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Thread: Project Management

  1. #21
    Registered User LMC's Avatar
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    Re: Project Management

    Quote Originally Posted by Simon r
    Kaizan (continuous improvement). An idea is never finished,
    Only just picked up on this

    Yeah, but no, but...

    judicious application of the Pareto principle is also sometimes appropriate in non-life-or-death situations

  2. #22
    Registered User tomboh's Avatar
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    Re: Project Management

    Quote Originally Posted by Ste
    Are there any really good books and what do they say?
    I strongly recommened Scott Berkun's "The Art of Project Management" for anyone involved in software projects.

    Much of the book's wisdom probably translates to other areas. You can get a feel for its content by reading the author's essays online.

  3. #23
    TiggsTours
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    Re: Project Management

    Quote Originally Posted by Graham
    On no account venture into Prince 2 unless it is a requirement of your job. It is a rigorous methodology designed for UK government projects, and is not particularly useful for someone for whom managing complex projects is not their principle role.
    Completely agree, it is pretty useless if you're not working on a huge complex project, and I haven't actually used it once.

    What it is useful for though is that, most Project Management jobs require PRINCE 2, then you get to the interview, they ask you what you think of it, you tell them honestly, they totally agree with you and say they've never actually used it, but you still wouldn't have even got to the interview without it.

  4. #24
    Registered User El Salsero Gringo's Avatar
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    Re: Project Management

    Quote Originally Posted by Graham
    On no account venture into Prince 2 unless it is a requirement of your job. It is a rigorous methodology designed for UK government projects,
    Quote Originally Posted by TiggsTours
    it is pretty useless if you're not working on a huge complex project, and I haven't actually used it once.
    Is it any use even for big projects? Speaking as a disinterested observer of one diastrous government IT project after another, one wonders. If so, let's hope they spare no trouble to use it to manage the ID card system.

  5. #25
    Registered User senorita's Avatar
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    Re: Project Management

    Quote Originally Posted by Simon r
    Here is what microsoft project does for me


    Microsoft Project Standard
    Microsoft Project Standard includes the essential features to support project management at the workgroup level: task scheduling, resource management, tracking, reporting, team collaboration, customization, and flexibility. With this substantial set of features, you can start planning, managing, and reporting your project information immediately upon installation.

