Project Management 2.0

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Thank you again for being Members of the ProjectManagement.com community!

Download these quick before they're back in the PREMIUM library! These are all examples of premium content available 24X7 to our Premium Members. However, they are free to every registered member through Thursday, August 22nd. We hope these make your life a bit easier – helping us fulfill our mission of making YOU more successful. If you are not already a Premium Plus member but would like to be, Premium Plus membership is available at a $50 discount using the code "KEEP50". 

The following premium templates are available to all ProjectManagement.com members until 8/22. We hope you find them useful.

Strategic Requirements Template (NEW THIS MONTH!)
PREMIUM DELIVERABLE
This deliverable aligns with the concepts expressed in the article Strategic Requirements Management. This template should be used in conjunction with a more traditional requirements document to assist in the prioritizing of features and the finalizing of scope elements. It can also support discussions around changes in scope during the project. The cells provide a basic summary of each column.

Evaluating Your Project's Potential for Outsourcing
PREMIUM DELIVERABLE
This document outlines how to evaluate your project’s potential for outsourcing, and describes the factors that help determine outsourcing’s pros and cons as a project development option, analyses on its cost-benefit and risks, and other requirements under it. These items are in addition to other factors that you may wish to include. 

Requirements Traceability Matrix (NEW THIS MONTH!)
PREMIUM DELIVERABLE
At the most basic level traceability is concerned with two things: Ensuring that every requirement is built into the completed product/solution, and ensuring that every feature ties back to a requirement. This template is a very simple guide for organizations just starting to trace requirements. As organizations become more comfortable with traceability, they will likely want to add additional columns, but this will serve to help ensure that all requirements are built and that all features match requirements.

Requirements Manager
PREMIUM DELIVERABLE
Three core requirements management tools can effectively improve project management success: building a requirements tree, creating a requirements traceability matrix and establishing a requirements baseline. 

Budget Template Workbook (NEW THIS MONTH!)
PREMIUM DELIVERABLE
The Budget Template Workbook includes: a cost estimate sheet to document your initial cost assumptions, a planning templateto help you take a detailed look at planning costs, and a tracking template to track actual costs against budget and document reasons for variances. It's a great planning and communication tool to help you stay on top of project finances. 

Project HEADWAY Risk Impact Tool
PREMIUM DELIVERABLE
This spreadsheet will help you align your project efforts with the specific risks you face on your project to make estimating and resource management more accurate and effective. 

Project HEADWAY Project Status Report
PREMIUM DELIVERABLE
The purpose of a status report is to provide the project sponsor, the steering committee and other stakeholders with an understanding of how the project is progressing. The status report template allows the project manger to provide the audience members with a high-level view of the project. The template provides them with enough information in order to for them to understand project progress--but not so much information as to overwhelm them. 

Sharpen the Saw!

ProjectManagement.com's PMprep Questions are a great way to "sharpen the saw". They are terrific if you are preparing for a certification test, and they also help you earn badges and build out the skills in your profile. Each correct answer ups your PM Street Cred. 

Challenge Your PM Peers To A Friendly Battle!

PMwars! are raging on. Think of it as Words With Friends for Project Managers. You challenge a colleague or any PM on the site to answer a randomly selected set of questions from our bank of over 1,700. Each player has 90 seconds to answer as many as possible correctly--then we have a winner! It's a quick, easy way to brush up on some of the finer academic aspects of PM and have a little fun at the same time. You probably saw an earlier email from me about this month's contest. We're giving away two premium memberships and two copies of Project Pain Reliever to the four players who play the most games by the end of the month. Give it a try and let us know what you think! 

Thank you again for being a ProjectManagement.com member! We sincerely appreciate your support and are completely committed to your success. If we can help with anything project related, please let us know at contactus@projectmanagement.com.

Best,
Dave
Dave Garrett
President & CEO, projectmanagement.com

Situation: You are considering investments in PM training. 

With the way the economy has been over the past few years, companies have generally scaled back their investments in PM training. They often emphasize on the job training with eers or just rely on lower cost options - at times even just hiring more experienced help at the same or lower pay.

