Project Management NOTEbook, A Career Success Course



Why read this book?Hi and welcome to possibly the most exciting and useful book and course you will ever experience! If it is not, please let me know and I’ll try to make it so in future versions, as project managers do. I taught this course online for more than ten years, 46+ classes & 500+ students, and many changes!Have fun reading my project planning tips, course NOTES, lectures, student comments, etc.You probably volunteer, work with a team, or plan parties and picnics. As you read this book, imagine that you are in an online course, reading a blog, or are in a chat room with colleagues.This course taught me the value of using some type of system to track projects no matter how large or small they are. I can see in the future me referring back to the skills I learned in this class many times. -- R. A. Hendrick“Project Management NOTEbook, A Career Success Course”Discusses practical tips for Information Technology (IT) and non-IT teams.Documents a proven method of developing proposals in a six week course.Details principles of Scoping, Estimating, Scheduling, Budgeting, Tracking, and Communicating with your client ... with strategy, tact, logic and humor.Describes using project and presentation software.Demands selling “Mr. Big” on ideas, with meaningful content and formatting.Demonstrates how to change the lives and careers of coworkers and family. “Life is a Project, so … Lead, Follow or Get Out Of The Way!”Contents TOC \o "1-3" \h \z \u Prologue: Student Testimonials (continued in Appendix B) PAGEREF _Toc458453534 \h 30.1 Course Introduction PAGEREF _Toc458453535 \h 40.2 Responses to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) PAGEREF _Toc458453536 \h 50.3 Team Project Recommendations PAGEREF _Toc458453537 \h 161.0 Week One Lecture: Introduction to Project Management PAGEREF _Toc458453538 \h 301.2 Career NOTES PAGEREF _Toc458453539 \h 351.3 Class NOTES PAGEREF _Toc458453540 \h 391.4 Gantt NOTES PAGEREF _Toc458453541 \h 451.6 Team NOTES PAGEREF _Toc458453542 \h 492.0 Week Two Lecture: Project Time Management PAGEREF _Toc458453543 \h 522.1 WBS Tasks NOTES PAGEREF _Toc458453544 \h 572.2 Time Management NOTES PAGEREF _Toc458453545 \h 592.3 Class NOTES PAGEREF _Toc458453546 \h 612.4 Gantt NOTES PAGEREF _Toc458453547 \h 632.5 Interview NOTES PAGEREF _Toc458453548 \h 642.6 Team NOTES PAGEREF _Toc458453549 \h 653.0 Week Three Lecture: Project Cost and Quality Management PAGEREF _Toc458453550 \h 693.3 Class NOTES PAGEREF _Toc458453551 \h 713.4 Gantt NOTES PAGEREF _Toc458453552 \h 723.5 Report NOTES PAGEREF _Toc458453553 \h 753.6 Team NOTES PAGEREF _Toc458453554 \h 764.0 Week Four Lecture: Project Procurement Management and Leadership PAGEREF _Toc458453555 \h 784.1 Organization Management NOTES PAGEREF _Toc458453556 \h 824.2 Career NOTES PAGEREF _Toc458453557 \h 844.3 Class NOTES PAGEREF _Toc458453558 \h 904.4 Gantt NOTES PAGEREF _Toc458453559 \h 914.5 Report NOTES PAGEREF _Toc458453560 \h 934.6 Team NOTES PAGEREF _Toc458453561 \h 945.0 Week Five Lecture: Project Risk Management PAGEREF _Toc458453562 \h 955.5 Report NOTES PAGEREF _Toc458453563 \h 985.6 Team NOTES PAGEREF _Toc458453564 \h 986.0 Week Six Lecture: Project Communication Management PAGEREF _Toc458453565 \h 1016.2 Communication NOTES PAGEREF _Toc458453566 \h 1046.3 Class NOTES PAGEREF _Toc458453567 \h 1066.5 Report NOTES PAGEREF _Toc458453568 \h 1076.6 Team NOTES PAGEREF _Toc458453569 \h 110Appendix A: Weekly Assignments PAGEREF _Toc458453570 \h 113Appendix B: Student Testimonials continued from Prologue PAGEREF _Toc458453571 \h 123Prologue: Student Testimonials (continued in Appendix B)The following comments are from my former Project Management students. Their inspiring participation in our classes encouraged me to share my thoughts with you, your friends, and "Mr. Big". Let me know how your career was helped by our class and by this book! Thanks!Ken KleinMany classes approach their topic from the academic or philosophical perspective. Even the Learning Team structure in many classes is far from reality. This class was on the subject of project and program leadership, and the issues related to them. This class was much closer to reality. This course could be expanded into a series, or condensed appropriately as a summary course for students who will supervise, but will not function as Project Leaders / Program Managers.R. FergusonThe team project provided a demonstration of the level of interaction between a project team and stakeholders. These concepts have provided [Me] with focus, knowledge, and experience. Many topics conveyed in the course [I] shared with [my] department in an effort to improve success. A successful project isn't about the competency of a project manager but of the team as a whole.A. G. WardThis course and the materials were valuable to me because my current position as a project coordinator requires that I manage 40+ projects at any one time. Even though I have been using project management concepts I did not always understand why my company used them or their value. This course made all my project management experience make sense. I found myself re-evaluating past projects and could identify areas I should have done better based on what I was learning in this course. There were times my past projects were difficult and now I realize that if I had known what I learned in this class, those difficulties could have been avoided or eliminated. Project management can be a beast to be tamed and it helps to have the rules pre-determined.M. KiedrowskiThe three interviews we conducted presented us with challenges but also paid off with valuable learning experiences. The interviews gave us the opportunity to gain practical knowledge from professionals who currently work with the concepts and techniques being taught in class. This class took us to the next level by having us work on a real world project. The facilitator was more interested in making sure that we got the concepts and were able to apply the skills and techniques being taught than he was in just watching us go through the motions.D. J. Murphy0.1 Course IntroductionWelcome to YOUR Project Management Practitioner CourseHi and welcome to possibly the most exciting and useful book and course you will ever experience. If it is not, please let me know why not … and we will try to make it so in future versions.As you read this book, imagine that you are in an online course, reading a blog, or are in a chat room with fellow project managers. I facilitated this course online for more than ten years. My school provided my students with Internet systems, software, rules, e-texts, articles, tutorials, and other resources. If you get serious about adopting the themes, structures, and schedules in this book, be ready for some changes to your work and home life. Have fun reading my course NOTES, lectures, student comments, and other materials … to become a better Project Manager!Ken Klein BiographyI was born in Pennsylvania and my folks moved back to Brooklyn NY when I was about 9 months old. We moved to South Carolina while I was in elementary school. Dad moved for a new job in Alabama when I was in junior high, then to Georgia in my senior year of high school; bummer!My Mom, Dad and Sister were social workers and grandparents were tailors and seamstresses, but I became a "heck of an engineer." I met my wife of 48 years, Jo Anne, as a computer date in 1966 (yes, we had computers then). I worked at the Georgia Tech Computer Center. My first programs were in ALGOL, FORTRAN, COBOL and machine language. I was glad when BASIC was developed so I could do some real programming.I still have my Commodore 64, and a 4 MHZ PC (turboed to a blazing 8 MHz by pressing the green button) that I used for my 1990-1995 MBA, Laptops, and other gems in my "computer museum". Jo Anne and I married the day after I graduated as an Industrial Engineer at Georgia Tech. We then drove our Ramblin' Reck to work in Iowa, Maine, Maryland, and to Virginia Beach.I overcame 23 years of recurring nightmares: walking into a strange classroom unprepared for an exam when I returned for a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree from ODU, earned a Six Sigma Black Belt in 2006 and a Project Management Professional (PMP) certification in 2007.I left my 20 year Navy job to go into consulting as a Project Manager on Army, Navy and Coast Guard contracts. I don’t like to do the same kind of project twice so I’ve also been a classical industrial engineer, computer specialist, instructor, business analyst, information technologist, marketer, customer service, facilities maintenance, materials, operations and team manager.My Motto: “Life is a Project, so … Lead, Follow or Get Out Of The Way!”0.2 Responses to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) 1. New Technologies 2. Discussion Questions & Weekly Assignments 3. Forum Postings & Attachments 4. Spelling, Grammar & Punctuation 5. Facilitator Role 6. Abbreviations and Historical and Idiomatic References 7. Deadline Times 8. Subject Formatting 9. Be Reasonable10. Weekly Feedback Format11. Using Your Class Work in Your Job12. Computers, Technology, and Creativity Management13. Drilling Down for Data14. Absolutes15. Computer & Technology Privacy16. Virtual Offices17. Decision Models18. Strategic Communication 1. New Technologiesa. If you are new to the types of technology discussed in this class, relax. This will be a great learning experience for you. I personally never want to do the same thing twice. I enjoy new adventures in trying to figure out how to plan and organize a new project. One of the signs of a great manager is succeeding in performing new tasks. I know life for a techie-newbie can be trying at times, so hang in there! You are miles ahead of your non-techie co-workers in understanding where the world is going and how to succeed in life. I really look forward to reading your writings on how these new technologies are affecting you.b. In this course you will be stretched to think about your life in the future. As more innovations are brought to the public, life can go in so many directions. For example, consider DNA in the human body and how much memory is stored in one strand. If computer engineers could harness that technology, consider how much memory we could store in a tiny chip or other computer device. Let us hear about personal examples, such as my great grandfather used to "wear" a hearing aid that he kept in his shirt pocket with a very noticeable wire running into a very noticeable earpiece (looking just like my iPhone and my Bose Ear Buds do today. Times don’t change much sometimes). Today hearing aids are often hidden inside the ear canal and most people would not notice that you are deaf, and they are programmed and tuned to your particular wavelength of hearing loss. My Mom at age 90 bought her first cell phone, but it was so small that she took it back because she had a hard time pressing the tiny buttons. Her IBM ThinkPad Laptop with a track ball mouse did not go well either with her arthritic fingers, so I got her a more friendly mouse. Since I bought my iPhone6S+ I've been browsing the App Store and reading the evaluations. For the same app there are 1 - 5 Stars. The 1-Stars are more interesting and informative than the 5's (probably written by the author or her mother). My point is that suggested improvements are really needed and users give the most important comments. 2. Discussion Questions & Weekly Assignmentsa. In Discussion Questions (DQs) and other class assignments, your first question to yourself should be: Who is my audience? Is it my facilitator, my classmates, or is it “Mr. Big”? (“Mr. Big” could be Ms. Big, Mrs. Big, or whatever you want to call your boss, board of directors, professor, spouse, etc. In this course, I’ll just refer to your intended audience as Mr. Big, OK?) Don't expect busy executives to spend a lot of time reading things that are not easy to read, follow, or understand. DQs are for "Discussions", not one posting assignments. While your comments may be substantive, you are encouraged to join in the conversation where three to five postings from other students are common. Points are earned, not granted. Got it?b. Before beginning your paper, I suggest that you outline it as shown below: 1. Purpose * * * 2. Problem & Background 3. Discussion & Findings 4. Financial Analysis (if appropriate) 5. Project Timeline (if appropriate) 6. Conclusions & Recommendations (Ask For What You Want… Sell, Sell, Sell!)c. What form should your weekly assignments take? Try to make them sound less technical. Break paragraphs up into bite-sized portions with clear section and paragraph headings. I am amazed at how well my students respond to these fairly difficult discussion questions. You will do careful research and analyses, preparing ideas in professional and thoughtful styles, and using clear and carefully organized prose. It should also be pleasing to the eye! Check reference manuals if you are not sure how to start. I’ll be active in my responses, but I won’t reply to each DQ, comment or paper since I may not have much more to add.d. Please remember to clip your DQ and other replies (cut unnecessary text from other postings). Do NOT use clipart, graphics, or photos that are not DIRECTLY related to and NEEDED to illustrate the topic, and please keep your posting sizes as SMALL as possible.e. Learning is a matter of proportions of seeing, hearing, and doing, where some people learn better by seeing and then writing (that is me), doing or feeling (that is kind of me), and hearing (I need a little bit of hearing, but I tend to rapidly forget what I hear). I suppose I could do a statistical study (but I don't do statistics very well) and determine the proper proportions for myself, but that would probably be a big waste of time since few people would know or care what my percentages were. When I do classroom teaching, I try to bring in all three attributes and let my students customize their learning accordingly. That is what I try to do in this course, by letting you decide how you want to write your DQ papers and communicate with each other with as little structure as I can tolerate to provide a grading structure. 3. Forum Postings & AttachmentsI prefer for you to prepare your weekly and final TEAM reports in Word, Project and Presentation, and attach them into your team forums with a significant and meaningful introduction in the posting. Use American Psychological Association (APA) formats without color or bolded headings, etc. in your Word documents, but make them look good as well as sound good; as if you are submitting a proposal to your company president or board of directors. You are being treated as Masters level business students. Assume these are real business proposals for which you are requesting approvals to proceed, and budgets. Many of my students actually present these documents to their organization during and after the course.More often than not, the customer doesn't know what he/she wants. Portfolios and price lists can help the customer prepare their Request for Proposal (RFP), even if it only in their mind or on a napkin. RFP standards are often dictated by the customer, for example, the US Government has strict contracting guidelines and requirements. Major industries also have common guidelines, that if the supplier does not follow, they do not usually get the contract. There is an ongoing battle between the public relations (PR) department and the managers who want to improve and conduct lessons learned, the results of which PR usually wants to "bury". Most RFPs give the requirements of end products, but not of the project details, leaving the methodology up to the contractor. Sometimes that is great for the customer, but sometimes not, where they get what they asked for, but not what they wanted. For example, they may not be included in stakeholder meetings where some key information is not well shared; therefore the end product may require expensive rework before completion or delivery to the user. 4. Spelling, Grammar & PunctuationGet your spelling/grammar checker in gear. Remember, speeling cownts. I’m not happy with mistakes in punctuation, tenses, or line spacing, especially when I see repeated errors after offering suggestions. My job is to help you succeed in your project by getting it ready for Mr. Big. 5. Facilitator Rolea. My role is that of a facilitator and editor, not your “approving” agent. I will grade your work based on its merit, logic, content, format, presentation, how much involvement I had, and influence I exerted during the process. The final product is in YOUR hands. As managers, your project is never "approved" until the objectives are measured long after implementation and Life Cycle Management (LCM) is complete.b. Please don't get negatively concerned about my suggestions and comments on your team papers, especially the first couple of weeks. This is my job as facilitator and coach, and an integral part of your team performing independent quality control. We all want this project to be right and sometimes my "expectations" may not be made abundantly clear at first, so I may find an example for "clarification". I think that there is a big difference between "Gotcha! You lose." and "Let's do a more work and thinking to get it right, without negative repercussions". I am here to help you learn how to hit home runs some of the time, to not strike out most of the time, and certainly not to play “gotcha.” I feel that the best way I can teach and for you to learn is by rolling up our sleeves, doing the hard things, and getting hands dirty, with passion. That’s why I will get involved with the format and presentation portions of your team projects. The technical details of school projects are not nearly as hard to research, teach and learn as understanding how to plan, organize, construct and refine a successful project proposal.c. What is your role in your firm? Consider how you can get ahead and make it happen! It is called “attitude”. Early in my career, I told my dad that I was interviewing a company for a job. He asked, "Don't you mean they are interviewing YOU?" I said, “No, it is my choice where I go to work, not theirs.” See the attitude difference?d. You’ll get a lot of attitude from me in this course. It is not a better than you attitude. It is a “What can I do to enhance my life and help those around me” attitude. I'd love for you to adopt a similar attitude as you pursue your careers and your family's growth. 