    Step-by-step instructions and controls
    Instructions in the Project Guide Wizard-like instructions and controls are always at hand in the left pane to help you build a new project, manage tasks and resources, specify and change working time, track your project, and report project information.
    SmartTags Receive feedback and advice on alternative actions as you delete task or resource names and change resource assignments; start and finish dates; and work, units, or durations.
    Collaboration menu Easily access Microsoft Project Server pages and features directly within Microsoft Project.
    Schedule and track tasks
    Assign resources In the Assign Resources dialog box search and filter for appropriate resources and graph their availability.
    Track actuals Use the status date to view progress more efficiently. Reduce the number of steps when entering actuals, especially when entering percent complete or percent work complete.
    Reschedule uncompleted work Constraints remain as you originally set them when you reschedule uncompleted work. Choose any reschedule date you want.
    Multiple baselines Set up to 11 baselines on a single project.
    Baseline data rollup Control how your baseline data is rolled up to summary tasks.
    Earned value improvements The earned value set now includes the schedule performance index (SPI), to complete performance index (TCPI), cost performance index (CPI), cost variance percent (CV%), and schedule variance percent (SV%). Choose from 11 baselines used to calculate earned value data.
    View project information
    Network Diagram view Group tasks and display graphical indicators.
    Usage views Group assignments, roll up grouped timephased information in usage views, and include totals when printing usage views.
    Tmescales Display three timescales in the Gantt Chart and other graph and usage views.
    Integrate with other products
    Import and export with Microsoft Excel Easily import data from Microsoft Excel and export data back to Excel, as well as other supported file types.
    Excel Task List template Project managers can use the new Excel Task List template to start their task lists. They can then import this Excel file into Microsoft Project smoothly, without having to map any fields.
    Microsoft Outlook Easily import a task list from Microsoft Outlook into Microsoft Project.
    Manage a collaborative project
    Simplified Timesheet Standardize the format of the new, streamlined timesheet in Microsoft Project Web Access to choose the way you prefer time to be reported and to simplify reporting for team members.
    Manager Transactions page Review, group, and filter summarized updates and task requests with Microsoft Project Server through the Manager Transaction page in Microsoft Project Web Access.
    Multiple managers Allow multiple project managers to track tasks and resources in a single project.
    Task lists Create and manage a simple task list with Microsoft Project Server through the Tasks page in Microsoft Project Web Access, and open this list in Microsoft Project.
    Resource comments Collect a comprehensive history of resource comments, compiled from task notes in Microsoft Project.
    Collaborate as a team member
    Commands Use the wizard-like instructions and controls in the left pane to assist with managing task lists, delegating tasks, reporting, and viewing project information.
    Transactions page Manage notifications and reminders with Microsoft Project Server through the Access Transaction page in Microsoft Project Web Access.
    View improvements Team members and other stakeholders using Microsoft Project Web Access can save a view with grouping or filtering. They can also group on multiple hierarchies, apply colors to groups, display splits in the Gantt views, and employ additional AutoFilters.
    Change indicators Indicators appear when data in a field has changed since the last update.
    Update managers When working on multiple projects, team members can send separate task updates for each project.
    Task delegation Use delegation improvements for task selection and notification.
    Outlook integration Update Microsoft Project Server views and status reports from Outlook. Include Web Parts on the Outlook Digital Dashboard.
    Manage documents and issues
    Document management Implemented with Microsoft SharePoint Team Services, the document library serves as a valuable repository in Microsoft Project Server for documents generated throughout the project life cycle. You can access the document library through the Documents page in Microsoft Project Web Access.
    Issue tracker Enter issues, assign ownership, track progress, record resolutions, and create related reports and store it all in Microsoft Project Server. You can access issue tracking through the Issues page in Microsoft Project Web Access.
    Administer a collaborative project
    Administration Administration of Microsoft Project Server is more flexible, with additional views, functionality, roles, and permissions.
    Load balancing A sophisticated server configuration spanning multiple servers is provided for.
    Customize Microsoft Project and Microsoft Project Server
    Microsoft ActiveX controls for Microsoft Project Server The ActiveX controls for Microsoft Project Server provide improved programmable interfaces and more opportunities for extending and customizing Microsoft Project Web Access.
    OLE DB provider The Microsoft Project OLE DB provider is enhanced, with timephased data, additional tables, and extended properties for data access pages.
    XML format XML is now available as a file format for importing, exporting, and saving your files.
    Microsoft Project Professional
    With Microsoft Project Professional, project management is now scalable across multiple departments and groups in a corporation or other enterprise, with powerful reporting, analysis, and resource management capabilities. Adding to the features of Microsoft Project Standard, with Microsoft Project Professional, you can:

    Standardize and customize the use of Microsoft Project for the way your enterprise specifically does business. All information is gathered, organized, and reported consistently across the organization, to provide an accurate picture of all projects.
    Analyze project performance and resource utilization through standardized data from all projects. With clear visibility of enterprise projects, informed decisions can be made for enterprise priorities and initiatives.
    Access, assign, and manage resources to leverage the many resources and skill sets available throughout the enterprise. Up-to-date information is provided on the availability and utilization of thousands of resources in an enterprise.
    Take full advantage of the information resources in the enterprise through the choice of multiple Microsoft Project servers, for different sets of enterprise projects and resources.
    Enterprise resource management
    Enterprise resources All resource assignments throughout the enterprise are visible to project managers, resource managers, and other authorized stakeholders. This provides accurate information regarding resource availability. Resources can be checked out, edited, and checked in again.
    Resource Substitution Wizard This feature analyzes the skills needed by a project, including generic resources, matches them with skills possessed by resources in the enterprise, and determines their availability. This builds an optimized team for a project's assignments.
    Build Team from Enterprise Find resources throughout the enterprise who have the right skills and availability to work on your project. Filter and query the enterprise resource database to fine-tune your project for the right resources.
    Availability graphs Resource availability graphs allow project managers to quickly identify when and why resources might be underallocated or overallocated.
    Enterprise customization
    Enterprise global template Tailored fields, calendars, views, modules, and other consistent Microsoft Project elements are applied throughout all projects in the enterprise through the enterprise global template. Individual project templates are also available in the enterprise database.
    Enterprise custom fields Your organization's project administrator can use enterprise custom fields to create formulas, outlines, and pick lists (for skill codes, for example). Project management efforts can therefore be tailored to the specific processes of the organization.
    Model what-if scenarios Use Portfolio Modeler to create multiple versions of the same plan, so you can compare, analyze, and experiment with different versions.
    Microsoft Project editions at a glance
    The following table shows the content of the two editions of Microsoft Project.

    Area Feature Microsoft Project Standard Microsoft Project Professional
    Resource management Resource pooling x x
    Resource leveling x x
    Collaboration Microsoft Project Server access x x
    SharePoint Team Services document library and issue tracking x x
    Customization Visual Basic for Applications x x
    Storage Database save and load x x
    XML save and load x x
    OLE DB provider x x
    Resource management Enterprise resources x
    Generic resources x
    Resource Substitution Wizard x
    Customization Enterprise custom fields x
    Enterprise global template x
    Storage Enterprise portfolio x
    Microsoft Project Server Accounts x
    Enterprise templates x
    Have just booked a three hour long lunch to read this

  6. #26
    Registered User Clive Long's Avatar
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    Re: Project Management

    Quote Originally Posted by Graham
    On no account venture into Prince 2 unless it is a requirement of your job. It is a rigorous methodology designed for UK government projects, and is not particularly useful for someone for whom managing complex projects is not their principle role.
    Quote Originally Posted by TiggsTours
    Completely agree, it is pretty useless if you're not working on a huge complex project, and I haven't actually used it once.

    What it is useful for though is that, most Project Management jobs require PRINCE 2, then you get to the interview, they ask you what you think of it, you tell them honestly, they totally agree with you and say they've never actually used it, but you still wouldn't have even got to the interview without it.
    Interesting for me as I am debating whether to get Prince2 "certified". More jobs are asking for "Prince2 or ITIL or other structured methodology".

    The little I have read of the Prince2 manuals makes it difficult for me to argue against some of its ideas and processes (but I'm a linear thinker).

    I agree with:
    Common management language and processes - especially in projects dispersed across different sites and organisations

    Documentation standards to avoid "gaps" or "overlaps" between management and technical documentation.

    Clearly defined responsibility and escalation and problem resolution.

    Processes to properly manage risk.

    Staging to ensure the project has really moved forward in a project, delivery, schedule and contractual sense.

    Prince2 acknowledges hierarchies of projects within programmes and the communication needed between them.

    Well produced documentation becomes a resource for assessing project status to decide whether to abort and can be a reusable resource in future - assuming a "smiliar enough" follow-on project.

    It seems to me that Prince2 provides the items listed above, and it is folly not to tackle them in some way in your management processes. If Prince2 has the templates, why not use them?

    "Prince2 cons"
    Prince2 is onerous and documentation heavy - but maybe if you avoid delivering those items in a project, you increase the risk of project failure.

    People find whole host of reasons (Ceroc Scotland Forum?) to avoid updating documentation.

    Prince2 is not everything in running a project. The hard stuff is the "soft" stuff i.e conflict, egos, different agendas, dishonesty, changing external environment, laziness, taking responsibility, owning up to mistakes and failure, incompetence, over-optimism, unrealistic expectations and commitments, unavailable resources, etc. etc. (you can see I love Project Management).

