IV Industrial revolution

We are blessed that we have opportunity to live during most intensive industrial revolution that human kind triggered so far.
Enjoy the progress!

• Self-driving cars 

• Floating Wind Turbine

Try to estimate your work more accurate

Consider ussage of  the following steps before you even begin the estimating process.

• Get a clear picture of the work to estimate

1. Problems with estimation come because the estimator is not really sure what the work entails. 
2. Avoid estimating work that you do not understand. This should not imply that you can know every detail. 
3. The estimating contingency is a way to reflect some of this remaining uncertainty.

• Determine participants in the estimating process

1. The project manager may or may not know enough to make the estimates on his or her own. 
2. Good practice is participation in estimation of from team members, clients, subject matter experts, etc. 
3. Result will be  far more accurate estimation.

• Determine if there are any estimating constraints

1. It is important to know estimating constraints up-front, like fixed end-date etc. 
2. It is absolute need to know if the client expects Six-Sigma level quality in the deliverables, or if the 80/20 rule will apply, or some other QA related contrstraint.
3.  Is it a fixed budget  (think about reducing the scope of work, if necessary). 
4. Knowing constraints will help the estimators make valid assumptions regarding the cost, duration and quality balance.

• Determine multiple estimating techniques to utilize if possible

1. There are a number of techniques that can be used to estimate work. If possible, try to use two or more techniques for the estimate. 
2. If results are close, you will have more confidence in figures.
3. If results of estimations are far apart,  review the figures to see if you are using similar assumptions. 
4. Try new technique to see if one initial estimate can be validated and the other rejected.

• Document all assumptions

1. Be aware that you will never know all the details of a project. 
2. Document all the assumptions you are making during the estimation process.

More accurate estimations lead to healthier  business decisions.

Good vs Bad Project Managers

PMBOK...step by step...step 4

THE STANDARD FOR PROJECT MANAGEMENT OF A PROJECT...A process is a set of interlaced actions and activities performed to achieve a pre-specified product,result or a service. To achieve project goals balance demands of scope,time,cost,quality,resources and risk. Project processes in general belong to one of two categories:Project management processes and Product oriented processes.

Project managers and their teams should carefully address each process and its constituent inputs and outputs.This effort is known as tailoring. Be aware of the fact that project exist within an organization and can not operate as a closed system. The project processes may generate information to improve the management of the future projects.

PM processes are grouped in 5 PM Process Groups:

• Initiating Process Group


• Planning Process Group


• Executing Process Group


• Monitoring and Controlling Process Group


• Closing Process Group

COMMON PROJECT MANAGEMENT PROCESS INTERACTIONS - The PM processes are discrete elements with well defined interfaces, but application of the PM processes is iterative and many processes are repeated during the project. When a project is divided into phases,the Process Groups are invoked as appropriate to effectively drive the project to completion in a controlled manner

PROJECT MANAGEMENT PROCESS GROUPS - The Process Groups are not project phases. When complex project is separated into distinct phases or sub-projects, all of the Process Groups will be repeated for each phase or sub-project.

INITIATING PROCESS GROUP: define new project or new phase in a existing project; define scope, define internal and external stakeholders; select project manager; write project charter. Involving customers and other stakeholders during initiation generally improves the probability of shared ownership, deliverable acceptance and customer and other stakeholder satisfaction. Initiating process may be performed by organizational, program or portfolio processes external to the project's scope of control. As part of the initiating process the project manager is given the authority to apply organizational resources to the subsequent project activities.

• DEVELOP PROJECT CHARTER - develop a document that formally authorizes a project or a phase and document initial requirements that satisfy the stakeholder's needs and expectations.


• IDENTIFY STAKEHOLDERS - identify all people and organizations impacted by the project,document relevant information regarding their interests,involvement and impact on project success.


