Project Planning Strategies and Tools

Here I reconcile competing frameworks and terminology in the project management “Best Practices”. Ideas here are implemented in project plans for building websites

Sound: “Tranquility base here. The eagle has landed."

"festina lente" -- literally translated in Latin means to make haste slowly.

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Project Management Frameworks

• The Project Memory Jogger is based on this framework from Paula Martin and Karen Tate. It has become popular through being marketed along with the Team Memory Jogger and the original Memory Jogger from AQP.

  I like it because it uses generic language applicable to any project. It has the potential of allowing both IT and non-IT people to use the same language of project management.

  It is a simplification of the PMI framework, which has an additional Control phase that overlaps other phases.

• The PMI (Project Management Institute) and their encyclopedic 184 page Body of Knowledge. is the standard in U.S. industry. It is used to certify project managers with PMP designations.

• International Standard ISO 9096:1992 / BS 6069: Guide to Project Management Standard

• The PRINCE2 (Projects in Controlled Environments) was first developed in 1989 as a standard for IT project management by the UK government. Organizations are certified by Practioners (such as Scott Spence) who have taken the one-hour 75 question closed-book £100 Foundation and the three-hour open-book £208 Practitioner exams administered by the APM Group

• The Rational Unified Process is the amalgamation of constructs developed after Rational corporation hired 4 of the top process theorists and tied their ouput to the Rational products used by many IT shops.

  It is not as popular as its cousin UML (Unified Modeling Language) widely adopted in tools for Object Oriented softare design and development.

• The Microsoft Solutions Framework (MSF) has grown out of software development best practices, but Microsoft claims it has also been successfully applied to infrastructure deployment projects. Microsoft developed it because:
  “Creating a business solution on time and within budget requires a disciplined approach. Most large IT organizations rely on development methodology to keep projects on track, including some developed during the mainframe era. These older methodologies are often too inflexible to provide value in today's distributed Internet era of computing.” The Microsoft® Solutions Framework (MSF) is designed to fill this void.

• Jessia Burdman's framework is from her 1999 book Collaborative Web Development: Strategies and Best Practices for Web Teams.

• John Keane leveraged his 1979 book, Productivity Management in the Development of Computer Applications, now in its 2nd Edition, in building Keane, inc. into a major systems consultantcy. His model integrates Client-Server and RAD approaches into the core traditional waterfall framework:
  • Business System Analysis
  • Technical Design
  • Construction
  All his frameworks begin with Strategic Information Planning and System Concept Formation, then ends together in User Testing, Transition, and Operation and Maintenance.

• Fujitsu Consulting's (formerly BMR Consulting's) Macroscope project management methodology is described in The Information Paradox: Realizing the Business Benefits of Information Technology (McGraw-Hill, 1999) by John Thorp (of The Thorp Network) [publisher's website] ManagementSuite

$5 PRINCE2 Process Model of Standard PRINCE2 Products and Processes (January, 2004) from Tom Crowther's Key Skills Limited.

$100 Managing Successful Projects with PRINCE2 (March 28, 2002)
$35 Prince2 : A Practical Handbook, 2nd edition (Butterworth-Heinemann; December 17, 2001) by Colin Bentley
Passing the PRINCE2 Exams
PRINCE2 Pocketbook

The History of Project Management according to Microsoft

The Microsoft Solutions Framework msf Newsgroup Team Model v3.1 and Process Model v3.1.

Project Phases and Milestones

This table lists the terms used by various frameworks to delineate phases of a project to provide projects structure and guidance throughout the project's life cycle. This MSF Process Model divides the achievements of a project into 4 phases, each beginning with an approval to proceed and culminating in a milestone event.

This table illustrates why it's important to spend time to make sure that everyone has a clear definition of terms used. The word “planning” can denote either preparations for beginning a project or detailed specifications of the project's outcomes. The graphic arts industry uses the word “production” as a verb to denote activities to create content. However, in IT professionals have used the phrase “in production” to denote the state when end users make use of a system.