6. Abbreviations and Historical and Idiomatic ReferencesI was using Quicken, but my Credit Union (CU) supports (MS) Money, so I bought that package and converted to MS Money. I posted to both Quicken and MS Money as a tandem startup, until I was completely comfortable with my CU reports, etc. (Notice my convention of spelling a term the first time for non-common terms, using parentheses to identify the abbreviation, then using the abbreviation from then on in the same piece. Do the same in your writings.)Also be careful about using "obtuse" references to things that may not be universally understood, especially when there is a multi-lingual or "ethnic" audience unfamiliar with idioms or historical facts common to some but not to others or that may be offended by an ethnic term. I was once chastised for using the term "taboo" which had ethnic connotation to the reader; I did and do apologize. This course is taught in English, my one and only "full" language. So I often forget, as do many of us, that there are other languages being used by many of our classmates and audiences. 7. Deadline TimesThe "official" deadline time is midnight. But, if I get it by the following morning, that’s OK. I'm not much of a clock-watcher! "Life" happens. I let some things here slide a bit, and others I am pretty touchy about. Time is not one of them. As I mentioned, I am not a clock watcher, but I insist on you get it right in terms of content and format so Mr. Big will "buy" it. Something way too many managers tend to forget. It is not always about the dollars and hours. It is whether it will work or not in the "real" world. We do live in the real world of life. Hang in. Sleep well! Tomorrow is another wonderful life experience! 8. Subject FormattingYou are REQUIRED to use the subject format described in weekly lectures (if different from the Syllabus). Do not use "#" or any other symbols besides the dashes and spaces shown, so we can all properly track the threads. For example: WK2-DQ1-Project-<your name>, e.g., WK2-DQ1-Project-Mary Smith (NOT DQ1 - WK2 - Proj - Mary Smith or DQ1-WK2-projt-Mary Smith, etc). The week number is first. 9. Be ReasonableWith your team projects, use good, reasonable thinking. Don't let me or some over-zealous teammate or facilitator push you into an unrealistic approach without good justification. Take each suggestion and weigh it for its merit and total impact on other factors. Ask yourself how Mr. Big would see your viewpoint.10. Weekly Feedback Formata. I appreciate feedback on course content and structure. I do work very hard to give you all the very best and most I can give while still maintaining a "day job", so my time for feedback on daily postings is difficult and time consuming, especially for a dozen or more students at a time.b. In order to keep track of class performance, I use an Excel file. On one spreadsheet I keep track of daily participation and other information such as name and team number, then I have a set of spreadsheets for weekly performance data from the participation worksheet, and another related set for feedback reports that I copy and paste into your feedback reports. I also have a worksheet in the file that I copy-paste from the class roster with names, addresses, email addresses and phone numbers.c. Points are not deducted, they are earned. The more research you do and the more thoughtful analysis you put into your writings, the higher your score. Longer introspective papers earn you more credit than short snappy summaries and "researched" answers. Participation and other points are based on my expectations in terms of my experience of what levels my most successful students in the past have achieved. Seven days earn higher scores than six days, etc.; Forty postings in a week earn more than thirty, etc., and longer papers earn more than shorter ones, as long as the quality of responses is excellent, the logic and thinking is clear and on point, and is more than short "I agree" comments. I expect Masters level work, and reward good grades if expectations are met. My goal is for you to think and learn, not good grades. 11. Using Your Class Work in Your Joba. I don’t want your hard work in this course to become dust collectors on your electronic bookshelves. I want you to take the opportunity to develop and present your findings and recommendations to your organization. What are your plans to do so? What kind of reaction do you think you will receive? How will you handle their expected feedback? Plan your submissions accordingly so you will achieve the best future results (Life is a chess game; think many moves in advance before moving your pieces.)b. Prepare plans in terms of WIIFM (What's In It For Me). Whenever you do anything involving others, ALWAYS consider WIIFM. Why do you work so hard in this class? To make your facilitator happy? Of course not! You do it so you will gain something, whatever your motivation de jour. Become a hero to your organization(s) by presenting your major assignments and team proposals to your leadership, with a clear plan of action.c. I hope that you will take the torrent of information this course offers (somebody called it "sipping from a fire hose") and put it to great use in your organization. I know we cover many difficult concepts. Let’s keep them in perspective, and not just make this an academic exercise. Try to bring your system developers, users, and managers together to work through all the discussed phases to achieve success. You have the power to influence wonderful changes in your organization, as long as you also provide the WIIFM.12. Computers, Technology, and Creativity Managementa. Besides this class, how else can you gain more knowledge about technology? When you get ready to invest in your next computer system, you should know more about what you want. Literally no one knows everything about computers and technology. You have to be a specialist in a few narrow fields today. Find something that interests you and concentrate on that area until you find something else.b. I love the line from the 9/11 Commission when Sandy Berger said, "We've learned since 9/11 that not only did we not know what we didn't know, but the FBI didn't know what it did know."c. Don't you think that in Business Information networks, we should at least know what we do know? How do we best summarize what we know and best put it to use? Do you have any corporate examples where your computers "knew" something and fell through the cracks?d. Individual creativity in large Information technology (IT) organizations in various locations, unfortunately, doesn’t allow for too much creativity. Creativity must, unfortunately, be held in check, or at least be operated through a focal point of management. We had dozens of departments making their own IT decisions, and then expected us to support their wide ranging and often conflicting requirements. This was often an unrealistic endeavor. My role was to bring some order to the chaos so that our organization could be properly supported in a logical way. We decided to manage, not just let things happen, and gave it some Life Cycle Management structure. Chaos is a strategy often used by those with "alternate agendas" in order to get their way and to gain control. Your thoughts on chaos?13. Drilling Down for DataDrilling down is where you dig deeper and deeper into data. For example, say you itemize your tax deductions and do your taxes once a year, and decide to explore where you spent your money. Your annual expenditure for food was $24,459.32. $20,000 could have been spent at the grocery store and $4,459.32 at restaurants and for lunches. What did you buy at the grocery? $15,000 for staples and $5,000 for fun food. What fun food? $4,000 for candy and $1,000 for Potato Chips. What candy? $3,000 for Hershey Kisses and $1,000 for Miscellaneous. What miscellaneous? Got the idea?14. Absolutes Try not to use “absolute” words such as “all”, “never”, “always”, etc. There are few absolutes in our world, so don’t get caught in outrageous statements. For example, "What would happen if EVERY employee was given an opportunity to work at home? A more appropriate sentence could read, "What would happen if MORE employees were given an opportunity to work at home?" Absolute words such as "EVERY" would have destroyed credibility of such a questions, so be careful with such usages.15. Computer & Technology PrivacyHopefully by the end of this course, you will accept more of the safeguards of technology, which are many. You have to know where to put your trust and then monitor. I use many of the auto-pay functions my mortgage and utility companies offer, but I also subscribe to a security firm to notify me if there is any unusual activity from the three major credit bureaus (Trans Union, Experian & Equifax). I also use Quicken to monitor my banking, credit card and investment accounts several times a week (Quicken can connect and download transactions upon connection to the software). Quicken is also a good way to record and communicate your holdings to your heirs in case the unexpected happens. We also had our Wills and Executors revised after some friends of ours had hassles with their parent's wills. Privacy is a good thing, but so is prudent monitoring of your affairs.16. Virtual OfficesI define anything away from the official brick and mortar office where there is one or more communication devices, working equipment, work materials, and work to do as a "virtual office", whether a car, boat, airplane, hotel room, client office or a white sandy beach. I am now in my "virtual" office in my home; during the week, I work in my rented room or a client office.For my MBA, when the kids were still at home, I built a tiny 5' x 11' office at the back of my garage. It had about 100 feet of bookshelves, a full desk plus a computer desk, work table, heater, air conditioner, a door to the outside plus a door to my garage, a space saver TV, and even a guest chair; all in 55 square feet. I now have a 600 square foot study in a “smart house” condo and an alarm system. No refrigerator upstairs, but that is how I get my exercise.I also have my tools (my wife calls them ‘toys’). Several years ago, I upgraded my PDA to an iPhone, and was able to keep my old cell number and Internet capabilities. The screen is pretty small for Internet browsing. It is pretty slow compared to cable or dialup, but when I am on the road, as I am weekly, it is easier than an airport wireless or finding a phone when driving.Why would a good manager want to "control" performers who exceed requirements, whether they work for someone other than you or not? The virtual office exists to enhance overall productivity, not to award free time to the occupant of the virtual office or controlling employees’ every move and hour of the day. During some days, I work in my virtual office 20+ hours and others 2 or 3. My "control" is my weekly report to the client and my supervisor, not a time clock. I discipline myself as much as possible during the day, then work till midnight to pay for the errands I run and other divergences I allow myself. It is not the hours, but the accomplishment. Focus is one thing, but job activity is another. If workers are required to perform a measurable task and it does not require immediate availability to the "customer," even the unfocused could work in a virtual office.Employees are hired to do a job and to offer their ideas. Managers are hired to listen to their employees and make decisions, some good and some bad, and life is a balancing act of listening to ideas. I look at the presidential race just completed of one candidate who listens to all sides and weighs the decision; and one candidate who wants to listen to advisors who have his point of view, and that is what they offer, or they lose their job, ala Colin Powell and others who voiced their opinions many times too often. As in business, we have a balancing act and we shall see in the long term who succeeds and who does not.As a "Road Warrior", I rely on E-Mail as my most important virtual office tool, although I also use many others. To access main databases at client sites we utilized a "Terminal Server" that was housed at our headquarters since it can have a static IP address required by security aspects of our client's mainframe. My laptop had a variable IP address and the client could not make their system secure with many laptops or desktop machines accessing their system. Most of my virtual office "aggravations" are security issues. I also visit client sites requiring a security clearance, visit request approvals, and other site permissions.17. Decision ModelsIn the discussion of decision-making models, I wonder how many people in real life decisions say "OK, I have a decision to make, now what model should I use?” Most people don't even have to think about it. They only have one model and they use the same one all of the time. Either it is all they know or all they are comfortable with. We are in school to learn that there are such things as models, how they each work, how they are different, and how to choose the best one for the situation. How many of the "people in real life" have the opportunity to learn and use what you are learning here? You folks have a real leg-up on them when pursuing your career successes.One student responded, “Prior to this class I had no idea I was using a model. After the research I was able to identify what model I was using. In essence we are not the great decision maker since most of our operational decisions are based on Process or Rationale“.You will be expected in your team project to discuss how your team made decisions. Mention which decision making model was used, how it was applied, and how each member contributed or responded to make the final decision(s). Use some specific examples of decision making at various stages of your team work, mentioning the problem, solution and methodology. Use first and last names to introduce them to Mr. Big.Nothing sells like examples with short, clear and rational explanations to exhibit how your team would excel in continuing the process for your client. Use clear examples to WOW Mr. Big with your team's clear thinking and expertise. Balance your explanation with Masters level models (not PhD) and common sense level thinking to a line manager like Mr. Big. He is "paying" you the big bucks to advise him, and he expects high level work for high level pay, in language that he can understand and appreciate, and also to be impressed enough to hire you again.18. Strategic CommunicationAnother student wrote “I don't know how much any of you have been involved in system planning, but it has been my experience that this phase of the project is often the most difficult and the most important. I have at times spent a great deal of time developing something new on our system, only to find out that what we end up delivering was not what the end user wanted or needed. I have learned from experience that I not only need to listen to what they say, but I have to learn to speak their language and even read their minds at times. Often the end user does not even know what they really need or how to explain it. Sometimes I almost feel like I have to pull end-users needs out of them, and figure out how to translate it into technical language for programmers. Often this phase goes beyond talking with end users. Instead we have them actually walk me thorough their current process or show us the problem. It can be very time consuming and sometimes we still end up wasting time by providing a solution to the wrong problems.”I also had several projects where I was the facilitator for converting from a legacy to a new system. One role was to communicate as the liaison between the users and programmers.AWPS-LMP Strategic Communication White PaperThis White Paper [the term we use of an unsolicited concept proposal] that I wrote, outlines a plan of "Strategic Communication" for a new business line for our organization, where we want to help our client to actually plan beyond the initial release of information for a deployment:Problem: Most personnel received inadequate introduction, training, and software deployment of the Army’s Logistics Modernization Program (LMP) by their software contractor. As a result, LMP users did not cooperate well with implementers, nor did they do much to improve client relations. Deployment is over budget, behind schedule, and still has programming bugs and data glitches.Background: AWPS-LMP trainers were tasked to give a two hour “second look” briefing. They pared a 178 slide briefing down to 130 slides, but were still trying to introduce too many new concepts and details to a large room full of people in too short a time. Why only two hours?Site management noted that this audience had already seen an introductory AWPS-LMP briefing. They concluded that these experienced AWPS users could easily and quickly absorb this new information, but all they could spare was two hours. They would be given more information as the LMP deployment progressed. “Then what?” we asked. More complaining? More “Death by Presentation”? More trial and error over the next year? This fiasco signaled a repeat of a poorly communicated LMP program at the second deployment Sites B and C. What happened next?A Viable Alternative -- Strategic Communication: a Principle from my company presented a fairly new initiative of Strat Comm to “effectively position our clients to manage change and build stakeholder trust and confidence through well-executed steps. The 2-hour briefing limit triggered the idea of using Strat Comm concepts to improve LMP deployment communication.Definition: I have defined Communication as “The proactive and targeted development and delivery of key messages, and engagement of key stakeholders at the right time, in the right manner, with the right responsiveness to meet client objectives.”In layman’s terms, it’s a series of steps that should be used to introduce programs and products. Part of it is public relations, such as news articles, posters and brochures. Other parts include training strategies, focus groups, one-on-one meetings with Subject Matter Experts, and other communication modes. Plans for these should be carefully drawn up advance.Implementations should educate folks not initially involved or invited to training classes while it promotes good will with early participants. Feedback should be sought to evaluate if the message, the media, and the training was effective. Changes should be made, based on data and analysis. Strat Comm:* Marketing and Communications* Stakeholder Relations* Crisis Communications* Change Communications-People and CultureApproach: Strat Comm blends multiple tactics and tools to build understanding, facilitate buy-in process, and inspire ownership and action. It includes Stakeholder Relationship Management, Branding, Partnering Strategies, Multi-Media Tools, Organizational Dialogue and Deliberation, Advisory Boards, Employee Engagement, Outreach, Media and Public