PROJECT PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT

(PPM)
Miscellaneous Topics

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 CONTENTS

1. The Scope Triangle

2. Project Risk vs. Project Value
3. S-Curve
4. Agile Project Management
PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Project management is a method and a set of techniques based

on the accepted principles of management used for planning,
estimating, and controlling work activities to reach a desired end
result on time – within budget and according to specifications.

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PROJECT PARAMETERS

 Scope, Cost, Time, and Resources define a system of four

constraints that operate on every project.

 They are an interdependent set in a sense that as one changes,

it may cause us to change others also so that equilibrium can be
restored to the system.

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COST
 Throughout the project management life cycle, cost is a major consideration.

 The first consideration occurs at an early and informal stage in the life of a
project. The requesting client may simply offer a cost figure about equal to
what he had in mind for the project or on the other hand, different bidders
submit their cost offers to do this job in their tenders.

 In more formal situations, the project manager will prepare a proposal for the
work to be done. That proposal will include a good estimate of the total cost
of the project.

 In case of tendering, the client’s decision will be based on better estimates of

cost and time.
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TIME

 Time is an interesting resource. It can not be inventoried. It is consumed

whether we use it or not.
 To a certain extent cost and time are trade-off with one another.

 The time can be reduced but cost will increase as a result.

 For the project manager, the objective is to use the time allotted to the
project in the most effective and productive ways possible.

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RESOURCES

 Resources are means to complete activities. Examples are labour,

equipment, physical facilities, funds, etc.

 These are capital assets and that have limited availabilities can be
scheduled or can be leased from an outside party.

 Some are fixed; others are variable.

 They are central for activity scheduling and orderly completion of projects.

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 COST TIME
SCOPE

THE SCOPE TRIANGLE AND

QUALITY
Projects are dynamic systems and they must be kept in equilibrium.
RESOURCES

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CAUSES OF PROJECT FAILURE
Knowing who the enemy is gives us a competitive advantage. Projects that
have actually failed, generally display several of the following characteristics:
 The client’s conditions of satisfaction have not been negotiated.
 The project no longer has a high priority.
 No one seems to be in-charge.
 The schedule is too optimistic.
 The project plan is not used to manage the project.
Sufficient resources have not been committed.
 Project status is not monitored against the plan. No formal
communications plan is in place.
 The project has lost sight of its original goals. There is no
change management process in place. 9
PROJECT MANAGER:
COMPETENCIES AND SKILLS

Visible
SKILLS

COMPETENCIES

Hidden

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PROJECT MANAGER:
COMPETENCIES AND SKILLS
 There are two levels of characteristics that determine success or failure as a
project manager. These are skills and competencies.

 At the visible level are the skills that can be observed and can be acquired
through training. This is the easy part.

 At the hidden level, there are competencies. We can see them in practice but
we can not measure them in the sense of determining whether a particular
person has them and, if so, to what degree. They are traits that are more
difficult to develop through training. Some of them may in fact be hereditary.

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PROJECT MANAGER COMPETENCIES

(a) Business Achievement competencies

 Business awareness.
 Business partner orientation.
 Commitment to quality

(b) Problem Solving Competencies

 Initiative.
 Information gathering.
 Analytic thinking
 Conceptual thinking
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PROJECT MANAGER COMPETENCIES
(c) Influence competencies
 Interpersonal awareness. (e) Self-Management Competencies
 Organizational awareness.  Self-confidence.
 Anticipation of impact.  Stress management.
 Resourceful use of influence.  Concern for Credibility
 Flexibility.
(d) People Management
Competencies
 Motivating others.
 Communication skills.
 Developing others.
 Monitoring and Controlling.
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CHALLENGES FOR PROJECT MANAGER
 SCOPE CREEP
 Changes occur for several reasons and those have no relation with the ability
or skill of the requestor or the provider.

 Market conditions are very dynamic.

 Competition may demand a new version of their product to be

announced and introduced in the market. So that market may be occupied.

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CHALLENGES FOR PROJECT MANAGER
 HOPE CREEP
 There will be several activity managers within the project. These are team
members who manage different pieces of work.
 They do not give the project manager any bad news, so they are prone to tell
him that their work is proceeding according to schedule, when in fact it is not.
 It is their hope that they will catch up by the next report period, so they mislead
him into thinking that they are on schedule.
 Project manager should check the accuracy of their status report.

