Christian Milaster, PMP

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ProjectClairvoyance

• Christian Milaster, PMP

ProjectClairvoyance_at_IngeniumExcellentia.com
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Content
Why Projects Succeed
Determining Whats Needed
DecidingWhats Important
Beyond Scope Definition
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Pre-Session Check
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Project Clairvoyance

• Simple Steps
• For Successful Project Teams
• to
• Specifying Solutions of Excellence.
• Determining whats needed,Deciding whats
  Important.

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Common Blinders

• Not knowing what you dont know
• Not learning from the past
• Not knowing when to stop planning
• Not prioritizing objectively

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Simple Steps for PlanningSuccessful Projects

• Identify all Relevant Needs.
• Prioritize Needs.
• Define Activities to Satisfy Needs.

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Simple ? Simplistic

• Eat less.
• Increase Activity.
• Weigh Yourself Periodically.

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The Fine Print

• Personal Growth requires
• Self-discipline
• Just Do It
• Do not fear making mistakes
• Shifting ones paradigms
• Unlearning the Old
• Practicing the New
• Sticking with it until it becomes a habit
• Stephen Covey There are no quick fixes

Pay me now Pay me later
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Paradigm Shift

• New Learning is Possible
• If you allow yourself
• To Shift your Paradigms.
• (which first requires awareness
• of what your paradigms are)

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Why Projects Succeed
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Why do Projects Fail?

• Discuss for90 Secondsat your table

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Why Projects Succeed

• The project aligns with the Vision and Goals of
  the organization
• Management is supportive
• The Project Manager is trained
• Project Team is adequately staffed
• Users are engaged
• Stakeholder Expectations are managed
• Requirements are documented
• Requirements are managed (Scope Creep)
• etc.

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What is a Project?

• PMBOK
• Project Management Body of Knowledge
• A project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to
  create a unique product, service, or result.

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Examples of Projects

• Personal
• Professional

Discuss for45 Secondsat your table
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Examples of Projects

• Personal
• A Family Vacation
• A Wedding
• Buying a New Car
• Professional
• Developing a New Product or Service
• A Process Improvement Initiative
• A Minnesota Quality Award Application

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Project Planning Deliverables

• Scope
• Project Scope Statement
• Work Breakdown Structure
• WBS Dictionary
• Scope Management Plan
• Time
• Milestone List
• Schedule Baseline
• Schedule Management Plan
• Cost
• Activity Cost Estimates
• Cost Baseline (Budget)
• Cost Management Plan
• Quality
• Quality Metrics
• Quality Checklists
• Quality Baseline

• Quality (contd)
• Process Improvement Plan
• Quality Management Plan
• Human Resources
• Roles Responsibilities
• Project Organization Chart
• Staffing Management Plan
• Communication
• Communications Management Plan
• Risk
• Risk Register
• Risk Management Plan
• Procurement
• Procurement Mgmt. Plan
• Contract Statements of Work
• Make-or-Buy Decisions

Source Project Management Body of Knowledge
(PMBOK)
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Without a Solution Scope

• If you dont know where youre going, any road
  will take you there.
• If you dont know what the solution is,excellent
  project managementmight build the wrong thing
  faster cheaper.

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Critical Insight for Successful Project
Management 1

• At the core of any successful project
• lies the project teams ability to
• Accurately Define theScope of the Solution

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Solution vs. Project Scope

• The Scope of a Solution is
• The things that satisfy the Needs of the
  Stakeholders
• Solutions are more than just the product, the
  service, or the result!
• The Scope of the Project is
• All Activities Required toDeliver the Solution

Thanks to Sean McEligot, PMP for emphasizing the
differentiation between product and project scope.
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Critical Insight for Successful Project
Management 2a
Projects Satisfy Needs
A project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to
create a unique product, service, or result.
A project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to
create a unique product, service, or result.
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Project Planning Deliverables

