IT Project

Project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result. The uniqueness and temporary nature criteria should be used to identify projects as opposed to repetitive, ongoing activities named “operational". You can think about your life as an example of a project.

A Project manager is the person assigned by the performing organization to achieve the project objectives. There are many factors, such as customer and stakeholder interactions, the organizational structure of the parent organization, and relationships with affiliate contractors and subcontractors that define the exact allocation of the project manager.

A Project Portfolio is a collection of diverse projects managed collectively to align with the organization’s strategy and overall plan to achieve a competitive advantage. Organizations should seek to balance their project portfolio with respect to risk, experience, and technology so that the project portfolio is balanced.

A Program is a collection of projects within a project portfolio whose activities are coordinated so that the benefits of the program are great than the sum of the benefits of the individual projects. Therefore, projects that are part of a program have a common outcome or capability. While a project may not be part of a program, a program will include more than one project.

Project Attributes:

• Time Frame
• Purpose (to provide value!)
• Ownership
• Resources (the triple constraint)
• Roles
  • Project Manager
  • Project Sponsor
  • Subject Matter Expert (SME)
  • Technical Expert (TE)
• Risks & Assumptions
• Interdependent Tasks
• Planned Organizational Change
• Operating in Environments Larger than the Project Itself

Why do projects fail?

• People
• Processes
• Technology
• Organization

Project Life Cycle:

• Define Project Goal
• Plan Project
• Execute Project Plan
• Close Project
• Evaluate Project

Project delivery methodologies

• PMBOK : focused completely on the management process, it gives users tools and procedures to effectively manage a team within an organization.
• PRINCE2 : a management guide that covers the entire project lifecycle and is helpful in guiding decision-making and processes.

PRINCE2 themes

• Business Case Theme: Asks questions like: “Why should this project be funded? And “Why should the project continue to be funded?
• Organization Theme: Answers questions like: “Who is involved in the project?" The roles, responsibilities and accountability are defined.
• Risk Theme: Risk theme deals with uncertainties; this theme asks the “what if…” questions. Identifying, assessing, and managing the risk factors.
• Quality Theme: Used to ensure project is completed on time and withing the budget.
• Planning Theme: Clear communication and answers the questions: “Who does what?” And “When will it get done?” This will also determine cost, time, quality, risk, work performance target is achievable in reference to progress.
• Change Theme: Target objectives.
• Progress Theme: Provides means to measure project achievement and determines if the project progress is going as planned. This asks the following questions “Where is the project now?” and “Where will it end up?”

PRINCE2 principles

• Business Case Driven Principles: The business case is a key document that is developed at the beginning of the project and must be continually justified throughout. Therefore, it is a key driver for starting the project and for continued funding of the project
• Product Focus Principle: Projects are not just a series of activities or tasks, but rather are undertaken to produce a product. PRINCE2® projects emphasize the design and delivery of a quality product.
• Lessons Learned Principle: PRINCE2® is based on proven best practices. Therefore, documented experiences in terms of lessons learned are an important component for the PRINCE2® methodology that are sought throughout the life of the project.
• Manage the Stage Principle: At each stage of the project, the Project Board reviews the project’s progress in comparison to the business case. Each stage is planned, monitored, and controlled.
• Adapt to Project Principle: The PRINCE2® methodology can be tailored to projects large or small. The methodology can be scaled to the size of the project and should be flexible in terms of the risks and environment unique to the project.
  Manage by Exception Principle: Tolerances are defined and used to empower project stakeholders by allowing them to make decisions without having to ask for approval from the next higher level of authority.
• Accountability Principle: PRINCE2® projects should have clear roles and responsibilities. Stakeholders need to know their role as well as everyone else’s. The Project Board includes executive sponsorship that defines the project’s objectives and ensures that the project remains viable. In addition, internal or external suppliers provide resources, skills, or the knowledge to deliver the project’s products, while users represent those stakeholders who will benefit from the delivery of the final product.

The advantages of AGILE

• It is faster, since agile development requires less documentation, time can be saved
• It is easier to match with the customer's exact need. Developers and customers were able to check the software prototypes faster to arrange the software to the customer's need
• It is flexible. Software is not fixed so it is easy to change the software if there are additional needs for it

eXtreme Programming

More tests, more demos, more communication with the customer.

eXtreme Programming helps to have an actual working program for the customer to find out if it matches the customer's needs.

Scrum

Scrum is a lightweight framework that assists individuals, teams, and organizations in creating value by providing adaptable solutions to difficult issues.

It is the most frequently used and popular agile framework, with three primary roles: Scrum master, product owner, and development team.

Scrum enables teams to learn from experience, self-organize while working on a project, and reflect on their successes and failures to continually improve.

Team Learning Cycles

Learning cycles are a useful tool that can be used throughout the project life cycle regardless whether the project team follows Waterfall or Agile.

