Project Management

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Project Management

• Reference Chapter 16, Ulrich Eppinger

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One enemy of good project management is Feature
Creep
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Project Management balancing and planning

• Balancing
• Deliverables
• Cost
• Quality
• Planning
• Technical issues
• Time
• Resources
• Personnel
• Equipment/facilites
• Budget

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Fundamentals of planning

• Establish Performance Standards at the BEGINNING
• Assure Performance Standards as Project
  Progresses
• Verify Final Performance Against Standards
• NO SURPRISES!

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Benefits of planning

• Framework for communication
• Clients and coworkers
• Allocate resources
• Personnel, equipment and facilities, budget
• Benchmark to measure progress

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Time planning

• Identify TASKS
• Estimate DURATION of Tasks
• Establish PRECEDENCE of Tasks
• Record MILESTONES (Performance and Dated)
• Plan Start and Finish DATES for Tasks

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Three Fundamental Activity Relationships
Example Kodak Cheetah Microfilm Cartridge
RECEIVE AND ACCEPT SPECIFICATION
CONCEPT GENERATION/ SELECTION
DESIGN BETA CARTRIDGES
Sequential
Parallel
Coupled/Iterative
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Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT)
Critical Path Method (CPM)

• A network or flow diagram
• Two basic varieties - Activity in Box (AIB),
  Activity on Arrow (AOA)
• Shows how activities (tasks) are related
  (dependencies)
• Helps identify critical path the longest chain
  of dependent events
• Useful for allocation of resources and personnel
• Promotes parallel activities

PARALLEL TASKS
COUPLED TASKS
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Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT,
AIB form)
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C
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Task or Activity
Critical Path
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Duration (weeks)
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PERT/CPM how to

• Tabulate Project Tasks
• Title and ID Number for Each Task
• Estimate Duration for Each Task D(O4MP)/6
• O Optimistic, M Most Likely, P Pessimistic
• Estimate Resource Requirements for Each Task (May
  Need Dummy Tasks for Critical Resources)
• Identify Prerequisite Tasks for Each Task
• Layout Flowchart of Tasks Based on Dependencies
  NOT Time
• Indicate Performance Milestones on Flowchart

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PERT/CPM how to (continued)

• Calculate Earliest Completion Time and Latest
  Completion Time
• Beginning at start of project, ECT for task ECT
  for preceding node duration
• Beginning at end of project, LCT for task LCT
  for following node - duration
• Calculate Slack Time for Each Task
• Slack for Task ECT - LCT
• Determine Critical Path
• Longest Time Path
• Zero Slack

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PERT/CPM pros and cons

• Strengths
• Shows Task Dependencies
• Predicts Critical Path
• Identifies Slack Time for Resources
• Weaknesses
• Assumes Subsequent Task Starts Immediately After
  Prerequisite Concludes
• Difficult to Visualize Timing

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Gantt Chart

• A timeline diagram, bar chart
• Shows timing of milestones and tasks
• Does not show task dependencies

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Gantt how to

• Tabulate Project Tasks
• Title and ID Number for Each Task
• Estimate Duration of Each Task
• Estimate Resource Requirements for Each Task (May
  Need Dummy Tasks for Critical Resources)
• Identify Prerequisite Tasks for Each Task
• Layout Bar Chart with One Bar per Task based on
  Time
• Add Dated Milestones

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Gantt pros and cons

• Strengths
• See Status of Each Task at Any Point in Time
• See Overlapping and Parallel Tasks
• Weaknesses
• Unable to Tell if the Entire Project is on Time
  for Highly Dependent Projects
• Difficult to Show Critical Path

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MS-Project

• Tool for project planning and tracking
• Can switch between PERT and Gantt views

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How to build a Gantt Chart

• Identify all necessary tasks the task list
• List all milestones and deliverables
• Assign responsibility and duration to each task
• Identify task dependencies
• Use MS Project

Parallel Preferred
Avoid This
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Recommendations

• Organize tasks in parallel as much as possible,
  avoid serial tasks
• No task longer than 1 week
• One person is assigned to each task
• Build in contingency (safety) time
• (minimum 10-20)
• Do not believe suppliers promises of delivery
• Order an assortment of materials and components,
  not just what you think you will need

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The Baseline Project Plan

• Contract Book
• documents the project plan
• Project Task List, with time estimates
• Team Staffing and Organization
• Project Schedule
• PERT, Gantt or both
• Budget
• How you plan to spend your money
• Risk Plan
• What if things dont go as planned, how will you
  recover?

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Contract Book
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Risk Plan
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Critical success factors for team staffing and
organization

• 10 or fewer members on team
• Members volunteer to serve on team
• Members serve from concept development until
  product launch
• Members are assigned to the team full time
• Members report directly to team leader
• Key functions are on the team (including at least
  marketing, design and manufacturing)
• Members located within conversational distance

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Management of your final project

• Prepare a time schedule (Gantt Chart) for your
  project
• Task List with time estimates
• Identify task dependencies
• Identify person responsible for each task
• List milestones
• Rough draft on paper (today), then use MS
  Project, Excel

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For next class

• Gantt chart in MS-Excel or MS-Project
• 2) Journals will be collected on F 11/2