Posts Tagged ‘Easy’

In my previous post about the problem of telling what’s important on a project, I promised to share some thoughts and tips on how standard project management methodologies, particularly the critical path method, can facilitate your planning efficiency when applied to a project creatively. But first of all, it is worth discussing what the critical path method (CPM) is all about.

What is Critical Path?

CPM is a mathematically based algorithm for scheduling a set of project activities. The essential technique for using CPM is to construct a model of the project that includes the following:

•    A list of all activities required to complete the project,
•    The dependencies between the activities, and
•    The estimate of time (duration) that each activity will take to completion.

Using these values, CPM usually calculates the longest path of planned activities to the end of the project, and the earliest and latest points that each activity can start and finish without making the project longer. This process determines which activities are "critical" (i.e., on the longest path) and which have "total float" (i.e., can be delayed without making the project longer).

Now we’ll try to illustrate the concept with an example. Let’s take a simple, real-life project: hanging a picture on the wall. What should you do to complete this mini-project successfully? First, we need to define and list all the tasks that have to be done, so that the whole project is completed.

• Choose a place on the wall
• Buy the screws
• Choose the picture
• Drill a hole
• Screw in the screws
• Hang the picture

When we think of these tasks, we realize that some of them cannot start before the others are finished. That is, some tasks are dependent on the others.

The actions “drill a hole,” “screw in the screws” and “hang the picture” form a sequence of tasks that must be performed in a specific order, one right after the other, to ensure a successful result. Such tasks are called “sequential” activities.

So these three tasks, together with the start of our project (“choosing a place on the wall”) in our example, are the most important critical steps that must be taken to arrive at the proper solution to our problem. These actions will be placed on your critical path for this project. So the essential concept behind Critical Path Analysis is that you cannot start some activities until the others are finished. These activities need to be completed in a sequence, with each stage being more-or-less completed before the next stage can begin.

Here’s what a sample schedule can look like:

The critical path consists of the longest sequence of activities from project start to end that should be started and completed exactly as scheduled to ensure the project is completed by a certain date in the future. The activities on the critical path must be very closely managed. If jobs on the critical path slip, immediate action should be taken to get the project back on schedule. Otherwise, completion of the whole project will slip. Imagine that you have a project that will take 300 days to complete. If the first activity on the critical path is one day late, the project will take 301 days to complete, unless another activity on the critical path can be completed one day earlier. So the critical path is simply all the tasks that determine the end date in your project schedule.

There can be more than one critical path in one project, so that several paths run in parallel. For instance, in our case, “choose a picture” and “hang the picture,” as well as “buy the screws,” “screw in the screws” and “hang the picture” form other task sequences that also are important for us to complete the project.

The critical path may contain all the important activities on the project, or it may not. In fact, sometimes the activities on the critical path are not the most important parts of the project. At the same time, there will be tasks that are not on the critical path, but still determine your project’s success. Understanding the critical path involves determining which activities are critical to complete on time. But other activities, lying outside of critical path, also may be very important and require extra diligence and focus.

What Resource Constraints Are and Why They Are Important

Traditional critical-path-derived schedules are based only on causal (logical) dependencies. We’ve already marked these dependances in our plan (e.g., it is impossible to drill a hole before you choose a place on the wall).  However, a project can have resource limitations, which also should be taken into consideration. These limitations will create more dependencies. These dependencies are often called “resource constraints.”

So, if you work on a team, your project work can be split between the team members. In our case, while you’re choosing a place on the wall and drilling a hole, one of your friends can go and buy some screws, and your spouse can choose the picture. The tasks can be done in parallel, like on our chart above.

However, if you’re the only person responsible for the project, you have a resource constraint (i.e., you cannot drill a hole and go shopping for screws simultaneously). In this case, your critical path will look different.

On the chart above, we assume that you first need to choose the picture, and only later can you buy the screws. However, depending on the project conditions, these tasks can be performed in a different order.
Such a critical path is called a "resource critical" path. This method was proposed as an extension to the traditional CPA to allow for the inclusion of resources related to each activity. A resource-leveled schedule may include delays due to resource bottlenecks (i.e., unavailability of a resource at the required time), and it may cause a previously shorter path to become longer. This is what you see on our chart above.

Calculating the Length of Your Project

In project management, a critical path is the sequence of project activities that add up to the longest overall duration. This determines the shortest time possible to complete the project.

Getting back to our example, let’s assume that you have to do everything by yourself. For each activity, show the estimated length of time it will take. Also, you determine the approximate start time for each task on the critical path. Here’s how it can be done in our example.

Now, if we add up all the critical tasks’ duration, we’ll get the approximate time that will be needed for the whole project to be completed. In our case, 2 hours and 26 minutes. Add the duration to the start time, and you’ll be able to calculate the earliest project completion time (10:26 am in our example).

Flexibility in the Critical Path

The critical path method was developed for complex, but fairly predictable, projects. However, in real life, we rarely get to manage such projects. A schedule generated using critical path techniques often is not followed precisely. As we already mentioned above, any delay of an activity on the critical path directly impacts the planned project completion date. New requirements may pop up, and new resource constraints may emerge.