• Scope
• Project Scope Statement
• Work Breakdown Structure
• WBS Dictionary
• Scope Management Plan
• Time
• Milestone List
• Schedule Baseline
• Schedule Management Plan
• Cost
• Activity Cost Estimates
• Cost Baseline (Budget)
• Cost Management Plan
• Quality
• Quality Metrics
• Quality Checklists
• Quality Baseline

• Quality (contd)
• Process Improvement Plan
• Quality Management Plan
• Human Resources
• Roles Responsibilities
• Project Organization Chart
• Staffing Management Plan
• Communication
• Communications Management Plan
• Risk
• Risk Register
• Risk Management Plan
• Procurement
• Procurement Mgmt. Plan
• Contract Statements of Work
• Make-or-Buy Decisions

Source Project Management Body of Knowledge
(PMBOK)
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Critical Insight for Successful Project
Management 2b
Relevant
Projects
Satisfy
Needs
Successful
Relevant
All
and Only
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Simple Steps for PlanningSuccessful Projects

• Identify all Relevant Needs.
• Prioritize Needs.
• Define Activities to Satisfy Needs.

Successful Projects Satisfy All Relevant and
Only Relevant Needs.
All Activities Required toDeliver the Solution.
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Project Planning Deliverables

• Scope
• Project Scope Statement
• Work Breakdown Structure
• WBS Dictionary
• Scope Management Plan
• Time
• Milestone List
• Schedule Baseline
• Schedule Management Plan
• Cost
• Activity Cost Estimates
• Cost Baseline (Budget)
• Cost Management Plan
• Quality
• Quality Metrics
• Quality Checklists
• Quality Baseline

• Quality (contd)
• Process Improvement Plan
• Quality Management Plan
• Human Resources
• Roles Responsibilities
• Project Organization Chart
• Staffing Management Plan
• Communication
• Communications Management Plan
• Risk
• Risk Register
• Risk Management Plan
• Procurement
• Procurement Mgmt. Plan
• Contract Statements of Work
• Make-or-Buy Decisions

Source Project Management Body of Knowledge
(PMBOK)
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Relevant Needs

• What does relevant mean?
• Relevant to stakeholders
• (sponsor, proponent, users, customers, project
  team, vendors, competitors, )
• Relevant to the Vision Mission of the
  Organization
• Realistic Needs
• Not the Irrelevant Needs
• etc.

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Critical Insight for Successful Project
Management 3

• Its not only important to know whatsIn Scope
• But also important to define whatsOut of Scope

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Step 1Identify All Relevant Needs

• Determining whats needed.
• From Vision to Needs.

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Challenge 1Whatchama Callit?
Vision
Problems
QualityAttributes
TechnicalRequirements
BusinessNeeds
UserNeeds
BusinessRequirements
Constraints
Specifications
UserRequirements
FunctionalRequirements
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(In-Scope)Requirements Statement

• Any conditionthat must be satisfiedfor the
  projectto be successful.

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Challenge 2

• Programmers
• Designers
• Engineers
• Machinists
• Technicians
• Geeks Techies

• Managers
• Supervisors
• Administrators
• Physicians
• Nurses
• Users
• Suits n Scrubs

we could just embed an applet and have it hook
up to the Person DB to check for ID validity via
MSL
and then I call the LPNto check with the
CRwhether the Pt has had an MI
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InformationLost in Translation

• Non-Technical People
• Business Jargon
• Solutions
• Business Problems
• Goals
• Tasks
• Outcomes Results

• Technical People
• Technical Jargon
• Solutions
• Technical Challenges
• Specifications
• Design
• Technical Detail

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Challenge 3

• Talking about SolutionsBefore Understanding the
  Problem

If you dont know where youre going, you might
wind up someplace else. Yogi Berra
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How to translate from business to technical?How
to defer talking about solutions?

