Project Management Tips.................iipm Chennai

ADVANCE SYSTEM MANAGEMENT

PROJECT MANAGEMENT TIPS TRICKS TRAPS

Team members

Project manager

Team leader

Saravanan Saravana pandian Santhosh kabilan sidarth

OVERVIEW

DEFINITION

TIPS

PROJECT MANAGEMENT

TRICKS

TRAPS

01

Project: Defined start and end, specific scope, cost and duration

PM DEFINITION

A set of techniques used for -Planning -Organising -Controlling work activities To reach desire result -On time -Within budget -According to specification

Scope, Resources, Schedule & Customers

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Flow of information in PM

Into Projects

Within Projects

Out of Projects

Make sure everyone involved gets the information they need

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Real World Project Management

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PROJECT MANAGEMENT SUCCESS

TIPS

Client acceptance

budget

success

schedule

performance

20 SUCCESS PROJECT MANAGEMENT TIPS

• • • • •

4 tips for laying the foundation 6 tips for planning the project 6 tips for estimating the work 3 tips for tracking your progress 1tip for learning for the future

06

Laying the foundation

1. Define project success criteria

Agree on how stake holders will determine success Meeting schedule or budget Customer satisfaction Team member satisfaction Set priorities that leads to success Not every thing can be top priority ! 07

Laying the foundation

2. Identify projects constraints, drivers, and degrees of freedom

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Laying the foundation

3. Define product release criteria

ØHow do you know when you’re done? ØShould be objective & measurable ØDecide early progress and don’t abandon them ØSome possibilities §number of opened high priority defects §Performance measurements §Customer acceptances satisfied §Reliability goals satisfied

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Laying the foundation

4. NEGOTIATE COMMITMENTS

• Negotiate in good faith with customers, managers, and team members • Base plan on what is really achievable • Use data to support your case

10

Planning the project

1. WRITE A PLAN

• A plan is more than a schedule • The hard part isn’t writing. It’s thinking, asking, listening and thinking some more • Record assumptions ,constraints ,dependencies • Adapt a standard project plan template to each project

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Planning the project

2. DECOMPOSE TASKS TO INCH PEBBLE-GRANULARITY

• Inch –pebbles are miniature milestones • Inch pebbles are typically 1-3 days in duration • Track progress by completion of inch pebbles

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Planning the project

3. PLAN FOR REWORK AFTER A QUALITY CONTROL TASK

• Test and reviews almost always lead to rework • Put “ Rework” tasks in our work breakdown structure and schedule • Base rework estimates on previous experience

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Planning the project

3. MANAGE PROJECT RISKS

• During project planning Ø brain storm project risks Ø analyze and prioritize Ø Mitigate, prevent or avoid greatest risks

• During project tracking Ø Monitor mitigation effectiveness Ø Monitor mitigation action implementation Ø Look for new risks

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Planning the project

4. PLAN TIME FOR PROCESS IMPROVEMENT

• Process improvement is part of project overhead • Process improvement is a strategic investment • Decide how much time and $$ want to invest

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Planning the project

4. RESPECT THE LEARNING CURVE

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Estimating the work

1.ESTIMATE BASED ON EFFORT, NOT CALENDAR TIME

• Estimate effort for uninterrupted work by 1 person • Allow for vacation, sickness, training, other planned activities • Translate effort estimates into calendar time

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Estimating the work

2. DON’T OVER SCHEDULE MULTI TASKING PEOPLE

• Task-switching overhead reduces efficiency • Some people task-switch better than others • More human interfaces consume more communication effort • Only schedule 70-80% of available time if multitasking

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Estimating the work

3. BUILD TRAINING TIME INTO THE SCHEDULE

• Training the team is part of project overhead • Try for just in time training • Subtract training time from available resources

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Estimating the work

4. RECORD ESTIMATES AND HOW DERIVED THEM

üAdopt estimation procedures and heuristics üTrain the team in estimation üDocument estimating method üCompare estimates from more than one method üRecord assumptions üGet reality check from other team members

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Estimating the work

5. USE ESTIMATION TOOLS

• Tools relate product size, effort, team size, schedule • Models are based on data from completed projects • Cost drivers permit projectspecific adjustments

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Estimating the work

6.PLAN CONTINGENCY BUFFERS

• Life never goes exactly as planned • Build contingency time into each phase • Managers might scrap those buffers • Try critical chain project management

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Tracking progress

1. RECORD ESTIMATES AND ACTUAL

• Data lets improve estimation accuracy • Record estimated and actual and schedule – Individual tasks – Project major milestones

• Improve estimates with experiences, not faith • Estimates that aren’t based on data are guesses

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Tracking progress

2. COUNT TASKS AS COMPLETE ONLY WHEN THEY’RE 100% COMPLETE

• It’s hard to accurately assess percent completion • Large tasks are 90% complete for a long time • Inch- pebbles support accurate completion tracking • Use objective completion criteria

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Tracking progress

3. TRACK PROJECT STATUS OPENLY AND HONESTLY

• Commit to accurate status at all times • Create a safe environment for being honest • Blame the process, not the people • Learn about problems as soon as possible • Base status changes on exit criteria 25

Learning for the future

1. CONDUCT PROJECT RETRO SPECTIVES

• Could also hold post- phase reviews • Look for – – – –

What went well(repeat it!) What didn’t go so well(change it!) What happened that surprised you (manage risks!) What do we still not understand(learn!)

