IPM

1. GOLDEN RULE: “PUT EVERYTHING ON PAPER“- “WRITTEN FORM“

2. GOLDEN RULE: “UNDERSTAND THE BUSINESS GOALS OF YOUR CUSTOMER”

3. GOLDEN RULE: “INCLUDE AFFECTED PEOPLE EXTENSIVELY”

4. GOLDEN RULE: “MAKE USE OF BUSINESS RELEVANT SUB-ORDINATE TARGETS”

A Project is unique in - goal, Circumstances, organization

A Project is limited in - task, time frame, resources, staff

BUT: THE PROJECT “COURSE OF EVENTS” IS ALWAYS SIMILAR

Initial State -> Definition -> Concept -> Realization -> Execution -> Target State PROJECT
Idea Request … … -> Product System PROCESS
Business background … … -> Business goals Affected Involved People

Example:

Initial State: Analysis of situation

Definition: good camera, 2 weeks, 100€
Concept: test camera / photos, plan o purchase
Realization: Price Comparison, final choice model
Execution: get money, go dealer, buy
Target state: “own camera”

Project: transform a given initial state into a target state in a planned and controlled manner
Process: step by step (milestones) procedures to reach the target state
Product: result of the project work
Project oriented orga: - high motivation of coworkers,
- Flexible control and management according to (flexible)target states
Process oriented orga: - litte cost fir overhead (less hierarchy levels)
- Minimal friction losses (less interfaces to other groups / departments)
- High troughput (optimal process orga)

Project: unique, clear goal / target state, limited resources, complex, measurable results

Management: Objectives & Purpose, Plannung & arganization, control & coordination, leadership,
ruling & decisions

-- Project Management

Results of PM: 1. Reach the target state, Analyses, protocols, results, reviews, status reports, plans, …
Result: according to goals
Dates & Time: timeline, milestones, measurements & controlling
Costs: agreed cost frame, control costs each milestone, compare total estimate

Environment / influencing factors for Project:

Politics, social intercultural aspects, community, patents / licenses, security standard, trends, vacation
time, weather, team, vacation coordination, new viruses, bureaucracy, department organization &
interaction, project director, finances, natural disasters, new science & development

Process structure and responsibilities (lifecycle):

Authorization & Initialization: focus & analysis, actual state and target state, causes and goals

- Project description
- Project authorization (limited commitment)
- Definition of target state
- Strategies of customer relationship
- Management systems

Planning & organization: planning of actions and structures

- Project organization structure

- Workflow management
- Data and resource planning
- Network plan

Controlling & steering: development execution

- Status reports: generation, reporting, controlling

- Milestone controlling, reporting
- Problem estimation and solving strategies
- Update of project plans

Closing & liquidation: control of results, finalization

- Project closing plan

- Project report
- Project performance
- “lessons learned”
- Project closing and liquidation

THE WHOLE PURPOSE OF A PROJECT IS TO REACH THE TARGET STATE

The identification of a problem is more important than the solution, exact description -> solution
Ask: - What: Goals and requirements
- Why: Business Background
- Who: Affected or involved people
- When and where: Dates, timelines, locations

Customer IT-Project description: Customer business background, business goals, project target
state, defined project results, project initial state, amount of work, Tasks and subtasks,
locations and dates, affected and involved People, responsibilities, boundary conditions,
assumptions, chances and risks, methods and procedures, environment & influences

Informal (influence) Organization:

Pro: Little organizational overhead, high flexibility with HR, close relationship to management
Con: poor responsibility / authority for the project management, no team spirit, resource conflicts with
line organization and other projects, slow reaction time
Pure Project Organization:

Pro: full project responsibility at project management, clear directions, fast and flexible reaction time,
high motivation of the team, short and fast ways for decisions
Con: High Organizational and personal overhead, high costs, resources are missing in the lines

Matrix Organization:

Pro: Project responsibility at the project management, high identification of the project management
with the project, flexible human resource management, excellent training for the project members

Con: Project member has to work for two bosses, unclear competences between project management
and lines, (human) resource conflicts, high organizational and communicational efforts needed

A project goal is the precise description of a (target) state, which shall be reached in the future.