#	Milestone at Completion	MartinTate / PMI	Microsoft	Rational / UML	Burdman	PRINCE2	Other
1	Vision/Scope Approved	Initiation	Envisioning	Inception / Analysis	Planning and Strategy	Starting Up A Project (SU) & Initiating A Project (IP)	Conceptualization, Research
2	Project Plan Approved	Planning	Planning	Elaboration / Design	Design and Specification Prototyping	Planning (PL) & Directing A Project (DP)	Design
3	Scope Complete / First Use	Execution	Developing	Construction & Testing	Production	Managing Stage Boundaries (SB) & Controlling A Stage (CS)	Development
4	Product Release	Close-out	Stabilizing Deployment	Launch & Deployment	Testing	Managing Product Delivery (MP) & Closing A Project (CP)	Transition

More Steps Before the Project Starts

The DoD 5000.2 (Rev. 2/26/93) specifies a “Determination of Mission Need”, then a Phase 0 for “Concept Exploration and Definition”.

The Rational Framework overlays an additional vertical dimension of Workflows to group activities logically. Workflows span several phases.

Wysocki, R. K., Beck, R., & Crane, D. B. (2003). Effective Project Management (3rd ed.). New York: John Wiley & Sons. ISBN:0-471-43221-0 soft.

Phase 1: Project Initiation / Inception / Envisioning / Analysis

In the MartinTate CORE PM method, the first phase is where we decide WHAT must be done and what limits or constraints we must live within. This phase is the responsibility of the sponsor (the management person with oversight of the project), but it can be done by the project leader with the sponsor reviewing and approving it when it's complete.

To ensure readiness for a company-wide Program/Project, it may be necessary to hold a workshop to introduce management methodology disciplines. A pilot project of non mission-critical systems requiring minimal integration.

Output from this phase typically include Use Cases and Business-level Sequence Diagrams.

Most importantly, show the unmet customer needs (pain) being met by the proposed project.

• Why you? What are your qualifications?

• Why Now?

• Why Me? With your plan are you asking for mentors, associates, or just sources of funding?

Phase 2: Project Planning / Elaboration / Design / Prototyping

In this phase the team decides how the project will be done: by whom, for how much money, how long.

Outputs from this phase is the project plan, which is approved by the sponsor, customer, and other key stakeholders (people or groups affected by the project). There are three sections to each plan:

• Scope - what will be produced and we break that down into subparts.
• Assurance - how to assure that the project will be successful by looking at risk and reviews and approvals.
• Resources - who and how much - how much time, effort and money.

Here are the steps to planning:

1. Break-down project phases into tasks which can be assigned to individuals
2. Specify the calendar for resources and assign resources to tasks
3. Estimate task durations -- the length of time to complete the task. (Zero duration tasks automatically become Milestones)
4. Specify inflexible start or finish date constraints, if any.
5. Map predecessor dependencies & start date constraints
to specify extent of mutual overlap or inactive lag time dalay among tasks
6. Balance overload and underload conflicts

Phase 3: Project Execution / Construction / Development / Production

Some use the word implementation in reference to implementing the plan (such as creating software) rather than installation of the product created as a result of following the project plan.

Phase 4: Project Deployment / Transition / Stabilizing / Close-Out

This step includes deployment to end users.

The advantage of ending with a post-implementation analysis and report, especially user reviews of impact and satisfaction:

• Reflective analysis of the project has the benefit of hindsight.
• "Lessons Learned" can help to identify follow-on actions.
• Written testimonials of achievements provides proof for enhancing individuals' resume.
• Documentation is useful in justifying funding of future projects.
• People may adopt changes out of gratifude.
• Formal decommissioning ensures proper diposition of project assets.
• A formal closing ceremony provides emotional closure to the project.

Ideal results include efficiently shifting and leveraging resources to the next project with mimimum loss.

Why: Project Goals

Being clear about the priorities in purpose and scope of a project helps in making wise trade-offs.

