Showing posts with label Project Management. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Project Management. Show all posts
The final note on managing Master projects and subprojects with Project Server (and Project online)
This
article will describe all the necessary information required to understand how
to manage master projects and subprojects within Project Server. Note that the
approach is similar with project Online.
For the
illustration, I will use a team of 4 persons:
- Jane Doe, project manager
- Jeremy Cottino, project manager
- John Doe, team member
- Yan Yellow, team member
And I will
use the delegation feature to illustrate what other users will see when using
the tool.
Create a new master project
Presenting Office 365 Planner
So, what is Office 365 Planner?
Announced by Office 365 Team, on September 22, 2015, Office
365 Planner (originally codenamed Highlander) is presented as a tool which:
“offers people a simple and highly visual way to organize teamwork. Planner makes it easy for your team to create new plans, organize and assign tasks, share files (using Office 365 Groups), chat about what you’re working on, and get updates on progress.”
- Office 365 Enterprise E1, E3, E4, E5,
- Office 365 Education E3, E4,
- Office 365 Business Essentials
- Office 365 Business Premium
Use baseline and track your work
Let me tell you this story of a project manager; he spent
time with his team to compile their project planning, then proudly print it on
A0 page, and pin it on the wall behind his desk. This is for me one of the most
common mistakes a beginner does on project management. Why? Because the time
you print the schedule and pin it on the wall, the schedule is not anymore up
to date. You planning is alive, people will make work and progression on some
tasks, others tasks might be delayed… It is important to track the work done in
order to answer the question “how are we progressing compared to original
plan?”.
A snapshot of the original plan should be saved in order to
allow later comparison. This is what we call the Baseline.
Once your original planning is done, you can save your first
baseline, by clicking on Project
> Set Baseline > Set Baseline.
How to estimate effort, duration or cost?
The practice of estimating in project management is one of
the most challenging. Whether you’re trying to figure out project effort,
duration or cost, given the inherent uncertainty of projects and their uniqueness,
we often end up “guesstimating.” This article provides techniques to use in
order to be as accurate as possible in doing your estimates. While I focus on
effort estimation, the same techniques apply to duration or cost estimation.
Let’s start with a reminder about how project time
management is articulated, according to the PMI® PMBOK® Guide
& Standards, Fifth Edition:
Understanding resource engagements
Resource
engagements, which is one of the new feature available in Project Online, is the
way Project Managers and Resource Managers agree on resource allocations (for more information about new
features of Project in 2016, please check my previous blog article: What’s new in Project 2016).
The
resource engagement feature substitutes the resource plan feature you might know
from the previous version of Project Online or Project Server. Projects’ resource
plans will be migrated to resource engagements. It’s important to note that only published resource plans will be
migrated, so before you start, publish all your resource plans.
In order to
use resource engagement, the feature needs to be activated. When you connect to
your Project Online tenant, you see this message (only admins see it):
Creating a resource plan
Within Microsoft Project Server, a resource plan is a forecasting
tool for estimation, used at the early stages of project initiation. It’s a way
to estimate resource capacity where projects are in different state, in other
words, it helps you to define high level resource needs for each project or
initiative.
Because you can use it during early stages of projects, there
might not be any task or WBS defined yet, some projects might be just proposed
and not handed over to Project Manager.
More often, resource plan utilize
resources that are generic just to get some idea of capacity. Using named
resources might also help resource managers to understand their team’s
availability and capacity.
Let see how it works:
Demand management and ideation in Project Server 2013
In this article, I want to
share with you how we manage demands in my company. By using a SharePoint list
to collect project ideas and initiatives, we are able using a very simple
Project Server 2013 out of the box feature, to create a project and manage it.
Create a SharePoint list to
collect
The first step consists in
creating a new SharePoint custom list. For those who are not familiar with
SharePoint, here is the “HowTo”.
Click on the “Add lists, libraries and other apps.”
Image on the PWA home page. If this default web-part is not present, you can
access the same page by clicking on the settings button, then Site content. Finally on the site
content page, click on add an app.
On the [Site Contents: Your Apps] page, click on Custom List.
Using PERT to calculate task duration in Microsoft Project
Following the definition found in Wikipedia, "the Program (or Project) Evaluation and Review
Technique is a method to analyze the involved tasks in completing a given
project, especially the time needed to complete each task, and to identify the
minimum time needed to complete the total project."
For those who passed or are preparing for the PMP exam, you should
know the famous formula to calculate the expected duration of a task. This is
also known as the "three point
estimate".