Let’s say you’re planning to redecorate the living room together with your spouse. Your tasks will include:

•     Getting rid of the old furniture
•     Painting the walls
•     Fixing the ceiling
•     Installing the new furniture

Your spouse will then be responsible for:

•     Choosing the new curtains
•     Hanging the new curtains

The curtain tasks form a sub-project and can be treated as a non-critical path. Your spouse can “choose the new curtains” and “hang the new curtains” any time before the end of your project. So these tasks do have flexibility in the start and end date, or “float.” These tasks are parallel, and they will not be placed on the critical path.  Here’s how the whole project can look on a Gantt chart:

However, if any of the parallel tasks gets significantly delayed, it will prevent your whole project from being completed on time. Therefore, you should always keep an eye on parallel tasks. Now, let’s assume that choosing the curtains took your spouse longer than you initially expected. This will delay the end of the project.

Your redecoration is incomplete without the new curtains, so the path that previously was non-critical becomes critical for the project’s completion. The initial critical path changes.

To keep an eye on your non-critical tasks, you should always keep your schedule up-to-date. That’s the only way you’ll know exactly where your project is at any given moment in time and whether it will be delivered as it was initially planned.

Do you find the CPM method effective for your projects? If not, then why? Please let us know in the comments.

As for me, I find that the traditional method can definitely be fine tuned by a few tips and tricks that I’m planning to discuss in my next post.

Project Management 2.0

Managing Your Website Development ?eight Easy Steps to Project Management

Managing your website development need not cause you sleepless nights providing you learn the secrets of successful project management. Perform the best practices in project management and give your project the best chance of success.

Define objectives

Objectives guide everyone on the project to your final goals. Are your objectives to sell your product online, to provide customer support, to promote investor relations? Carefully decide and clearly document your objectives.

Decide the critical success factors ?the things at the end of the project which tell you if you’ve been successful. Make them measurable so you know if you’ve achieved them. For example, the website development should result in an increase in online sales of 25% by year end.

Stakeholder analysis

A stakeholder is someone with an interest in your project’s success (or failure). Decide who they are and whether they support your project. Perform stakeholder analysis by classifying them (high or low) according to how motivated they are in helping (or blocking) your project and how influential (high or low) they are.

Highly influential and supportive people are your allies. Gain their support whenever you can. Aim to reduce the influence of people who are both highly influential and against your project as these people could act to damage your project.

During your stakeholder analysis, draw up strategies for dealing with each group of stakeholders.

Define deliverables

Deliverables are tangible things produced during the project. Talk with key stakeholders to help define deliverables. Will your website design include web page layouts and sitemap for use by the programming team? What is the content for each page? Write all this down.

Key stakeholders must review and agree the deliverables accurately reflect what they expect to be delivered.

Project planning

Define how you will arrive at your objectives. This involves planning how many people, resources and budget are required. If delivering this in house, decide what activities are required to produce each deliverable.

For example, you might decide a web designer will develop page layouts and navigation diagrams. You might decide the marketing team will supply all product details and photographs. You might decide the finance manager will set up merchant and payment gateway accounts to enable e-commerce transactions via your website. If outsourcing work, specify exactly what the sub-contractor should deliver.

Estimate the time and effort required for each activity and decide realistic schedules and budget. Ensure key stakeholders review and agree the plan and budget.

Communication planning

Hold a kick off meeting with the team and explain the plan. Ensure everyone knows exactly what the schedule is, and what is expected of them.

For example, the web designer needs to know that he is to produce page layouts and navigation diagrams based upon the marketing manager’s requirements. He needs to know his expected start and end times.

Share your project communication plan with the team. This should include details of report templates, frequency of reporting and meetings, and details of how conflicts between teams and their members will be resolved.

Project tracking

Constant monitoring of variations between actual and planned cost, schedule and scope is required. Report variations to key stakeholders and take corrective actions if variations occur. To get a project back on track you will need to juggle cost, scope and schedule.

Suppose your programmer hits technical problems which threaten to delay the project. You might recover time by re-organising or shortening remaining tasks. If that’s not possible, you might consider increasing the budget to employ an additional programmer, or consider reducing the scope in other areas.

Be aware that any adjustments you make to the plan might affect the quality of deliverables. If you need to increase the budget, seek approval from the project sponsor.

Change management

Once started, all projects change. Decide a simple change strategy with key stakeholders. This could be a committee which decides to accept or reject changes which comprises of you and one or more key stakeholders.

Assess the impact of each change on scope, cost and schedule. Decide to accept or reject the change. Be aware that the more changes you accept the less chance you have of completing the project on time and within budget unless you reduce scope in other areas.

Suppose the marketing manager wants to add a popup window to display full size photographs of products. Assess the impact of this change. You might need to remove some remaining tasks to include this change and stay within budget. Or, it might be impossible to include the change without increasing the budget or schedule.