A goal phrased as “Set up 75 clocks in the main hall and have it approved by the owner before end-of-day October 15” is S.M.A.R.T., an ancronym attributed to James Lewis' book Fundamentals of Project Management:


Specific
Measurable
Actionable
Realistic
Time-limited

There are often different (conflicting) goals for Individuals, Teams, and the Organization

The MSF model wisely links goals for each role:


Goal	Team Role
Satisfied customers	Product management
Delivery within project constraints	Program management
Delivery to product specifications	Development
Release after addressing all issues	Testing
Enhanced user performance	User education
Smooth deployment and ongoing management	Logistics management

Mission Statements

Achieving Personal Goals

Personal Time Management

homo proponit, sed Deus disponit —Latin for “man proposes, but God disposes”

What: Product Outcomes

An outcome is the actual product for use by intended end users. Typically, it's satisfied customers. For Amazon, KBToys, or other eCommerce websites, their outcome could be receipt and enjoyment of a book. For eBay, Match.com, Keen.com, or other matching service site, their outcome could be services being provided.

Internally, outcomes are Business Benefits and Goals (What's the pay-back to investors and other stakeholders)

Time/Schedule:

• Quicker Decision Making time
• Quicker Turnaround time: Instant access to information

Quality:

• Improved Employee Development:
• Better People: Widely attract people
• Better Employee Morale: Common base of information
• Attract better people
• Higher Customer Satisfaction
• Repeat Business

Money:

• Higher Income and Profits from:
  • Higher Productivity (Do More With Less)
  • Lower Costs
• More visitors
• More Sales Volume
• Bigger Capacity to handle more volume of work
• Expanded Market Share

What: Product Deliverables

Development artifact	Corresponding Testing artifact	Tester
Requirements	Acceptance Test	Customers
High-level Architectural Design	System Test	Test Team
Detailed Component Elaboration	Integration Test	Configuration Management
Coding	Unit Test	Developer

The Deliverables for a project depend upon the type of project. Here are the Design phase deliverables for a Website Design project.

Deliverables are produced by people fulfilling their own roles, perhaps as an intermediate step that may not have any value to end consumers who see only the final outcomes.

It's too easy to get lulled into producing documents rather than producing results -- satisfied users who keep returning and paying money.

How: Project Processes

The PMI BOK defines the Processes associated with the Generally Accepted Project Management Knowledge Areas and phase where each is predominately performed: Core Processes are in bold.
Knowledge Area	Project ... Management Processes by Phase
	Initiation	Planning	Execution	Close-Out
Scope	Initiation	Scope Planning Scope Definition	Scope Verification Scope Change Control
Time		Activity Definition Activity Sequencing Activity Duration Estimating Schedule Development	Schedule Control
Cost		Resource Planning Cost Estimating Cost Budgeting	Cost Control
Integration		Project Plan Development	Project Plan Execution Overall Change Control
Quality		Quality Planning	Quality Assurance Quality Control
Human Resource		Organizational Planning	Staff Acquisition Team Development
Communications		Communications Planning	Information Distribution Performance Reporting	Administrative Closure
Risk		Risk Identification Risk Quantification Risk Response Development	Risk Response Control
Procurement		Procurement Planning Solicitation Planning	Solicitation Source Selection Contract Administration	Contract Close-Out

Level of Process Maturity

How do you know if a systems development organization actually have these processes in place? SEI's Capability Maturity Model for Software v1 was created as the basis for certifying an organization's information systems development and management processes. Like ISO 9000 assessors using the ISO 9000 standard, CMM assessors are third-party and use the CMM (and SCAMPI) to determine whether an organization has actually implemented the processes deemed necessary to attain each level of capability maturity.

As of 2001, 68 firms have achieved level 5. 38 of them are in India.

“CMM is not about creating bureacracy to catch mistakes. CMM is about preventing mistakes with effective communication and coordinated action.”

Take the Brainbench certification test on Software Quality Assurance and SEI Capability Maturity Model Implementation

Stages of Quality Management Maturity

Structured vs. Rapid Application Development

The CMM model seeks repeatability. However, some organizations -- particularly fast-moving dot com design shops -- seek a more fluid model. Such shops may be more comfortable using John Keane's RAD Framework. It consists of three interlocking aspects:
• System Engineering
• Tools and Techniques
• Prototype Evolution

I think this is a brilliant viewpoint because it describes the focus of a modern artist.