Relations.LMP deployments at Sites B and C need a thorough stakeholder analysis to uncover values, attitudes and concerns of the key players, something that was missing at Site A. Reaching this level of early understanding can be a critical success factor for upcoming LMP deployment sites.Strategic communication plans, tracks, and follows up on engaging Key Stakeholders at the Right Time, in the Right Manner. While senior leadership buy-in and sponsorship is a key success factor, open and deliberate efforts to start at the point of impact and leverage peers to build buy-in can be a wise investment. Production Controllers and other system users were left out of the loop for a long time at Site A, but were expected to use and embrace LMP later.The Strategic Communications approach leverages change agents throughout the organization, pushing communications both vertically and horizontally, thus increasing understanding, enhancing ability, and maximizing willingness … three attributes not often found in typical system users during the Site A LMP deployment.Key Principles: We have worked with clients to strengthen internal and external communications by reinforcing a few key principles:* Be proactive: Identify messages/audiences early so you shape and not react to - events * Stay “on-message”: Create a culture, and provide tools and training, to facilitate everyone in the organization speaking with “one voice” * Make it easy: Develop products, services, and processes that facilitate widespread implementation of communications strategy * Provide leadership: Increase awareness and understanding throughout the organization of what the senior leadership is saying * Maintain credibility: Ensure materials are up-to-date and accurate * Measure results: Gauge ongoing communication strategies; fine-tune to stay effective.Change Activities (by Change Agents):* Identify and reach out to those who stand to lose something * Explain the reasons for the change * Accept the importance of individual reactions, values and responses* Acknowledge concerns openly and sympathetically* Treat the past with respect but highlight current direction and opportunities * Challenge people with their integral part in making the change successful * Motivate others by displaying their own internalization and adoption* Interact regularly and informally with team meetings (e.g., brown bags)* Maintain an approachable style and stay in touch regularly0.3 Team Project RecommendationsTeam personnel are expected to work effectively in diverse groups and teams to achieve task objectives. They should collaborate and function well in team settings as both leaders and followers. They should respect human diversity and behave in a tolerant manner toward colleagues and peers. If you experience difficulties working with your team, you are expected to resolve them within the team if possible. However, please feel free to contact me for guidance if you have concerns in this area.Because Learning Team projects are outcome-based, members of your Learning Team will generally earn the same grade for Learning Team projects. However, I reserve the right to report different grades for different Learning Team members if I see a substantial imbalance in individual contribution. Learning Teams should provide a brief summary of any communication held outside the forum.If you hold conference calls, work in a real-time chat room, or get together outside of the OLS (Online Learning System) environment in another way, please post a log, transcript, or summary in the Learning Team forum. When forming your teams, consider time zones for real-time collaboration. Don’t use IM or other tools unless each member agrees on the method and schedule; please contact me if you have serious problems.Several of the assignments in this class will be completed in Learning Teams of three to five students. I will approve (not set up) these teams by the end of Week 1. If you have any requests for teammates, please contact those students by Thursday of the first week via your Individual Forum. Learning Team Charters and Peer Evaluation forms are required. Please see the instructions in the weekly sections for more information.It is expected that you will actively participate with your learning team and contribute to the team discussions by a) contributing original work that is accepted and used by the team with Proof of Originality statements, b) participating in the project from assignment organizing through meaningful final review of the team project for submission, and c) ensuring to your team that your contributions are your original work and properly quoted, cited, and referenced.Below are some additional suggestions:1. Team Formation2. Instant Messenger & Phone Call Logs3. Word Report4. Presentation5. Format6. Outsourcing7. Teams8. Posting Final Projects1. HYPERLINK \l "_1.__" Team FormationI'll be assigning 3, 4 or 5 people to each team, based on your requests and class size. Form your teams by Thursday of Week One. If you have a problem with team member(s), do what you can to motivate them to dig deeper if they are not doing their fair share. I’ll be reading everyone’s forum postings, or you can email me, and I’ll deal with difficult situations if I have to. I’ll use weekly team participation scores to reflect observed efforts. We may have to reassign some teams, especially if dropouts occur. Some teams try to pick a theoretical client, or one that a team member does not work for or is not somehow associated with. Please pick a project that one of you is involved in, or else you all will have a very difficult time in completing this project proposal.For the fun of it and to help you all feel more of a team or a consulting company, brainstorm a more appropriate name than "Team X" or "Learning Group X." Try to keep the team "letter" as a part of your name, so we can all keep track a bit easier, for example, Alpha Group, for Team A.2. HYPERLINK \l "_2.__" Instant Messenger and Phone Call Logsa. I STRONGLY recommend that you use an Instant Messenger (IM) or Video NetMeeting system for regular and scheduled team communication. You will be able to make your tasks much easier and quicker than relying on email or class forums. This is also a technology that some of you may not have been familiar with before this course, so we want to promote it as a learning experience. In order for me to monitor your progress after you use "significant" IM, Video, or phone conversations (yes, big brother is watching), I would appreciate if you would post a summary of the session. By significant, I mean not a "Hi, how are you, blah, blah, blah" conversation, but, significant to the results of the team activities. A team spokesperson can write a summary of the (1) Purpose, (2) Topics Discussed, (3) Results & (4) Recommendations.b. My goal is to have you learn the basics of how to prepare Word and Presentation Slide and Notes presentations that will effectively sell Mr. Big on your ideas. You may not have prepared packages in the manner which I require, and it may not be the right pattern for your Mr. Big, but you can take what we will develop in our team projects and adapt them for your client. The formats we will use in this course may not be universally known or accepted, but they should give you another perspective on how to WOW Mr. Big. For those of you who use IM services and had difficulties, please email me on your experiences; this way they/we improve. These are real life problems and solutions for students and users.3. Word Reporta. I am a Project, Word and Presentation guru with hundreds of documents under my belt. So, take my comments and suggestions for what they are worth; and remember that the audience is always the audience. Who are you trying to please? Not yourself! If you disagree with what I suggest, please challenge me so we can bring to light what really needs to be said and done and why. I usually give such suggestions for some good (or bad) reasons. If you ask, I can probably help you better understand why we should do it one way rather than another. I rarely get into "word smithing" because we could spend hours doing that and still not achieve “perfection”.b. In my roles as manager, engineer, consultant, and facilitator, I’ve had to satisfy formatting whims of many an audience. Mr. Big is paying me the big bucks to monitor your progress. Mr. Big only sees the final product at the end of the course, after your team and I are satisfied. He is really hard to satisfy, but Mr. Big is a pussycat compared to me when it comes to proposals, formats, logic, and most important of all: can we make money on the "deal"? I want Mr. Big to fund and support your project, so I will do whatever I can, short of my writing it myself.c. Your final team project Word report will be in American Psychology Association (APA) format. Your final document “body” should be 12-15 pages double-spaced. You must also have a cover page, an abstract page, a 1-2 page executive summary, charts, graphics, references, and at least one appendix, all page numbered. On your cover page, show your running header, school name, course name, your instructor’s title and name, a team name and a member list, and the last day of the course. Only use graphics directly relevant to your project, not generic clip-art. Note: The 12-15 page body does NOT include the cover page, abstract, executive summary, or appendixes in the page count.d. Compile previous weeks’ team submissions into a composite document EACH week. I suggest you use “Track Changes” during the week and submit your weekly final with changes “Approved”. Draft documents can be submitted with single spacing, which may be easier for your teammates to read online, or to save paper when printing. I am VERY picky on format, readability, and “salability” to Mr. Big, as well as content and logic, so expect my suggestions.e. If you have a size or page restriction, such as in this particular assignment, it is OK to include details in the appendix, such as charts, graphs, tables, financial data, etc. When you reference that info in the body, include a good summary explaining rationale for the appendix items. You can have as many appendixes and appendix pages as needed. f. As a manager, you will run into many situations where you will give presentations to some folks, like Mr. Big, who don't want to be bothered with lots of details. There will also be others who don't necessarily want the details, but in order to satisfy themselves that proposed plans are feasible and can be implemented, want to know that the details have been thought of, worked through, and agreed to. "The devil is in the details."g. Write your reports for impact as well as technical content. You want to sell Mr. Big on providing funds and resources! It depends on how "impressed" he is with your proposal! So "WOW" him! [You may even try running your proposals by your own Mr. Big.]h. Please name your Paper, Presentations, and Subjects with the format as shown below with Year-Month Team Letter-Official Project Name – Version XXX (Initials of Creator): 13 - 03 X-SYSTEMS UPGRADE PROPOSAL FOR XYZ INC – Version XXX (ABC).DOCX 13 - 03 X-SYSTEMS UPGRADE PROPOSAL FOR XYZ INC – Version XXX (ABC).PPTX 13 - 03 X-SYSTEMS UPGRADE PROPOSAL FOR XYZ INC – Version XXX (ABC).MPP 13 - 03 X-SYSTEMS UPGRADE PROPOSAL FOR XYZ INC – Version XXX (ABC).XLSXGetting Started (Week ONE): i. Post your proposal in your Learning Team-X forum by Day 6 (Sunday).The objective of the learning team project is to introduce you to the methodology used to develop systems in either a single-user or a multi-user environment, and to familiarize you with project management. System solutions are a large capital investment in today’s business world, and the application of such large investments must be based on specific business needs and subsequent returns. System projects are being held accountable for meeting business needs. It is therefore critical to identify and to articulate, both verbally and quantifiably, those business needs in order to obtain successful information technology solution projects.For the learning team project in this course, you should select a real-life business situation that requires a system solution and develop a proposal for a project that will meet business needs. GET WITH YOUR TEAM MATES AND DO THIS IMMEDIATELY (Due Sunday Night) !!!Prepare a business problem statement in the form of an Executive Summary that states the business need to be solved, identifies the purpose of the project, and lists constraints and assumptions used in defining the project (see an example in paragraph k. below). Select one of your team member’s work-related situations. My goal is for you to learn how to put together a great project. Not just for "school," but for "life." I wish I had someone long ago to teach me how to "construct", not just to "write" a great paper.j. The Week 1 assignment is to prepare an Executive Summary (ES). This is a quick-start planning tool with Purpose, Problem and Background and Scope, Discussion and Findings, Financial Analysis, Conclusions and Recommendations. Many things will change in the ES before you are done, so go with the flow, and just lay out your project as best you can with very little information and detail available to you at this time. The title of the paper should be the name of the project, not "Executive Summary". Title the section "Executive Summary".Spend a sentence or two up front describing what your organization does (products / services / location / size / etc.). Provide "Proposed Solutions", not solutions at this time … you don’t know enough to propose “solutions”. I suggest that you use present tense, for example, "this paper proposes" rather than "will" propose. The future tense is OK for activities that you plan to happen or for achievements that you expect to realize in the future. Limit the ES to no more than one page for this assignment and no more than two pages in your final paper. Save the bulk for the body of the paper. Just give the reader the barebones facts in the ES. Keep It Simple (KIS) but give us all we need to see if we want to read the body, so make it interesting also.k. On cover pages, include a running head, your current project title, list me as Facilitator: Ken Klein. The Date should be the due date of this assignment. Below is an example of a recent Week 1 assignment, in a 1 page, (double spaced, unlike here), outline format that I prefer:Team Alpha’s Sample ReportPurposeTeam Alpha is proposing a project that requires the automation of the pay process for the virtual portal of the US Army Individual Ready Reserves. The purpose is to have all pay automated and completed via a web portal, including authentication of the individual and the pay.Problem, Background and ScopeThe virtual pay process scope requires the project to be complete in six weeks; the team has weekly requirements to meet as well. The project must solve problems of how to authenticate the individual, verify that the individual receives pay once a year, collection of the individual’s pay information which determines direct deposit or a paper check is initiated, and finally the automation and initiation of pay to the Defense Finance and Accounting Services (DFAS).Discussion and FindingsThe constraints are a six week deadline; team members are geographically separated and have different work schedules in different time zones. It is assumed that the Army virtual portal is working and that the pay process will implement into the portal without fail. It is also assumed that the US Army has an unlimited budget to complete this project and that selected software will meet Department of Defense security requirements.Conclusions and RecommendationsThis project will follow established project management techniques, tools, and best practices as established and document in the PMBOK (Project Management Body of Knowledge) as well as instant message and net meeting tools to collaborate within in the team. l. Are you planning to make or buy a system? Make it clear that this is a process or a computer system. If not known at this time, give a few alternatives or sources of Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) systems. Do your research now as to what the horrendous costs of “make” could be and that COTS is not a panacea either. I am not a proponent of custom written software.m. Weekly Paper Updates: When you prepare your final submissions each week, compile previous week’s work as one paper, adding each week to what went before. Your abstract should be a "sales piece", informative and interesting, so readers will want to read more, and understand the background, such as, what does your organization do and why are you doing this project. Keep it short, but assume the reader is coming in "cold" on the project. Have one abstract and ES for the paper, as a whole, not a new abstract and ES weekly. This paper, abstract and executive summary is one work in process, not five or six stand-alone papers. Update the Abstract, ES, and Summary each week to incorporate your additions and changes. Use “Track Change” and publish both a “tracking” and a “clean” paper each week. Some teams “check in and check out” papers to avoid duplicating efforts and versions. Some teams have individuals write assigned pieces and submit them to a team leader for compiling. Some teams rotate leaders, a disruptive practice. Determine your processes. I suggest the person whose organization is being researched take the role of permanent leader. In your End of Course summary, you will each be expected to comment on your team leadership style and process.n. After the Cover Page: the Abstract, the Executive Summary (ES), the Body, and Appendixes. Make a clear and distinctive break between each section, with proper American Psychology Association (APA) titling. Do not abbreviate your headings. For example, use "Introduction" rather than "Intro". Also, APA does not like bold type for headings (although I do, so go with APA styles). The ES is not the place to tell readers to look elsewhere, whether to Appendix C, Page 15, or anywhere else. The ES must stand on its own.The ES must not exceed two pages in the final version. Place a page break at the end of the ES, before introductions, and ensure that the Intro is, in fact, the Intro, with a repeat of that material in the Abstract and ES. Place most flowcharts and other graphics in the Appendixes. Describe Appendixes in the Body, with a reference to the Appendix number. The header title should be the paper name, and should not change weekly.Each team member is adding to the structure; foundation first, then the body, then the roof, then furnishings and landscaping. Think of your approach as adding to it as you "progress" from the ES to the Body by adding more