Don’t blindly accept changes without assessing the impact or your project will overrun.

Risk management

Risks are events which can adversely affect the success of the project. Identify risks to a project early. Decide if each risk is likely or unlikely to occur. Decide if its impact on the project is high or low.

Risks that are likely to occur and have high impact are the severest risks. High impact but unlikely risks, or low impact but likely risks pose a medium threat. Unlikely and low impact risks pose the least threat.

Create a mitigation plan of the actions necessary to reduce the impact if the risk occurs. Start with the severest risks first, then deal with the medium risks. Regularly review risks. Add new ones if they occur.

Suppose the marketing manager cannot decide what he wants from the website. Without knowing what the marketing manager wants, the team cannot deliver a website to meet his expectations. You assess this risk as highly likely to occur and having high impact. Your mitigation plan might be that the web designer develops page layouts to be reviewed by the manager early in the project.

Summary

Performing best practices in project management will give your website development project the best chance of success.

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Easy To Use And Implement, Project Management Software Applications

Project management software comes in a great variety. You should check out at least a few of them and weigh their pros and cons before deciding which one is best suitable for you. Once you have decided you need a project management application, you should then define your needs. Whether you need to track your time, your documentation, or your tasks better, you can be sure that there is, at least, one application for each need, and there ones that offer the full package.

There is no clear definition for project management software because it varies. However there is an ideal when it comes to project management software. This ideal contains, what are considered to be the six most important aspects of any capable project management software.

The first important aspect is the planning of a project. Many professional don’t even look at applications that don’t offer the possibility to visually display all the project’s tasks and their interconnection. This aspect is critical for any project, because it offers the possibility of to assess and allocate staff and financial resources.

Another important aspect of a successful project management software application is task management. It gives a PM the possibility to define tasks, create deadlines, and better assign the staff.  It allows the user to estimate the hours needed to complete a task, whilst observing the impact of his decisions and keep an eye on individual team members.

Every project entails a large volume of documentation, and the option to store all the documents in one place, where everyone involved in the project can access it, especially if the team is divided and geographically remote. If you have high expectations from a project management software, then you probably want the possibility to share your documents through it, in order to ensure a better collaboration, and to avoid difficult situations with sharing.

Managing issues that occur in every project is a lot easier to do if your project management software gives you the possibility to track your conversations, rate your difficulties and better manage any updates, or even explain a problem by taking a screenshot of the problem.

Tracking time is equally important because you always need to know exactly how much time a team member need to complete a task, and how much time is actually being spent on that task. Many professionals use a separate time management software to keep track of the time spent on different tasks. One of the most beneficial of using a time management software is that works to increase both individual and overall productivity.

So what do you think is the best project management software for you? Are your team members located in different cities or countries? Do you really just need a good time management software, or do you also need a tool that lets you share documents and opinions effortlessly. These are the questions that you need to ask yourself in order to decide with tool suits you best.

Related project management video:

This video explains the principles of project management according the the Prince2 methodology.
Video Rating: 3 / 5

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Project Management Made Easy With Dotproject

It doesn’t matter whether your company deals in software or construction—the dotProject web application can be successfully adapted to all kinds of businesses for a better project management solution including the aspects of planning, tracking and controlling of the tasks.

How can this software support all your project management requirements? To understand that first you have to know what we mean by the term of project management.

A business involves multifaceted functions and tasks.

The project management first aims at providing a structured series of tasks.

It now assigns schedules to the tasks.

Then it sets a target for each schedule depending on the expected outcome.

Now the nature of tasks and their scheduling vary with the nature of the project.

Other associated project issues such as project planning, contract negotiation, risk management, cost management and others also vary with the nature and type of the project.

As such your task of project management involves keeping track of everything you and your team is doing and what more you need to do.

Add to it the task of maintaining documents, managing the customers, time tracking, checking the contacts and many more—-the list is enough to tempt a manager to apply for a leave vacation.

However in real life the thing is not as difficult as it sounds; thanks to the project management tools like dotProject that makes the life of a project manager much easier.

dotProject provides the project manager with a tool that takes care of all aspect of project EvoSkins, B2 Blog, Software, B2Evolution, Website hosting, Fat Jack Hosting, Internet business, Internet marketing, blogging,

management namely managing of tasks, making schedules, communicating with the clients as well as employees and sharing of information.

In a nutshell, the dotProject helps to keep the track of the day to day developments of the project and helps to measure the progress of the project again on a day to day basis.

It shares lots of common features with usual help desk features of CMS. But dotProject is different from them as it is aimed at managing a defined workload and supposed to communicate with a structured resource base participating in the project. The help desk features on the other hand are unplanned in nature without any defined range of tasks.

The dotProject was originally designed to provide a user friendly project management environment and so many years in the business with some formidable updates, additions and code changes, the dotProject still sticks to its position to provide a sleek, simple and consistent project management solution.

Visit the home site of dotProject at www.dotProject.net to learn in detail about the project management features of the software.

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