For example, some may look at the “action painting” shown here and think any child could create such chaos. However, Time magazine critic Robert Hughes claims that “it is impossible to make a forgery of Jackson Pollock's work” because it is actually the result of some engineering. But it's not precision engineering as one would design an airplane. “Each age finds its own technique.”, says its painter, Jackson Pollock (1932-56). He denied that his paintings are absolutely spontaneous. He would often retouch the drip with a brush. Indeed, physicists have determined that Pollack's seemingly random distribution of drips and streaks, are fractal in nature. Yet Pollock had almost preternatural control over the total effect of those skeins and receding depths of paint. Pollock was called “Jack the Dripper” because he used no easel, no palette -- not even a brush. He applied industrial paint directly from the can, dripping it onto his canvas or flinging it with sticks or knives. He would place his canvas on the floor and attack it from all sides. “I don't work from sketches or drawings. My painting is direct,” the artist once said.

A website can be just as complex as this painting.

“The art of progress is to preserve order amid change and to preserve change amid order.” —Alfred North Whitehead, in Forbes magazine, Dec. 1, '57.

How: Roles and Deliverables

Clearly defined roles improve teamwork because they provide a scalable structure for defining responsibilities depending on a project's scope. This document presents two approaches to defining roles.

On a high level, the MSF Model defines six roles related to business and/or technical domains:

1. Product Management articulates a vision for the product or service, acquires and quantifies customer requirements, develops and maintains the business case and manages customer expectations.
2. Program Management drives the critical decisions necessary to release the right product or service at the right time, and coordinates the required decisions to deliver it in a manner consistent with organizational standards and interoperability goals. Done by a PMO (Project Management Office) structure.
3. Development builds or implements a product or service that meets the specification and customer expectations, delivering a system that is fully compliant with the negotiated functional specification.
4. Testing ensures all issues are known before the release of the product or service, exercising user interface, APIs, and integration of new software into existing systems.
5. User education maximizes user experience users through performance solutions and training systems. Also reduces support costs by making the product easier to understand and use.
6. Logistics Management ensures a smooth rollout, installation, and migration of the product to the operations and support groups.

Goals and Roles

Project Workflows and Roles

The graphic to the right illustrates the flow of work and authority among roles in a possible website production organization of about 40 people.

This structure can be scaled up or down. In a smaller firm, one person may assume more than one role. In a larger organization, several people assuming the same role may report to a director in charge of that role companywide.

• The Customer Contact Team is shown in red.

• The Corporate Management Teamis shown in purple.

• The Operations Support Teamappear in green.

• The “talent” in a web production firm, also called the Core Technical Team, shown in white, perform Project Plan Execution during the Execution Phase. They have a dual reporting relationship:
  • Project Team Leaders (shown in orange) provide business focus.
  • Senior Technical Architectsshown in blue provide technology focus and mentoring.

Click on this thumbnail to for the full size graphic on another frame.

Download the Visio 2000 graphic file used to create this.

Roles and Deliverables: The Customer Contact Team

I have found this method of analyzing the blend of personalities necessary on the account team interacting with customers (shown in red on the workflow chart):

.	Extroverted	Introverted
Relationship	Sales / Account Executive	Project Coordinator / Customer Service Representative
Task	Producer / Project Manager	Content Editor (Configuration / Production Controller)

Deliverables:

Sales Account Executive

Producer / Project Manager

Planning Phase

Editor

Product Management

Execution Phase

Project Coordinator / Customer Service Representative

Communications Planning during the Planning Phase. During the Execution Phase this person supervises Information Distribution and Performance Reporting. Finally, during the Close-Out Phase this person ensures Administrative Closure.

This person also makes sure that everyone is aware of the status of packages coming and going. This is the person who arranges meetings and tracks others down like a bloodhound. So this person interacts most with the Operations Support staff such as shipping and Receiving.

He/she records and publishes the minutes of meetings, but call this person a “Secretary” at your peril.

Roles and Deliverables: The Operations Support Team

Burdman doesn't mention this, but my experience in a large print shops and hollywood studios taught me the importance of Runners, also called “gophers” (as in go for this and that).

