Key Concepts for Project Mgmt

Editor's Notes

1. Scope Delivery Feasibility
2. Rolling Wave Planning We can see more clearly what is in close proximity, but looking further ahead our vision becomes less clear. Depending upon the project - its length and complexity - we may be able to plan as much as a few weeks or even a few months in advance with a fair amount of clarity. Rolling Wave Planning is a multi-step, intermittent process like waves - because we cannot provide the details very far out in our planning. A detailed, well-defined WBS is created for that period of clarity, and only milestones are highlighted for the rest of the project. Progressive Elaboration is what happens in rolling wave planning process. Progressive Elaboration means that over time we elaborate the work packages in greater detail. Progressive Elaboration refers to the fact that as the weeks and months pass we have planned to provide that missing, more elaborated detail for the work packages as they now appear on the horizon. Generally in development projects the scope progressively elaborates, this poses a great risk to schedule/cost as the estimation is usually done during the start of the project and not all elaborations are considered as changes.
3. Get to the depth of issues to understand their impact
4. Obtain a thorough patient history : Skilled medical diagnosticians may not rely solely on the patient’s recollection. In some cases they need to interview family and friends to obtain information on subtle symptoms. When trying to diagnose failing projects, they shouldn’t don’t rely solely on direct interviews of the project team. A multi-perspective view of the situation is needed: Have a closed-door session with the project sponsor : Find out what the key issues are with the project and begin to explore areas where a rescoping might help bring things back on track. Find out what kind of scope reductions are likely to be accepted by the business, and which might require significant salesmanship or a fierce battle. Understand the organization’s politics so that you can factor them into your corrective action plan. Talk to the project stakeholders about their original expectations, their current concerns, and any difficulties they may be experiencing with the project team. Create comfortable communication channels with all members of the project team , and dig deeper than project plans, status reports and issues logs. Find out what is causing project anxiety within the team. There are often valuable clues here. Be sure to probe any areas that are glossed over or brushed aside quickly. Take the project’s vital signs : Pulse check : Assess the burn rate. Are you eating up budget faster than you anticipated? What is the new estimated total cost? Blood pressure : Perform a risk assessment, in terms of what could happen between now and the go live date to cause a significant incident. Various frameworks exist for this assessment. The Six Sigma FMEA (Failure Mode and Effect Analysis) template can be modified to suit your needs here, giving you an objective framework for assessing all possible places where your solution could fail, and steering your future corrective actions toward those that have both the highest likelihood of occurrence and greatest criticality. Temperature : Create a heat sheet (red yellow green) with respect to key milestones. This should be part of your regular status report, along with some basic trending. Other specialized diagnostic tests as needed - Assess the scope (original and current), review the technology strategy, development strategy, testing strategy, release strategy and change management strategies. http://www.pmhut.com/rescuing-a-project-diagnosis