This target state can be - wished (customer, high level management)

- chosen knowingly (customer, management)
. Reached by actively planned actions (project management)

Higher Level Objectives: goals of customer, influencing all other project objectives, general defined
Result Objectives: direct specified targets, quality, specifications, belonging to project result
Process Objectives: only relevant during project, meeting of timelines, costs
Personal Objectives: Personal development and interests. Own goals

Target state descriptions: “must have” / “should have” / “nice to have” conditions

THE TARGET STATE HAS TO BE MEASURABLE (must have / should have)

Eisenhower Matrix & Pareto Principle (20%/80%): (nice to have / should have)
A: urgent&important/B: less urgent&important/ C: urgent&not important / D: not urgent not important

Target Structure -> Product Structure Plan -> Utilities Structure Plan -> Project Structure Plan

Product Structure Plan: All “real things” which are required to reach the project target state. What
will be delivered? Products and components (features)
Utilities Structure Plan: all activities and the required tools. Plans, provisory results, tools, reports,
analyses and documentations. Utilities which are used during the life time of the project
Project Structure Plan: Activities and work packages for the generation of all project results

GOAL: DESCRIBE COMPLETE PROJECT WITH SMALL UNITS

Result oriented description VS Workflow oriented description

Project Structure Plan = Milestones (Milestone are special Events)

Network Plan: calculate & demonstrate resources, costs, course of action and time lines
Iterative Process because costs, resources and activities are influencing each other.
Network Plan: Resource Requirements & Application Flow (Order) & Resource Availability
Gantt / Bar Char (single action / milestones / critical action / buffer time)
most important “resource” are team member and coworker
Resource planning is based on work packages from project structure plan
General Goals: Short project life time, optimal resource management, (no external resources)
Special Goals: optimized team sizes, minimum team member changes
Time Planning: order and duration of actions is described
Use: try to avoid over-capacities & low workload of team members
All activities numbered: WBS, work breakdown structure
Milestone duration = 0!!
Action nodes & action arrows
PDM: Precedence Diagramming Method (Boxes & arrows) (aka activity-on-node (AON))
Finish-to-start: initiation of work of successor depends upon completion of work of predecessor
(Finish-to-finish / Start-to-start / Start-to-finish)

Duration / Name of Action / Resources / Number (No)

ESD / LSD: Earliest / Latest Starting Date
EED / LED: Earliest / Latest End Date
EB / FB: Entire / Free Time Buffer
TB: Total time buffer after resource optimization
ENTIRE BUFFER = 0 MEANS CRITICAL PATH
EB = LSD - ESD / EB = 0 = critical Path

Why Optimization: - duration longer than time frame

- resources cannot be used in parallel
- single activities were to long
- high risk on the critical path

Possibilities: - more people

- rearrangement of activities
- more parallel coordinated activities

Free time Buffer (FB) is time around an action, which can be used without influencing other actions.
Entire time Buffer (EB) is time which can used that action without changing project end time

Network plan is the starting point for more sophisticated and extended network plans

Activity duration estimates = schätzungen für dauer (toleranz) 2 weeks +- 2 days

PERT = Program Evaluation and Review Technology

PERT Weighted Average = (Optimistic + 4 x most Likely + Pessimistic) /6

Project Plan Discrepancies: - Unrealistic Planning

- Wrong benchmarks
- unexpected dependencies
- underestimated rest work (95% done, 50% additional time)
- additional requirements
- unplanned activities
- delay because of overload of coworkers (or illness)

Regular project status report (written form): - serious problems and ways for solution
- finished activities in report time frame
- planned activities in next report time frame
- time / date and cost development
- additional (important) remarks

Project Status: - in time? / costs under control? / specifications in plan?

