Getting good business results Years in the trenches with Microsoft Project

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1 Getting good business results Years in the trenches with Microsoft Project Lynn Heatley, PMP Project Management Consultant Home: - preferred LinkedIn: Work: Phone: (work)

2 2 Learning Objectives Which PM practices give best results Project vs. Excel Developing WBS Naming conventions Modeling in Microsoft Project Tasks vs. action items, issues, decisions, risks Estimating Set up resources, dependencies Indicators Weekly status Pick up 1 or 2 tips you can use Warning! This presentation is less about software tips and tricks and more about getting business results.

3 3 Good business results Delivery on schedule, on budget, and Delivery meets users and owner requirements Examples Upgrade 40 production centers - on time, on budget Software company on time, on budget New data center, factory upgrade on time, on budget Oracle EBS - in progress

4 4 Facilitation Vetting Indicators Lessons, action items Inspection

5 5 Contract with project manager & owners Belief in PM, maturity, culture PM education Outputs Performance? Prediction? Schedule. Cost? Functionality? Drives Estimating Level of detail Tools selection

6 6 What do they want & are willing to pay for? Knowledge? LATE tasks FINISH and COST performance Improved performance? FINISH and COST predictions Improved FINISH and COST Impact Cost, Schedule, Functionality, Risk

7 7 Planning maturity, sophistication Draw the line Microsoft Project fields TASK NAME START, FINISH DURATION Assign RESOURCES Assign PREDECESSORS Estimate WORK Assign COST ACTUAL HOURS worked WORK remaining

8 Word Excel Microsoft Project Risk+, other tools Value for scoping, estimating Value for status - hindsight Value for prediction - foresight Effort to develop Effort to maintain Score = (sum of values) / (sum of effort) 8 Tools Excel vs. Project One-time task list X X Maintained Task list X X One-time model w/dependencies m m X Maintained model w/dependencies X Maintained model, dependencies, indicators X X

9 9 Facilitate / elicit tasks, dependencies, estimates ALL the work, from the doers. Talk track What is your definition of done? Why can t this task start now? What drives this task? What else must be done? What could go wrong? Time upfront Plan start work

10 10 Estimating 2, 5, 20, 50, 200, 500 person-hours? Approval tasks. Effective duration driven by DURATION or by UNITS, FIXED WORK < 2 reporting periods in duration. Documentation tasks - template first streamline & simplify, train. Rolling Planning

11 Modeling in Project Flexible model Dynamic Scheduling p. 204, Dynamic Scheduling with Microsoft Project 2010, the book by and for professionals. Rodolfo Ambriz, John White Closed network, p.

11 11 Modeling in Project Flexible model Dynamic Scheduling p. 204, Dynamic Scheduling with Microsoft Project 2010, the book by and for professionals. Rodolfo Ambriz, John White Closed network, p. 2-7, p. 9-2, Planning and Scheduling using Microsoft Project Paul E. Harris Do NOT CONSTRAIN any dates. Add MILESTONE tasks with no PREDECESSORS or SUCCESSORS, and CONSTRAIN the START of only the MILESTONE task.

12 12 Microsoft Project CONSTRAINTS Setting a date (typing it in or selecting it from the calendar) sets a CONSTRAINT. START NO EARLIER THAN MUST START ON FINISH NO EARLIER THAN MUST FINISH ON Task Inspector.

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14 14 How Project schedules tasks behind the scenes Duration = Work / Units IN A IF YOU REVISE UNITS IF YOU REVISE DURATION IF YOU REVISE WORK Fixed units task Fixed work task Fixed duration task Duration is recalculated. Duration is recalculated. Work is recalculated. Work is recalculated. Units are recalculated. Work is recalculated. Duration is recalculated. Duration is recalculated. Units are recalculated. HA aspx?CTT=5&origin=HA #top

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16 16 Develop WBS, Complete the model By phase, then by work stream. Start with 1 resource per task. Keep it simple. Generic RESOURCE NAME Add WORK - non-summary tasks. MILESTONES. PREDECESSORS, No PREDs on SUMMARY. Manually scheduled tasks Why can t I start that task now? Let Microsoft Project LEVEL and watch.

17 17 Naming Convention Verb-(adjectives)-noun. Great if deliverable is the (adjective)-noun e.g. Build Conversion 505 Functional Spec. Conduct RPT-302 Functional Test Place order for Gold instance servers Install SRV-022 patch Deliverable(s) for each task inspect-able, easily identified from task name.

18 18 Decisions, Assumptions, Risks Decision process explicit, strong Cost of going slowly made explicit. Risks made explicit. What could go wrong? Assumptions risks Latest date to add resources. A lack of contingency is a risk.

