Project Management: From Art to Discipline

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Project ManagementFrom Art to Discipline

• Matt Hotle

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Project Management Is Critical to the
'Projectized' Enterprise
1. Projects span business and IT domains
2. Projects span multiple business units plus
IT domains
3. Methods needed for PM and execution
4. Skills needed in business and IT
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Definitions

• Project management is
• A discipline or profession
• Aimed at meeting deadlines and budgets through
  planning and monitoring
• Sometimes a role, sometimes a function
• "Success" is
• A project that delivers what the client wants,
  when the client wants it, with "good enough"
  quality and at "just enough" cost.

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Definitions

• Program management is
• Not just a "mega project manager"
• Aimed at meeting deadlines and budgetsthrough
  planning and monitoring multiple,interconnected
  projects
• Not targeted at the day-to-day management ofany
  given project, but rather at the
  interconnected,"big picture" view of the program
• "Success" is
• Delivery of business value through
  successfulcompletion of the interconnected
  projects.

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Definitions

• Portfolio management is
• Allocation of capital to projects and expenses to
  existing applications
• Not just a "list" of either applications or
  projects
• Aimed at maximizing value over time while
  managing costs and minimizing risks
• "Success" is
• Consistently improved business value from
  projects reduced or stable costs on existing
  applications

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Project Management Styles and Methods A New
Look for a New Economy
Application Integration
Multienterprise PM
Frontier PM
Multiple Enterprises
Enterprise or Strategic PM
Enterprisewide Transformational
Complexity of Business Domain
Complex PM
Multiple Business Units Single Enterprise
Basic PM
Single Business Unit
Application
Simple Task Management Coordination
Complex Work Management Coordination
Complex Work Relationship Management
All Frontier Projects
Complexity of Work
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What Kind of Project Managers Do We Need?

• High-Risk Projects
• Little Mentoring
• Three to 10 Years Experience

No. 5 Rating

• Large Projects
• Mentoring
• Managing

No. 4 Rating Senior Project Manager
No. 3 Rating Project Manager

• Run Average Projects
• No People Management

• Small Project Lead
• Three to Six Person
• One to Six Months

No. 2 Rating Apprentice Project Manager

• Potential No Experience
• Team Leadership Under the Direction of the
  Program Manager
• One to Three Successful Assignments

No. 1 Rating Team Leader
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Understanding 'Earned Value' Analysis

• What is EV's origin?
• The concept traces to the 1900s and industrial
  engineering. It was further defined and adopted
  by the U.S. DOD in the 1960s for major
  acquisition programs. Today, it's based on ANSI
  Standard EIA-748-1998.
• What does it do for me?
• EV moves from a typical project scheduled task
  completion (historical) tracking model to the
  integration of project cost, scheduling and
  executionto track "earned value."
• EV provides information that allows for decisions
  regarding deviation from the plan and to perform
  a level of predictive analysis (forecast).
• Why would I use it?
• EV enables control of a project by providing
  comparative analysis between scheduled/planned
  and actual work performed.

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Other Alignment Practices

• Define Meaningful MetricsConsider traditional
  metrics, such as time and schedule,plus new
  metrics, such as innovations, reuse, overhead
  ratio and collaboration.
• Kill Projects Early (and often, if your failure
  rate is high) Define processes to spot pending
  failures and either radically recover or kill
  the project.
• Beware of Methodology OverloadA little great
  methodology goes a long way a lot of methodology
  increases your overhead ratio.
• Learn From Worst PracticesReview projects
  frequently for learning. Learn from successes and
  failure both are rich sources of knowledge.

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Recommendations

• Use a "just enough" approach to PM "just enough"
  is never no PM!
• Treat project management as a disciplineand a
  profession.
• Provide a career path for your PMs.
• Use a PMO to aid in skill set development.
• Use a combination of formal education and success
  metrics to drive PM assessments.

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Project ManagementFrom Art to Discipline

• Matt Hotle