Project Archives - BOLLYWOOD SURKHIYAN

Project Manager Considerations When Building a Project Team

As a Project Manager, your team may already have already been assigned before you build a project plan. If this is so, it will allow better estimations of resource budget and the team can participate in designing the project schedule. Alternatively, the team may not be approved and build until the implementation phase begins, which means a preliminary plan has been developed. Remember that if the team can help with planning, then they are more likely to be committed to accomplishing the plan and the project goal or objective. In addition, it is less likely that omission of important details from the plan will occur if the team is involved in developing the plan. Where possible, before trying to develop a project plan, assemble a Project Team of people who have something to contribute to the overall project.

These project team members may have expertise in similar projects or be someone with a stake in the outcome of the project. More experienced people will help ensure the project stays on schedule, however working on a project with a mentor or others more experienced can be a great learning experience for those new to this type of work, process, service, or product. Team members may be volunteers or given the assignment to participate on the project. Typically, volunteers make more of an effort and require less supervision than those assigned without asking if they would like to participate. As the Project Manager, you should talk with each perspective member to make sure they understand what their project responsibilities and accountability might be, what challenges they may look forward to, and what value they offer to the team. Additionally, you should note how much freedom each member would have in carrying out their tasks and making decisions related to their assignments.

If the project team members have worked together before, then the project may start well. Team members who have worked on team projects before will already be familiar with team problem solving and participatory decision-making and will see working on the team as a motivating factor in their and others’ contribution to the project. However, if some of the team members have not worked together or been part of a team before, you as the project manager need to consider if there is need for any team training or other team-building activities to help the members work better as a team. If the team has not worked together before, in their first team meeting, you and your team members will need to establish conduct guidelines for personal and group behavior. You may want to establish what types of information sharing may or may not go outside the project team as well. Working as a team and with your feedback, the project members should find they produce better project results in a more effective manner.

If any team members are only a part-time assignment to the project, then you need to determine with them how they will prioritize their work. As a rule of thumb, no one should be working on more than three projects at a time. As your project continues, be sure to give team members feedback on their individual performance. If they need to change the way they are doing something, be sure to explain why they need to make the change as well as what and how to change. Be sure to let team members know that their contribution is valuable to project and team success. If a team member is not willing to work toward the project goal, then they need to be convinced or removed from the project team. Reward both team behavior and individual accomplishments in order to ensure team members work together and value each other’s contributions.

OPIE: A Simple Process for Project Management by Teams

Sometimes teams will start an assigned project and not be able to manage it due to insufficient knowledge of how to plan and implement it. Other times, the team may have a successful project in the works and are unwilling to bring the project to conclusion or do not know when to tell the primary project is complete. Having a process that shows how to plan and implement as well as start and stop procedures will enable a team to manage projects better. A simple process teams can use is O.P.I.E. The O.P.I.E. process consists of 4 main stages necessary to complete a quality project by a desired date. The stages of O.P.I.E. are Open and Plan, then Implement, and finally End. Pronouncing the O.P.I.E. acronym can be either O-P or O-Pi. Not all projects will require all the steps and outputs of each process stage, however all projects will require each major stage is done.

Key Steps in the Open Stage

Determine Objective – to communicate the project is worth doing
Do Analysis – to make sure the project is worth doing
Get Preliminary Approval – to make sure the project is feasible
Assign Project Manager – – to make sure the project goes forward

Key Steps in the Plan Stage

Document Specification – to make sure everyone knows the extent and outcome of project
Develop Schedule – to make sure the timeline is feasible
Determine Resources – to make sure enough people, equipment, and supplies are given
Estimate Budget – to make sure the project is cost effective
Get Plan Approval – to make sure the project is finances

Key Steps in the Implement Stage

Hold Meetings – to make sure the project problems are discussed and solved
Execute Plan – to stay on track to schedule
Monitor Plan – to track resources and budget
Develop Communications – to let everyone know what is happening with project
Handle Problems – to make sure team is working together on same goal
Prepare Progress Reviews – to let team and management know what is happening with project
Get Performance Approval – to let management approve/disapprove changes

