PROJECT MANAGEMENT TO YOU

WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THE TRAINING TODAY?

As I heard some of you t are looking for some opportunities of cross-function project experiences or want to be some knowledge on project management. First of all I hope you can understand this introduction will not help you to: * Be a professional PM right now * It will also not help you to pass the PMP or PMI examination * Or, lots of different project management tools in details But I'd like to bring you some basic understanding on: * What is a project? * What is the project management? With the understandings of above two concepts I hope the training today can help you on your daily job: * if you are a project team member * is the project management can help even you're not leading a project If we dig into t he project management tool package we can find couple of different tools which used on the difference aspects of the project management. And come the different specific industry there are some specific tools available. I will not go through all these tools and the technical details of them. Because 1. I don't believe I can get this done just in 2 hours 2. As what we always say "LearningbyDoing". You can learn and practice it very quickly when you need them. There are lots of resources on the internet.

Above all I introduced what is the intention of this training and what it is not. It help you understand how the training will go through today.

WHAT IS A PROJECT?

Does anyone from you have the experiences on the project, lead a project or join a project team? Maybe yes, maybe not.

IS PROJECTS ONLY ON THE WORK?

Projects are not only exists in our professional but also in our private life. The simplest sample is your wedding. I believe it's one of most important moment in your life till now. You organize it, you devote for it and you engage many partners on it. The other sample on your personal life I'd like to mention is the tourist. If you want to be happen on your journey and avoid the potential risk you must be aligntheroadmapwithyour family,maketheplan(likehotel,trafficetc)indetailsand adjustitduringtheexecution.

PROJECTS EXISTS EVERYWHERE ON YOUR JOB

Let's go back to the office. We can find more samples on your work space. If you want to optimize the production process to reduce the lead time you need work with shop floor, planner, warehouse etc. Or maybe you need go beyond the company barrier to make the adjustment with the supplier together. We can find many many samples like this. We need to get some targets done then we need work with the cross function team and keep in the same pace to move forward.

IS PROJECT ONLY IN THE MODEL WORLD?

Projects are also not come to our world suddenly. If we think over the pyramids or the great wall in our history they are all the typical complex projects.

WHAT THE PROJECT IS?

From PMI definition (http://www.pmi.org/About-Us/About-UsWhat-is-Project-Management.aspx)

Itsatemporarygroupactivitydesignedtoproducea uniqueproduct,serviceorresult.

From the definition we can find there are three distinguished character of a project: 1. Temporary: it means the a project is carried out from the definedbeginning to a definedend. The project is a set of time-constrained activities. 2. The output is unique: the expected output from a project is never exists. It isn't the normal product or service we produce. That is also the reason why we need setup a different system to get it done. And the desired project output is also "specific". 3. The 3rd character of project is Resourceconstrained. We can think it's the extension of the character 1 -time. Time is a kind of resources. Besides the time we also have the constrained on budget, people, quality and scope. Normally these constraints can be refereed to a triangle.

These constraints are normally competing with each other: increased scope typically means increased time and increased cost. A tight time constraint could mean increased cost and reduced scope. And a tight budget could mean increased time and reduced scope.

How can we make the trade-off among these constraints?

WHAT IS THE PROJECT MANAGEMENT?

As we see above there are several key constraints to the project and conflict with each other. Thepurposeofproject managementisprovidingthetoolsandtechniquesthat enabletheprojecttoorganizetheirworktomeetthese constraints. So the project management (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_management) is

the discipline of planning, organizing, motivation, and controlling resources to achieve specific goals.

WHAT ARE THE PROCESS OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT?

The typical project management framework include five elements: * Initiation * Planning * Execution * Monitoring and controlling * Closing

INITIATING

The initiating phase determinetheprojectnatureandscope. This stage is critical because we need analyze the needs in details. * Why do we need setup a project? * Which output and outcome do we expect to get? * Does the current operation can't get this done? And meanwhile we also need to observethisprojectfromthe financialview. What is the project cost/budget and what is the final benefit from the project? At that mean, is it worth for us doing this? Stakeholder is another key element we can never forget. Stakeholder (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stakeholder_analysis) is the

individual or groups that are likely to affect or be affected by the project.

Finally we shall work out a project charter (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_charter) that include the cost, tasks, milestone and deliverable.

PLANNING

We understand where the project shall get to so the next step is how the project get there. The planning process determine how the resources will be located during the project execution? We can go through these question? * Who are belong to the project team? Who are the functions of each one? How do they interactive with each other? * What is the WBS? * Does the necessary activities identified and networking in the logical sequence? * How is the time estimated for each work step? And what is the cost estimated? * How is the total project schedule and what are the milestone? Which activities are on the critical path? * What are the potential risks of the project? How do they happen? How do we measure them? And how do we prevent them, reduce their occurrence or consequence? In a word, planningisthephasetothinkoverhowdowe reachtheprojectgoalsthatdefinedontheinitialphase.