Assessment of the Project Status:

Task / activities Level: single activities in time? / correct starting and end time?
Team Level: differences in working time of teams / discrepancies in planned real work effort
Problem Level: fast recognition -> fast solution? / single or multiple event?
Project Level: Complete plan discrepancies (-> trend analysis)
Milestone Trend Analysis: Question if they are not dependant?

Effective controlling by the project management result in a zigzag curve, which is optimal

Cost Trend Analysis: planned costs + actual costs

Only effective when it is doe on basis of work packages

/ Activities & not time

Cost Trend analysis can be done same as milestone trend analysis

A proper chance/risk analysis can be done using (Eisenhower / Pareto)

- Portfolio Chances and Risk Management

- Risk Balance Chart

Key Success Factors (KSF) / Critical Success Factors (CSF)

Information Technology is a Key Factor in Business Success
Information Technology becomes an important management field (CIO)
KSF: IT in Organizations: Business processes, Company structures, network information systems
IT and HR: Manpower requirements / rationalization, training, distance learning, team qualification
IT in Systems: Hardware & Software, Adaptation, configuration, technical standards
Problems in IT PMgmt (CSF): fast developments, bad knowledge, incorrect planning, changed
requirements, bad software quality

Cobb: We know why projects fail; we know how to prevent their failure - so why they still fail?

Statistics (CSF):
95% SW multiple restarts
80% reduced (25%) functionality
55% exceeds their cost and time
31% terminated
KSF:
Processes (23%): accurate planning tight milestone planning, measurable target state
Coworkers (17%): target oriented project team, clear responsibilities,qualified team members
Affected people (60%): - clear task analysis (15%)
- effective participation of users / affected people (19%)
- support by top management (16%)
- realistic project goals (10%)

KSF: Management of Processes and Relationships

Management of Processes:
- Measurable project goals (results, costs, dates)
- Realistic planning
- permanent re-specification of project goals with business
goals of customer
Management of Relationships:
- Participation of affected people / users
- cooperation / “Partnership” with customer
- Motivation of project tem

Hints for successful relationship management:

- take care of a very intensive communication with all project affected people
- bad communication leads to a high risk by overwhelmed people
- affected people can provide very helpful input for the success of the project
- > make an affected person to an involved person

Estimation = Einschätzung / Abschätzung

Effort = Aufwand / Bemühen

Economic success = proper estimation of project efforts / costs (in general)

definition of project = unique!!
Estimations are available by investigation of similar projects (differences are compared) if available

Complete project effort = - single activities and work packages

- (chances and risks)
- Influence factors (KSFs / CSFs)
The complete project effort is estimated with an Estimation Procedure.
- Project Management will estimate the project effort with help of experts
- this is an iterative process with single or many experts

General add on’s: - project management (20% - 30%)

- Quality management (5% - 10%)
- Configuration management (5% -10%)
- Documentation (5% - 10%)
The course of actions describes the different phases of a project (from start to end)
time dependent but also logically ordered process
Cascade Model (here focused) vs. Prototyping Model - mixed forms are existing
Final order of activities depends on the specific project situation & is defined in project structure plan

Cascade Model aka Phase Model:

Advantages:
- target oriented process
- completeness of plans
- defined process with (measurable) milestones
- defined standards and quality management
- simple controlling and steering

Disadvantages:
- no involvement of affected people!!!
- no input from affected people!!!
- no flexible reaction on changes in the
specification

Prototype Model aka Rapid Application Development (RAD):

- Everything will be clarified during the project process

- no long target definition required at the beginning of an project (-> RAD)

Advantages:
- permanent communication with customer and
project management especially the development team
- fast and flexible reaction on changes in the specifications
- “time box development” means, that the project
according to a specified time frame (or cost limit) and
NOT according to specified results

Disadvantages:
- Only applicable in a well structured environment. Everybody in the project team knows what to do
- Only limited results according to time and cost restrictions
- Risk of “quick and dirty” solutions
- Definition of specified goals in fuction / quality and costs in advance is not possible