• A common languagefree from solutions
• NEEDS

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NEEDS

• Describe the WHAT versus the HOW
• (free from solutions)
• Provide a Common Language
• Free from business jargon
• Free from technical detail
• Stakeholder Needs
• What stakeholders need the solution
• to do for them
• Business Needs
• What the business needs the solution
• to do for it

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Requirements Information Taxonomy

• Function Noun
• \ri-'kwi-?r-m?nts\ \in-f?r-'ma-sh?n\
  \tak-'sä-n?-me\
• A system for organizingrequirements information.
• A visual tool for focusing first on general,
  high-level information.
• A common language to categorize requirements
  information.

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Requirements Information Taxonomy

• Vision Statements
• Problem Statements
• Stakeholder Needs
• Business Needs
• Functions
• Constraints
• Functional Specifications
• Technical Specifications

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Requirements Information Taxonomy
High-LevelProject Success Criteria
VisionStatements
ProblemStatements
Business/UserRequirements
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VisionStatements
ProblemStatements

• What the proponent imagines the solution to be
• The solutions characteristics
• The solutionsimpact

• What the proponent deems important to be
  resolved
• Challenges
• Issues
• Headaches

Document initial thinking. Starting point for
Studying the Current System. Used in the
prioritization of the Needs.
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Constraints
Functions

• The HOW
• The behavior of the solution
• What users expect the solution to do
• How the solution should do things.
• Design dependent

• Conditions that limit the design teams options.
• Also calledQuality Attributes
• Describe the Qualities of the solution
• Usability, Security, Performance, etc.

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FunctionalSpecifications
TechnicalSpecifications

• Detailed description of behavior
• Very design dependent
• Might only exist in the form of design documents
• Directly implementable

• Detailed description of technical detail
• E.g., colors, layout, parts, dimensions,
• Unambiguous,Very Precise
• Directly implementable

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Taxonomy Usage Guide

• 1. Develop the Taxonomy sequentially from Top to
  Bottom.
• 2. Do not discard any Information.Just put it
  into the right bucket.
• 3. Ask Why? to move from a lower-level type to
  a higher level.(until you get to the Needs level)

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Identifying Requirements Information

• 1. Pick one of your Projects.2. Identify
  Relevant Requirements for each Requirements
  Information Type.
• 4 minutes

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Challenge 4

• Knowing when youre done.
• Systematically Finding Needs.
• Systematically Identifying All Stakeholders.

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Analyzing the Present and the Past

• Understand the current Process(es)
• Identify all Stakeholders
• For each step, identify the
• Current Deficiencies
• Current Strengths

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Requirements Information Taxonomy
StakeholderInformation
CURRENT SYSTEM
CurrentProcess
BusinessRules
CurrentDeficiencies
CurrentStrengths
Business/UserRequirements
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Study the Present the Past

• 1. Identify Stakeholders, Process Steps,
  Strengths Deficiencies.2. Identify Additional
  Needs.
• 4 minutes

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RequirementsDevelopment Pattern
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RequirementsDevelopment Pattern

• GatherCollect Information
• DocumentCapture Information
• consistent, non-ambiguous
• Analyze Quality Improvement Prioritization
• ReviewValidate accurate understanding

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Quality Improvement ofRequirements Statements
Analyze

• Is each statement as concise as possible?
• Are the requirements statements written in a
  consistent style?
• Are all terms defined in the glossary?
• Is the information within each group free of
  duplicate information?
• Does each requirements statement describe a
  single concept or is it a compound statement?
• Does each statement have a relative priority?

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Step 2Prioritize Needs.

• Deciding whats important.

