4E1 Term 1: Project Management

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4E1 Term 1Project Management

• IntroductionThe Importance of Project
  Management (PM)

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Lecture Objectives

• At the end of this lecture you should know
• the objectives of this part of the module and how
  it is organised
• the topics which will be covered
• where to find out more information
• You should understand
• why PM is important to engineers
• the relationship of soft issues to PM
• the basic career roles for an engineer

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Course Organisation

• Eighteen lectures/demonstrations
• Two 50-minute lectures with a 10-minute break
• Slides available in advance of each lecture at
  www.cs.tcd.ie/Simon.McGinnes
• Handouts as required
• Case studies, exercises, case material
• Software used will be Microsoft Project (any
  recent version)

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Texts

• We will be closely following
• Lock, D (2003) Project Management (8th Ed.),
  Gower.
• (earlier editions ok - a shorter version is
  called The Essentials of Project Management)
• There are also 200 books on project management
  in the library

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Module Objectives

• To give you
• a broad understanding of PM
• a good grounding in key techniques
• a solid foundation for further developing your
  skills in this area

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Overview of Topics

• Intro
• Definitions, why projects fail, objectives of PM
• Project organisation
• Structures, roles, project definition, work
  breakdown, packages, responsibilities
• Budgeting
• Evaluation, appraisal, costing, estimating

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Overview of Topics (cont.)

• Planning scheduling
• Network analysis, critical path, PERT
• Other topics
• Risk management, contingency planning
• Consolidated plans, management, adjustment
• PM software, Microsoft project
• Purchasing, Admin
• Legal aspects, Contracts

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The 7 Stages of a Project

• Wild enthusiasm
• Diminished expectations
• Growing concern
• Panic
• Search for the guilty
• Punishment of the innocent
• Promotion of the uninvolved

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Tales of Woe
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BAE Defence Contracts (2003)

• Nimrod (plane) project
• Production delayed until performance of first
  three aircraft demonstrated
• Astute (submarine) project
• Effort needed to turn computer designs into
  reality greater than anticipated
• Original budget 5bn
• Overrun 750m

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CIE (2000)

• 15.7m signalling system project
• Two years late
• Overrun estimated 44m
• Consultants questioned role of four execs who
  handled contract and then moved to company
  carrying out the work
• CIE attributed overrun to
• Change in Iarnrod Eireann safety requirements
• Upgrade in system specifications

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Luas (2003)

• Original plan (1996)
• Budget 279m
• Due 2001
• Final cost estimated 800-1,000m
• Delayed 4 years

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Irelands Biggest Computer Overrun?
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Dublin Port Tunnel

• Early 1990s First proposed
• Mar 1996 130M (165M) cost proposed to DCC
• Dec 1999 Government agrees 204M (260M)
• Dec 2000 353M (448M) design contract
• Jun 2001 Work starts
• Jan 2003 Cost now 625M
• Apr 2004 Cost could rise to 780M
• Nov 2006 Estimated completion 752M

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Airbus A380
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Why Do Projects Fail?

• Unforeseen technical problems
• The Kildare snail, Metal fatigue
• Over-optimistic forecasts
• LUAS
• Labour problems
• Disputes, Illness
• Planning objections
• The M50
• Changes of requirements
• Moving goalposts, New requirements
• Changes in cost base

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Why Do Projects Fail? (cont.)

• Political interference
• Political ego trips, eco warriors,
• Regulatory problems
• EPA/EU/conservation, etc.
• Inadequate contracts
• The N11
• Changes of personnel
• Loss of key staff, learning curves
• Aggressive underbidding (winners curse)
• Professional incompetence
• and so on and on

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On-Time, Every Time?
of IT projects which are
Size (Function Points) Early
On-Time Delayed Cancelled
Tiny 1 15 83 2 0 Small 10 11
81 6 2 Modest 102 6 75 12
7 Medium 103 1 61 18 2 Major
104 0 28 24 48 Large 105 0 14
21 65 Average 6 57 14 24
Source Capers Jones
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The 8 Laws of PM
The following are (only part in jest) from the
American Production Inventory Control Society

• 1. No major project is ever installed on time,
  within budget or with the same staff that started
  it. Yours will not be the first.
• 2. Projects progress quickly until they become
  90 complete, then remain at 90 complete for
  eternity.
• 3. One advantage of fuzzy project objectives is
  that they let you avoid the embarrassment of
  estimating the corresponding costs.
• 4. When things are going well, something will go
  wrong. When things cannot get worse, they will.
  When things appear to be going better, you have
  overlooked something.

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The 8 Laws of PM (cont.)

• 5. If the project content is allowed to change
  freely, the rate of change will exceed the rate
  of progress.
• 6. No system is ever completely debugged.
  Attempts to debug a system produce new bugs that
  are even harder to find.
• 7. A carelessly planned project will take three
  times longer than expected. A carefully planned
  project will take only twice as long.
• 8. Project teams detest progress reporting
  because it all too vividly highlights their lack
  of progress.

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And Never Forget

• Murphys Law
• OLearys Corollary to Murphys Law
• Fetridges Law of Frustration

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Silly Soft Stuff?
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Some Soft Issues

• Management
• Leadership
• Politics
• Communications
• Interpersonal dynamics
• Group dynamics
• Personal psychology

• Group psychology
• Power
• Organisation
• Decision-making
• Judgement
• Risk
• Relationships

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Why Study Project Management?
A catalogue of disasters and overruns

• Electrical/Electronic
• Iarnrod Eireann signalling system
• IBM bubble memory project
• Software
• Irish League of Credit Unions
• Health Services Executive

• Civil
• Channel tunnel
• Luas
• Port Tunnel
• N11
• Mechanical
• Eurofighter (most military projects!)
• GM X car

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Why Study PM?

• A great deal of engineering is about projects
  (including the most interesting bits)
• Top class project managers are rare and therefore
  they tend to be well paid
• A sizeable number of you will end up in
  management

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Dealing With the Intangible

• Managers are not confronted with problems that
  are independent of each other, but with dynamic
  situations that consist of changing problems that
  interact with each other. I call such situations
  messes. Managers do not solve problems they
  manage messes.
• Russell Ackoff

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Three Career Roles
The Function Manager
The Project Manager
The Professional
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Summary Key Points

• Much engineering takes the form of projects
• Projects can go wrong often spectacularly
• All engineers need some knowledge of PM
• Many need a reasonable knowledge of PM
• Some (including many of you) spend most of their
  working lives in PM

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Summary Key Points (cont.)

• We have to confront soft issues
• PM is not just about numbers and algorithms
• This is sometimes difficult for engineers
• How important this is will, to some extent,
  depend on your career path