Learning cycles provide a way to resolve ambiguous situations through the repeated pattern of thinking through a problem.

Understand & frame the problem -> Plan -> Act -> Reflect & learn

Measurable Organizational Value (MOV)

The MOV can act as a measure of success however it must support the organization’s vision, mission, and strategy.

Project objectives must support the MOV - more specifically, project objectives include scope (the project work to be completed), schedule (time), budget (money), and quality.

the MOV must:

• Be measurable
• Provide value
• Be agreed upon by the project stakeholders
• Be verifiable

Breakeven

Breakeven attempts to determine the point at which a project would begin to recoup its original investment.

For example, if you sell a golf putter for $30.00 and it costs $25.00 to make, you have a profit margin of $5.00.

with initial investment of $100,000,

the breakeven point would be $100,000 / $5.00 = 20,000 units

Return on Investment (ROI)

ROI is an indicator of a company’s financial performance.

For example, for $115,000 of total expected benefits we will get:

Project ROI = (Total Expected Benefits - Total Expected Costs) / Total Expected Costs

= ($115,000 - $100,000) / $100,000 = 15%

Net Present Value

NPV focuses on the time value of money.

Project and Organizational Structure

• Functional Organization : Individuals and subunits (i.e., groups of individuals) perform similar functions and have similar areas of expertise.
• Project Based Organization : this organizational structure supports projects as the dominant form of business.
• Matrix Organization : a combination of the vertical functional structure and the horizontal project structure.

Contract

A contract is a document signed by the buyer and seller that defines the terms and conditions of the buyer–seller relationship.

A Request for Proposal (RFP)

RFP is a document that solicits proposal, often made through a bidding process to potential suppliers to submit business proposals.

A Request for Quotation (RFQ)

RFQ is a document used in soliciting price and delivery quotations that meet minimum quality specifications for a specific quantity of specific goods and/or services.

Procurement-type Contracts

Fixed-Price or Lump-Sum Contracts

A total or fixed price is negotiated or set as the final price for a specific product or service.

On the other hand, the cost of a particular product or service may be fixed with little or no opportunity for negotiation.

Fixed-price or lump-sum contracts may include incentives for meeting certain objects or penalties if those objectives are not met.

Time and Materials (T&M) Contracts

A hybrid of cost-reimbursable and fixed-price contracts.

The buyer pays the seller for both the time and materials required to complete the work.

Cost-Reimbursable Contracts

Payment or reimbursement is made to the seller to cover the sellers actual direct costs (i.e., labor, materials, etc.) and indirect costs (i.e., admin. salaries, rent, utilities, etc.).

It may include incentives for meeting certain objectives or penalties if those objectives are not met.

Project Charter

The project charter serves as an agreement and as a communication tool for all of the project stakeholders.

It will detail everything needed to carry out the project.

The project charter should

• detail the resources to be provided by the organization.
• specify clearly who will take ownership of the project’s product once the project is completed.
• also detail the terms of all the parties involved.

The triple constraint

cost, time and scope

• Projects must be delivered within a budget
• Projects must be delivered on time
• Projects must meet the agreed scope
• Projects must also provide MOV

The six PMBOK® scope management processes

• Plan Scope Management
• Collect Requirements
• Define Scope
• Create the Work Breakdown Structure
• Validate Scope
• Control Scope

Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

The Work Breakdown Structure is a project management tool that provides a hierarchical structure that acts as a bridge, or link, between the project’s scope and the detailed project plan that will be created.

The WBS includes tasks and activities which could be logically grouped into the work packages, deliverables, and milestones that we will review next.

Work Package

The Work Package provides a logical basis for defining the project activities and assigning resources to those activities so that all of the project work is identified.

Relationship b/w WBS and Work package

Project Estimations Methods

Although there is no perfect estimation tool, having an understanding and clear definition of the project deliverables can provide a higher degree of confidence in our estimates.

• Guesstimating : guessing at the estimates is based on feelings rather than on hard evidence.
• Delphi Technique : To estimate using the Delphi technique, several experts need to be recruited to estimate the same item. Using the Delphi technique can take longer and cost more than most estimation methods.
• Time Boxing : often used on Agile projects whereby a box of time is allocated for a sprint. This allocation is based more on a requirement than just on guesswork. For example, a project team may have two (and only two) weeks to build a prototype during a sprint. At the end of the two weeks, work on the prototype stops, regardless of whether the prototype is 100 percent complete.
• Top-Down : Top-down estimating involves estimating the schedule and/or cost of the entire project in terms of how long it should take or how much it should cost.
• Bottom-Up : Bottom-up estimating involves dividing the project into smaller modules and then directly estimating the time and effort in terms of person-hours, person-weeks, or person-months for each module.
• Poker Planning : Poker planning is a variation of the Delphi technique that begins with a deck of cards that represent an estimate in days.