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Priorities

• FOUR main priorities
• even numbered
• must make decision above or below the center
• manageable granularity
• color-coded (for easy recollection)
• defined around project objectives project
  success
• THREE administrative priorities
• to assist in tracking requirements

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Requirements Priorities
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Removing Ambiguity from Requirements

• The solution must
• Users should be able to
• If possible, the solution should
• The solution might include

• The solution shall1-critical (red)
• Users shall be able to2-essential (orange)
• The solution shall3-conditional (green)
• The shall include4-optional (blue)

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Requirements Prioritization

• Focus on Prioritizing Needs First
• Functions, Constraints, Specifications all
  trace back to one or more needs.They are thus
  implicitly prioritized.
• Prioritizing Strengths Deficiencies usually
  does not add much value.

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Requirements Development Wrap-Up

• Once Needs are Prioritized
• Verify that all critical and essential needs
  trace back to a high-level Vision or Problem
  Statement
• Add High-Level Success Criteria as needed

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Prioritize, Check Vision

• 1. Prioritize Needs.(Find Critical and Essential
  First)2. Identify New Vision Statements.
• 3 minutes

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Beyond Scope Definition
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Simple Steps for PlanningSuccessful Projects

• Identify all Relevant Needs.
• Prioritize Needs.
• Define Activities to Satisfy Needs.

Successful Projects Satisfy All Relevant and
Only Relevant Needs.
All Activities Required toDeliver the Solution.
59
Project Planning Deliverables

• Scope
• Project Scope Statement
• Work Breakdown Structure
• WBS Dictionary
• Scope Management Plan
• Time
• Milestone List
• Schedule Baseline
• Schedule Management Plan
• Cost
• Activity Cost Estimates
• Cost Baseline (Budget)
• Cost Management Plan
• Quality
• Quality Metrics
• Quality Checklists
• Quality Baseline

• Quality (contd)
• Process Improvement Plan
• Quality Management Plan
• Human Resources
• Roles Responsibilities
• Project Organization Chart
• Staffing Management Plan
• Communication
• Communications Management Plan
• Risk
• Risk Register
• Risk Management Plan
• Procurement
• Procurement Mgmt. Plan
• Contract Statements of Work
• Make-or-Buy Decisions

Source Project Management Body of Knowledge
(PMBOK)
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Summary

• Distinguish betweenSolution Scope and Project
  Scope.
• Successful Projects SatisfyAll Relevant and Only
  Relevant Needs.
• Dont discredit any informationcapture it in
  the right bucket,prioritize needs with the
  stakeholders.

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Post-Session Check
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The Covey Check

• 1. Be Proactive (vs. Reactive)
• Identify and involve all Stakeholders
• Avoid focusing on Solutions to soon
• 2. Start with the End in Mind
• Vision-driven, Problem-driven
• Focus on Needs first
• 3. First Things First
• Prioritization
• Based on systematic analysis

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The Covey Check

• 4. Think Win-Win
• Capture the needs of all stakeholders
• 5. Seek First to Understand,Then to be
  Understood
• Focus on Vision Needs first Listen
• Discuss solutions and designs later Talk
• 6. Synergize
• Identify all Stakeholders, then involve them
• Allow multiple entry points specs, vision,
• 7. Sharpen the Saw
• Dont do this for every aspect of your life.Get
  a life! -)

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Why Projects Succeed

• The project aligns with the Vision and Goals of
  the organization
• Management is supportive
• The Project Manager is trained
• Project Team is adequately staffed
• Users are engaged
• Stakeholder Expectations are managed
• Requirements are documented
• Requirements are managed (Scope Creep)
• etc.

65
Common Blinders

• Not knowing what you dont know
• Not learning from the past
• Not knowing when to stop planning
• Not prioritizing objectively

66
Project Clairvoyance

• Simple Steps
• For Successful Project Teams
• to
• Specifying Solutions of Excellence.
• Determining whats needed,Deciding whats
  Important.

67
Project Clairvoyance Trilogy

• Project Clairvoyance Scope
• Project Clairvoyance Communication
• Project Clairvoyance Risk

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May The Clairvoyance Be With you!
May Claire Voyance Be With you!

• Questions?

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Wishing you20/20 Vision

• (and a Happy Holiday Season)