Project Management

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Project Management
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What does a project manager do?

• Owns the problems.
• Interprets the contract or statement of work.
• Authorizes the work.
• Demands creation and maintenance of program
  baselines.
• Monitors the work.
• Coordinates the work.

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Project Management Essentials

• State the objective.
• State the plan.
• Execute your plan.
• Monitor progress and take corrective action.

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Project Management entails

• Organization
• Planning, Scheduling, Budgeting
• Resource Allocation
• Analysis and Management Reports
• Revisions and Data Maintenance

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Structure of Work
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Typical Program Flow
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Communication

• There is no such thing as a surprise.
• Someone knew it a long time ago.

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Types of Communication

• Contractual/ Formal
• Statement of Work
• Work Directives
• Review presentations and Minutes
• Program Plan
• Status
• Memos Used to communicate expectations and to
  record the past.
• Status Reports/Weekly Briefings Provide feedback
  to key stakeholders on current status of project.
• Risk Mitigation
• Trip Reports
• Post Mortems

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Meeting Guidelines

• Objective (s) spelled out
• Agenda
• Action items (with names and dates)
• Minutes
• Follow-up

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• Dont be afraid to ask
• dumb questions.
• They are easier to handle
• than dumb mistakes!

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Planning

• Plans are worthless unless someone
  makes them work!
• Plan for Success!

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Why we dont plan

• Its hard work.
• It forces us to deal with things we dont know or
  understand.
• It forces us to expose our lack of knowledge.
• Its more fun to do than to define.
• Commitment to a plan takes away your freedom
  (power).

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• Q How does a program get to be one year late?
• A One day at a time!

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Where to start

• Have a definite project start and end date.
• Read or write the specifications for the project.
• Make a to do list.
• Sort the list into categories.
• Develop a timeline of important due dates or
  milestones.
• Fill in the timeline with a projected schedule so
  you can meet the milestones.

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Technical information to consider

• Specifications What does it do?
• Sketches, Mock-ups, Prototypes
• Block Diagrams Functional, Hardware, Software
• Functional Responsibilities
• Hardware Responsibilities
• Software Responsibilities
• Flow charts for work distribution

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Project Management Objectives

• Define specify the product to be designed.
• Communicate the design to the team.
• Control the design (minimize possibilities for
  change).
• Define engineering and production test
  requirements and concepts.

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Typical Engineering Task Breakdown
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Frequently used Engineering Acronyms
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Preliminary Design Review Components (PDR)

• Hardware
• System design
• Functional flowchart
• Preliminary schematics
• Physical concepts/Footprint
• System budgets
• Power distribution
• Mockups, models, simulations
• Standardization
• Reliability assessment
• Thermal analysis
• Shock/Vibration analysis
• Obsolescence Studies/Analysis
• PDR Successful Outcome Permission to precede
  with detailed design

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Preliminary Design Review Components (PDR)

• Software
• Functional tree/ Software hierarchy
• Functional flow chart/ Data flow/ Protocols
• Storage requirements and allocation
• Execution control
• Interface diagrams
• Start/ Restart/ Recovery
• Reentrancy
• Test
• Integration test planning and tools
• Development facilities and test tools

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Critical Design Review Components (CDR)

• Hardware
• Review of completed detail design
• Electrical and mechanical design
• Environmental and thermal
• Reliability/Maintainability/Human
  Factors/Subsystem Shock/Subsystem
  Vibration/Electro Magnetic Compatibility/Thermal
• System budgets (weight/power/size/reliability/cost
  )
• Producibility
• Transportability
• Support facilities and equipment
• Logistics Support Analysis Plan after
  installation/Life Cycle Cost
• CDR Successful Outcome
  Prototype Built

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Test Readiness Review Components (TRR)

• Master Test Plan
• Hardware configuration item test plans and
  procedures
• Computer software configuration item test plans
  and procedures
• Test resources
• Data logging and control
• Test report planning
• Configuration management during test
• Problem resolution plans
• Schedules

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Handling Problems

• Define the problem.
• Who owns the problem?
• Devise an action plan that follows accepted
  process with deadlines.
• Propose and evaluate solutions.
• Technical merit
• Schedule impact
• Cost impact
• Contractual implications
• Risks identified
• Risks mitigated
• Unless one person understands the whole thing,
  it wont go together. Abraham Lincoln

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Keys to Understand the Project
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Project Management Pitfalls

• Inadequate project definition and planning.
• All stakeholders must understand it and but into
  it.
• Spend the time upfront to get it right.
• Failure to keep the schedule.
• Not managing the work plan.
• No plan should be changed after implementation.
• Status is measured against the work plan.
• Most changes are a result of out of scope work.
• Failure to have deadlines.
• Assigning activities that are too large.

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Project Management Pitfalls

• 3. Poor project communication
• Everyone has different expectations.
• Team members dont know what is expected of them
  and pass their problems to the next person.
• Lack of quality management
• Its in the eyes of the client, not the manager.
• Having to redo to get it right.

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Project Management Chart