and more detail and explanation to each sentence (if appropriate). Give it the look and feel of continuity with common title formatting, per the APA guides. Your goal is to make it interesting and attractive to Mr. Big so he will "buy" your ideas, and not get turned off by formatting, spelling, or punctuation glitches.o. IT Systems cost more and take longer than you could ever imagine. Estimate all the costs that you can possibly think of up front so you won't have to come in later to ask for more funding and time. Don't cut yourself short! Mr. Big will hold your feet to the fire with recommended estimates. It won't be fun if you have not considered as many contingencies as your whole team can think of. But, he will not fund it if it is "too much or too long". Walk that tightrope.When discussing your project costs, couch them as percentages of sales or some other comparison to a large number to reduce the "sticker shock", instead of a smaller number, such as net profits; a sales concept that all MBA's must remember in dealing with Mr./Ms. Big and the board of directors. Also add the $ benefits at that point to drive the point home that you need funding. Ask for the sale, and don't short-change the costs and the implementation time.p. Final summaries and slides should include a "kicker" or two. Explicitly declare what you are asking for, whether a decision or money or management support. On the last slide, talk costs and benefits! Hit Mr. Big for the funding and approval in both the bullets and the Notes. Ask for the sale! Punch it home! Convince him! You might even ask for the sale in the introduction (in the "Notes", not on the slide body). The basic rules of a presentation are: #1 Tell them what you are going to tell them in the intro, #2 Tell them in the body, then in the conclusion #3 Tell them what you told them.q. Be clear on whether you will require customizing for new software. Does the purchase price of new software include any customizing? Mr. Big wants to know exactly where his money is going. Include EXACT design specifications and the associated costs. Mr. Big doesn't like the detail, but I do, so I need to be able to find it with a quick read-through.Assume the audience will also speed read or quickly skim the report, so highlight key points in your Abstract, Executive Summary, Body, Final Summary, and Presentation. Use tables and graphics to be totally sure the audience understands. Don't assume they’ll understand. They won’t unless you make it “idiot proof”. Don't think that you can wow Mr. Big with generalities!r. Lengthy descriptions and detail in the body of your 12-15 page limit paper can be placed into the appendices. Keep going back to see if you can add depth to your body, where needed, based on your readings, weekly discussions and research. Mr. Big doesn't like length, but your Facilitator does, so you must often serve two or more masters, just as in real-life. We want completeness and state of the art Information Technology applications, with appropriateness and affordability, based on cost justifications and market share. s. If you think that your paper is really good and could be a model for the other teams in your class, you could ask your facilitator if you may share your paper with them. Don't wait until the last weeks as some of the other teams may be struggling with their format. You should NOT read other team forums.4. HYPERLINK \l "_4._PowerPoint_Presentation" Presentationa. In addition to a Word document for your team project, you will be required to submit a Presentation. On your cover page, show your logo, school name, course name, your instructor’s title and name, a team name and a member list, and the date (the last day of this course). Your second slide should show the "agenda" for the presentation, with such titles as: 1. Purpose * * * 2. Problem & Background 3. Discussion & Findings 4. Financial Analysis (if appropriate) 5. Project Timeline (if appropriate) 6. Conclusions & Recommendations (Ask For What You Want… Sell, Sell, Sell!)b. Use the sample Presentation format in your <Course-Materials> forum (see graphic in d). Modify the background and template however you want, but remember to address it to your audience. Try to know their biases and cater to them. For example, if you know the key decision maker is uncomfortable with dark or red backgrounds don’t use them (Your Mr. Big falls asleep very quickly with dark slide backgrounds … don’t use them in your class presentation). If they like flashy graphics, do use them. If they don’t like “Death by Presentation”, keep presentations as simple as possible. If you are not sure about your audience’s likes and dislikes, ask someone who knows your audience (your facilitator, for example); don’t assume! For logos or graphics on each page, paste them on the Master Slide to keep the document size as small as possible. Define new abbreviations on the slide, even if it may be spelled out in Notes. Include your project name at the bottom of the Master Slide, and also slide numbers in the Header/Footer.I like to catch project problems early so there are no surprises later. I also remind you that I know "my" Mr. Big, and you need to know yours. Today he is "me". I am trying to teach you that there are millions of ways to prepare presentations and papers. If you don't learn to tailor them for your immediate audience, it sometimes doesn't matter how good the content of the paper is if it is not laid out as Mr. Big likes it. You will have a hard time to get him as far as the content and to support you and the dollar funding if he does not like your approach or format.c. Each Presentation slide MUST have an accompanying “script” in the NOTES Section, including the cover slide. You may copy and paste EXCERPTS (not the full text, please) of your team paper into the appropriate slide’s Notes. This is a script. Would you go into a briefing and limit what you say to what you have written in the Notes so far? Do you remember that TV commercial where the briefer bangs his head on the open file drawer? Who will give the briefing now? Full scripts are not needed word for word, but make sure all you MUST say is included in the Notes.I don't usually read Notes aloud to audiences, but I don’t want to fumble around when giving a presentation. Know EXACTLY what you are going to say. Have a script prepared, practiced, and available for a stand-in if you can’t give it yourself. Presentations are often provided to folks not at briefings. Bullets don’t send the complete message. You may say, "Let them read the Word report!" Some of your audience won't get a copy of the Word report, or will lose it, or won't take the time to read it in detail. Remember your audience(s) and give each of them what you think they need. Be proactive in your approach. After doing this work, don't make assumptions that could mess you up in getting the project approved. Briefing Notes can be in a handout, to non-attendees and attendees alike; a good approach, but not for every occasion.The paper should not be in the first person, but briefing Notes can be either "I" or "we", depending on who is giving the presentation to Mr. Big during real live presentations. I recommend one individual give the briefing. If team members who are expert at some portion can answer questions or explain in detail, but not be the main speaker for their section. I like continuity with expert explanations. Your Notes can be structured however you think most effective for your purposes. Assume that the presentation will be presented orally to Mr. Big. Bottom line in this course: BRIEFING NOTES ARE REQUIRED (See Sample Presentations below).d. Follow the guidelines in the sample formats below. Don’t have more than 11 slides, including the cover slide. Use the T-shirt rule: no more words in a bullet than on a typical t-shirt, e.g., 5-7, and no more than about 5 bullets to a page (Note: t-shirt rule does NOT apply to the Word report bullets). Bold the key words so Mr. Big can quickly understand what he is looking at. His trifocals sometimes don’t work too well from the back of the room, where he usually sits.Sample Presentation Format - 11 Slides.ppte. Use only meaningful graphics that are DIRECTLY related to the topic, not “cute” clipart. Use whatever animation and sound effects that you think Mr. Big would appreciate (he is pretty much a fuddy-duddy, so don't go overboard or spend a lot of time on "fancy"). Have fun!f. Sample team projects from recent classes posted in <Course-Materials> give you more specific ideas of how to pattern your team papers. Format is important for you to be able to "sell" your ideas, and if you can't present them well, it sometimes doesn't matter how "good" the idea or research is. My Mr. Big is just one type of fellow. You each have your own Mr. Big(s) to satisfy.g. I sent a team the following comments during Week 4. Hopefully, they will also help YOU:“Hi Team, You are doing a great job, but I felt that these comments should help you with Mr. Big:First, on your Presentation:1) Slide 1 should give a very brief background on the company and the specific project in the Notes. Imagine that there are some "strangers" in the audience with Mr. Big. Build a sales case as you go, reinforcing what you want from the audience. Also, tell them how they can support you, from the git-go. You could include how much time, money, people and other resources that you will need. This is up to you and how comfortable you are in doing this at this point in the presentation, although you do address some of these issues on slide 3 and beyond (see the "repetition" comment in my next point). Think about it for this case and for others in your career.2) Slide 2 Notes should briefly mention your three Purpose bullets that you will cover in more depth on the second slide. Some REPETITION will anchor in Mr. Big's mind where you are going. He is not as good a listener as he is a reader (know thy audience!).3) Slide 2 has 3 bullets under Purpose, but slide 3 has 4 bullets. Be consistent.4) Slide 5: "maintain" is misspelled. Please run your Spell Checker before "publishing".5) Slide 5 uses the term "patient ones". If this is a local term not in general acceptance, please explain it. It may be a little "too cute" for Mr. Big, the fuddy-duddy. Again, know thy audience. I'm not saying to drop the term if your Mr. Big and his board of directors will appreciate the term, as long as you bring them in on the reference with humor or whatever is needed to "get away with it".6) Slide 5: "There will not be a lot of resistance" and "will allow" are bits of absolutes. Use "should not" or "may allow" instead, since there may be some level of resistance and you will get hit pretty hard by someone in the room for such an assumption. Check and change absolutes throughout your documents. Pay attention from now on to “absolutes”.7) Slide 6 takes costs down to the decimal (pennies) level. Round off in these presentations to the nearest dollar, hundreds, or thousands of dollars (depending on the scope) on both Presentation and Word documents. It also makes such figures easier to read to use commas, such as $5,300 instead of $5301.89. You might also reformat $1134(4) to 4 each @ $1,130 = $4,500. Mention in your briefing Notes that you are rounding so the bean counters don't bite you.8) Slide 6 mentions a 45 day ROI in your Notes, but that does not appear on the slide. This ROI is so important; it should appear here on this slide, even if you include it later (which you should). Remember repetition and SELLING the project.9) Slide 6: the table overwrites the bottom footer. Move the table up a bit.10) Slide 7: Make this a "big" sales pitch at his point to Mr. Big in that you are asking for funding to make this project happen. Good sales technique: "There is no reason to let another month go by without saving $7,600 a month."11) Slides 7, 8 & 9 use the term "charge nurses" in the Notes and slide body. Someone has been copying and pasting from another presentation, I'll bet. Not a big problem “plagiarizing” from my examples, as long as you use your topic instead of mine. Please review and edit before ments on your Word paper:1) Your Abstract should introduce your team and company name, and provide a bit of background.2) Executive Summary (ES) cannot exceed two pages. The main paper requires a page break and introduction, which can be copy / pasted from the ES. Please re-read my “Team Project Recommendations” if you need further explanation on formatting for this paper, including the labeling and referencing of Appendixes, such as Appendix A.3) The comments on the Presentation above also apply to the Word paper.”5.HYPERLINK \l "_5.___1"FormatIf you learn nothing else in this course, you will learn how important the format is to getting a project approved and funded. Here are some messages I sent to teams in trouble:Hi Team, I just wanted to repeat this as a MOTIVATION, not as a chastisement, but I am not very happy with your results to date as preparing a set of "A" papers or working as a great team, although you have all tried, and I am not sure what else it will take other than really working closely with each other this weekend to polish the project into a winner. You are very close, so don't get discouraged. I was really looking for an innovative approach to your project and to the production line improvements, and so far I am not very impressed. Now is the time for Joe to grab the leadership horns and pull the report out, not for the sake of your school report, but for Joe's credibility at his company. It should not take any more research, but it will take some significant enhancements in possibly reorganizing the paper and reformatting the presentation, including excellent, inspiring, and convincing briefing Notes.As suggested so many times, look at the sample projects, for those were selected for their meeting the objectives of wowing Mr. Big, whomever Mr. Big is. For your project, you must define Mr. Big (he is not "me") in your case. He may be a committee or a board of directors or an individual, so meet and discuss who and what you have to satisfy. This is not an academic exercise. This is the real deal for you and your company. See the “Sample Presentations” if you are still not sure!Very few students have had the opportunity to prepare papers and presentations with the "business" emphasis in a technical paper with the format that "Mr. Big" wants them to use.I learned some of these formats and philosophies of "constructing a paper" in my MBA courses, but more of these techniques I learned in courses taught by consultants and adjunct professors, like myself, who had extensive business experience beyond the academic; I’ve also had to satisfy 40+ years of people with different "needs" and "speeds". There are many masters to serve, and trying to satisfy them in one paper or one series of courses is a most difficult task. It is my obligation to expose you to my philosophies and formats so you are prepared for your Mr. Big’s in the future.6. HYPERLINK \l "_6.___1"OutsourcingIn your team projects, you may consider doing everything in house. Before making such a decision, consider outsourcing, such as for operating payroll systems. Such systems will calculate employee pay based on saved information regarding wages and deductions. Why? This is a very complicated field that many firms have gone to payroll services for small offices such as yours. My friend operates a payroll service. Many small offices and restaurants use these services because keeping up with all the rules, rates, and laws changes is mind-boggling. Whenever a small (and large) firm can outsource such things (including billing services, collection services, tax preparers, web-site developers, and buying clubs for your proposed inventory system), do so as a cost and personnel resource savings! For example, I used to do my own taxes and bought and used Turbo Tax and other software s. It cost me more to lose deductions that my CPA now catches and saves me. Consider this in your make/buy proposals. You will really be surprised how well outsourcing works, even to the hated offshore firms. Mr. Big will really be looking closely at your proposals for what you want to keep in house and what you want to "export".7. HYPERLINK \l "_7.___1" Teams a. How much are you planning to borrow (or to ask for from management) for startup? If you don't have a plan, prepare one for Mr. Big. Be specific.b. Money source(s): Are you going to ask Mr. Big for the money as a venture capitalist? A bank? Your team members as investors? Corporate funding? If so, how much each? What is your borrowing or funding plan, in general terms? What are your partners putting up for loan collateral or what % of the partnership are you offering to investors for the perceived risk?c. I'm concerned about the risk factors and your projection of costs, sales, and profits, but you are not writing a marketing or finance paper, so don't make it one! It is a question that Mr. Big is sure to ask, so address the finances for this paper in terms of your confidence in your information system and technology plans, not in whether the financial numbers are accurate to the 5th decimal point, or to the nearest 10 thousand dollars. Don’t show pennies, either.d. Whatever "full" price tag you use in your proposal, also put it into relatable terms right next to it, such as total cost and cost per unit, e.g., Cost estimates for 10,000 (I don't remember how many you are proposing. Mr. Big shouldn't have to either, so tell him/me) laptop computers are $13,256,000 ($1,325 each) and 10,000 desktop computers are $6,412,000 ($641 each).e. Emphasize that you are a VERY large company with some very large requirements. Also mention at the same point that the $32Million is x.y% of your annual corporate operating budget. Do this whether or not you reduce the overall request for upgrades. Also spread it out the same way over so much per year. Mr. Big hates to spend money on the "toys" that you are asking for, so you really have to be careful how you couch your request and justify it in savings and benefits. I cannot emphasize this too much.f. Do NOT wait until page 14 of the body of your paper to mention the cost estimate that you are asking Mr. Big to fund. Put some of that discussion much earlier and follow immediately with some even larger COST SAVINGS or PROFITS from improved business projections. Another option is to state attractive ratios of cost to user or client. Overcome or be proactive about sticker shock at every opportunity.g. You may not want to put the cost estimate in your Abstract, but you definitely want it to be in the Executive Summary (ES). Remember, the Abstract and Executive Summary are to be assumed to be totally separate from the main body of your paper, so don’t assume that if the information is in the Abstract or ES, the reader will know that detail. The same goes for the introduction for your organization, which should be included (repeated) in all three sections: Abstract, ES & main body.h. Don't let significant claims just “roll off your tongue” and count on faith to carry you. You will lose Mr. Big immediately if he thinks that you are making unfounded, unexplained, or exaggerated claims. Make your summary conclusions at the end after explaining in the presentation how goals will be accomplished.i. If you mention waste, identify how much early, to get Mr. Big's attention. Start building your cost justification case early in the presentation, like in slide 1 or 2 or 3. You are asking for money and you need to get it going. Why should he WANT to give it to you? Mr. Big lives in the money world, not the IT world, but he (probably) understands IT problems/solutions.j. If you write "The company plans to replace its" or "The system will include", please make it clear whether or not these are your recommendation or was the company planning to do these and other things before your project? Take credit for what you are recommending so you can justify your billings as a consulting company. I also suggest that you use the word "should" or something similar instead of "will" or "shall" for your recommendations and "The company already plans to” for existing plans.If you interview a company employee, don't claim credit for the company's recommendations. This could get you in trouble with Mr. Big who is relying on you for your technical expertise, but doesn't want to "double pay" for advice. But do acknowledge the source and include them as a condition of your proposal.8. HYPERLINK \l "_8.