Key Steps in the End Stage

Close Administration – to share lesson learned as well as close schedule and release resources
Hold Celebration – to thank team for contributions and motivate future performance
Plan Compensation – to motivate team members in future performance
Do Evaluation – to measure project using specific success indicators

Not all team projects will require all the steps and outputs of each process stage, however all projects will require each major stage is included. Utilizing the O.P.I.E: stages of Open, Plan, Implement, and End; should help teams to know what to do on each project assignment as well as insuring the project has a stopping point so the team can return to normal jobs on a full-time basis or begin work on an important new project.

Note: The process steps above are from the book “O.P.I.E. Project Planning and Implementation for Teams.”

Multi-Generation Project Plan

What Is a Multi-Generation Project Plan?

– A vehicle to help focus the design team’s energies on a manageable project that can be completed relatively quickly.

– Since the future has been considered, the team will not make decisions that are incompatible with future generations.

– As the team’s work progresses, new ideas can be added to future generations of the process instead of increasing the development time for the first generation process.

– MGPP helps manage “scope creep.”

– The organization can be working on new technologies that are needed for future generations while the first generation process is being implemented and benefits realized.

The MGPP is usually not fully developed in the Lean Six Sigma Define phase step:

– In Define you should describe all the elements for the first generation product/service as fully as possible and fill in as much information as you have for future generations.

– You will add information to the MGPP throughout the DFSS process.

– At the end of the first generation, you will be able to describe the second and third generation products and services in much greater detail because of what you have learned from your research and testing of the first generation product.

The Multi-Generation Project Plan Will Help:

– Initially establish a reasonable project scope – one that drives values with a reasonable completion date

– Capture good ideas that are surfaced during the project

– Proactively identify project replication opportunities for other parts of the business

– Establish the “big picture” – How does this project fit into the overall improvement scheme for the organization

– E.g., the objective is to reduce billing errors for all of our customers. The first generation will address problems with our top 20% customers.

– E.g., this project will streamline the process and reduce the number of errors. The next phase will be to implement an automated information system.

– Communicate with stakeholders – “We’re focusing on this part of the process with this project, but recommend a follow-on project to address other parts of the process”.

MGPP Steps:

1. Start with the vision. Describe the vision for the new product/service 3 years from now. Then back up and describe product/service stages that lead up to the longer-term vision.

2. Describe the concept and technologies/platforms for Generation 1 in as much detail as possible.

3. Fill in as much information for Generation 2 and 3 concepts, platforms and technologies as you can. You will be adding more information about these elements as you learn more during Generation 1 development

Entrepreneurship and Project Management – The Missing Link

There has been a great deal of emphasis on entrepreneurship and the need for more and more entrepreneurs in the region to help create jobs for the future of the region. There is also a lot of enthusiasm and encouragement for new entrepreneurs – but are we forgetting something? It is great to have the “spirit” but is spirit enough? Do our prospective entrepreneurs know how to take their dreams from the idea into effective operation? Is business planning over emphasized or is it enough? This article will offer an opinion and try to answer these questions and offer a suggestion on what is missing. It is the author’s opinion that Project Management is the missing link that could make the crucial difference between success, challenge, and even failure.

The Need for Entrepreneurs

Various sources and global studies show that small & medium organizations/enterprises (SMO/SME) have huge contributions to economies around the world in term of gross national product and employment. Studies in the Middle East show that SME contributions in our region are lower than developed countries. However, many in government and private sector leadership recognize the need to change this in order to deal with the tremendous challenge of the needs for job creation across the Arab World.

All of private or government initiatives share in playing a role to promote the “spirit of entrepreneurship,” but is spirit the only thing that we need? What is missing? Let us say someone quit his/her job to become an entrepreneur, then what?

