not dominate the meeting
Designate a note taker Summarize the meeting results
During Ask all participants to turn off any electronic Do not overrun the scheduled meeting
communication devices time
Review the purpose and the agenda Evaluate the meeting process
Publish the meeting results within 24 hours after the meeting
After
Confirm decisions that were made and list the action items

Presentations
Prepare the Presentation
Determine the purpose of the Use simple language Practice
presentation Prepare notes to refer Make copies of handout materials
Know the audience during presentation Request audio-visual equipment in
Make an outline of the presentation Prepare visual aids advance
Deliver the Presentation
Expect nervousness Do not read slides Use appropriate gestures
Turn off cell phone Do not stand in front Sum up key points before moving
Know the opening lines of visual aids to the next one
Use the 3-T approach (outline, Build interest in your Allow time for interaction with
body, summary) presentation audience
Talk to the audience Keep to the key points Respond to questions sincerely
Speak clearly and confidently in your outline and confidently

Reports
Types of Project Reports
Accomplishments since the previous report Problems/potential problems since prior
Progress Current status of project performance report
reports Progress toward resolution of previously Planned corrective actions
identified problems Milestones expected to be reached
Customers original need Customers original requirements
Final Original project objective Actual versus anticipated benefits
report Degree to which the original project Future considerations
objective was met Test data from the final acceptance testing
Useful Reports
Make report concise Use graphics where possible
Make reports readable and understandable Pay as much attention to the format of the
Put the most important points first report as to the content

Control Document Changes

- Can cause revisions to project documents
- A document control system needs to be established at the start of project
- Updated documents should immediately be distributed
 Project Communication Plan
- Defines the generation and distribution of project documents among project stakeholders
- Documents, author/originator, required date/frequency, recipients, action required, comments

Stakeholder Communication
- Have regular communication with the various stakeholders (project status, updates, changes)
- Project team should provide opportunities for questions, discussions, and comments

Collaborative Communication Tools

- Can be important when members are in different geographic locations
- Teleconferencing: allows the live exchange of information among members of project team
- Document management system: provide a central repository for project information
- Extranets: share repository of project information among the project team, subcontractors, customer
- Groupware: support team idea generation, brainstorming, problem solving, and decision making

CHAPTER 13: PROJECT MANAGEMENT ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURES

Functional Organizational Structure
- Individuals are organized in a group that perform the same function or have the same expertise/skills
- PM does not have full authority over the project team

Autonomous Project Organizational Structure (Projectized Organizational Structure)

- Each project operates on its own independent entity and dedicated resource
- All the resources needed to accomplish each project are assigned full time to work on that project
- Requires a detailed and accurate planning and an effective control system

Matrix Organizational Structure

- A hybrid of functional and autonomous organizational structure
- Provides the project and customer focus of the autonomous project structure, while retaining the
functional expertise of the functional structure
- Matrix organization provides effective resource utilization, functional components provide expertise
- Checks-and-balances environment, allows for fast response to identified problems

Advantages and Disadvantages of Organizational Structure

Structure Advantages Disadvantages
Functional No duplication of activities Insularity (each component concerns
Functional excellence about only its own performance)
Slow response time
Lack of customer focus
Autonomous Control over resources Cost inefficiency
project Responsiveness to customers Low level of knowledge transfer
among project
Matrix Efficient utilization of resources Dual reporting relationships
Functional expertise available to all projects Need for balance of power
Increased learning and knowledge transfer
Improved communication
Customer focus