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CHALLENGES FOR PROJECT MANAGER
EFFORT CREEP
 Everyone works on a project that always seems to be only
95% complete, no matter, how much effort seems to be
expended to complete it.
 Every week’s status report records progress but the amount
remaining doesn’t seem to decrease proportionately.

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CHALLENGES FOR PROJECT MANAGER
 FEATURE CREEP

 This is the same as scope creep except it is initiated by the provider

(contractor /manufacturer) not by the customer (client).

 It occurs most frequently in systems development projects.

 Here, the programmer or analyst decides to include a little extra

because it will add sizzle to steak.

 The customer did not asked for it, but they got it anyway.

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PROJECT RISK VS. PROJECT VALUE
 These two dimensions impact the project planning and execution.

 By Project Value, we mean the value, the senior management will

place on the project you are proposing. As project value changes, the priority
that management is willing to place on the project also changes.

 The other dimension is Project Risk. As risk increases, project value will
also have to increase, if management is to approve your project for funding
and support.

 Now, we will look how these two dimensions interact with one another. Figure
below presents Risk/value project grid.
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PROJECT RISK VS. PROJECT VALUE

PROJECT VALUE
Low High
1 2
Low

PROJECT
RISK 3 4
High

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PROJECT RISK VS. PROJECT VALUE
1- Project value low – Risk low
 Projects that fall into this category are the "nice to have” and “not difficult to do”
projects. They involve technologies that are stable and well understood.

 The project itself is not high on management’s list of importance to the business.

 Such projects often deal with internal improvements to existing systems rather than new
developments.

 In times of the budget constraints, these will often be the first to go.

 These are not the kind of projects that can make you a hero but they surely can contribute
to your downfall.
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PROJECT RISK VS. PROJECT VALUE
2- Project value high – Risk low

 These projects have great business values, as perceived by senior

managers.

 Management will be paying close attention to their progress.

 The risk of failure is low because you are working with established technology.

 Project Managers would like to get these assignments.

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PROJECT RISK VS. PROJECT VALUE
3- Project value low – Risk high
 These are not types of projects you want to have in your portfolio.

 They are high-risk and you will not have much management support, if you
run into difficulties.

 In such cases, however, it is important to be very careful in the planning stage.

 High risk projects require much closer attention than do low-risk projects and
if project value is also very high, then senior management’s attention is also
more visible.
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PROJECT RISK VS. PROJECT VALUE
4- Project value high – Risk high

 These projects will become more prevalent as organization look for any
opportunity to establish competitive advantage over their competition.

 Strategic advantage often comes with the price of creative and innovative use of
newer technologies.

 For the project manager, the risk of project failure is much higher than in other
cases.

 With the risk, comes the award too. There is a definite hero strategy here for the
stouthearted.
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THE S-CURVE

 S-curve is time versus progress curve of the project.

 S-curve is another tool for helping us with a conceptual

understanding of the project.

 There may be three possibilities.

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1- Standard S-curve

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 1- Standard S-curve
 The S-curve models progress as well as other quantities of interest against time.

 Early in the life of a project, the team is forming and learning to work together.

 Once the team has stabilized, it can begin to work more effectively and the
curve begins to accelerate rapidly.

 Toward the end of the project, work activity slows as the final touches are put on
a successful project.

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2- Aggressive S-curve

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2- Aggressive S-curve
 In this S-curve, the project plan is too aggressive and the team is eager to get started.

 Too much work is scheduled too earlier in the project before the team has even
formed or begun to function as a team.

 The danger here is that mistakes will occur, rework will be required, and the progress
slows below the pace of the normal curve.

 The only exception is the case, when the team has been together for sometime,
worked on projects together, and knows each other’s strengths and weaknesses.
In this case, one might seen aggressive curve that sustains a high rate
of progress over the life of the project.
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3- The curve to Avoid

 Figure shows a project in which little

work is accomplished early and the
team puts on a full-court press, as
the deliverable dates approach.

 Too often the project team can’t get

there from here. Obviously, this is the
curve to avoid.

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AGILE PROJECT MANAGEMENT
AGILE
 Traditional PM versus Agile Methods
• Traditional PM Approach
–Concentrates on thorough, upfront planning
of the entire project.
–Requires a high degree of predictability to be effective.