There are too many challenges facing an entrepreneur today – some of it is legal structure and regulations. Other challenges are related to the fear of failure and the stigma associated with that. Even if we overcome the fear of failure we will encounter the challenge of availability of capital. With capital resolved or at least somewhat resolved, do we have the right infrastructure to help the entrepreneur launch the business? Do we have the necessary support? How about beyond the launch? The support that is available (business / cash / logistics / management / etc.) is available for someone following a dream, but only to realize that realizing the dream is much more challenging than expected. How do we help the entrepreneur or the small business owner sustain and grow?

Business Planning

Most, if not all, venture capital, foundation, and other sources for funds — in addition to business schools and MBA programs focus on a business plan as an essential deliverable / requirement to seek funds or start a business. Here we ask once again: Is the business plan enough? It is our view that a ‘traditional’ business plan is not enough. Quite a few business plans, that we call ‘traditional’, focus on the business aspects with a heavier focus on operation of the business. The question is: Do these traditional business plans provide a proper focus on the venture (most call a “project”) from idea to launch of the business?

The Missing Link

It is interesting to point out that many call a new venture a “project”, as we mentioned in the earlier section. We like the word “project,” but most definitions of the word “project” mean something that is temporary. So is the venture temporary? We hope not! So is the word ‘project’ the wrong one to use? Yes and No. The business is not a project; it is a business, a venture. So to be academic, the word “project” is not the proper one to use for the new business. Let us call it venture or business. Yet to launch the business is exactly what we call a project – the launch project is to take the venture from the idea to operations. Our objective here is not to get into an English lesson; rather we aim to define the proper use of words in order to have the proper context and fully understand the missing link. So what is this missing link? Well if launching the business is a project, then how do we manage it? Where is Project Management in managing the launch? The next section will provide a methodology to follow in launching the business.

A Proposed Sequence

Our proposed model will focus on the venture launch from idea to initial operation, using the missing link – Project Management. Future articles could focus on the use of Organizational Project Management to help build and sustain a small business and grow it.

The proposed model, which is derived from Customizable and Adaptable Methodology for Managing Projects it isa project life span model that divides the project life span into three distinct phases; which we explain here.

Business Concept

The business concept is a crucial phase of the project that spans a period from the idea for the venture until an initial decision to go ahead and encompass a feasibility study. The idea owner is likely to be the entrepreneur who has an idea for a business that could be a passion, an income opportunity, filling a need, fixing a problem, among other drivers for the business.

This is the time for dreaming, but one has to be careful that the dream is realistic and it is possible to achieve. It is highly risky for someone to launch a new venture without proper understanding of the challenges and opportunities, although one could argue in rare cases that spontaneous action could also result in good profit.

Therefore, the entrepreneur (small business owner to be) has to study the feasibility of his idea, and for this we think that existing business planning techniques are very important to use at this stage. However, in addition to the focus on the financials, competition, market demand, operation and other factors, the entrepreneur needs to also think about Project Management including proper Project Management planning. Proper Project

Management planning includes understanding of the stakeholders and their expectations and requirements, setting realistic time and cost targets, have a fair understanding of the project and venture risks (threats and opportunities), in addition to other factors.

Development of the Business Concept

The earlier phase emphasizes the feasibility study and the requirement for business planning. With the business basics in place, Project Management will become more important and the entrepreneur becomes a project manager.

So what do we do now? The project manager/entrepreneur needs to think and act per two aspects, two sides of the same coin. On one side he needs to think about the project from idea to initial operations, but he cannot ignore post project completion, which would be leading and sustaining the business (operations).

For the project aspect, the project manager needs to put in place all of the requirements in details for launching the business, including defining the success factors, time line, required resources, licensing, legal, financial/funding requirements and alternatives, regulations, budget for the launch, time line, communication with stakeholders, procurement strategy, in addition to risks identification, assessment, and management. All of these activities focus on planning to taking us from the idea through project completion but primarily to produce a detailed plan that would give us the necessary information to make the final decision on whether we should continue with the venture or not. This detailed plan is used extensively in the next phase.

