A Primer on Project Management

Bill Altman
February 2008

Copyright 2008 Battelle Memorial Institute 1

Objective

• To provide an overview of the fundamentals of

Project Management (PM)
– Basic definitions
– PM Philosophy

You will not be a PM but rather understand

PM philosophy so that you can use the principles in
Metro School (and other) activities

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“… and now a word from our
sponsor.”
• Project Management Institute (PMI)
– Founded in 1969; headquartered in Newtown Square, PA
– Over 253,000 members internationally (>170 countries)
- Growth: 17,000 (1995); 70,000 (2000); 149,500 (2004)
– Over 200 chapters worldwide
– Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK)
– Publications: PM Network; Project Management Journal
– Over 267,000 Project Management Professionals (PMP)
- “World’s most recognized professional credential for individuals
associated with project management”
- PMP Certification Growth: 2000 = 27,000; 2004 = 100,000
– For more info, go to: www.pmi.org
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What is a project?

• A program or project is a temporary endeavor

undertaken to create a unique product or service.
PMBOK definition

– Temporary means definite beginning and definite end

– Unique means that the product or service is different in
some distinguishable way from all similar products or
services
• Developing a new process or procedure is a project;
implementing the process on a daily basis is not a
project – it is operational.

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What is Project Management?

• Project management is the application of

knowledge, skills , tools, and techniques to project
activities in order to meet or exceed stakeholders
needs and expectations from a project.
PMBOK Definition

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Project Management is broken down
into nine knowledge areas:
1. Scope - defining the necessary work and deliverables to successfully
complete the project
2. Time - involves defining the activities, putting them in sequence, making
duration estimates, and developing the schedule
3. Cost - includes resource planning, cost estimating, budgeting, and cost
control
4. Quality - insuring the project meets it's quality objectives through
planning, quality assurance, and quality control
5. Human Resources - all of the necessary processes to handle staff
acquisition, team development, and organizational planning
6. Communication - the procedures for performance reporting and
information distribution
7. Risk - involves all the procedures to handle the project risks, such as
identification, qualitative and quantitative risk analysis, risk response
plan, along with risk monitoring and control
8. Procurement - the procedures used to handle procuring of resources,
equipment, and material
9. Integration - defines how all the processes work together
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… and five phases

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Step by Step Approach to PM

1. Scope the project

2. Schedule the project
3. Resource the project
4. Baseline the project
5. Track the project
6. Close the project
Plan the Work,
then Work the Plan

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1. Scope the Project

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Scope the Project

• Define the work to be performed

• Identify the deliverables and major milestones
• Decompose the effort into a Work Breakdown
Structure (WBS)

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What is a WBS?

• The basic building blocks of a project presented in a

logical manner defined by the PM.
• Created by PM to:
– Define tasks at the desired management level
– Create a list of activities or tasks which will be used to
create budgets and track costs
– Create a list of activities or tasks that can be scheduled
and tracked
• The WBS should only depict what needs to be done
– Do not try to depict how or the order in which things are to
be done

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Painting a room is a project
• An example of a work breakdown for painting a room is, to
state the obvious:
1. Prepare materials
a) Buy paint
b) Buy a ladder
c) Buy brushes/rollers
d) Buy wallpaper remover
2. Prepare room
a) Remove old wallpaper
b) Remove detachable decorations
c) Cover floor with old newspapers
d) Cover electrical outlets/switches with tape
e) Cover furniture with sheets
3. Paint the room
4. Clean up the room
a) Dispose or store left over paint
b) Clean brushes/rollers
c) Dispose of old newspapers
d) Remove covers 12
Graphical Representation of WBS
Room Painting Project

Prepare Materials Prepare Room Paint the Room Clean up the Room

Dispose or store
Buy paint Remove old wallpaper
left over paint

Remove detachable
Buy a ladder Clean brushes/rollers
decorations

Cover floor with Dispose of

Buy brushes/rollers
old newspapers old newspapers

Buy wallpaper Cover electrical

Remove covers
remover outlets/switches with tape

Cover furniture
with sheets

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Scope Checklist

• Do all the end elements of the WBS represent the

totality of all the work needed to successfully
perform the project?
• Can responsibility be assigned for each work
package to a specific organization or person?
• Can responsibility be assigned for each work
package to a specific organization or person?
• Does it contain milestones so progress can be
monitored?
• Does it show the logical breakdown of all end
deliverables required in the project?
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2. Schedule the Project

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Schedule the Project

• For each WBS element, determine what:

– How long each element will take – days, weeks, etc
– How much time is required for each staff member
• Using the major milestones as a starting point,
schedule the work
– Determine the ordering of activities asking the following
the questions:
- What activities must be performed in serial fashion
- What activities can be performed in parallel
- What are the linkages between activities

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A Simple Approach to Develop Project
Schedules

• For smaller projects with relatively few tasks you can

use Post-Its as a tool for assembling the schedule
– Write out WBS numbers and descriptions on Post-Its
– Staring with a Post-It entitled “Start” organize the Post-Its
on a large sheet of paper or white board such that the
tasks are sequenced in the order the work is to be done
– Align tasks that can be performed concurrently
– Complete the network with a “Finish” Post-It
– Draw arrows between Post-Its to show dependencies
• Transition to software tool – e.g. MS Project

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Nominal Room Painting Schedule
(Gantt Chart)

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3. Resource the Project

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Resource the Project

• For each WBS element – at the lowest level –

assign:
– a staff member responsible for the WBS element and
– the resources for the work including
- Staff and time associated with the work (e.g. Joe Smith – 40 hours)
- Equipment and supplies
- Vendors/outside partners
- Travel

• On the Post-Its you used in scheduling, write down

the resources for each WBS element

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Staffing Checklist

• Is staff loading reasonable?

• Is staff over committed for the time frame you are
planning?
• Can less experienced staff be utilized?
• Are there training issues?
• Do teachers/principals/students concur with student
commitments?

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4. Baseline the Project

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Baseline the Project

• Once you have completed steps 1 through 4, you

need to baseline the project.
• Baselining says that “This is my plan for completing
the project against which I will be measured.”
• To baseline the project, complete a Project Plan

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Project Plan

• The Project Plan includes:

– Project Manager
– Objective
– Deliverables
– Schedule
– Key Staff, Their Assignments, and Hours
– WBS
– Major Assumptions
– Risks
– External Interfaces (Vendors)
• Signed by the Project Manager (and Supervisor)
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Example Resource Matrix
Painting A Room
Days 1 2 3 4 5 6
WBS
Prepare Materials
Buy paint
Jesse 3
Paint $100
Buy ladder
Bob 1
Ladder $200
Buy brushes/rollers
Jesse 1
Brushes/rollers $50
Buy wallpaper remover
Carol 2
Wallpaper remover $20

Prepare Room
Remove old wallpaper
Jesse 4
Linda 4
Bob 4
Carol 4

Remove detachable decorations

Jesse 1
Linda 1
Bob 1
Carol

Cover floor with old newspapers

Jesse
Linda 4
Bob
Carol 4

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5. Track the Project

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Tracking the Project

• Up to now the entire process has been focused on

developing a plan
– “You can’t control what you can’t measure.”
• Things happen …
– A task takes longer than planned
– Output from a task yields a higher cost
– Someone gets reassigned
– Someone gets sick …
• … that will affect your original plan. Hence you may
need to modify your original plan. This is part of the
tracking (aka Executing/Controlling) process.
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Tracking Process [1]

• Periodically track the schedule and resources

against the baseline
– Periodic (e.g. daily) meetings can identify issues early and
allow for some corrective action
• Schedule
– Examine the schedule to determine whether the end date
of any task will be done on time, late or early
– Update the schedule
• Resources
– Examine your list of activities/tasks to determine whether
resource usage has gone according to plan and whether
any additional or fewer resources will be required to
complete the effort
– Update the resource table 28
Tracking Process [2]

• Using the Project Plan as the baseline, update the

schedule and resource table – on a monthly basis –
and submit to management for review
• Highlight any issues/concerns in not meeting:
– Project Objective
– Schedule
– Resource Allocations
– Deliverables
• If there are issues, then present suggested
alternatives as to how to deal with them
Unlike fine wine and cheese,
bad news does not get better with age.
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6. Close the Project

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Closing the Project

• Each project should close out with – as a minimum –

a one or two page report that documents Project
Results vs. the Objectives
• Provide the deliverable(s) as stated in the Project
Plan
• Identify Lessons Learned
– If you don’t use these lessons, they are only “Lessons
Observed”

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Final Thoughts
• "If you fail to plan you are planning
to fail."
– "Planning is an unnatural process,
doing something is much more fun.“
– “The more you plan the luckier you

Co
op
get.”

st
Sc
• "Nothing will ever be attempted if
all possible objections must first be
overcome."
Time
• "Fast - cheap - good: you can have
any two." The Triple Constraint of
Project Management
• "The most valuable and least used
word in a project manager's
vocabulary is "NO"."
• "Those who cannot remember the
past are condemned to repeat it."
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Questions?

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