i am going to stray from the tech stuff i usually post. i recently inherited the role of IT project manager. i knew of nothing of project management before, and i know just a little bit more than that now.
i can say three things about project management
- its a whole lot like flossing your teeth. you need to do it, but it is no fun to do.
- i never want to be a full time project manager. i can barely take part time.
- that i could find, there was no documentation on how to manage a project, at least from a 30 thousand foot view, that could be explained in 15 minutes or less.
so, i talked to a co-worker that was PMP certified, partially read a pretty good project management book, and googled project management. what i present to you is a *very* brief how to and explanation, along with links to the docs i found useful, on project management.
let me be very clear here. i am not PMP certified, and i have barely any project management experience. that being said, i can read and hack together stuff, so you might find this useful ;)
one specific note to how i am applying this. because i am in a smaller company that is just getting into project management, i am not going to be as formal as the PMI stipulates. for example, you will see what i call the project charter is really 2 documents combined. this works great in our environment, but it may not in yours. ymmv.
one last point. my goal for this was to set up a functional framework on how to do small scale project management. its a little bit theory, a lot more practical. lets get started:
some important terms to understand:
whats a project? a project consists of a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service or result
whats project management? project management is the discipline of planning, organizing, securing and managing resources to bring about the successful completion of specific project goals and objectives
what is a project manager? i would compare the project manager to the role of a orchestra conductor. not the one actually doing the work, but the one making sure everyone else knows what they are doing and keeping things moving in a unified direction.
what is a sponsor? in my opinion, the sponsor is the most important person in a project. i think of a sponsor as an advocate with power. ideally, they are very committed to getting the project done, will see the project through to the end, and have enough power to make things happen and help getting resources for the project.
what is a stakeholder? a stakeholder is anyone that is affected by the project. in some cases, this can be a lot of people. obviously, some stakeholders are going to be more consulted than others, but its good to know and review who will be impacted by your project. you can be the best project manager in the world, but if you get no support from management (or worse, resistance from them), your project is doomed.
so why do project management? here are some reasons i picked up project management:
- achieve more consistent results
- less stress (for you and everyone else)
- roles are more clearly defined, so there is much less confusion and less “i thought they were doing that”
- clear goals and milestones are presented, therefore people have a clearer understanding of here is where we are and here is where we are going.
- less finger pointing. because of the clarity, you know exactly who to talk to in case there is a breakdown somewhere along the way.
- you can do more with less
- i was told to do it ;)
below is the PMI project managment process groups table. it shows a very detailed breakdown of every stage in a project. for my purposes, its way too much.
warning: this is where it gets uber-technical <– this is sarcasm, btw
after my research, here is how i break the project management process groups table down for my environment. first, i break it down into 3 main parts (instead of 5)
- initiate and plan stuff (the hard work)
- do and monitor stuff
- close stuff
now that i had a concept of what a project looks like from thirty thousand feet and what aspects i needed to focus on, i moved on to the functional. for example, now i know that i wanted to do a combined project charter/project managament plan, but what does that mean? and what would the document look like?
after going over my resources, i came up with the following document flow chart (explanation in table beneath the chart):
here is a description of the documents
| order | name | description |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | charter/management plan | in a larger environment (and the way PMP dictates), the order should actually be project charter, identify stakeholders, then a project management plan. for a smaller environment like the one i am in, we condense the project charter and the project management plan into just one document, the project charter |
| 2 | identify stakeholders | document to identify stakeholders. in layman's terms, it lets you know who you need to talk to, consider, and take into account during the project |
| 3 | collect requirements | this document is usually the result of two steps. first, you have a meeting to discuss requirements where you document the requirements (usually roughly using pen and paper). once you have the requirements loosely documented, you can move on to putting them into this more formal document while you flush out the details of the requirement. |
| 4 | define scope | this is a more detailed version of the scope statement we used in the project charter. one important point to make with the scope statement: it should both include what the project is, but also include what the project won't be. |
| 5 | create WBS | the work breakdown structure, at least in my mind, is a visual breakdown of all the activities in a org chart format. it makes identifying the components of the project, the flow, and the project structure in general much easier to understand. one good point i have read about WBS's: a good one is easy to read, but that does not mean its easy to create. |
| 6 | activity list, schedule & budget | this is a time consuming but critical piece of a project. this document should show you what the task is, who is assigned to the task, when and how long should it take to complete, and the cost of the resources needed to do the task (i.e., labor costs, cost of items necessary, etc). it is an extension of the WBS, just in a more detailed view. there is no formal budget document, but since you have how long and how much each component costs, you can easily see your estimated budget at a very granular level. the ones in the portfolio document below were made in microsoft project 2007. |
| 7 | communication plan | the communications plan details who to contact about what and how often and by what method. for example, the president of the company should be updated every monday morning in person about the current project status. |
| 8 | risk assessment | a document to both list potential risks, categorize said risks, and evaluate what will be done by whom to handle risks that are encountered. |
| 9 | closure | mucho importante. obviously, closing things out is important, but one good point i have picked up on is that this is especially important if a project fails. if management gets distracted and forces the project to close, this document can be invaluable when 6 months from now they ask "why didn't that project get finished?" |
| ad hoc | change log | a central location to put all change requests into. this gives you a quick view of what changes have been requested and what the expected impact of said changes will be. also, keep in mind, any changes you make the project need to be reflected in the scope statement and hence, downstream to any other documents. |
| ad hoc | change request | a official form to request a change to the project scope. great, because it makes the users document their request (and hopefully really think about it before they ask) and makes them get a sign off on the change. helps prevent the "hey can you add this?" method of hallway change control |
| ad hoc | status report | a well rounded document that lays out where the project stands in a predicable, detailed form. gives management an easy to read overview of the project status in a small window. |
| ad hoc | meeting agenda | i like the meeting agenda document a lot. too many times i have seen meetings take place where different parties were discussing entirely different things. the meeting agenda is good at keeping things focused and on point. |
now that i knew what documents i wanted to use and in what order, i needed to put it all together. i ended up using a lot of documents from eric verzuh’s fast forward MBA book and a few big documents from karl wiegers projectinitiation.com site. both are great resources, i recommend both.
for copyright reasons, i can’t just post all the templates from the fast forward MBA book or the projectinitiation.com website (and that wouldn’t really be fair to the authors), but i did want to provide a portfolio of a example project i went through to learn project management. the names, numbers, dates, and data are made up, but it should give you an idea of what a finished project looks like from start to finish (at least from the point of view of which documents are being used).
click here to download my example project portfolio
closing thoughts
project management is a great, practical, and needed field (especially the larger the company). the benefits, even in a company our size, is quickly apparent.
hopefully this overview gave enough practical information for someone else to be able to quickly get a concept of what project management is and how to do it at a proficient level (even if you couldn’t get your PMP from reading it ;).
i found and used four good resources for project management (and this is where i am getting my documents from).
- the fast forward MBA in project management by eric verzuh. very good, got great reviews on amazon, and his site (linked to above) has a lot of great templates you can use to get started.
- karl wiegers site, www.projectinitiation.com. the documents on this site are shareware, so if you use these documents, please donate to www.processimpact.com/norm_kerth.html per the authors requests. my company did.
- my PMP friend gave me some great direction and input