• Agile Project Management (Agile PM)

–Relies on incremental, iterative development cycles
to complete less-predictable projects.
–Is ideal for exploratory projects in which requirements
need to be discovered and new technology tested.
–Focuses on active collaboration between the project
team and customer representatives.
 Traditional Project Management versus
Agile Project Management

Traditional Agile
Design up front Continuous design

Fixed scope Flexible

Deliverables Features/requirements

Freeze design as early as possible Freeze design as late as possible

Low uncertainty High uncertainty

Avoid change Embrace change

Low customer interaction High customer interaction

Conventional project teams Self-organized project teams

Project Uncertainty
 Agile Project Management

• Is related to the rolling wave planning

and scheduling project methodology.

• Uses iterations (“time boxes”) to develop a workable product that

satisfies the customer and other key stakeholders.

• Stakeholders and customers review progress and re-evaluate

priorities to ensure alignment with customer needs and company
goals.

• Adjustments are made and a different iterative cycle begins that

subsumes the work of the previous iterations and adds new
capabilities to the evolving product.
Iterative, Incremental Product Development
 Agile Project Management (cont’d)

• Advantages of Agile PM

–Useful in developing critical breakthrough technology or

defining essential features

–Continuous integration, verification, and validation of the

evolving product.

–Frequent demonstration of progress to increase the

likelihood that the end product will satisfy customer needs.

–Early detection of defects and problems.

 Agile PM Principles

Focus on customer value

Iterative and incremental delivery

Experimentation and adaptation

Self-organization

Continuous improvement
AGILE TECHNIQUES
AGILE TECHNIQUES
AGILE TECHNIQUES
AGILE TECHNIQUES
 Popular Agile PM Methods

Scrum Crystal Clear

Extreme RUP (Rational

Programming Unified Process)
Agile PM
Methods Dynamic Systems
Agile Modeling Development
Method (DSDM)

Rapid Product
Development (PRD) Lean Development
 Agile PM in Action: Scrum

• Scrum Methodology

–Is a holistic approach for use by a cross-functional team

collaborating to develop a new product.

–Defines product features as deliverables and prioritizes

them by their perceived highest value to the customer.

–Re-evaluates priorities after each iteration (sprint) to

produce fully functional features.

–Has four phases: analysis, design, build, test

 Key Roles and Responsibilities
in the Scrum Process
• Product Owner
–Acts on behalf of customers
to represent their interests.

• Development Team
–Is a team of five-nine people with cross-functional skill
sets is responsible for delivering the product.

• Scrum Master (aka Project Manager)

–Facilitates scrum process and resolves impediments at
the team and organization level by acting as a buffer
between the team and outside interference.
 Key Roles and Responsibilities
in the Scrum Process

• Scrum Master vs. project manager

• The fundamental difference between a Scrum Master and
a project manager is in their focus. Project managers
focus primarily on project outcome, including budget,
timeline, resources, and communication between teams.
Where a project manager focuses on the project, a Scrum
Master focuses on the team, taking steps to ensure the
team and individual team members achieve success.
 Key Roles and Responsibilities
in the Scrum Process

• Scrum Master responsibilities

• Problem-solving skills help you navigate complex
projects.
• Adaptability enables you to make changes as necessary
to achieve the best possible outcome.
• Motivational skills empower you to bring out the best in
your team to improve productivity.
• Communication skills allow you to collaborate
effectively with team members and stakeholders.
• Organization skills help you manage multiple tasks,
meetings, resources, and priorities.
 Applying Agile to Large Projects

• Scaling

–Is using several teams to work on different features of a

large scale project at the same time.

• Staging

–Requires significant up-front planning to manage the

interdependences of different features to be developed.

–Involves developing protocols and defining roles to

coordinate efforts and assure compatibility and
harmony.
 Limitations and Concerns of Agile PM

• It does not satisfy top management’s need for budget, scope, and schedule
control.

• Its principles of self-organization and close collaboration can be incompatible

with corporate cultures.

• Its methods appear to work best on small projects that require only five-nine
dedicated team members to complete the work.

• It requires active customer involvement and cooperation.

 Key Terms
Feature
Iterative incremental development (IID)
Scrum meeting
Scrum Master
Sprint backlog
Product Backlog
Product Owner
Scaling
Agile PM
Self Organizing Team