    My recommendation for a structured method that isn't Prince2 but is a lot of common sense is described in:

    "How to Run successful projects" by Fergus O'Connell.

    His position is that the success or failure of most projects is sealed before anyone starts to design or build anything. He is "big" on building realistic plans and facing up to problems early.


    'Twould be interesting to compare data on project success metrics between similar projects using Prince2 compared against other methodologies. Anyone know a resource for that?


    Clive

  7. #27
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    Re: Project Management

    I gave a link to the PMI website earlier - they also have a certification scheme, and the advantage is that it's globally recognised, rather than being UK-only. Anyway, the reason for bringing this up is that training companies working in this area have consultants who are accredited in both and are therefore able to make a comparison. The anecdotal evidence I have is that Prince 2 doesn't really have any practical advantage over PMP, and is simply more cumbersome.

  8. #28
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    Re: Project Management

    Quote Originally Posted by Clive Long
    Interesting for me as I am debating whether to get Prince2 "certified". More jobs are asking for "Prince2 or ITIL or other structured methodology".

    The little I have read of the Prince2 manuals makes it difficult for me to argue against some of its ideas and processes (but I'm a linear thinker).

    I agree with:
    Common management language and processes - especially in projects dispersed across different sites and organisations

    Documentation standards to avoid "gaps" or "overlaps" between management and technical documentation.

    Clearly defined responsibility and escalation and problem resolution.

    Processes to properly manage risk.

    Staging to ensure the project has really moved forward in a project, delivery, schedule and contractual sense.

    Prince2 acknowledges hierarchies of projects within programmes and the communication needed between them.

    Well produced documentation becomes a resource for assessing project status to decide whether to abort and can be a reusable resource in future - assuming a "smiliar enough" follow-on project.

    It seems to me that Prince2 provides the items listed above, and it is folly not to tackle them in some way in your management processes. If Prince2 has the templates, why not use them?

    "Prince2 cons"
    Prince2 is onerous and documentation heavy - but maybe if you avoid delivering those items in a project, you increase the risk of project failure.

    People find whole host of reasons (Ceroc Scotland Forum?) to avoid updating documentation.

    Prince2 is not everything in running a project. The hard stuff is the "soft" stuff i.e conflict, egos, different agendas, dishonesty, changing external environment, laziness, taking responsibility, owning up to mistakes and failure, incompetence, over-optimism, unrealistic expectations and commitments, unavailable resources, etc. etc. (you can see I love Project Management).

    My recommendation for a structured method that isn't Prince2 but is a lot of common sense is described in:

    "How to Run successful projects" by Fergus O'Connell.

    His position is that the success or failure of most projects is sealed before anyone starts to design or build anything. He is "big" on building realistic plans and facing up to problems early.


    'Twould be interesting to compare data on project success metrics between similar projects using Prince2 compared against other methodologies. Anyone know a resource for that?


    Clive

    I think i finished prince 2 in its first edition and since has gone through multiple changes but i have found it to give a good base structure and have used and addapted for nearly 8-9 years now.
    There are lots of other structures that i think work just as well as they all base most of the structure on common sense.

    Happy reading

  9. #29
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    Re: Project Management

    Quote Originally Posted by El Salsero Gringo
    Is it any use even for big projects? Speaking as a disinterested observer of one diastrous government IT project after another, one wonders.

    I suppose the biggest MOD contract was 22.5 million.
    Did i need prince 2 ...
    Not sure have formed my own base structures over the last 20 years and really stayed in the same industry but i would say it gave good backbone to work on further structures

  10. #30
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    Re: Project Management

    Quote Originally Posted by Graham
    I gave a link to the PMI website earlier - they also have a certification scheme, and the advantage is that it's globally recognised, rather than being UK-only. Anyway, the reason for bringing this up is that training companies working in this area have consultants who are accredited in both and are therefore able to make a comparison. The anecdotal evidence I have is that Prince 2 doesn't really have any practical advantage over PMP, and is simply more cumbersome.
    I've found that usually trainers or training org's are multi-skilled (or multi-acredited, as these may not be the same thing) mainly so that they're able t give their customer (i.e. you & me) something that is close to what we expect them to.