___1" Posting Final Projects (Week 6)a. The Executive Summary is a short form of the salient points contained in the full body, providing a summary to management of the key points to study in detail within the body and appendices. Decisions should be made by focusing around the key points, supported by the full array of information in the body, hyperlinked reference material (here is a new wrinkle to today's documentation), and the appendices. It is a sequential review process that our brains best follow to lead us in the right direction. Be sure to add a summary at the end of the body of your paper with a final cost justification and summary. As a kicker, ASK FOR THE SALE, ASK FOR PROJECT APPROVAL, and ASK FOR FULL FUNDING … NOW!b. When you post your final projects, use your abstract as a summary as an “advertisement” describing the results of your six weeks of hard work, so your classmates and others will want to read the full Word text and Presentation! Make it informative and interesting so the reader will understand the background, such as, what is does your organization do and why are you doing this project. Keep it short, but assume the reader is coming in "cold", even stakeholders.c. Post all Word, Project and Presentation documents in both you team and main team forums by Day 5 (Saturday) this week. Copy/ paste your Abstract text into the main forum as your introduction and attach your Word and Presentation documents to that message. Title your final documents by team letter and project title, e.g., 16-03 Team A - Company A IT Upgrade.d. Perform the kind of research, analysis, and presentation we emphasize in our team projects. If you cannot convince Mr. Big to approve, fund, and support your project on many different levels (sales, financial, technical, appearance, SWOT analysis, etc.) don't bother going beyond the proposal phase. A well rounded team of experts in their fields and an overall facilitator should be able to catch major glitches before $ millions are invested by a gung-ho entrepreneur or by someone who feels that their commission will be paid even no matter what.Team Alpha’s ReportExecutive SummaryPurpose and ObjectivesABC Hospital desires a unified communication solution that enables quick chat communications, virtual meetings, sharing of files, voice communications via Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP), remote desktop control for support, and video conferencing. The solutions will include integration with existing telephone lines.Problems & BackgroundABC Hospital needs to replace their existing 15 year old private branch exchange (PBX) telephone system. The hospital wishes to leverage and increase collaboration between team members and increase efficiencies in its call center operations by increasing operational efficiency, making better use of resources, and reducing telecommunications infrastructure costs.Scope of Business NeedsThe initial scope of the project will be a proof of concept development environment and trial roll-out within the ABC Hospital call center of 20 users. This is to be a proof of concept implementation in order to verify acceptability and reduce risk prior to hospital system-wide adoption. Business requirements were determined and a Business Requirements Document (BRD) is provided (See Appendix A). Tools and MethodologyThe replacement solution implementation will include all hardware, software, installation, and associated licensing and support fees over a three year period. The process will use the Enterprise Life Cycle (ELC) model in conjunction with project management principles and best practices. These include 1) analytics including all financial, technical and functional analysis tasks providing the basis of feasibility and Return on Investment (ROI), 2) testing and verification of all hardware systems and network interconnectivity and integration functionality with the company’s Active Directory (AD), Exchange, PBX interfacing, and third party cloud provider, 3) training development for call center personnel, and 5) transition to ongoing operational third party and internal support. Through with lessons learned. Project InvolvementThe project team will consist of Subject Matter Experts (SME) from each of the following business areas: development and requirements validation, testing, and user training. CDW is Microsoft’s premier channel implementation partner that will be the primary external implementation vendor. The executive sponsor will be the Director of Operations for ABC Hospital. The hospital business leadership team will be responsible for overall verification of project management direction, budget approval, contract approval, milestone review and signoff of successful project implementation.Conclusion and RecommendationWith a successful implementation and rollout of the Office365? Unified Communications cloud based system integrated with telephone capabilities, the hospital will be able to increase efficiencies within its call center and demonstrate an alternative to PBX upgrade that offers a six month payback while increasing operational efficiencies in the call center and potentially reducing future capital expenditures (CAPEX) and operational expenditures (OPEX).1.0 Week One Lecture: Introduction to Project ManagementAgain, welcome to YOUR project management course. The objectives of this lesson are to:* Define project life cycle.* Identify types of IT management within project management.* Explain project scope management.After reading ”Read Me Firsts” and Chapter 1, The Nature of Information Technology Projects, and discussing it in class, you should be able to:■ Describe the dominant eras of information systems called the electronic data processing (EDP) era, the micro era, the network era, and the globalization era, and understand how managing IT projects has evolved during these eras.■ Understand the current state of IT project management and how successfully managing IT projects remains a challenge for most organizations.■ Explain the value-driven, socio-technical, project management, and knowledge management approaches that support ITPM.■ Define what a project is and describe its attributes.■ Define the discipline called project management.■ Describe the role and impact IT projects have on an organization.■ Identify the different roles and interests of project stakeholders.■ Describe some common approaches to structured systems development and iterative systems development.■ Describe the project life cycle (PLC), the systems development life cycle (SDLC), and their relationship.■ Describe Extreme project management.■ Identify the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK?) core knowledge areas.Note that DQ3 in Weeks 1 – 5 and DQ2 in Week 6 ask: What two Best Practices in EACH eText Chapter and Article read this week apply to YOUR ORGANIZATION, and how? Try not to repeat another student’s choice. In your follow-on responses, why do you DISAGREE with their position?After reading Chapter 3, The Developing the Project Charter and Baseline Project Plan, and discussing it in class, you should be able to:■ Describe the five project management processes and how they support each phase of the project life cycle.■ Define the project management knowledge area called project integration management and describe its role in project plan development, project plan execution, and overall change control.■ Develop a project charter and describe its relationship to the project plan.■ Identify the steps in the project planning framework introduced in this chapter and describe how this framework links the project’s measurable organizational value (MOV) to the project’s scope, schedule, and budget.After reading Chapter 5, Defining and Managing Project Scope, and discussing it in class, you should be able to:■ Identify the five processes that support project scope management. These processes, defined in the PMBOK Guide?, include scope planning, scope definition, create work breakdown structure (WBS), scope verification, and scope control.■ Describe the difference between product scope (i.e., the features and functions that must support the IT solution) and project scope (i.e., the deliverables and activities that support IT project methodology).■ Apply several tools and techniques for defining and managing the project’s Scope.In addition to the concepts, we will be learning how to use the complex tools of Project. Be prepared to spend a lot of time and effort in the sometimes-frustrating Project tutorials. You will be required in this course to use most of the software functions, so learn them well.For some of you this course may be something of a review, but even for me, as a project manager for over forty years, there are many things to learn, and we will be learning them together. A project manager’s skill is the most critical factor in successfully developing other people’s ideas with teamwork, balanced demands, resources, and task components over the project’s life cycle.During this week, through the class lecture and the readings, we should gain understanding of the roles that project managers play in the business environment. We’ll consider the past, present and future of project management systems in terms of people, management of those people, and project planning.We’ll consider how as a business manager, you’ll keep abreast of further technological and management advances in project management.We’ll explore concept, development, implementation and closeout phases of a project, including the triple constraints of scope, time and cost management approaches. Throwing resources and money at problems is one solution. Not admitting failure is another. Your thoughts on scope changes after the fact? We’ll also look at how we can better manage project quality, human resources, communication, risk, and procurement, and how project process groups can better initiate, plan, execute, control and close large, medium, and small projects, while managing realistic stakeholder expectations.We’ll study how project management tools, such as Project, are used to devise and administer a project schedule. There are dozens of project management softwares, as shown by Googling “Comparison of project management software - Wikipedia”.I’ll also be sharing with you my experiences, lessons learned, and project planning documents, such as the ones below:What is good planning? The importance of good planning cannot be overstated, even for small projects. The really nice thing about not planning is that failure comes as a complete surprise and is not preceded by long periods of worry and depression. After many successes and failures, I have compiled some key thoughts and a list of what is included in a good plan, which I expect you to include in your class projects:* Defines deliverables* Defines the work tasks * Sequences the work tasks * Identifies the critical path * Estimates the duration * Defines the risks * Calculates the budget * Determines the resources * Earns revenue in a timely manner What Is The $1, $10, $100 Principle?* Find and fix the problem in the Planning-Design Phase; Cost: $1 * Find and fix the problem in the Production Phase; Cost: $10 * Find and fix the problem after delivery to the Customer; Cost: $100 * The same ratios apply to hours What Is A Project? A project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product or service.* “Temporary” means that every project has a definite beginning and a definite end* “Unique” means creating a product or service that is different from any other product or service* Examples of a project include:** Developing a new product or service** Effecting a change in structure, staffing, or style of organization** Designing a new transportation vehicle** Constructing a building or facility** Implementing a new business process or procedureWhere Is Your Project Going?“Cheshire-Cat,” she began, rather timidly, “Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?” That depends a great deal on where you want to get to,” said the cat. “I don’t much care where-,” said Alice. “Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the cat. – Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland What Is Project Management?* Project management is the formal, structured approach to developing plans, organizing work and making the best use of resources to complete the project at hand* The success of a project can never be assumedWhat Are The Basic Lessons Of Project Management?* First thing first (put pants on before shoes)* You can’t spend more than you have (you can in the short term, but finance charges and worry can kill you in the long term)* Document (otherwise known as document, document, document)* Follow rules (Why? Because I’m the boss, and I say so!)* Do your best (Why not? What else do you have to do?)* Choose your battles wisely (Save your “silver bullets” for when you really need them) Who Are Project Stakeholders?Individuals and organizations who are actively involved in the project whose interests may be positively or negatively affected as a result of project execution or successful project completion What Makes A Good Project Manager?* “The very essence of leadership is that you have a vision” – Theodore Hesburgh* Has a general knowledge of attributes involved* Possesses strong communication, leadership, interpersonal, and management skills* Ensures project team cohesionWhat Is The Project Management Process?* Square One: Set standards; Establish a detailed plan; and Baseline the plan * Next, Collect and validate project status ** Compare actual data to the plan data ** Examine the variances and their impacts ** Select alternatives using “what if” analysis * Implement corrective action.* Provide feedback to previous major steps * As a last resort, go back to “Square One” What Are The Major Benefits Of Project Management?* Project objectives and customer requirements can be achieved: ** Within scope ** Within budget ** On schedule Project Tutorials:Even if you are an experienced Project software user, I suggest that you review YouTube and other Project tutorials this week. Try to include as many of the demonstrated functions in your weekly and Team Project Gantt's as possible, including WBS, Managing Tasks in a Project Plan, and NOTES.Once you review Project software tutorials and YouTube’s and tried a few demos, you’ll probably say to yourself “this is toooooo much "stuff", it is too much to remember, and I don't have time”. Schedule a half hour or more a day if you have the time and energy and do demo run-through’s (which will take you several hours total).Then go back and take each step, like any project, one bite at a time. Schedule a half hour or so a day and FOCUS on that topic until you learn it, by running demos and trying each step for yourself on your practice file, with the demo available if you get stuck. You don't have to learn it or even cover it by the end of this course, so don't let your time management or study time availability during this course be a problem, given you have weekly and team assignments to complete. As a professional student, I understand these issues, so I try not to put any more excruciating pressure on you than I have to (Yeah, yeah, yeah! I hear you screaming at me in disbelief!).Project softwares are robust, but sometimes not too intuitive or easy to learn. If you learn it well, you could probably make a career out of being an expert at it, or at least save a lot of time and money as a project manager by running successful projects with the tools. You can also show Mr. Big what he wants to see (know thy audience) in the many available reports. Consider that DQs are not a one-day effort since they consist of a first posting, then responses to other student's postings, and then continuing conversations. Since these conversations could go on for the entire course, cut them off for the Gantt at each week’s end, understanding that they could really continue. Gantts should have Notes (as well as a Legend) so fellow students and Mr. Big will better understand the presentation. Gantt’s and other Project views (such as Calendars) have many purposes and many audiences, and are presentations as well as planning tools. As you learn Project software (some are difficult and not too intuitive), I expect that your use and your presentation values will increase.Read and re-read course content, now or in the near future. You are not expected to outline chapters or articles or lectures, so don't try, but do try to quickly skim, read and re-read for your own benefit (repetition of “re-read” is on purpose). Important reminder: If you want an easier time in preparing your team assignments, read, re-read and follow Team Recommendations, Chapters, Lectures, NOTES and other documents.Following each week’s “Lecture” is a series of “NOTES” compiled from my previous classes and life experiences. They are organized by weekly topic, with key word NOTES (in alphabetical order) with tips on how to survive and succeed in this class, and as a good project manager, general manager, and team