Shipping and Receiving and Incoming Inspection

I can't tell you how many times having a Proof of Delivery avoided finger pointing and denials. In the web word, “non-repudiation” can mean use of encryption and electronic certificates. It could also mean providing each customer with an user account ID and a password. In the web word, confirmation of receipt can be an email, voicemail, or some other form of communication that can be automatically sent to alert the team when a certain account is used.

Safety and Environmental Managment

Someone may be needed to ensure compliance with OSHA, AQMD, carpooling, handicap accessibility, and other governmental regulations, such as filing reports and conducting mandated training.

Roles and Deliverables: Corporate Management

Legal

Human Resources

Planning Phase

Organizational Planning for the Project Manger. Later in the Execution Phase HR recruits people for the project (performs Staff Acquisition).

Some HR people are also trained to do Team Development so that the team comes together better and quicker.

Procurement

Planning Phase

Procurement Planning and Solicitation Planning for the Project Manger). Later in the Execution Phase he/she contacts the vendors and prepares contracts with them (performs Solicitation, Source Selection,and Contract Administration).

Accountant

Cost EstimatingCost Budgeting during the Planning Phase

Marketing

Roles and Deliverables: Technical Team Supervisors

Execution Phase

Scope Verification and Scope Change Control. Then when things go wrong, they manage Risk Response Control as prescribed in (if they have the foresight to prepare) a Risk Management Plan. More importantly over the long term, these individuals provide the extra effort toward Repeatable process maturity

Quality Assurance Lead

Planning Phase

Execution Phase

Production Operations Lead

Creative Lead

Development Lead

Roles and Deliverables: Technical Architects

Test Architect

Infrastructure Architect

Interface Designer

Platform Architect

Roles: Advisors and Consultants

• The Institute of Information & Computing Sciences' hugh FAQ on Project Management

• Technology Associates provides customization services.

• The Gantthead.com Project Management Portal boasts articles.

• PM Boulevard is Robbins Gioia's portal for project managers.

• Project Management.com

• Visual Basic Project Management Journal has form templates for download.

• Projectnet UK's What is Project Management? defines a project as "an endeavor in which human, material and financial resources are organized, in a novel way, to undertake a unique scope of work, of a given specification, within the constraints of cost and time, so as to achieve a beneficial change defined by quantitative and qualitative objectives."

• On-line Project Management eGroup
• Project Management Forum
• ProjectConnections.com
• 4PM.com

• In the HMS Software.com Libary are several white papers and articles

One methods to determine the competency of project advisors is through professional certifications:
• The Project Management Institute is the most well known.

• The International Project Management Association is less well publicized.

How: Project Tasks

Microsoft's IT Tasks

Task	Evidence
Architect	-
Evaluate	-
Plan	-
Deploy	-
Maintain	Service Agreements
Support	-

Joke Break: Types of Project Managers

If you get in my way, I'll kill you! -- "ideal" project manager

If you get in my way, you'll kill me! -- somewhat less than ideal project manager

If I get in my way, I'll kill you! -- somewhat misguided project manager

If I get in your way, I'll kill you! -- tough project manager (eats glass, cats, etc.)

If get kill in will way I you. -- dyslexic, functionally illiterate project manager

I am the way! Kill me if you can! -- messianic project manager

Get away, I'll kill us all! -- suicidal project manager

If you kill me, I'll get in your way. -- thoughtful but ineffective project manager

If I kill you I'll get in your way. -- project manager who has trouble dealing with the obvious

If you kill me, so what? If you get in my way, who cares? -- weak, uninspired, lackluster project manager

If I kill me, you'll get your way. -- pragmatic project manager

If we get in each others' way, who will get killed? -- An utterly confused manager

Kill me, it's the only way. -- every project manager to date.

—Source unknown

“A battle plan lasts until contact with the enemy.”
— Napoleon Bonaparte

“Plans are worthless — but planning is everything.”
—Dwight D. Eisenhower, 17 Nov. '57.

“Never explain. Your friends don't need it and your enemies don't believe you anyway.”
—Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947)

Time is Nature's way of making sure that everything doesn't happen all at once.

Indecision is the key to flexibility.

"Never put off until tomorrow what you can avoid doing altogether."

"I have not yet begun to procrastinate."