V-Model (is an internationally recognized development standard for IT systems):

- mixture of cascade (phase) model and prototype model
- tailoring according to special situations

It encompasses:
- the (software) lifecycle Process Model
- the Allocation of Methods
- the Functional Tool Requirements
focal application points are:
- Basis of Contracts: in this instance, the scope if delivery of the software and the completeness of the
software documentation are clearly defined.
- Instruction: The V-Model serves as guideline and concrete instruction for system development with
its detailed descriptions of the activities and documents.
- Communication Basis: By means of the description of the documents and the provision of a
glossary, it serves as the basis for mutual understanding and reduces frictional losses between
customer, user, contractor, and developer.

The Submodels:
- Project Management (PM): plans, controls and informs the SD, QA and CM submodels
- Software Development (SD): develops the system or the software
- Quality Assurance (QA): specifies quality requirements, test cases and criteria, and examines the
products and the compliance with the standards.
- Configuration Management (CM): administrates the product generated

Advantages:
- Standardized Processes
- Improved communication among the persons involved in the project
- uniform procedure in authorities and commissioned industry
- guarantee of better product quality
- productivity increase by the reduction of familiarization and training times
- more precise calculation of new projects using standardized procedures

Ending of a Project:

Defined handing over:

- Plan for the project end
- Documentation
- Project results
- Acceptance

Completion analysis:
- Financial calculation
- Lessons learned
- Project review

Gain of experience:
- Project description
- Project performance

Suspending of the project team (with a party)

International Project: - multiple locations, entities, organizations, business units involved

- international product roll out
- international training project
- merging of international companies
- international marketing campaigns

Trends in Global Business: - Exchange of work!

- Expansion of individual companies
- Standardization in government
- Global mergers and acquisitions (e.g. 24h hotlines)
- global presence
- worldwide manufacturing

Why? Improved communication = large scale information exchange enables a worldwide control
of activities
Differences between standard and global projects?

Number of locations, extent of purpose, range of project, number of organizations involved,

dependence of organization on the project, risk and complexity, potential benefits, cost of the project

 SPIDER CHART

Technology, Culture, Self-interest, Rules & Regulations (different meanings in different countries)

Why are international projects so complex?

- Many departments on different regions -> lack of control
- knowledge transfer & training
- political situation
- variety of rules and regulations
- approaches for working
- different languages
- different cultures
- local rules
- multiple currencies
- time zones
- distance for traveling
- visibility of the project to the outside world

Cultural Factors: - Management attitude

- approach towards work (work to live? Live to work?)
- Factor TIME
- value of money
- planning versus doing
- Teamwork versus individual work
- religion
- climate and weather
-> COMMON ELEMENTS: CAN NOT BE CONTROLLED OR CHANGED

Score Card for Large / International Projects:

What is being measured? - Standard measurements of project performance

- Team member and employee involvement
- problem tracking

Examples for Measures: Budges versus actual, planned versus actual schedule, % of business
employees involved, % of milestones achieved, No. of times management
contacted you with problems, No. of open issues by type
 Questions
1. Describe the “magic triangle of project management”.

- 3 Corners
- Results, Costs, Dates & Time in each corner
- corners not independent from each other
- changing one corner priority will influence the other two corners

2. What are the characteristics of a project?

- A project is unique in goal, organization …

- A project has limited resources, staff, time and tasks
- measurable results

3. Describe the major steps of a project.

- Initial State: Analysis of current situation

- Definition: Definition of the project goal / target (specified in detail)
- Concept: Planning methods for realizing the project. Different ways, milestones, resources
- Realization: Doing the methods for deciding like in concept planned
- Execution: finishing the project
- Target State: Result of the definition

4. Compare the project process with the product life cycle.

5. Which aspects of a customer project have to be covered in the project description?

- Customer business background (Why?)