member. You will be time challenged, so you may want to just read Weeks 1 and 2 NOTES, then read and re-read other NOTES as they come. I'd really suggest that you quickly skim all Text chapters and NOTES, then go back and read and re-read them. I can't over-emphasize the repetition concepts of learning provided here, as they come from years of facilitating this course, performing management duties, and watching others perform.1.2 Career NOTESBossI've been a boss and have been an underling. Being boss is no piece of cake. Stresses of decision making is not easy, but having a multi-view team willing to share the "truth" is more valuable than the yes-folks!Career PathLions and tigers and bears, Oh My!!! What is that guy doing behind those curtains??? Many projects take us down yellow brick roads where we meet many different folks who have different agendas. The Project Manager must be able to herd cats (flying monkeys) to get to the goal without getting caught in tornadoes. I do love "The Wizard of Oz" analogies!ConsultantAs a consultant, I could be the outsider asking a lot of questions, more valuable than an insider who knows the history and that we tried that 46 years ago and it didn't work then; but I'm not. Consultants would rather help you avoid problems by our background and expertise, and make you heroes while we are scapegoats.Job MarketIn finding a good paying job in today's economy, including in project management, I'm not sure anything works. A lot has to do with the market that you are in also. Here in southeast Virginia, a college degree works pretty well; Silicon Valley may require certifications. The right answer is "It Depends". It also depends on how you write your resume, which should be "accomplishment" based, which includes a combination of certifications and dollars saved the client.Management ExperienceI got my project management experience, not by asking for a PM "job", but by being assigned or volunteering to be on a project, then leading my phase of the project up to the point that I was "given" or assumed the responsibility for team leadership.Someone once said that a leader without followers is just someone out taking a walk. A leader without skills and a plan is just someone taking a walk. I have led or managed 40+ major projects over a 40+ year career.Resumes just get you "in the door". Personality and how you present yourself is the magic. There are thousands of books and articles on writing resumes. Having the confidence and knowledge of how to give the interviewer what they want is how you get the job. Thousands written on that too. My attitude of leadership is characterized by my motto: “Life is a Project, so … Lead, Follow or Get Out Of The Way!”Heart to heart talks with the lazy are needed, but I'm not sure that anything will change the innately lazy to be a really productive team member. You may get some short term bursts, but you will have to have regular heart-to-hearts with these individuals. I'm wondering how close to "lazy" is to being "burned out"? When I am burned out, I tend to get what may appear to be lazy, but I just want to be left alone for a while. I may not tell anybody this verbally, but body language may appear that way. Another complication could be in these online classes where there is little body language other than emoticons.I too have taken and facilitated many leadership exercises, and have also taken tiny bits and pieces and applied them. I remember early in my career how I felt inadequate, but made it a point to seek out mentors and leaders to learn from. Whether I practiced these learnings kind of depended on who I was working with and what kind of projects we were working on. My favorite teacher in college was a gentleman named Nelson Rogers who was involved in developing the first container system which took trailers and put them on ships, thus developing the "Sea-Land" company. I live in a great container port and see these ships and rail systems daily, thus fondly remembering Mr. Rogers and his accomplishments. You never know how you are going to influence others with your leadership, or where you are going to use those tiny bits of learnings.Sometimes when you are mentally or physically tired, school work gets tough. That is the time you just put it aside for a while, get a good night's sleep (or a nap or a walk around the block) and start over again. Yesterday I drove for 10 hours to visit my family in Atlanta. When I logged into class last night, I was just brain dead. I put the laptop to sleep, and joined it. I am now, after breakfast with two of my grandkids, watching them watch cartoons and paying some attention to you guys with a clearer mind. I was in the doctor’s office the other day, waited for her to come in for the exam, and read in one of those WebMed magazines on how important taking several breaks an hour during the workday are to performance. Just sitting working for hours straight is not as effective as periodically getting up, or taking a walk is effective.OptionsAs a manager I have been abused so many times by Advocate Devils, but rarely with the blame game. My experience is that most other managers really want to explore the options to make sure that they are not missing something really good or to avoid the really bad by going for something in the middle.PMPCertifications are valuable in a number of ways, and sometimes financially if you are willing to change jobs. Most employers will support employees in attaining certification, but few will pay "extra" once you get it, for they feel that they already supported you once in getting it. New employers will pay "extra". Some certifications are qualifiers for positions in some companies. The PMP Certification was a BIG DEAL in my company since our clients now write PMP certification requirements into contracts.My company ran PMP boot camps for our employees, and paid big bucks for this course and for our taking the exam. I mentored several students who provided me daily feedback on how the class was going and how they were doing. The PMP exam is a real mind banger to study for and to take. Be ready for it when you qualify to be a PMP. As you can see from my "PMP" signature, I am a certified "Project Management Professional" and a member of Project Management Institute, the certifying organization.There are ongoing "Professional Development Units" (PDUs) to earn from taking courses and attending meetings (and teaching this course). Every field has its certifications to deal with. I believe that this is better than just trusting someone's resume when we interview and hire employees. I received my PMP at age 62. There is still plenty of kick to my career and the need to advance my credentials.PMP TrainingPMP training can be gained from PMI or from your company. You may need to lead the effort. We began our PMP cadre with 2 guys about 4 years before. We had about 100+ PMPs when I left that firm. Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM)? is another certification. Having both a PMP and CAPM is great. If CAPM is easier and you can get it first, go for it. The PMP requires at least 3500 hours of experience before you can even apply to take the test. If you think this course is intense, take a boot camp type course; 4 days 10 hours per day that covered the gamut.ProgramsMy work projects are now divided between development and sustainment projects. Sustained operations exist where no further improvements are being made on that version.Project TermsI am leery of contractors with short term project experiences, recommend risky behavior and run to another job. While at one firm, my project was more of a long term venue. For example, my project was almost 20 years old and counting. Many of my team mates were at about 15 years.QualificationWe are all project managers in some way or another. In my office, most of us are project managers at fairly high levels in terms of experience. If we acknowledge our accomplishments via certifications, we can justify to our clients that we deserve our fair yet higher wages. If a hiring officer wants a candidate with a Master’s Degree and you have a PhD, why tell him about the PhD, if you can do the job? Don't "over qualify" yourself to your disadvantage if you want THAT job. If you don’t have IT project experience, I'm sure that you have some project experiences. Let's hear about some kind of experience; so talk about the experiences that you have had, however remote. Employers (and class mates, team mates and most other folks) want to hear positives and not the negatives. If I ask you what experience you have had in building a database, tell me the steps you used to put your contact list on you cell phone, not "I don't know Access". I hope this helps you in this course and in life. If you are claiming minimal project and computer experience, or do not work for a large organization with a lot of resources available for interviews and career opportunities, that is not a problem in this class, or in life, unless YOU make it one.Quality ProgramsI was first involved in Quality Circles, then Benchmarking, Total Quality Management (TQM), 7 Steps, Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA), SIPOC, LEAN, Fishbone, Six Sigma and lots of other systems and templates for continuous improvement. The name or the author / consultant is not as important as the concept of a system of improvement. When you use PMBOK applications, tailor for the organization and project scope.Six Sigma is the latest set of buzz words for organizations to use (or say they use) to improve quality and reduce waste. I hear a lot about it, but I doubt if it is used very much. I earned by Six Sigma Black Belt a few years ago, but rarely use much of the formality of it. Much is statistical in nature, but so is PMP training. As any tool, it is what the organization wants to make of it to really improve, or just to impress others. As a Six Sigma Black Belt, I would love to throw in more of its applications and statistical use into this class, but just how much can one class stand. I used the Pareto principle and applied 20% of the class time to 80% of the topic, and still left out a lot of PM Body of Knowledge. The Six Sigma DMAIC ((1) Define; (2) Measure; (3) Analyze; (4) Improve; and (5) Control) processes are important for a PM to know, and I'm glad that they are included in the reading, but we just don't have enough time in this class to cover everything.RolesA project manager does not have to be a "position"; it is a functional description of what we do to complete a task; large or small. An IT manager could also be a project manager for the IT functions. Although I am not a “techie”, I have been an IT Manager. I had to be a people manager who planned tasks and assigned roles. We have to wear lots of hats today! As a PM, first consider your resources and the establishment of roles other than yourself. A PM should delegate and not try to do it all by yourself.I often have other analysts to prepare reports, an administrative assistant to keep track of team expenses, a manager to write contracts, a team leader to mentor me, other engineers to collect and distribute weekly reports, and other folks to do other tasks. I plan my projects so that each of these tasks and assignments are identified. Hopefully things don't fall through cracks and tasks are not duplicated.ScopeI worked for the Navy as a contractor in Metrics Analysis. I built a "Corporate Database" for our Operations Department. I wrote a charter, but scope creep was going to nominally guide the database until it exploded as an empire building device (from one part time developer to more than three full timers). Three rules of surviving scope creep: document, document, document!Be careful when doing some out of scope work for free. If you have been following the GSA scandal, that is what the hotel did, and some heads are going to roll. I have planned many events, and we were provided directions on what to do and not to do. So were these folk, but the corporate culture must have ignored both the spirit and letter of the government spending rules. I believe that this example will provide a good set of discussion points for our project management lessons.SMEYou can take this PM course as a starting point to understand project management. I've been managing projects since the 1960's and it's still a learning experience as we have to deal with "people". A project manager should be at least fully knowledgeable and experienced, if not an expert, in the area he or she is managing. If not, there will be team members who WILL run all over you and push pet project areas, possibly to the detriment of the project's success. One of the advantages of this online format is that we instructors who are full time Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) can participate in your education as we share our experiences with you, and you know what they say about those who can't do. They teach.TraitsIn your experience have you ever run into a personality trait that definitely does not work for a PM? LAZY. Almost any other trait can succeed1.3 Class NOTESAbsolutesI hope that you do get challenged in the areas of success and failure, but not with pure black and white, yes or no. I do believe in grays (just look at my hair). I wrote in my FAQs that I don't like absolutes. A project can be a failure to the project manager's boss because a goal was not met, but the client or user may be totally delighted because it helped him/her do something that they could not do before. Maybe not perfectly or without some heavy lifting, but you provided them with a tool that they like and appreciate. "Eye of the beholder" comes to my mind in my world of clichés. I will spend a lot of words talking about "who is your audience" in this course. That is Mr. Big! He is the guy that you must please first!"Perfect" is one of my least favorite 7 letter words ... little in this career, or anywhere else, is perfect. I just cringe when I hear co-workers tell someone that their work or response is "perfect". My first disqualifier for a conversation such as this is the absolute word "all". When you get into other aspects, other bets are on. Identifying risks is difficult, and seeing the future is hard, but it is our job as PMs to interview stakeholders to identify as many as possible in their swim lanes, where they have the most experience and the most thought concentrations. We PMs do NOT have to come up with "all" of the ideas ourselves."A-hah Moment" I'm looking for you to pick out of these course materials and conversations some "a-hah" thoughts that you didn't think about before, at least not in the role of a Project Manager. Many of your writings in this course are not graded, so give them appropriate priority. Reading and understanding the chapters ARE high priorities, though. Writing lots of good verbiage is great if you are writing a thesis. In this course, please get to the point and share your pertinent experiences. Are you getting my pragmatic theme here???? I have to tell you that when the "a-hah moments" happen, I am encouraged to teach another course after this one, despite the 26 hour days and 8 day weeks. I need a vacation, but you folks make it oh, so, worthwhile to share my experiences and to read yours aloud to my wife. She gets left out of so much of what I do late at night when I am pounding out replies and grading papers. Thanks for the JOY!AssignmentsAfter facilitating this course for more than 10 years and more than 500 students, I more than understand that there is way too much in this course for mere mortals. I am leading you tender ponies to water and allowing you to drink. The only ones who fail are those that don't try. I am more than lenient with my grading since I understand that my requirements are so very high. A project manager must set a high level of expectation when dealing with a team of such mixed experiences as we have in this class. I temper that level with my candor and lenient grades. Do the work and reap the rewards. This is a loving learning experience where mistakes are not only tolerated, but expected. Thanks for your contributions!Counting to 3 or 10 or 10,000 is often needed in managing a project or in teaching. Sometimes, I get to 20, so there is a lot left to learn about controlling emotions and in controlling the class or project well. This is why it is called an art rather than a science, and why doctors are in "practices" and not in "successes".I try to support all of my students, since my role is to share the best information and insights that I have. I heard someone say yesterday that the best one can do when they are in a deep hole, is to stop digging. I try to provide the ladders, hoists, and other extraction tools, or at least the lanterns to brighten the darkness.SOMETIMES (MORE OFTEN THAN NOT) we PMs provide more information than the normal person can possibly absorb. But leaving too much out is a worse problem for me. Thanks to you students for offering your sides of the understandings. I am writing a proposal now where I am trying to provide to my team my understanding of our scope ... then tomorrow we will have a real face-to-face meeting (for the first time) to pare down to the barest level what the client (the REAL Mr. Big in my world, not our company Vice President, who will be here tomorrow) needs to know about us and our capabilities, so that he will hire us ... now this is for REAL folks. I am living the PM dream right now ... writing a proposal to Mr. Big. So when I offer you advice and information, I know what I am doing (sometimes).I can offer a team project if your team can not come up with one. It has to do with developing software for taking home inventories. I built a concept and a website a few years ago, but did not develop the program beyond that. I don't want any conflict of interest to be involved. See my website at . The scope could include research and selection of software to input home contents via iPad or iPhone type devices and store in an online database (research and select software and website) and develop cost and business plan to offer via a website for a fee (develop fee structure), etc. Another feature of the proposal could include a means to easily research the insurance replacement value of each inventory item and provide that formatted claim list if a loss occurs. The project scope should include the planning and research, not the actual programming development.The project management plan sets the expectations. If the client does not like the plan, they won't block the results. It is up to the PM to set and define the results that are pleasing to the client up front. Then if the client is not pleased, it should be because they did not like the stated plan, or the team failed to meet the planned goals. The PM