7/11/13

Advanced Program Management

Week 7: Optimal Capacity Utilization and Emerging Project Management Approaches - Lecture

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Trends in Project Management and Emerging Project Management Systems

PgM | Agile | Theory of ConstraintsCritical Chain Management | Critical ChainIf It Is So Good, Why Doesnt Everyone Use It? | Your Responsibility Project management, as a profession, is still a factor in our economy. However, a PMP certification is often required, and many organizations are also requiring solid experience and additional certifications. Some good advice includes getting and/or keeping your PMP current and then earn certification in the areas in which you work in project management. An area that has gotten attention is that of combining the roles of project manager and business analyst (PM/BA). Organizations have found that the PM/BA is more astute to the organizational needs in relation to the project being implemented. PgM One area finally being taken seriously by many industries is Program Management (PgM). Research is showing that organizations will be investing more in PgM training, methodology, and models. Skills that PMs need to be focusing on are critical thinking, communication (formal and informal), change management, and working with virtual teams. Organizations are putting more emphasis on collaborative software tools for sharing artifacts and Web-based access. Other trends that are being noted are increased lean methodology; increased technology; flatter organizations; empowered employees; more collaboration to manage globalization; greater value on requirement collection; and risk management for success. Agile Agile continues to grow and is being blended with waterfall, creating a hybrid approach. Organizations are looking for agile to show its effectives through ROI. The agile process was coined in 2001 by the Agile Manifesto, and has so far been used primarily in software development projects. The premise of the agile method is that a team of professionals works closely together to develop, test, and implement the software in small steps called iterations. The iterations are short in time and may last only a day, a week, or a month. The management of the project is different from traditional scheduling methods in that a project manager isn't scheduling out the entire project at the outset. Typically, activities have dependencies and don't start until one activity has ended. Under the agile process, a team of cross-functional professionals is working together and focusing on just getting a small component of the larger project completed from development to testingand then moving on to the next iteration. This can best be clarified using an example.
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In traditional scheduling of a software development, a schedule might consist of Conception => Development => Testing => Implementation. This project may last for 6 months and the testing portion might not be scheduled until the fourth or fifth month. Under the agile method, however, the same project (which may also last for 6 months) may be broken into six or seven iterations, with each iteration corresponding to a specific segment of the software. At the point an iteration is complete, that segment of the software can actually be loaded, tested, and implemented. For example, you might think of a project to develop software like Microsoft Word. Rather than build the entire program and then test the whole thing at once, an agile process might break up the software development into iterations based on the various commands. One iteration might be to get the Clipboard (copy/paste) feature to work. Another iteration might be to get the Mail Merge/Envelope feature to work, and so on. Being a project manager for a project using the agile method is quite different from being the project manager on a traditional project. An agile project manager is more of a visionary. The project manager has to guide the workflow and make sure the project team has the resources and materials it needs, but under the agile process, it's the team who is actually driving the schedule. In fact, it has been recognized that the people involved in the work need to be the ones scheduling the work because they, in fact, know how long each process is going to take. This is a deviation from the traditional project, where the project manager enters all of the durations in Microsoft Project and computes when tasks should start, stop, or be delayed. The idea that a project will be scheduled down to the lowest WBS level at the outset also goes out the door with the agile process. In fact, it is recognized that low-level scheduling should only be done in the short term (i.e., for the next one or two iterations). The project will still have a due date, and it may have its highest WBS levels scheduled, but the actual work cannot be planned way out in the future, and neither can resources or cost. The agile method is definitely a different way of managing a project. Project managers will need to rethink their role in a project. Resources will need to work together more closely in a cross-functional team environment. Some proponents of agile actually say that these resources need to be organized in an open work space, bullpen style, so that they can interact on a moment-by-moment basis. Because of the close-knit working relationships, destructive conflict needs to be minimized; hence, the project manager's role as a visionary. The project manager keeps the team focused and on track, but does not dictate the schedule or timing. Theory of ConstraintsCritical Chain Management Critical chain management was introduced by Dr. Eliyahu M. Goldratt. His book made quite a stir because he challenges many project management concepts. For example, he discourages multitasking, highly recommends including the human constraint within the project planning, and suggests that many projects will be done more efficiently if they are done serially rather than in parallel. Critical chain management has wide acceptance in much of the scheduling done within the manufacturing communities. Through a series of iterative steps, critical chain in manufacturing attempts to increase efficiency and productivity on the assembly line. The theory of constraints (TOC) has the following attributes: 1. finds the current resource that is most constraining (holding back) throughput in the system (i.e., the constraint); 2. does everything possible to keep the constraint resource focused on its primary function 3. dedicates whatever resources and processes are available to support its productivity; 4. "elevates" capabilities of that resource; and 5. once the constraint of that resource is "broken," seeks to find other constraints in the system and "loops back" through these five steps. So, can this process that has worked so well in the manufacturing environment be just as readily applied to project management? In some respects, yes; in others, no. The project/program is a unique endeavor with a definite beginning and end, whereas manufacturing for the most part is a predictable process that produces the same thing all the time. The project has some processes that are predictable, but overall, the project is not a predictable entity. The above five steps can be applied to project risks, or they can be applied to the critical path. According to the steps, the project manager should focus all his or her resources on the critical path or on the risks that have
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occurred. According to the TOC, this will ensure the project is progressing. However, there is an issue; if we only work on the critical path, we are creating other critical work because we are neglecting the items that also need to be done. Hence, in theory, we are constantly working in a crisis situation.

Critical ChainIf It Is So Good, Why Doesnt Everyone Use It? Critical chain adapts well within the manufacturing environment and it may adapt well for project management. However, it is a radical departure from the tried-and-true processes/procedures readily accepted in project management. Changing the way program and project managers schedule and organize a project is going to take time. In addition, the number of large-scale projects that have demonstrated a clear success is not large. This may have been because TOC was not clearly understood or the team had a bias against it and discomfort using it. But remember, it took earned value management over 20 yearsand the Department of Defense mandating its usefor it to become a standard within the community, so there is hope for critical chain! Critical chain has not yet been adopted as the de facto standard for project management in the PMBOK Guide. However, the PMBOK Guide does address the critical chain method as a schedule network analysis technique. While the PMBOK does separate critical chain as its own thought process, it's at least a step in the right direction! Your Responsibility As graduate students it is your responsibility to continue learning and researching the trends and emerging technologies of your profession. Below I have provided links to some areas that may be of interest to you. Keep in mind that your profession is evolving and it is up to you to stay current or be left behind. What is scrum? (http://www.slideshare.net/tommynorman/project-management-with-scrum) Compare PMBOK to scrum (http://www.slideshare.net/thush/comparison-of-pmbok-and-scrum-presentation) Agile PM with scrum (http://www.slideshare.net/aditya.internet/agile-project-management-with-scrum? src=related_normal&rel=743220) What is agile management? (http://www.slideshare.net/jurgenappelo/what-is-agile-management) Waterfall method (http://www.slideshare.net/jatinder_dolon/waterfall-10709149) ALM Application Life Cycle Management (http://www.slideshare.net/jurgenappelo/agile-alm) Lean (http://www.slideshare.net/gcaprio/intro-to-lean-software-development)

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