• PLANNING PROCESS GROUP - ...establish scope,define objectives,develop course of actions;develop project management plan and project documents. The progressive detailing of the project management plan is often called rolling wave planning, indicating that planing and documentation are iterative and ongoing processes. Planing process group:
  
  • Project scope management: collect requirements,define scope,create WBS
  
  
  • Project time management: define activities,sequence activities,estimate activity resources,estimate activity durations,develop schedule
  
  
  • Project cost management: estimate costs,determine budget
  
  
  • Project quality management: plan quality
  
  
  • Project human resource management: develop human resource plan
  
  
  • Project communications management:plan communications
  
  
  • Project procurement management: plan procurements
  
  
  • Project risk management: plan risk management, identify risks, perform qualitative risk analysis, perform quantitative risk analysis, plan risk responses
  
  
  • Project management plan: Based on on all plans above develop
  
  


• DEVELOP PROJECT MANAGEMENT PLAN ...page 78..more to come

PMBOK...step by step...step 3

STAKEHOLDERS - persons or organizations(customer,sponsor,etc), who are actively involved in the project or whose interests may be positively or negatively affected by the performance or completion the project.

Stakeholders have different levels of responsibility and authority;it can be changed during the project life cycle (from occasional contributions to full project sponsorship). Identifying stakeholders and understand their relative degree of influence on a project is critical; failure on that extend time-line and raise costs.

Examples of stakeholders

• customers/users - may be internal or external,they will use result;
  
• sponsor - person or group that provides the financial resources in cash or in kind;sponsor may be involved in authorizing changes in scope,phase-end reviews,go/no-go decisions when risks are high.
  
• Portfolio managers/Portfolio review board - they review each project for its return of investment,the vale of project,risk and other project attributes
  
• Program managers - responsible for managing related projects in a coordinated way to obtain benefits and control not available from managing them individually.
  
• Project management office - centralized and coordinated management of those projects under its domain. PMO can: provide policies,methodologies,templates;training,mentoring,coaching of PM;project support,guidance,training;centralized communication among project managers
  
• Project managers - PM should:develop pr plan and related component plan;keep project on track in terms of budget and schedule;identify,monitor and respond to risk;provide accurate and timely reporting of project metrics.
  
• Project team
  
• Functional managers - play management role in administrative or functional area of business:HR,finance,accounting,procurement.
  
• Operations management - management role in a core business area:research,development,design,testing,maintenance.
  
• Sellers/business partners - vendors,suppliers,contractors
  

ORGANIZATIONAL INFLUENCES ON PROJECT MANAGEMENT... The organizational culture,style and structure,and organizations PM maturity influence on how the projects are performed.

• Organizational cultures and styles: known as "Cultural norms", influence on projects ability to meet defined objectives. Many organizations share same cultural norms like policies, methods,working hours,work ethic etc. The project manager must know who are the key players and decision makers in the organization and collaborate with them to ensure project goals achievement.
  


• Organizational structure: affect the availability of resources. Organizational structures range from functional to projectized with a variety of matrix structures between them. The classic functional organization is based on a hierarchy where each employee has one clear superior. Matrix organizations are blend of functional and projectized characteristics,from weak matrices similar to functional to strong matrices similar to projectized organization. Many organizations use different structures on different levels.


• Organizational Process Assets - formal and informal plans,policies,procedures,guidelines,knowledge basis(learned lessons,hystorical informations) etc
  
  
  
  • 1.Processes and Procedures:safety and health policy,ethics policy,product and project life cycle, guidelines,work instructions,templates, organizational communication requirements, time reporting, financial control procedures, issue and defect management procedures etc
    
  
  
  • 2. Corporate Knowledge Base - process measurement databases, historical information and lessons learned, issue and defect status, configuration management knowledge basis, financial databases etc.
  
  
  
  

PMBOK - step by step... step 2

PROJECT LIFE CYCLE AND ORGANIZATION - Project and project management exists in an environment that is Weider than project itself.

PROJECT LIFE-CYCLE is a collection of generally sequential and sometimes overlapping project phases, determined by the management, organizations involved in the project,the nature of project, and array of application.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PROJECT LIFE CYCLE - In general, all projects have the following life cycle structure:

• start of the project
  
• organize and prepare
  
• work on project
  
• close the project

Ability ti influence to the final outcome of the project's product is highest at the start with minimal cost,later during the time,the cost grows.

PRODUCT VS PROJECT LIFE CYCLE RELATIONSHIPS - In general, a project lifer cycle contains one or more product life cycles. But project where the objective is service or result,contains no product life cycle; and can be a product that contains several projects*example: develop new automobile is based on several independent projects.

PROJECT PHASES - the phase structure of the project allow to segment project into logical subsets and improve ease of management,planing and control.