For the business aspects, the project manager needs to start planning for operation readiness; which means identifying all of the things needed once the business is operating; such as financial control, human resources, policies, operational processes, in addition to marketing and business development. If the venture is not for profit, it would still require most of these activities but may be with the addition of the needs for volunteers and volunteer management or the need for sponsors.

Project Delivery (Launching the Business)

With a plan for the project and a plan for operation readiness, it is time to start implementing the project leading to initial operations. In this phase we implement the activities that we identified in the detailed plan. For example, in the plan we specified we need a permit, then it is time to do the activities necessary to obtain the permit. In the plan we defined the need for a marketing plan, it is time to define the marketing plan and develop the necessary collateral, whether print or online.

Therefore, the primary purpose of Project Delivery is to perform all of the activities necessary to produce the required deliverables that would be critical for the successful launch of the new business and start initial operations.

Throughout this document we discussed “initial operations” and “operations” as two independent terms and this is intentional. We use initial operations to define the period of time that starts with opening our doors as a business or a not for profit organization. We call it initial operations because as we start to offer services we might recognize that forms need to be adjusted, some documents might be missing something, among other things that might not go as well as we planned.

Therefore, initial operations will allow us to make the necessary refinements before we go into steady and normal operations. In some situations, we might eliminate initial operations and go straight into normal operations. In other scenarios we might have a “soft start” as an initial operations period, which we might call also as a pilot period / trial period. Which approach to take, it all depends on the nature of the business and if it allows a trial period / initial operations or not.

Technical Writing – How to Write Project Justification Documents

As part of building the overall project scope a technical author will first need to lay out the justification documentation. This document which can also be considered a “business case” lays out the fundamental reasons for implementing the project. Here’s a simple guide on creating a project justification.

State the Problem

Businesses don’t carry out projects for fun; they perform them in order to solve a specific issue or issues. You need to describe the problem clearly and accurately at the start of your document so that you can then present the solution to that problem.

For example if you intend to implement a new HRMS (Human Resource Management System) your problem may be; “The HR team currently spends nearly 80% of its time on non-productive administrative tasks, reducing the effectiveness of the function dramatically.”

State the Solution

This should be a simple statement to define your project. This enables your reader to understand what it is you’re proposing.

“We intend to implement an automated HRMS system to reduce manual administration by half.”

Supply Supporting Information

The problem and solution aren’t going to justify your project to the stakeholders and decision makers, so you need to provide the right level of information to enable them to support your recommendation.

Examples of the kind of information you should use:

Market Demand – Not always the strongest argument, but if you can show that all your competitors are implementing similar systems, it certainly suggests that it may be worth considering in your organisation.
Business Need – In this example the business need is clear, the HR team are spending the majority of their work time on non-specialist tasks and that costs money.
Customer Demands – what is it that your customers are screaming out for? Don’t forget to include internal customers as well as external ones.
Technological Progression – what’s going on in the world around you, is there are compelling case to be told in terms of the way IT and systems are developing?
Legal – Don’t forget the all important obligation to the law, if you can show that your project brings compliance or makes it easier to comply with those requirements you have a stronger case.

Writing a business case or project justification is an essential part of the larger project scoping process. Ideally you should write this early in the lifecycle of your project to help you obtain funding and support. You will also then be able to clearly identify the objectives of your task so that team members have a clear message to take away.

Project Planning Tips If You Have Asperger’s Syndrome

Effective project planning is often difficult for individuals with Asperger’s Syndrome. It can result in the following workplace difficulties: not knowing how to get started on an assignment, becoming stuck midway through a project, vastly underestimating how long something will take, discovering too late that important items have been omitted, or losing sight of the original goal.

There are four basic steps to effective planning:

1. Establish a clear goal.

2. Create specific, manageable steps to reach the goal.

3. Organize the time needed to complete the steps.

4. Assemble required materials.

The following planning template has been used by several of my coaching clients for both long-term projects and daily tasks. To show you how it works, I have included an example from one of my clients who used the template to plan the writing of a process manual.