is the publicist with the strategic communication plan. The communication will not usually help spin a bad result into a good outcome, but it will tell the story, good or bad. The goal is to get buy in from the client as to what the bottom line is supposed to be. “No surprises!” should be the team goal.I'm hoping that you are not getting too involved in the process and not involved enough in generating ideas for the proposal at this point. I'll be posting some NOTES and Examples shortly to help you further define the concept of the project style for this course.... but don't let me stop you ... yet.This course includes a proposal plan with tasks that you would not be expected to perform during this class. This is a planning exercise in learning what a PM and the "real" team is expected to do during and after the proposal is presented to Mr. Big.While rotating leaders is a good learning experience for some, it usually does not result in very good outcomes in the project goals. I usually leave it up to class teams as to whether the project leadership is rotated weekly, but I do not recommend it for short projects, such as in this 6-week course.I am used to many team members having conflicts and saying things that cause even more conflict. I don't like it, but I understand it. So, let's get down to business, tolerate the chaos that happens on teams that are forced together, and learn to live with it, especially in work situations. I have often said that school is the place to make mistakes since the repercussions are minimal in the long run. In this class, your penalties for chaos are minimal and your rewards for good work is recognized at the end of six weeks, not in the middle. The same is so for many work teams ... well, not really. Many Project Managers have long memories.This project is not to do the programming, but to PROPOSE the plan for the project, which includes the programming. Your team is getting "wrapped around the axle" on the intricate requirements. This is supposed to be a proposal to plan, not the finished plan, so each of you are qualified to assist in areas you have general knowledge, or at least the ability to point to research.Your individual assignments should help you learn how your own organization’s IT works on a step-by-step basis. Knowing basics and researching the systems are two very different things. You may be surprised that some of your prior assumptions may not be true after you research your organization’s project management systems. You may also learn that IT strategies are only as effective as the planning and implementation. A Mercedes on the side of the road out of gas is like a company with poorly implemented project management, no matter how good the development, planning, software, hardware, or intentions. We've all managed projects, whether at work, a family move, or a picnic. I've outlined a picnic for you in the Lecture. When you post an attachment (in this course or any other venue), please introduce it with a short summary.When fellow students criticize your writings, understand that it is to expand our understanding, not to put anyone down. Promote alternate thinking. Just saying "I agree" takes little thought or growth. Your response does not need to be a long dissertation, unless you want to. A sentence or three, such as I am doing here, is all that is needed as a response, unless you want to say more :-). I'm for many types of responses, so don't let my responses stifle yours; long short, agree or disagree, or at times even off on tangents. My job as a course project manager in this class is to stimulate learning, not to dictate form and municationCommunication "should" be at least two ways, but sometimes you are expected to be "the" two ways, at the same time. “Knowing thy audience” may be to know that Mr. Big is bipolar (no, I'm not bipolar, but your Mr. Big could be, so knowing that is a good thing?). My company has a pretty sophisticated employee alert system where if there is a storm or other pending disaster, we get notifications via email, home phone, cell phone and carrier pigeon. We are also requested to report in after a big storm so we can "check off" to make sure everyone is safe. One of my hot buttons is that IT folks are often not good communicators, which is why I hit it so very hard in this course in so many ways.Don't be late past Monday nights, especially on major (this is a 70 point task) tasks where I subtract 10% for lateness. Remember my policy that late is better than zeros ... with advance notice and agreement, you will be able to catch up in your major (30 and 70 point) assignments. DQs and participation points are history at the end of each week. Remember requests for late assignments. Late is better than zeros in life.You will find in my grading in this course that the "Quality" is based mostly on your learning, not on your writing expertise. For example, I do not worry as much about the content of your Gantt or whether your schedule or time is perfect, but rather are you learning the basics of the tool for project management.If you are a day or two late is not as important as getting the assignment done at all, therefore the learning aspect. When you use the Project software in your actual project planning after this course is complete, then your team and managers (Mr. Bigs) will expect the data to be correct. In this class, you are here to make mistakes and to learn ... thus quality, cost, and schedule become a bit different than in later activities.Good project managers provide many options for success. My business rules matrix exemplifies the various ways DQ points can be earned. 5 points for participation can be an indication that team and project documents are deemed more important than "requiring" 30 posts which you have identified as possible although a high bar. Thanks for the challenge! I expect no less from my best students.Do all of the reading and re-reading, team assignments and cooperation's, and lend your life experiences as they are and you will do fine in this class. Where you are asked to apply work requirements, either do research or interview / apply it to local organizations that you have available. This may be a great way to gain entre for a new position. Be positive and learn the basics of Project Management and you should do fine in life. A positive attitude is a key requirement for a successful manager.Write a set of particular questions before the interview and post them in the write up, take great Notes during the interview. Do as many interviews as possible face to face for the many reasons I have written about.You can get to know the interviewees and they can get to know you. Find out what your project managers do. Develop contacts that you might otherwise not have. Promote yourselves by demonstrating your interest in what your managers are doing and volunteering to lead future projects. That is the best way I know to get ahead in your careers. You gain an advantage from meeting and speaking to folks in your organization.Interview friends or family or the "Wal-Mart Greeter" to get the information and interview practice. If it is not your corporate personnel, it will be their loss, not yours.Remember, you don't need to have a school assignment to take advantage of their experience and for them to get to know you. It is most often who you know and not what you know that gets you ahead in your careerMost Mr. Bigs would expect his project managers to refer to more than one point of view when evaluating project solutions. If your interviewee has only been employed for a short time, will this be substantial enough to provide an answer? He/she may have been with another organization for “quotable” experiences.Another advantage of these interviews is that you get on their radar as an interested team member, as well as gain some insight on where they are taking your organization.I don't think that a short interview is adequate for the kind of course we are dealing with here, but I do understand that if you are in a different situation and don't have a manager to talk to in your organization, you may suffer from a short response.Depth of ThoughtIn your project descriptions, I'm interested in how people reacted to your participation activities. Having been on the authoring side of many articles, briefings and papers, for length and space limitations, I have had to leave out many important explanations and side issues. A well referenced article will usually reveal many of the "other" details. Google type search engines and Wikipedia help us dig into those details fairly easily.DQ answers should be substantial and explanatory (200+ words). I also evaluate responses to other student's comments. See the DQ Score Business Rules Table in Instructor Policies where you can earn a full five points for 4 posts, 250 words, and an average of 125 words per post; or 10 or more posts, 150 words maximum, and a 75 word average. Read these NOTES and suggestions on how to score well in this course, as well as learning a lot and having fun getting into constructive conversations.This is a masters level course, so I'll looking for deep analysis and introspection on how you interacted with team members and how you succeeded or failed in key project components. I realize we are just beginning the study of projects, so, do what you can at this stage. In addition to your synopses, we are also interested in hearing about your personal reactions to class interactions, your lifestyle in meeting class requirements in your environment, the organization of the lessons, and suggestions for improvements. These issues are not required, just pretty interesting since we read and are familiar with the materials.Executive Summary (ES)Weekly Summaries are a significant portion of the learning process, so many elements are expected. The Executive Summary (ES) format has Purpose, Objectives, Problems, Background, Discussions, Findings, and Conclusions and Recommendations. An ES "Outline" should be one or two pages, double spaced. Write these for the case, associated instructions, and the audience (Know Thy Audience!).Take your ES seriously, and relax (don't sweat the small stuff in this class) but be ready for contradictions! Many project managers will present such contradictions as related to Mr. Big's whims (which is why I emphasize "Know Thy Audience". Today I am Mr. Big. Tomorrow you may be presenting to another Mr. Big). Tailor (be flexible) your headings and discussions according to your needs and how you want to present your particular case to Mr. Big (or how you have been instructed to do so by a stricter format policy).Use Outline Headings in your ES, not just one big paragraph, which is usually the format for an Abstract.Make sections easier for Mr. Big to quickly skim and understand.FacilitatorThis is a very fast moving and positive environment for sharing and learning by actively facilitating, not dictating, this learning experience. As adult students, I expect you to perform at a much higher level than as undergraduates. Unlike undergraduate lectures, I will not repeat or review the reading material.Instead, I will provide many of my own work experiences that are directly related to the week’s learning objectives. I hope that these lectures are thought provoking and informative examples of what can often happen in business, and we’ll discuss them in our class as they relate to assigned readings. Weekly eText and articles are fairly current, explain the information well, and cover key areas for understanding IT projects.My teaching experience has been in classrooms as an instructor and as a perpetual student. As an instructor, I’ve been frustrated by my students’ babysitter problems, work schedules, car breakdowns, physical limitations, and life issues. I don’t think distance learning can overcome some situations, but it helps with most.I’ve taught computer and business subjects and have experienced the many situations we’ll be discussing in private industry and government work settings. I'm looking forward to know you and to share our experiences in a free-flowing, team-oriented atmosphere.Feedback I suggest that you do not claim ANY weaknesses to yourself or to your classmates, unless you are looking for EXCUSES to fail (one student failed my last class, but I did not fail that student, he/she failed to perform and to meet even minimum success requirements). Do not apologize to anyone (except your spouse, maybe); it is a sign of weakness (says my TV hero, Leroy Jethro Gibbs, NCIS Special Agent). I do try to give you some encouragement, humor, selected words of wisdom, and some strictness when warranted.The "people" issues, infinite variables of dealing with situations! For example, I have taught this class quite a few times with similar Syllabus and NOTES. I add and modify them after most classes based on feedback (and I will surely do the same after this one!). Each class has a different mix of students, personalities and experience. While the needs are usually similar, the "wants" are different. As I stated in one of my weekly feedbacks, you have been a joy and I learned so much from you. THANK YOU for MY education!FormatI'm not looking for an exact format from you at this early point of your project. This is how a "real" project manager with little experience and no set format may assign an "arbitrary" topic for discussion. We'll fine tune the format later as I provide you some more examples of previous team reports. I'm trying to give you the look and feel of dealing with project managers who may not give you what you want or need at some phase of a project, which forces you to ask or assume formats, facts, situations. It may not be fed to you automatically, and you will have to learn to either ask or read materials provided to you that you may not have read yet (or been provided yet when they could be available in the corporate intranet site or in my materials, etc.). I may have the materials, but I may not feel that you are ready for some of it. You may need to crawl before you walk, and run before you can leap tall buildings in a single bound.InterviewsUnderlings can lead by example, especially my students. I will require you to conduct interviews with corporate personnel and to write team projects that can be presented to them to show what you can do. I will provide great examples of how you can lead from below. We will spend most of this course sharing ideas that can enhance your organization and your career. I will also try to motivate you to chat up your executives to get some high level recognition. I have not played much golf lately, but a good friend of mine and a very successful businessman told me that if he had to do it all over again, he would have played a lot more golf, which is where he met his best contacts and made his biggest deals. As you can see from the DQ's, many class situations address your current work or other organization practices. I suggest that you re-read the Syllabus and Instructor Policies to see if you can make it work well for your situation. You could, if needed, do research papers instead of corporate interviews. Or you could interview local business owners or friends.MistakesMisteaks r good. someting to trow stix at. Eeeek! You goofed up! Try again! Class is the place to goof up. Work is where you will be embarrassed. The classroom is a great place to make mistakes without being crushed by them; reading about and understanding the mistakes of others can help us avoid them, which is what a lot of "school" is about. I don't usually "count off" for mistakes in format or wrong answers in this course. I do penalize students for lack of effort and not trying to research and learn, as most good PMs would do. We try to build team and project skills and getting to the right answers, not play "gotcha".PhotosI'm not sure why photos are so infrequently used, especially since I joined Facebook so that I could see the most recent photos of my family and friends almost daily. Living so far apart surely brings us together, especially with Facetime on our iPhones.Another infrequently used medium is the telephone. I offer my phone number in every posting, and usually I only receive one or two phone calls per class ... are students afraid of using the phone to communicate with each other or their instructors today? I usually get to know my students better and what their real needs are when they call.ReadInformation systems are tied to our everyday life and we’ll see how we can take advantage of many of new technologies available today. DQs and readings will require you to research and understand past and present IT processes in your workplace, and to explore the future. Group discussions should help you to better grasp concepts and ideas that you may not have understood very well in the readings or in your research. Re-read Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), Team Recommendations, and these NOTES often.It is not possible to learn everything you need to know about project management in six weeks. We’ll cover a wide area of topics, but will not gloss over many of them. We’ll spend enough time in each area to grasp the concept, and more importantly, realize where our weaknesses lie, and what areas we should continue to study. I encourage you to re-read materials often to better understand the concepts, especially when reading several weeks later. When we learn something new, and quickly re-visit and use what we learn, the better our comprehension. Our challenge is to continue our education and build on the foundations formed.For details of my expectations, suggestions, and clarifications, refer often to these writings. My most successful students heed this advice: RE-READ documents! I warned you that the workload in this class would be demanding, but I believe that you will receive an unbelievable amount of benefit from it. Let me know how I can help you manage your time, which is a major portion of successful project management.By reading the FAQs and these NOTES, you should get some ideas on how to more easily succeed in this course. You might think from reading the objectives that a lot of the material will be a review if you have dealt with information systems and project management for a long time. If you are new to projects, I hope that you will be comfortable in catching up with your more experienced classmates. I believe that you’ll find that the format of the weekly Discussion Questions (DQs) and research papers will make the information new and interesting as it applies to office automation, virtual offices, decisions, and career choices.Task DescriptionAnother word for sub project is sub task, as used in Project software. For example, "Read eText" may be a main project or task within this course; "Read Chapter1" and "Read Chapter 