• Record lessons learned for future reference

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PROJECT MANAGEMENT TRICKS PM TRICKS

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Ten Tricks 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

Spend time with customers Ask “dumb” questions Let go of your past Surround yourself with experts Gather data Focus Concentrate on what, not how Communicate, communicate, communicate

10. Sell your product internally 11. Do whatever it takes

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1

Spend time with customers

Tricks

• The single most important thing a product manager can do is to understand the market • The best way to understand the market is to spend time with customers

Customer: Uploaded to flickr by David Kozlowski flickr.com/photos/traveller2020/539548225/

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2

Ask “dumb” questions

Tricks

• “Dumb” questions are really more about when they get asked than about what you are asking • New product managers have the luxury of asking naïve questions • Ask as many questions as possible as soon as possible • Who to ask? Customers, colleagues, stakeholders, superiors, partners, competitors…

sign - ? question mark: Uploaded to flickr by Leo Reynolds flickr.com/photos/lwr/12364944/

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3

Let go of your past

Tricks

141 Thursday - letting go: Uploaded to flickr by roujo flickr.com/photos/tekmagika/474086212/

• What were you in your “past” life? Whatever it was, you’re a product manager now • There is a natural instinct for product managers to gravitate towards the function of the business from which they came – resist it 31

4

Surround yourself with experts

Tricks

• Product managers can not and should not do it all alone • Your success depends on others • Do not try to be an expert in everything • Leverage the expertise of others in certain areas • Look for “formal” and “informal” advisors • Experts do not just have to be within

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5

Gather data

Tricks

• “In a truly consumer-driven company, decisions are based on data… so the person with the best data wins.” – Scott Cook; Founder, Intuit • Lots of different types of data… – – – –

Internal data External data Market data Product data Data: Uploaded to flickr by kokeshi flickr.com/photos/kokeshi/119345900/

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6

Focus

Tricks

• It will be overwhelming • You will not know where to start • It is better to do one thing well than to do a lot of things poorly irony; Uploaded to flickr by mrpattersonsir flickr.com/photos/mrpattersonsir/30325860/

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7

Concentrate on what, not how

Tricks

• It will be tempting to control “how” things get done with your product • Resist the temptation • Product managers should define “what” needs to happen… • … and others should define “how” those things happen

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8

Communicate, communicate…

Tricks

• Do not underestimate the importance of communication in all forms – Informal, formal, written, verbal, unspoken, method, timeliness, frequency, tone

Calling_all_Flickrs; Uploaded to flickr by carf flickr.com/photos/beija-flor/5011611/

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8

Communication Executives

Other PMs

Legal

Sales Product Manager

Project Management

Engineering

Customers

Manager

Finance

Design

Tricks

Marketing Customer Service

Partners Investors

Industry Analysts

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9

Sell your product internally

Tricks

• Be the champion for your product • “Sell” your product to executives, team members, other departments • Will help gain resources, funding, support for issues and new initiatives

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10

Do whatever it takes

Tricks

“Be willing to do whatever it takes.  … In Many cases where the product manager needed to help out with deliverables for customer support, sales training, technical writing, QA, engineering, and marketing.  We need to just do it.”

Source: Thriving in Large Companies; Silicon Valley Product Group www.svproduct.com/blog/files/thriving_in_large_companies.html

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Trap: some thing that catch you unaware or place of confining or embarrassing situation

PROJECT MANAGEMENT TRAPS

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PROJECT MANAGEMENT TRAPS 1.“We’ll know when we get there” 2. “Bright shiny thing syndrome” 3.“Trust me – I’ve been here 15 years” 4.“We are different – you can’t compare us to them” 5.The benefits are intangible”

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PROJECT MANAGEMENT TRAPS

6.“We already did the business case” 7.“We can do this ourselves, it’s nothing new” 8.“Training was done once, done one way, and in advance” 9.We have an ERP system that does all our automated processes” 10.“We only implement Best Practices

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conclusion “Improving the performance of organizations through assisting them to define, realize, measure and sustain the benefits of

Start Right, Finish Right 44

Source of information • www.pmi.org • www.processimpact.com •www.goodproductmanager.com • Project Management, Harold Kerzner, 5th Edition • PMBOK, PMI 2000

•Jesse’s Project Management Tips

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Thank you