- Business goals
- Project Target State
- Defined project results
- Project Initial State
- Amount of Work
- Tasks and Subtasks
- Environment, Influences
- Boundary conditions
- Affected and involved people
- Locations and dates

6. Which project organizational forms do you know?

- Informal (Influence) Organization

- Pure Project Organization
- Matrix Organization

7. Why is a “Change Request Procedure” so important in IT projects?

Changes in technologies, requirements, software problems / changes

8. What is a target state – what is a target structure of an IT project?

Target State = fulfilling the Project objectives

Target Structure of an IT project = a physical finished pc lab
9. Which “elements” of the target structure do you know?

- Higher Level Objectives?

- Result Objectives
- Process Objectives
- Personal Objectives
- must / should / nice to have conditions

10. What is a Project Structure Plan / Product Structure Plan / Utility Structure Plan / Network
Plan?

Target Structure -> Product Structure Plan -> Utilities Structure Plan -> Project Structure Plan

Project Structure Plan: Activities and work packages for the generation of all project results
Product Structure Plan: All “real things” which are required to reach the project target state. What
will be delivered? Products and components (features)
Utilities Structure Plan: all activities and the required tools. Plans, provisory results, tools, reports,
analyses, documentations, utilities which are used during the life time of the project
Network Plan: calculate & demonstrate resources, costs, course of action and time lines
Iterative Process because costs, resources and activities are influencing each other.

11. Describe the purpose of a Network Plan.

The network plan is used to calculate and demonstrate resources, costs, the course of actions and
the time lines. It describes the duration along the time line for all activities including time
buffers and milestones.

12. Why is the “network planning” an iterative procedure?

Because later events are depending on the start or finish time of previous events.

13. What is a milestone?

A milestone is the end of a stage that marks the completion of a work package or phase, typically
marked by a high level event such as completion or signing of a deliverable, document or a high
level review meeting

14. What is a milestone trend analysis?

Milestone trend analysis is a simple graphical method for analyzing the dates in a project and
comparing them with planned data. You use it to recognize trends and deviations from the
planned schedule quickly. Milestones can depend on others but must not.

15. Describe chances and risks of a sample project.

Weather, Workers, Politic, Accident, unexpected findings, machine defects, high quality
material, cheaper machines

16. Which methods can you apply to avoid risks / improve chances?

- Portfolio Chances and Risk Management

- Risk Balance Chart

17. What are the four golden rules of project management?

- Put everything on paper

- Understand the business goals of your customer
- Include affected people extensively
- Make use of business relevant sub-ordinate targets
18. Describe the differences / similarities of the typical project management methods (phase
model / cyclic model / V-model)

19. Which factors have to be considered for a complete project effort estimation?

- The single activities and work packages

- (chances and risks)
- Influence factors (KSF / CSF)

20. Give a definition of a global project.

A global project is defined through the attribute of involving several countries into the project.
This attributes can have several different causes. For example cheaper production in another
country, benefits from the time difference from different time zones or the most important
reason: other / better knowledge.

21. In which way is IT related to global projects?

IT is extremely related into global projects, because IT made a perfect global project planning
and working generally possible. The biggest benefits come from the IT based faster ways of
communication, e.g. email, Chat, Telephone.

22. Compare standard versus international projects

Standard Projects have fewer organizations which are involved and also not such a complex
execution power structures between these organizations.
In the technological area standard projects don’t have such a big problem with comparing
technological standards or technological regulations defined from the governments in the
separate countries. (110 V - 220 V)
The cultural differences are the greatest difference between a standard and international
project. In standard the cultural factor is often so small that he doesn’t matter. In international
it can be very big.
The self-interest factor is one big point for the success of projects. In standard projects the
people often come from the same country, in international from several. The factor of self-
interest of the workers for the project success differs a lot.

23. Which cultural factors can influence your international project?

- Management attitude
- Approach towards work
- Factor Time
- Value of money
- Planning versus doing
- Teamwork versus individual work
- Religion
- Climate and weather
-> SAME: environment of a project – and the resulting factors cannot be controlled or changed