Calculation of the expected time (TE): the best estimate of the
time required to accomplish a task, accounting for the fact that things don't
always proceed as normal (the implication being that the expected time is the
average time the task would require if the task were repeated on a number of
occasions over an extended period of time).
The formula is:
TE = (O + 4M + P) ÷ 6
Creating a Work Breakdown Structure in Microsoft Project 2010 with Visio (WBS Modeler add-in for Visio 2010)
As part of the Initiating phase of a project, a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) should be delivered. I usually prepare a high level planning using Microsoft Project. It’s not really a WBS, but more a milestone and hammock tasks Gantt chart.
I always wanted to present it as a real WBS diagram but never found a good and simple tool to create it. Here is now the solution; the WBS Modeler add-in for Visio 2010 that allows generating the WBS based on a project plan, or the other way, generates a project plan based on a WBS. This add-in has been released end of 2011 by Microsoft (initially developed by David J Parker, Microsoft MVP for Visio).
First, the system requirements:
Windows XP Service Pack 3 or later with Visio Professional 2010; not that there is also a version for 2007 available), Project 2003 SP 1 or later AND Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0.
You can download the add-in from this page. The installation is very simple; it’s a series of “next” buttons.
Welcome to the Process Excellence Revolution
Watch this excellent video from www.processexcellencenetwork.com
about process and how “Process excellence improves the way you create and
deliver value to customers.”
Doing Scrum in Microsoft Project 2010
Two year ago, I was involved in a project for a luxury company, and previous project manager used Scrum to manage it and the deliveries. After a quick introduction of this methodology, we used his tools (mainly Excel) to implement Scrum.
Today I would like to reuse Scrum in another project, but I wanted to see if it’s possible to use Microsoft Project instead of Excel to manage Scrum artifacts as Product backlog, Sprint Backlog and Burn down chart.
Note that this article will not explain the methodology; you can check this article in Wikipedia or watch this interesting video by Hamid Shojaee for a quick course on Scrum.
Video: How To Tell If A Project Schedule is Good
Excellent
6 minutes video, from http://www.cogtechinc.com,
presented by John Rigoli, PMP about "How To Tell If A Project Schedule is Good".
Microsoft Project 2010 - Creating a resource pool without MS Project Server
Without having Microsoft Project Server, here is a way to manage shared resources through various projects. By using this method, the program manager or unit manager can check team member allocation and plan projects.
The first thing is to create the resource pool. To create a resource pool:
· Create a new blank project
· On the Resource tab, select resource sheet
· Enter your resources and their information (different type, working time, calendar…)
10 Questions PMs Should Know the Answer To
I read an interesting article by Philip R. Diab about what are the 10 questions a project manager should know the answer to, here they are:
- Why did we undertake the project and is that reason still valid?
- What will it take to make the customers/stakeholders happy once the project is complete?
- Where are we? Which tasks were completed and which ones are left?
- How much of the budget has been expended and how much is left?
- How close are we to the finish line (resources & tasks)?
- Do key stakeholders understand where things are with the project?
- Are there critical (high probability/high impact) risks that may cause the project to derail?
- What are the top issues the project is facing and causing delays?
- Are team members optimistic or pessimistic about the project’s chances of success?
- What happens when all the deliverables are complete?
The full article can be read on Philip R. Diab’s blog, I really encourage you to read it and other papers he published.
Using Traffic Lights in Project reporting
Following my previous article on Earned Value Management (Project Management: Understanding Earned Value Management), here is a very simple technique that probably many of us are already using, which helps to clearly define project health on an easy way.
Traffic Lights definition and usage
These indicators are generally used in summary reporting (the status of activities within a project), or in program reporting (the status of projects within a program). They are particularly useful for giving management focus on activities or projects which require particular attention.
We sometimes use the term RAG for these indicators, stating for Red / Amber / Green.
The definitions of RAG indicators are agreed at the beginning of the project and used in reports and presentations regarding its status.
Examples
The project team has agreed to define following boundaries on Cost Performance Indicators. (Remember that CPI = EV / AC) The “traffic light” indicators could then be defined as:
- Red if CPI < 80%
- Amber if 80% ≤ CPI ≤ 95%
- Green if CPI > 95%
Usage in Microsoft Project® (Project plan)
Here is an example of using traffic lights inside Microsoft Project®.
How can you implement such indicators in Microsoft Project ®?