All phases has similar characteristics:

• at the end of phase transfer some work to the next stage; this point in phase is known as milestone,phase gate,decision gate,stage gate,kill point
  
• there are some single phase projects, other projects can have many phases.
  
• some organizations have standardized projects, other allow project management team to choose the most appropriate for the individual project.
  

PROJECT GOVERNANCE ACROSS THE LIFE CYCLE - the project governance approach should be described in project management plan, it must fit in context of program or organization sponsoring it. The phase structure provide basis for control, each phase specify what is allowed and expected for that phase. The beginning of a phase is also a time to re validate earlier assumptions,review risjs and define in more detail the processes necessary to complete the phase deliverable(s).

A review of both key deliverable and project performance:

• determine if the project should continue into its next phase
• and detect and correct errors cost effectively,

should be regarded as good practice.

PHASE TO PHASE RELATIONSHIPS - There are 3 basic types of phase to phase relationships:

• a sequential relationship - phase can start when previos is complete;reduces uncertanity,but reduce schedule is not posible
  
• an overlapping relationship - phase start prior to complete previous one;may increase risk;
  
• an iterative relationship - only one phase is planned , the next one is planned as work progresses in current;useful in research;reduce ability for long planning.
  

PROJECTS VS OPERATIONAL WORK - work in organization can be project or operations work.They differs in that operations are ongoing and produce repetitive results,projects are tempoerary and they end.When operation achieve goal,it is not ended,it follow new direction.Operations work supports the bussiness environment where projects are executed. Depending of nature of the project,project outcome may contribute existing operations work(for example:developing,acquiring or enhancing an operational depatments'information system)

PMBOK - step by step... step 1

A PROJECT is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product,service or result.

The temporary nature of project indicates existing of definitive begging and end.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT is the application of knowledge,skills,tools and techniques to project activities to meet the project requirements.

Project management is accomplished through application and integration of 42 project management processes,logically organized in 5 process groups.

5 PM PROCESS GROUPS are: Initiating, Planing, Executing,Monitoring and Controlling and Closing.

Because of potential to change , the project management plan is iterative and through PROGRESSIVE ELABORATION through the project's life cycle. Progressive elaboration includes continual improve and detailing a plan as more detailed and specific information and more accurate estimates become available. Progressive elaboration allows a project management team to manage a greater level of details the project evolves.

In mature Project management organizations,project management exists in a broader context of a Program management and Portfolio management

PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT - PORTFOLIOcan be viewed as a collection of project or programs or other work grouped together to facilitate effective management of that work to meet strategic business objectives. Portfolio management focus on ensuring that projects and programs are reviewed to prioritize resource allocation, and that the management of portfolio is consistent with and aligned to organizational strategies.

PROGRAM MANAGEMENT - A program is defined as a group of related projects, managed in a coordinated way to obtain benefits and control not available from managing them individually. PROGRAMS may include elements of related work outside the scope of discrete projects in the program.

PROJECTS AND STRATEGIC PLANING - Projects, within programs or portfolios, are means of achieving organizational goals and objectives, often in a context of a strategic plan.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT OFFICE PMO is organizational body or entity assigned various responsibilities related to centralized and coordinated management of those projects under its domain. A primary function of PMO is to support project managers:

• manage shared resources across all project managed by PMO
  
• identify and develop methodology,best practices,standards
  
• coaching,mentoring,training
  
• project audits
  
• coordinating communication across all projects
  

PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT - Projects need project management, while operations need business process management or operations management. Operations are permanent endeavors, while projects are temporary endeavors, Operations produce repetitive outputs .

THE PROJECT MANAGER is the person assigned by the performing organization to achieve the project objectives. Effective project management requires that the project manager has following: has knowledge, achieve performance and personal(personal effectnives encompasses attitudes, core personality characteristisc and leadership.

PMBOK is standard for managing most of the projects,most of the time.

ENTERPRISE ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS may have positive or negative outcome of the project, and they include, but not limited to:

• organizational culture,structure and proccesses
  
• standards
  
• infrastructure
  
• HR(skills,discipline,knowledge)
  
• marketplace conditions
  
• stakeholder risk tolerancies
  
• political environment
  
• communication channels in the organisation
  
• PM information system