    From my very very small exposure to PM, it seems to me that it is mostly common sense that is the issue, and one of the repeated mistakes I've seen made is decision making at release time during the late evening - the decision is usually made based on "I want to go home" rather than "what is best for the project?"

    That and another one is development processes that do not suit the organisation, or particular project style. I remember a rule that was used in a revision control methodology to ensure that the start of someone's work was always a well tested point - certain senior people on the project did not understand this, and ended up implementing ways of getting around the "good" restrictions of this rule - these methods were extremely slow and meant that engineers often spent 30mins - 1hr (when I say often, maybe a few times a week over a period of about 12months) doing a job that could have taken less than 2mins using an alternative methodology that would have shown up many of the problems that we had through the project (problems that were hidden by the methodology used).

    I've studied PMBOK some, and had the comment from my lecturer that PMBOK/PRINCE2 are much of a muchness.

    Personally I say don't forget to measure your project triangle.

  11. #31
    TiggsTours
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    Re: Project Management

    Quote Originally Posted by Simon r
    I suppose the biggest MOD contract was 22.5 million.
    Did i need prince 2 ...
    Not sure have formed my own base structures over the last 20 years and really stayed in the same industry but i would say it gave good backbone to work on further structures
    The biggest project I worked on had a budget of 12 billion, we didn't use PRINCE 2, we didn't even use Project Organiser, we came in 2 billion under budget, and on time, and acheived more than the original project plan.

    IMO, the only thing PRINCE 2 is good for, is putting on your CV, but in that it is invaluable!

  12. #32
    Registered User Clive Long's Avatar
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    Re: Project Management

    Quote Originally Posted by TiggsTours
    The biggest project I worked on had a budget of 12 billion, we didn't use PRINCE 2, we didn't even use Project Organiser, we came in 2 billion under budget, and on time, and acheived more than the original project plan.

    IMO, the only thing PRINCE 2 is good for, is putting on your CV, but in that it is invaluable!
    Amazing achievement. I have always had the view:

    1. You can't meet all of the intended: time, cost and deliverables / quality.
    2. The bigger projects are, the more over-budget they will go.


    2 billion savings - I hope you all got a good bonus

    Clive

  13. #33
    TiggsTours
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    Re: Project Management

    Quote Originally Posted by Clive Long
    Amazing achievement. I have always had the view:

    1. You can't meet all of the intended: time, cost and deliverables / quality.
    2. The bigger projects are, the more over-budget they will go.


    2 billion savings - I hope you all got a good bonus

    Clive
    Oh yes!

  14. #34
    Registered User Clive Long's Avatar
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    Re: Project Management

    Quote Originally Posted by TiggsTours
    The biggest project I worked on had a budget of 12 billion, we didn't use PRINCE 2, we didn't even use Project Organiser, << snip >>
    TT

    Which tools, methods and / or techniques did you use to manage this project so well?

    Thanks

    Clive

  15. #35
    TiggsTours
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    Re: Project Management

    Quote Originally Posted by Clive Long
    TT

    Which tools, methods and / or techniques did you use to manage this project so well?

    Thanks

    Clive
    We didn't use a set methodology at all, the success of the project was down to good teamwork, fantastic management, positive reinforcement all the way through, a total belief in what we were doing, and plenty of team building activity, always firmly led, and reinforced from the top. And communication, communication, communication! That is always absloutely key, both within the team, and within the larger scale of your end users, keep everybody focussed on what you are trying to acheive, and what you have already acheived, all the time.

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