- Create a new custom field for task, with type: Number,
- Select Custom attribute: Formula,
- Enter the following formula,
The result is:
- 1 if SPI >=0.9,
- 2 if 0.8=<SPI<0.9,
- 3 if SPI<0.8
- Select display graphical indicators,
- Choose your graphical indicators.
Usage in Microsoft Office Excel (Project report)
Another example of traffic lights usage, an issue log in Excel, I have used the conditional formatting to color cells.
Here are the rules used for the conditional formatting.
Usage in Microsoft Office PowerPoint (Steering committee presentation)
The last example I wanted to show is the usage of traffic lights in PowerPoint presentations. Here is a print screen of one of my sides regarding my project cost status.
Overall project cost indicator is on top, and a more detailed presentation for Capex / expenses is given below.
Advantages of such technique
- It is very intuitive and visual,
- And very effective for summary reporting, or management presentations.
You should pay attention on following points
- The values of the indicators must be agreed at the beginning of the project, and should be consistent with other projects
- The summary nature of the indicators can be misleading (i.e. how “green” is an activity, what is the trend?)
- They do not provide sufficient information to allow diagnosis and interpretation, without discussion.
Consequences and actions
- Maintain the performance of projects/activities which are “green”,
- Diagnose the risks and issues of projects/activities which are “amber” and take appropriate action to remedy problems,
- Diagnose and remedy issues with projects/activities which are “red”, seeking management support and endorsement as appropriate.
New free webinars
From PM Center Usa, 2 news and FREE interesting webinars:
I would love to know the arguments of the speaker regarding Earned Value Management and the fact that this do not work... Will see...
- Risk Management Made Easy for Projects on Oct. 28, 2010 18:00(CET), Register here
- Earned Value Analysis – Why it Doesn’t Work on Nov. 4, 2010 17:00 (CET), Register here
I would love to know the arguments of the speaker regarding Earned Value Management and the fact that this do not work... Will see...
Project Management: Understanding Earned Value Management
One of the the favorite question of a project sponsor during a steering meeting is “So, what is the status of my project?” If things are looking good, a frequent answer from the project manager often sounds like this: “Well, we seem to be within the budget and it looks like we will meet the target go live date…”. If things are a bit dicey, he or she might say “Well, there have been some roadblocks and bottlenecks, so it looks like the timeline might slip by a few weeks and we will also need an additional budget…” Now if I were a project sponsor, this is definitively not what I would want to hear. I will share in this post a good way to report on project status, using a simple methodology: the Earned Value Management.
The goal of Earned Value Management (EVM) is to objectively understand what was accomplished, and compare it to work planned, in other words what was spent and how. By using EVM, the project manager wants to manage cost (and schedule) rather than just monitoring and reporting it.
Let’s take an example of a project status. The project, 10000 CHF budget, 10 days effort, will produce 10 deliverables. The status report gives the following elements: Time elapsed 5 days, spent to date 6000 CHF, deliverables produced: 5 complete and 1 half done. What is the status of this project? How far along are we? What about the performance of the team? If we spend 60% of the budget, does that imply that we have 60% of the project completed?
Without EVM, we just make inspection. With EVM, we make management. EVM can help the team to accurately report on project status and accurately identify trends (and problems). The project manager is then able to answer following questions:
In most projects, the Planned Value looks like an S-Curve.
What is the status of this project? To know it we will use variance calculation:
Cost Variance CV= EV-AC = 5500-6000 = - 500 CHF negative => bad
Schedule Variance SV= EV-PV = 5500-5000 = + 500 CHF positive => good
Variances can also be represented as indexes. Those indexes can be viewed as the factor of performance.
Cost Performance Index CPI = EV / AC = 5500/6000 = 0.916 Less than 1 => bad
Schedule Performance Index SPI = EV / PV = 5500/5000 = 1.1 More than 1 => good
The Estimate At Completion EAC can be calculated in four different ways depending on the trends of the project:
EAC = AC + ETC = 6000+4500 = 10500 CHF
The Variance At Completion VAC can be now calculated as VAC = BAC – EAC = 10000-105000 = -500 CHF => the project will cost more than planned.
As a conclusion for this sample project, you are now able to give an objective status:
As a general conclusion on EVM systems, to be effective, the system should be put in place as earlier as possible. An established baseline must exist (based on scope analysis and the Work Breakdown Structure) against which to measure progress.