According to a new study released by ESI International, entitled “The Global State of the PMO: An Analysis for 2013”, project managers are being trained in fewer skills compared to 2012—by as much as 20%. It was found, however, that organizations committed to applying training on the job and measuring its impact on job performance deliver projects on-time and to-budget more often than organizations without training adoption in place.

Here are a few metrics and commentary from the study

Methodology and Tools Training:

• In 2013, 62% of workers who report up to a PMO said they receive training in using methodology and tools. That is a decrease from 75% in 2012.

• Less than half (47%) of non-PMO managed workers received methodology and tool training in 2013, down from 68% in 2012.

Soft Skills Project Training:

• A very low 30% of PMO-managed workers said they receive soft skills training (e.g., leadership, critical thinking, team building) down from 41% in 2012.

• Only 22% of non-PMO managed workers received soft skills training in 2013, compared with 35% in 2012.

“While these training numbers reveal a decline in project-focused training, the survey  underscores the importance of training and its direct correlation to project success,” said Ward. The study found that 56% of respondents who are part of PMOs that are active in measuring training impact and learning sustainment said more than 75% of projects were delivered on time, to budget, within scope and to customer expectations. That number plummets to 39% for those whose PMOs are not active in either."

What's the situation at your company? Have they cut back on training?  If so, has it made a huge difference in people's performance?

Situation: You need a quick description of how you can leverage CPA on your project.

Our Techniques Wiki offers a library of commonly used approaches to tactical challenges on your project. Critical Path Analysis is a pretty well used technique, so I thought it would be useful to highlight it here and get your take on our "official version". The beauty of posting it as a wiki is that it's community driven and refined. If you think it should change - you can change it. 

Critical Path Analysis

'An analysis technique used to identify the critical (essential) and non-critical (non-essential) activities associated with a business process or work plan and the amount of float (slack) associated with each noncritical activity'. The result of the analysis defines the critical path, a sequential set of related and essential steps that comprise a value stream or work plan. It is the longest path, in terms of duration, that passes through all the critical steps of a value stream or work plan, and determines the fastest time to completion. The results of critical path analysis are depicted graphically in a Critical Path Diagram.

Applications

• To identify the critical and non-critical activities associated with a business process or work plan.
• To identify non-critical steps which can be eliminated, at minimum cost, to improve the value stream or work plan.
• To identify the amount of time an activity may be delayed without affecting subsequent, dependent activities or the ending time or date.

Procedures

• Identify all steps in the business process or work plan.
• Document the steps in the sequence in which they occur.
• Identify the relationships between steps, and document the dependencies between them.
• Determine the latest allowable start and end time or date at which each step can occur without delaying the next step and, subsequently, the whole value stream or work plan.
• Assign a float value to each task. Critical tasks should have zero float. Non-critical tasks will have a numeric value associated with them, representing slack time.
• Calculate the float for each step by subtracting the Early Start time or date from the Late Start time or date and assign a float value to each task and sub-task.
• Using the information collected above, identify the critical and non-critical tasks and sub-tasks by determining the duration of the value stream or work plan.
• Chart/document the critical path.

Instructions

The essence of critical path analysis is to examine all options for reducing the duration of time required to complete the critical steps in a business process or work plan. Tasks, their duration, and their dependency relationships determine the critical path. When applied in business reengineering, critical path analysis addresses issues of quality, efficiency, and cost reduction by standardizing work efforts and eliminating unnecessary steps to reduce the time required to satisfy the customer of the value stream. In project planning, it is applied to determine all options (duration, cost, resource requirements) for reducing the work plan or project duration and for determining the amount of time an activity may be delayed without affecting subsequent, dependent activities or the project end date. When used in conjunction with Cycle Time Analysis andDependency Analysis, Critical Path Analysis is an effective tool to measure the quality of the business process or work plan by analyzing the steps in the path, measuring inefficiencies, and determining what steps can be eliminated to improve a business process redesign or reduce the amount of time required in the work plan.