19 19 Get aggressive up front FINISH-START dependencies can actually START before the PREDECESSOR finishes (LEAD). Culture to work on tasks ahead of schedule.

20 20 Vet the model, set BASELINE All tasks vetted by task owners. Workshop with all tech leads and managers. Set BASELINE.

Once a project is 20% complete, the CPI (Cost Performance Index) will not vary from its current value by more than 10%.

21 21 Special Attention - Indicators Once a project is 10% complete, the over-run at completion will not be less than the current over-run. Once a project is 20% complete, the CPI (Cost Performance Index) will not vary from its current value by more than 10%. During the first 10% - 20% of the duration of the project, special attention to Modeling tasks, duration, work, dependencies Deliverables Performance

22 22 Indicator parameters Requirements, LOC, Modules, Integration Points, Defects Several choices pick one

23 23 Indicators Several choices pick one

24 Earned Value Indicator Y-axis can represent: Cumulative Dollars BCWS = Budgeted Cost of Work Scheduled = PV = Planned Value BCWP = Budgeted Cost of Work Performed = EV =

24 24 Earned Value Indicator Y-axis can represent: Cumulative Dollars BCWS = Budgeted Cost of Work Scheduled = PV = Planned Value BCWP = Budgeted Cost of Work Performed = EV = Earned Value Cumulative WORK hours Work planned to FINISH Actual work FINISHED Cumulative Tasks Tasks planned to FINISH Actual tasks that FINISHED X-axis represents time weeks or months

25 25 Earned Value Report

26 26 Weekly update meeting Share personalized task list. Option 1 - Leaders update directly. Option 2 - Copy/paste into Excel. Current tasks plus 3 week look ahead. Live plan in status meeting. Inspect deliverables. You may learn something! Discuss, facilitate.

27 27 Weekly model maintenance STATUS DATE Selecting the task TYPE to update. Update % WORK COMPLETE, REMAINING WORK, examine predicted FINISH. One big dividing line past vs. future Let Project split tasks? Save a copy each week Project_Name mpp

28 28 Tasks vs. Action Items, Issues, Risks, Lessons Start with lessons, convert to TASKS Evaluate risks, determine TASKS. Hard tasks early. Decompose high risk tasks. Action Items become tasks if WORK > 20 hours, if high risk, if dependencies Issues are Risks that have occurred.

29 29 Getting off track What happened? Insufficient planning? Poor estimating? Wishful thinking. Over-confidence. Denial. Poor modeling? Poor execution? Insufficient task management, oversight? Check with Correlations

30 30 Getting back on track Silver bullet More resources, productivity will drop near term Crashing - add LEAD to F-S tasks Cut scope / requirements Phased delivery - By site, by business unit Unlikely to be under budget

31 31 Learning Objectives Which PM practices give best results Project vs. Excel Developing WBS Naming conventions Modeling in Microsoft Project Tasks vs. action items, issues, decisions, risks Estimating Set up resources, dependencies Indicators Weekly status Pick up 1 or 2 tips you can use

32 32 Comprehensive tasks / dependencies great facilitation Vetting work stream owners & sponsors Choice and use of indicators Lessons, action items Inspection of deliverables early detection

33 Resources Dynamic Scheduling with Microsoft Project 2010, the book by and for professionals.

Ross Publishing, ISBN 978-1-60427-061-7 Planning and Scheduling using Microsoft Project 2010. Paul E.

0, January 29, 2010. Garry Roedler, Lockheed Martin, Donna H.

33 33 Resources Dynamic Scheduling with Microsoft Project 2010, the book by and for professionals. Rodolfo Ambriz, John White, 2011, J. Ross Publishing, ISBN Planning and Scheduling using Microsoft Project Paul E. Harris, 2010, Eastwood Harris publisher, ISBN Systems Engineering Leading Indicators Guide, Version 2.0, January 29, Garry Roedler, Lockheed Martin, Donna H. Rhodes, MIT, Howard Schimmoller, Lockheed Martin, Cheryl Jones, US Army, Guide-Rev Industry.pdf Forecast Scheduling with Microsoft Project Best-Practices for Real-World Projects. Eric Uyttewaal, ProjectPro Publishing; ISBN-10: , ISBN-13:

34 34 Thank you! Lynn Heatley, PMP Project Management Consultant Home: - preferred LinkedIn: Work: Phone: (work)

Guten Tag. (good day)

Guten Tag. (good day) Guten Tag (good day) Project Management Process Groups Project 4. Integration Management Knowledge Areas 13. Stakeholder Initiating Planning Executing 5. Scope 6. Time 7. Cost 8. Quality 9. Human Resources