EXECUTING

We know where shall we get to and how do we get there? Now it's time for us to go ahead. At this stage we complete the work and activities defined on project plan. We spent the time, labor and budget in this slot. With the progress more and more outputs become "visible".

MONITORING AND CONTROLLING

The monitoring and controlling phase isn't the isolated one, that is integrated with the execution phase. In this process the project execution is observed to identify the potential problems status.

The benefit of this phase is the corrective and preventive measures can be take as soon as possible for it.

If we come to the details we can track the project from several aspects: * Project progress measuring (actual Vs. baseline) * Projects variables monitoring (cost/budget Vs. baseline) The other point we shall heed on the project is change. When the changes are introduced to the project the viability of the project has to be re-assessed to assure the sight of project isn't lost or the project target switched. When the change accumulate the forecasted results may not justify the original proposed investment in the project.

CLOSING

Closing is the formal gate of project output is accepted and the ending thereof.

WHAT THE BENEFITS YOU CAN GET FROM THE PROJECT MANAGEMENT?

Someone say "Everything is project". The reason is projectis objective&processoriented. I'm not quite agree on this opinion. Because as the definition on PMI the project objective is unique. Even from this viewpoint we can't say everything is project. But this doesn't prevent us from using the right tools from the project management toolbox in our work. On the following introduction some of you may feel these tools are similar with the ones on the other field. To this question my answer is YES. We can find there are lots of different management tools on the management. And what we shall notice also is there are some basic principles that fits the diversity world. These tools were developed from the basic rules, that applied on the different scenarios.

CONNECT THE PROJECT MANAGEMENT WITH YOUR REAL WORLD

Everyday morning when you get to the office what do you do? Boot on the computer and check the E-mail in Outlook? And then? Do the job. I believe your answer is complete right. But what works do you do firstly? What will you do after that the first task is done?

YOU HAVE A DAILY PROJECT

Why I ask the above questions? My intention is try to understand howdoyoudefineyourobjectiveonyourdailyroutine? Maybe you do the similar works everyday but I still believe there are many different things happen to you everyday. You have the unique working day. So, is it a project to you? You have the difference on your every working day and it's definitely you have the defined beginning and end date of everyday. Everydayisa projectofyourself even though you don't have another team member of your project team.

INITIATION YOUR PROJECT - HAS YOUR DAILY OBJECTIVE WITH THE PRIORITY TASKS

As I explained on the previous paragraph, we need defined the project scope in the initiation phase. If we connect this concept to your daily job management it means you need be clear how will you go through this day. How will you go through the day? It's up to you. None can really define it for you even your boss. Let's raise another question here "Did you consider before how do you get your annual goal done?". None any item in your annual goal will be finished by itself. The results should be come from your actions. So let's consider ifwecanlinkourdaily activitieswithmygoal&objective. Similar to the above link how do you realize your dreams in your life. From the day on day do you approach your progress to it? When the day is off and you are going to sleep how do you answer the question of "Yes, it a great (good, terrific etc.) day because I succeed on doing XXX to have the results of YYY".

PLAN YOUR DAY

I want to move forward my annual goal. I don't want to stop on my path to the dreams. Or at least I want to get the assignments from my boss done. Next question is HOW? My suggestion to you is make a list for this - which activities shall be carried out if I want to get it done? What are the consequences of these actions? What's this? In project management we name it WBSWork BreakdownStructure (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Work_breakdown_structu re). Personally I think WBS is one of the most important tool in project manager's pocket. Through the WBS the project manager can outline the roadmap from the beginning point to the end clearly. From this we can find the critical path etc.

WBS is also applied to you make the personal planning. The same principle and the same process. The biggest difference is the scope and length. On your to-do list there maybe only 50 items. But to a complex project it's large a lot.

EXECUTION YOUR PLAN AND FEEDBACK TO YOURSELF

The execution is different on the planning. Planning is focus on Whatistherightthingtodo. And the execution is about How todothethingsright. On your career I don't have to much words on execution but only to one word - domainexpertise. All you be coached, from self study or practices, are accumulate to your expertise. Your expertise is only visible when you get your tasks done with it. The other point we can't omit here is you shall be aware from you actual progress. When there is variation or delay, you need think it over. Is it caused by execution deviation, or some mistake from the baseline project plan? Planning is a good start point on your execution but keep flexible. The important thing is realize your project goal but not keep your plan unchanged.

REVIEW YOUR RESULTS

I reminded you to take care of your execution progress just now and I also want to emphasis on review your action result and journey when it's done is also very critical. Thereviewprocess isthewayforyourselftomakegrowth. From the review you can know what are the good experiences from it. And what are the mistakes you shall avoid in the future.

END

From the above I had the brief introduction on project management and how do we manage our daily job with the project management philosophy. As I said at the beginning of it I don't bring you to the specific tool and the technical details. What I want to you understand is what the project management framework is and how is it connect with our daily job. And considering everyone's daily job is different with each other so I don't think there is one standard module can fit you all. But the principles can fit you all and some best practices can be shared with each other. JackeyJiang Aug,2013