Critical path analysis begins with the identification of all activities (tasks and sub-tasks) which are part of the business process or work plan. Document the tasks and sub-tasks in sequential order; documentation can be prepared using various diagramming techniques such as block diagrams, work flow diagrams, etc. (see Work Flow Diagramming), in a simple list, or using a automated project management tool for creating work plans.

Once all tasks and sub-tasks have been identified, identify the relationships between the tasks and sub-tasks, usingDependency Analysis. Determine which tasks and sub-tasks are dependent upon one another and establish a predecessor or successor relationship. Document these relationships on the diagram, list or work plan.

Determine the critical and non-critical activities by assigning a float value to each task and determining the float associated with each task and sub-task. Float represents slack time, the amount of time an activity may be delayed without affecting succeeding activities (free float) or the ending duration or date (total float). Critical tasks should have zero float as there should be no slack time associated with them. Critical tasks must be accomplished sequentially and promptly; thus, when a critical task is delayed, the completion and duration of the business process or the end date of the project is affected. Non-critical tasks and sub-tasks have a numeric float value associated with them, as there can be slack time without affecting the end result. This value (e.g., float value of 1=slack time of 1 unit of time that is being measured) represents the amount of delay that can occur without affecting the duration of the business process or the work plan. To determine the float associated with each task or sub-task, define the early start and early end duration or date for each task or sub-task (e.g., the earliest possible time each task and/or sub-task can begin and end). (See also Cycle Time Analysis.) Calculate the float for each step by subtracting the early start time or date from the late start time or date.

Chart the critical path by identifying all critical steps (those with zero float). The path through all steps or events that have zero float represents the critical path. The non-critical steps (those with associated float) are candidates for elimination from the value stream or work plan.

Although resource constraints do not affect true critical path calculation, critical path analysis may be followed by resource planning, using resource manipulation techniques such as Resource Allocation, Loading and Leveling to improve project schedules and end dates.

Situation: You're kicking off a project and need a quick audit of what you're doing.

Project Headway tasks offer a lot of guidance in managing your projects.  One popular feature of the process is "Questions you ask of yourself and others" within each task in the process. The Project Headway step, "Direct and Manage Project Activiation" guides you through your project launch.  These are the questions we've come up with for that task.  Please let us know if you feel they are helpful and/or what's missing.

When compiling status reports, consider asking yourself the following questions:

• How will the project be executed? Do you really understand your plan and it's weaknesses?  What warning signs will you be looking for so that you notice when things take a wrong turn?
• Do you have a clear understanding of the roles & responsibilities of each member of the project team?
• What is the work of the project that needs to get started first? What are you delivering and how will it set the tone for the rest of the project?
• How will you be collecting work performance information? 

Ask a trusted colleague or key project team members the same questions. 

Situation: You're developing a medial device and need to know where to focus your efforts.

Producing medical devices is a challenging business. You face huge compliance hurdles and constantly changing requirements in a field where innovation and speed are everything. With all of that going on, it’s difficult to take a breath and understand what your peers are doing. Here is a quick and easy way to identify best practices and better understand how you are performing against a standard set of benchmarks.

The 2013 Medical Device Development survey delves into the product development process, examining key metrics used to track progress and the management of tasks that can be a heavy drag on your project. Respondents are asked to identify areas they wish they could gain better visibility into, as well as the roadblocks damaging their success rates. The survey explores design, risk, and quality control topics—how these areas are managed, analyzed, and traced—before turning to the commercial tools used in the development process.

Requirements, test cases, and artifacts are also covered—how they are managed, which ones are tracked, and which are the most difficult to manage. Also, respondents are asked about proving compliance. What is the most difficult item to prove? How do you provide objective evidence with test cases, or verify that they were completed? This leads into questions about traceability matrices, including how they are created, what is traced, how they are kept updated, and more.  You can find the survey here.

Note: This survey is being conducted by Seapine Software, who is a sponsor of ProjectManagement.com .