"There are two rules for ultimate success in life:
  1. Never tell everything you know.

I love deadlines.
I especially like the whooshing sound they make as they go flying by.

Whoa: Project Risks

Here is a list of potential project pitfalls:

Task Skill		Potential Root Cause of Project Failure
Control & Coordination		Unclear or shifting project goals and managerial intentions
		Unresolved congruence between project benefits and personal aspirations
		Uncontrolled change propagation and cross-checking
		Brittle technical architecture
Scheduling		Inadequate availability of resources when needed
		Lack of co-ordination of resources and activities
Communication		Ambiguous and imprecise communication / follow-through
		Lack of clarity about project status such that the actual progress of projects are not revealed until too late.
		Unclear understanding of stakeholders and their wants, needs, reactions, and satisfaction
Training		Insufficient knowledge of the customer industry or internal processes
		Insufficient skill with the technologies used.
Team Building		Skills and backgrounds of team members are unidentified and underutilized
		Festering resentment among team members
Conflict Management		Undetected inconsistencies in requirements, designs, or implementation
		Indequate quality assurance/control, resulting in the delivery of products that are unacceptable or unusable.
Negotiation		Failure to realistically and courageously attack risks
		Lack of flexibility or openness to improvement
Delegation		Overwhelming complexity
		Insufficient tools (automation)
Risk Management		Poor estimation of duration and costs, leading to projects taking more time and costing more money than expected
		Insufficient metrics measuring process effectiveness, product tolerances, and project impact

The Project Management Scorecard: Measuring the Success of Project Management Solutions (Butterworth-Heinemann, May 1, 2002) by Jack J. Phillips, Timothy W. Bothell, G. Lynne Snead

Tradeoffs - Risk Management

Project plans define the typical tradeoffs:
• Time: Schedule (Calendar/Clock Time and deadlines)
• Resources: (Ingredients) available to a project:
  • Money: “Revenues - Costs = Profits”
  • People (Readiness, Availability, Ability, Creativity, Cooperation)
• Features of the product - level of complexity

Risk Evaluation

1. Define the project goal
2. Size the project
3. List the risk factors
4. Rank them
5. Compare with last project
6. Appoint doctors
Designed to help the team identify priorities, make well-informed and strategic decisions, and prepare for contingencies, this model provides a structured and proactive environment of decisions and actions to continuously assess, prioritize, and deal with project risks.
• Tracking and maintaining a project plan.
  • Measurement of progress for each dimension: (See Managing Software Progress [VBPMJ article])
  • Percentage of schedule elasped & remaining
  • Percentage of budget used & remaining
  • Percentage of project output completed (earned value) & remaining
  • Actual versus plan/baseline/original estimates
  • The effect of updates to the plan

Microsoft's Project 98 Tutorial: Risk Assessment

Project Management Software Tools

The popularity of Microsoft Office has made Microsoft Project 97/98/2000/2002 a politically safe choice.

Primavera P3/SureTrack

Planview

Welcom's Spider

Project Kick Start is a brainstorming tool to help you come up with the content of project plans.

Best Practices for Project Management

John Keen's suggestions:
1. Implement in incremental phases
2. Start with 1 or 2 non-mission critical systems
3. Begin with minimal application integration
4. Understand roles and responsibilities for all affected organizations
5. Conduct workshops to gather requirements and educate
6. Include business and technical representatives
7. Identify key technical challenges & risks
8. Include all communities in test planning & execution

From TechRepublic article: “Exchange 2000 Migration: Project Management Best Practices”

1. Plan the work, utilizing a project definition document.
2. Create a planning horizon.
3. Define project management procedures up front.
4. Look for warning signs.
5. Ensure that the sponsor approves scope change requests.
6. Identify risks up front.
7. Continue to assess potential risks throughout the project.
8. Resolve issues as quickly as possible.

Take the Brainbench certification test on Project Management

CompTIA Project+

A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide) -- 2000 Edition December, 2000

$89 PMP Exam Prep (4th Edition) by Rita Mulcahy

Preparing for the Project Management Professional (Pmp) Certification Exam 15 May, 2001

PMP: Project Management Professional Study Guide 22 April, 2002