Planning Template

1. Describe the goal or task: Produce an internal process manual

2. Due date: One month

3. Steps and estimated time to complete

Step 1: Outline steps required to produce new product

Estimated time: 2 hours

Step 2: Identify team(s) responsible for each step

Estimated time: 1 hour

Step 3: Write draft of process for review

Estimated time: 8 hours

Step 4: Send draft to team leaders, marketing director and supervisor for review Estimated time: 30 minutes to send/ 1 week for comments

Step 5: Incorporate feedback into final document

Estimated time: 2 hours

Total estimated time: 13 ½ hours

4. What do I need to complete the task (materials, information, equipment, etc.): Sample process documents from other departments, organizational chart, list of colleagues who will review document, time with supervisor to review initial outline

5. I will work on this project from: 2:00 – 4:00pm on Mondays and 9:00 – 11:30am on Thursdays

6. At the half-way point, my goal is to have the following amount of work completed: 60% of the first draft written

7. Actual time to complete:

Step 1: 2 ½ hours

Step 2: 45 minutes

Step 3: 10 hours

Step 4: 15 minutes/ 2 weeks for all comments

Step 5: 3 ½ hours

Total actual time: 17 hours and 1 extra week for comments

7. If the actual time to complete a step/task took longer than the estimated time, then:

a) What obstacles, if any, were not anticipated? Draft took longer due to unfamiliarity with part of the product development process; team leaders had more changes than I expected; two managers could not get feedback to me within a week due to travel schedules

b) How can the task be handled differently next time? Allow 20% more time to write the document than I expect; check managers’ travel schedules in advance; make sure that I am familiar with all aspects of the development process before beginning project

The planning template can be used for a variety of situations, and individual action steps can be as detailed as needed. Save your work sheets and review your progress over time. Pay particular attention to how close your estimated times are to your actual times because accurate estimating is an important part of meeting deadlines.

Project The Right Image–Starting With Your Email Address

Email addresses are just as important today as toll-free numbers were in the past.

Why? I would rather call 1-800-FLOWERS than 1-800-476-8874, for two reasons. First, it’s easier to remember. Second, and more importantly, the text version tells me that the company has put more of an effort into setting up their business. I think the same is true of email addresses. I would sooner email sales@flowers.com than flowers@rogers.com or flowers691@hotmail.com.

Many of you are still using rogers.com, sympatico.com, hotmail.com, and yahoo.ca addresses. My guess is that you’re doing so because you think you need a website in order to have your own domain name. Good news–this is not the case! Thanks to services provided by several companies, you can have your domain name and eat it too. (Ok, I know that was lame, but I’m sure you get the idea.)

While there are many ways to get a custom domain name (www.yourdomainname.com) without having a website, I’ll focus on two companies that, together, allow you to do this for about $10 a year. One you probably haven’t heard of: Godaddy. The other, I can say with absolute certainty, you have: Google. Need more than one email addresses? No problem. That same $10 dollars gets you up to 50 email addresses.

Now you’re probably asking: how do I do this?

Step 1: Visit http://www.godaddy.com and search for a domain name that suits you and your business. When you’ve found one, it costs roughly $10 per year to “own your piece of the internet” by registering the name. If you register the name for a longer period, you can save some money. If you’re looking to get a .ca domain name instead of a .com, email me and I’ll point you in the right direction.

Step 2: Visit http://www.google.com/a/ and sign up–for free–for Google Apps for Your Domain. Google Apps provides you with 50 email accounts for your domain name. You can access these email accounts using Google’s Gmail online interface, or you can use any email application on your PC or Mac. You can also set up a customizable start page, private-labelled Google Calendar, and Google Page Creator for your domain. This last one allows you to create a simple web page for your domain using a what-you-see-is-what-you-get design tool.

Did I mention all this will only cost you $10 A YEAR? You no longer have an excuse to use anything but your custom domain name email addresses.

And yes, I use Google Apps for my email.