EVM also contains more indicators such as To Complete Performance Index, the TCPI (which provides a projection of the anticipated performance required to achieve either the BAC or the EAC). Project managers can also perform variance analysis and management and contingency reserve analysis (trend analysis).
To summarize, this table contains useful formulas for EVM
The goal of Earned Value Management (EVM) is to objectively understand what was accomplished, and compare it to work planned, in other words what was spent and how. By using EVM, the project manager wants to manage cost (and schedule) rather than just monitoring and reporting it.
Let’s take an example of a project status. The project, 10000 CHF budget, 10 days effort, will produce 10 deliverables. The status report gives the following elements: Time elapsed 5 days, spent to date 6000 CHF, deliverables produced: 5 complete and 1 half done. What is the status of this project? How far along are we? What about the performance of the team? If we spend 60% of the budget, does that imply that we have 60% of the project completed?
Without EVM, we just make inspection. With EVM, we make management. EVM can help the team to accurately report on project status and accurately identify trends (and problems). The project manager is then able to answer following questions:
- What is the status of the project?
- What are the problems and how to fix them?
- What is the impact of each problem, and what are present and feature risks?
Let’s take again our previous example to illustrate it. We need to produce 10 deliverables within 10000 CHF budget (=> 1000 CHF per deliverable), 5 days of work we already spent 6000 CHF and have 5 deliverables + 1 half done.
In the following graph, we just plot all information.
In most projects, the Planned Value looks like an S-Curve.
What is the status of this project? To know it we will use variance calculation:
Cost Variance CV= EV-AC = 5500-6000 = - 500 CHF negative => bad
Schedule Variance SV= EV-PV = 5500-5000 = + 500 CHF positive => good
Variances can also be represented as indexes. Those indexes can be viewed as the factor of performance.
Cost Performance Index CPI = EV / AC = 5500/6000 = 0.916 Less than 1 => bad
Schedule Performance Index SPI = EV / PV = 5500/5000 = 1.1 More than 1 => good
The Estimate At Completion EAC can be calculated in four different ways depending on the trends of the project:
- If there is no variances in the project EAC ‘no variances’ = BAC / CPI
- If the initial estimates are flawed EAC ‘fundamentally flawed’ = AC + ETC
- If the trend will change EAC ‘atypical’ = AC + BAC – EV
- If the trend will stay the same until the end EAC ‘typical’ = AC + ((BAC – EV) / CPI)
EAC = AC + ETC = 6000+4500 = 10500 CHF
The Variance At Completion VAC can be now calculated as VAC = BAC – EAC = 10000-105000 = -500 CHF => the project will cost more than planned.
As a conclusion for this sample project, you are now able to give an objective status:
- Project is over budget, we spend more than planned.
- Project is ahead of schedule, we produce quicker.
- Project will cost 500CHF more than planned at the end, but we will probably deliver earlier
As a general conclusion on EVM systems, to be effective, the system should be put in place as earlier as possible. An established baseline must exist (based on scope analysis and the Work Breakdown Structure) against which to measure progress.
EVM also contains more indicators such as To Complete Performance Index, the TCPI (which provides a projection of the anticipated performance required to achieve either the BAC or the EAC). Project managers can also perform variance analysis and management and contingency reserve analysis (trend analysis).
To summarize, this table contains useful formulas for EVM
Why project management matters?
This is an article I initialy wrote for my company blog.
Sources of project failure
After several surveys, it appears that the main cause of project failure is the lack of project management methodology.
Presented in the form of a Pareto chart, here are the main causes of project failure.
The purpose of the Pareto chart is to highlight the most important among a set of factors. In quality control, it often represents the most common sources of defects, the highest occurring type of defect, or the most frequent reasons for customer complaints.
Reading this results show us that the most important phase in project management are “Initiating” and “Planning” phases.
Necessity of using Project management methodology
In the past we believed that project management would require more people and increase the overall cost in the organization. Today we know that project management allows us to accomplish more work in less time with fewer people and without any sacrifice to quality.
We also believed that only big project requires project management. Today we know that all projects will benefit from project management (maybe not the entire methodology for smaller projects…).
There is no “one best project management methodology”. Each company should build its own methodology based on their business and their maturity in project management. On the market today there is, among others, two methodologies, PRINCE2® and PMBOK® from the Project Management Institute.
Main differences are listed here:
Today, the definition of success is: providing value to customer inside the triple constraint of Scope, Time, and Cost (Quality can also be considered within it).
Project Management methodology is just a tool that will help you on this way.
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