Managing Projects

1
Managing Projects

• Project Framework

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A framework for Action

• A project moves along more smoothly if certain
  procedures and operational mechanisms are
  established before the real work begins.
• How will decisions be made ?
• How will project participants stay in touch and
  keep up-to-date?
• How will unresolved issues be handled?

3
Decisions

• Every project is a set of activities linked
  together by decisions
• One of the important things that must be done
  very early is to agree on
• (1) How will decisions be made
• (2) Who will make them
• Once decisions are made, we must accept
  responsibility for the consequences

4
Decision Procedures Matter

• People care about decision procedures
• They want protocols to be fair
• They are much more likely to accept a decision
  that is unfavorable to them as long as they
  believe the procedure for making the decision was
  fair
• Trust is a key element in decision making

5
Common decision-making approaches

• 1) Majority rule
• 2) Consensus
• 3) Small group decides
• 4) Leader decide with input
• In selecting a decision-making approach,
• participants should weight the trade-offs

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Decision-making process

• In selecting a decision-making approach,
  participants should weight the trade-offs
• The more involved the team members are in the
  decision-making process, the more likely it is
  that they will support the outcome
• Result the consensus and majority-rules
  approaches can help to build team commitment
• Downside consensus and majority-rule methods
  take time

7
Unresolved Issues

• Often during meetings important issues are raised
  but not resolved
• What happens to issues that you cannot resolve in
  the course of project work or meetings ?

8
Tracking Unresolved Issues

• One way to deal with unresolved issues is to
  enter them into a tracking log. A tracking log
  has two benefits
• (1) unresolved issues will not be lost and
• (2) a procedure for their timely resolution
  will be assured

9
Documenting Decisions and Actions

• A sizable project with plenty of meeting and many
  participants can easily loose track of what has
  been done, and what hasnt.
• Each project should have a systematic method for
  keeping track of decisions, assignments, and
  actions
• Progress Reports (weekly report)
• Each activity should report progress and problems
  to the project manager, who must digest the
  information and use it to track the progress of
  the project as a whole

10
Communicating and Sharing Info.

• Give a person the responsibility for creating a
  project web site and a web-based newsletter to
  report progress, problems, upcoming events
• Post on the project web page the project charter,
  assignments, meeting dates, meeting minutes, and
  other material
• Bundle the e-mail addresses of each work group

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Meetings

• Making the most of meetings involves preparation,
  engaging the right processes during the meeting,
  and following up on the decisions and agreements
  made
• Attendance policy There should be an attendance
  policy associated with project meetings.
  Decisions cannot be made when key players are not
  at the table.
• Meeting Minutes notes recorded by an appointed
  individual
• Meeting technology
• E-mail Make them concise and to the point. If
  possible limit attachments. Nobody want to
  receive massive amounts of irrelevant e-mail.
  Make sure that everyone is informed about
  decisions that affect them and that the people
  that need to participate in decisions are
  consulted
• Teleconferencing
• Videoconferencing

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Bringing people into contact

• People are most likely to communicate with those
  who are located nearest to them.
• Individual and groups can be positioned in ways
  that will either promote or inhibit communication
• A good way to foster proximity is to have a
  project team room
• Place where members can congregate to informally
  share ideas, and records of the teams work can
  be displayed and kept
• Relevant technical books, journals, research
  reports, and project documents
• A large Gannt chart the plots the projects
  schedule and milestones from start to finish
• Competing products and teams prototypes

13
Developing a Budget

• What is going to take- in terms of resources-to
  successfully complete the project?
• To determine the projects costs, and break it
  down into the key cost categories you anticipate

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Budget typical categories

• Personnel
• Travel
• Training
• Supplies
• Research and professional service

15
Budget

• Since costs are estimated before the work
  actually begins, completion of the budget gives
  team members a chance to ask themselves whether
  they really want to do this project
• It is extremely difficult to anticipate every
  expense
• Many project managers build some wiggle room into
  their budgets to deal with anticipated costs

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Summing Up

• Develop Decisions tactics
• Document Decisions
• Document and track progress and issues
• Develop a Communication plan
• Create a budget. It will help you stay on track