2" are sub tasks; "Write Chapter 1 Comments" could be a sub-sub task under "Read Chapter1". You will be using the Work Breakdown Subject (WBS) numbering system in this course and in Project software that will help you better identify and organize sub projects or sub tasks. I used an arbitrary number of "10" sub tasks per student for your course team project to make sure that you had enough breadth and depth to work with in this project, and to make sure that you got some practice in your Team's Project, using the Goldilocks concept of not too much, and not too little, but "just right" however you can measure that for your project. If you can fully process your project with 7 or 17 sub projects, that is fine with me. Just don't use 2 or 200.I think that the WBS is more of a way of thinking. I think in process steps, where WBS is just natural to me, therefore I use it so often, even if it is a To Do List.Changes are a major portion of project management; not just setting up the original WBS plan. Rolling with the punches and DOCUMENTING the changes is a key part of the job. Make changes, but don’t reinvent the wheel. Some projects are round and others square. Some round ones have spokes like bicycles, while others have solids like car wheels. Some car wheels have wheel covers while others have the lug nuts showing. The basic WBS templates can be copied, but there may be significant differences as the particular project is developed. As you see the "picnic" example I provided in the lecture, you can see where you can borrow the template and change the numbering system to suit your project organization. I also provided some Project software Gantt examples that can be borrowed, copy/pasted and changed. WBS numbering in the paper is not required but is a good idea when the paper is long and complex so that readers can follow / track easier.ToolsPencil and paper are still good tools in their settings. Don't throw them away! I usually have a pencil and a pad of paper handy next to my computer. I am used to paper. Paper works even when your operating system crashes and the lights go out (flashlight and fresh batteries are also in my desk).1.4 Gantt NOTESBarTo put text next to a bar, right click on the bar, select the text tab, select the location of the data to be presented, such as the task title description, then select the location (I prefer to the right of the bar). You can do individual bars of a whole group of them by highlighting many tasks. Try it!CalendarSet up your calendar to reflect how you want to calculate hours and days. There is not a fixed 8 hour rule if you want it to be another business rule.When you make changes or corrections, either show the original and the fix (as would probably be easiest in this case), or explain in a narrative. For example, word processing tracking software could have been used.ConstraintsThe following table lists the constraints provided in Project software.Constraint typeConstraint nameDescriptionFlexibleAs Late As Possible (ALAP)Schedules the task as late as possible with the task ending before the project ends and without delaying subsequent tasks. This is the default constraint for tasks when you schedule from the project finish date. Do not enter a task start or finish date with this constraint.FlexibleAs Soon As Possible (ASAP)Schedules the task to begin as early as possible. This is the default constraint for tasks when you schedule from the project start date. Do not enter a start or finish date with this constraint.Semi-FlexibleStart No Earlier Than (SNET)Schedules the task to start on or after a specified date. Use this constraint to ensure that a task does not start before a specified date.Semi-FlexibleFinish No Earlier Than (FNET)Schedules the task to finish on or after a specified date. Use this constraint to ensure that a task does not finish before a certain date.Semi-FlexibleStart No Later Than (SNLT)Schedules the task to start on or before a specified date. Use this constraint to ensure that a task does not start after a specified date.Semi-FlexibleFinish No Later Than (FNLT)Schedules the task to finish on or before a specified date. Use this constraint to ensure that a task does not finish after a certain date.InflexibleMust Finish On (MFO)Schedules the task to finish on a specified date. Sets the early, scheduled, & late finish dates to the date that you type & anchors task in the schedule.InflexibleMust Start On (MSO)Schedules the task to start on a specified date. Sets the early, scheduled, & late start dates to the date that you type and anchors the task in schedule.Here are step by step directions on how to enter the constraints for various circumstances depending upon what you want to do: is usually so low on Developers project lists that it causes great pain to the Up-graders. I so often hear "we get paid to develop, and off to the next project; no time or patience to document.” A good Project Manager will build documentation into the process and into the cost and time BUDGET.ExampleWe created a Presentation with key points on the main slide, and details in the Notes section for the presenter to learn before the briefing. I copied the Project tasks, and pasted it into presentation as pure text. As an example of a very successful project that was on time and on budget, I completed a report project that was beautiful, complete, well written, and approved by client and managers alike. So what was the problem? We left out about 75% of the analysis, commentary, and in depth warnings to the folks who will be implementing our plan. I was a very expensive "clerk" who spent about 90% of my time making the report "pretty" and proof reading and correcting others mistakes, instead of being a project manager and experienced analyst. That is what the team needed. That is what I did, happily, since I was neither responsible for nor stressed out by the results. This I call "Lead, Follow, or Get Out Of The Way". ExportCan you export Mac's Project into a spreadsheet that we can see in this class forum? I'm not going to penalize you for not having a PC if you can post understandable data. Can you read other's Project software output by using the conversion software?FeaturesI won't be looking for perfection in Week 1 or in Week 6 either. Just improvement and understanding of the use and importance of the tool. Project software tools are so powerful, and constantly evolving, I probably don't know many of the new (and old) aspects. Explore first what you need, then keep on "surfing the tool" to find goodies that are buried in there. I'm constantly finding ones that I overlooked or are new to the system in upgrades since my first Project software in 1998.FeedbackI'm sorry that I don't take time to comment on each Project software or Gantt submission, but at this early stage of your usage, I'd rather you use trial, search and error, then look at each other's solutions. Project softwares are so "powerful" and multi-faceted for so many uses and purposes, there is no way that I could remotely "tutor" or cover your progress well. I have taught Project in a classroom, and it is not easy to "teach" there either. Most software I have learned by using it and figuring out how to do what I needed it to do, without trying to add a lot more detail than I or my client could possibly need, or want.ScopeScope Creep is a project success killer, and not defining the project scope provides a dead on arrival (DOA) project. You can write that on your forehead before your next project team meeting. I learned a long time ago that building rather than buying is a bad idea, but researching the best to buy is not an easy or sure process. More on that later in the course. I am a former programmer and IT manager who used to build my own software, but then there was little (none) to choose from. For the past decade or two, with web applications and communications technologies, build your own has become much too complicated and changing too quickly. The US Government organizations I work for are way too large and over the globe to consider build your own. I can build my own spreadsheets and databases, but anything mAs we proceed in this Week 1, you should update your tasks to more fully correspond to the syllabus. A lot is possible with WBS planning, including assigning resources. There are also problems with WBS, such as trying to get too complicated and trying to make the Project software do too much, to the point that updates become more trouble than they are worth. Then you may drop the Project software tool completely. Projects, whether IT or picnics, take about the same steps and concepts. Only the details differ. My work Action Lists begin as "to do" lists, then my boss may ask me to develop some new and innovative ideas.TasksOur client was really getting tired of the let's do the same old thing better routine. He thought that turning the whole project on its head was the way to go. We proposed "throwing the baby out with the bathwater" and starting over with our approach, but not changing much in the software. This was more of a marketing approach than a contract negotiation.Projects usually begin with a request from someone or a requirement from an organization, with particular aspects to be answered initially. If the bean counters begin with costs, that is where the project manager begins in the development phase. Cost may be last items to be captured, but it may be the driving force behind the organization of the project. The most important thing that a PM does at first is to determine requirements, and cost is only one of many, usually.As you are finding out in this course, there are many things to consider as a PM. When I was writing contracts for the Government, I wanted to say not only what, but how. Contracts were then required to drop the "how". Now that I'm on the contractor side, I'm glad the “how” is left off, but we still have to figure out the how, and work with the client to find out what he meant for the "what". When I write my tasks list for new contracts for my team, I use the PMBOK list of requirements as section headings, and fill in the blanks for specifics. It makes for a complete project and really impresses the client (and my boss).Working on a project without full inputs is heading for sure disaster! You will accomplish many tasks very well without the "user" but that is like flying a plane on auto pilot, but forgetting to include the GPS to tell you where you REALLY are, not just where you THINK you are. Watch out for that big mountain in front of you because the wind was blowing you off course!I see that you understand how the golden triangle, or "three legged stool", gets processed ... and sometimes when the occupant falls off the stool, all you have to do is see which leg got cut out from under. You may now be seeing one of the major problems of being a project manager, in "knowing thy audience". It is difficult, but we must cater to their needs, and remember to do so by using some tools, whether they are Post-it Notes, Project software, or others.During this course I will try to bring out many "Know thy audience" analogies and requirements that may cause aggravation, not to be a pain in the XXX, but to drill into you that the audience is always the audience, and must be satisfied. I'm glad that we got to the discussion where Program Managers are tasked to change members and not accept sub-par performance or intellect, or whatever you want to call "lazy". Discounting any one of the three legs will just cut the legs out from the project. Balance is important!I have often seen budgets prepared before a project is planned. It is up to project teams to develop plans that will fit the budget AND the OBJECTIVES. I don't think that it is hard to understand; but it is hard to do.TeamA team charter and an accepted time and cost budget are essential, otherwise other priorities dictate the level of documentation, then it is often [please note my use of qualifiers, such as "often" and "usually", not "always" and "never". This will keep you out of trouble when reviewers or clients try to nail you on some issues] too late to recover after the programmers leave the project. Start working on Project as a team, but as I just wrote, it does NOT need to be turned in weekly. Let's try to keep these submittals and projects as simple as possible. In Weeks 5 & 6, I'll be providing more detailed suggestions to help you "delight" Mr. Big.TimeThe time and resources expected to plan should really be weighed against the project cost and number of users affected. A project manager should probably not spend a week planning a four day project affecting three people. A week planning a system that affects a million people but only takes two days of coding is probably not long enough. The answer to “how long” is "it depends". A day late for a clock watcher would be a tragedy. For me, not a problem (I would not have noticed if you hadn't said anything about it (hint hint: don't offer errors to your reviewers. They'll remember those more than the ones that they find)). We don't need the clutter of dates showing next to the bars.VirtualBe aware of online versions of Project, which you may use rather than buying your own copy of Project. Let's hear about your experiences with this online version. I agree with you that buying your own version of Project is an investment in your future as a project manager.Miscellaneous Gantt Notes and RemindersPlease convert your Project software to the latest version. I do this on purpose so you can better understand that not all recipients of your input may have the latest version, so you have to cater to the "lowest common denominator". For example, the US Government has not progressed to the latest versions of some software since the conversion is so expensive and budgets are limited.I want each of you to introduce each "attached" assignment with a 1 - 2 sentence summary of the attached, including any changes you made from a previous week or assignment. Get used to this, and I suggest that you use this approach for in school and out of school attachments. It explains to the reader what is coming, and should entice the reader to read the entire work. The intro I was referring to was for each of your document(s) only, not a general introduction to the course.Once you LOVE Project software and want to use it all of the time. Then you can buy it if you find the virtual version not suitable for you, which many students who learn that they want to be project managers.Decomposition is a good word; the opposite is composition, where small components can be rolled up, sliced and diced, and sorted in many ways so that you can perform multiple tasks simultaneously that affect multiple projects. For example, when you assign Gantt charts for weeks 1-4 you can give them the same suffix in your WBS and keep track of them better. For example, for this course I use 1.4, 2.4, 3.4 and 4.4. I can remember the x.4 as representing Gant charts for my grading system.Remember that the Gantt / Project software is also for your team and to make presentations to Mr. Big ... If folks who do not create the Gantt and don't see it too often are not able to understand what they are looking at quickly and easily, they will probably not be receptive or encouraging of its use. To make it "pretty" is more than a meaningless exercise. Industry practice is all over the place, so you need to create your Gantt and other views (Calendar, Resource Chart, etc.) for YOUR audience.I like Project software because even if I get "too" detailed, I can fall back to presenting a rolled up version of the Gantt by clicking on a few "+" signs. You can still be an A-Type and portray balance to the other folks.Separate WBS from Task Names in separate columns. Show Tasks with Action Verb and Task Description. Show Task Name rather than the "Resource" to the right of the Gantt bar. See my example Gantt.If you are having a problem with format or calendar / dates, you can reverse engineer how fellow students or I have done our Gantts and figure out how to fix your "challenges". Remember you also have the "help" functions as well as each other to refer to when hitting problem areas.Please spell it "Gantt" ... it is named after Mr. Henry Gantt who developed this type of bar chart with start and stop dates and other features and constraints for project schedules in the 1910’s.1.6 Team NOTES AppendixIn your paper, appendixes are identified in the order they appear in the paper; first appendix will be "A".BrainstormTeam decisions are normally majority votes. Brainstorming begins with recommendations being heard, but not necessarily approved by a majority. I suggest that your team participates in brainstorming at first.FeedbackSeveral times a week, I'll be reading your postings, but probably not too much advice unless I see you going off track; just what a project manager does. I do expect a very brief weekly report and weekly deliverables as shown in the syllabus and lecture. You can open a thread of "questions for facilitator" if you would like, so my replies don't get lost in the flood of postings.Form TeamsForm your own teams by volunteering or by invitation. Once a couple of folk’s team up, others may ask to join and you get to say yes or no. This is an exercise in team development which is a part of project management, as you will read about in the eText, and practice in this course. You are "big" people. Adults in my class get to choose their team mates. It makes for an interesting learning process. The best way to create a team is for a "leader - A-Type personality" to go to one of the Team Forums and wildly wave your hands and stomp your feet and ask for more volunteers, or to check out the biographies and ask the best mix of talents to support your team concept and project content, or wait to be asked to join a team or just join the "last" team and be left with the least options of good team composition.This is a first stage of team development that I am trying to teach in this course. It is like a pickup basketball game. Pick the tallest and most athletic guys or gals standing around the basket, or pick me since I'm the only guy hanging around, old, overweight, and tired looking, but lots of hidden talent? If more students show up, we'll have a Team D and may need to redistribute some of you "volunteers". If one or two of you want to join another team based on the selected team project and your expertise, feel free to see what the other teams are doing by clicking on the A, B and C team forums. If you have a desired team mate, just log into a team forum; first come, first served until we have 4 teams with 4 to 5 members each. If folks drop out or want to switch based on YOUR project selection then please contact me for permission to change teams. If you don't volunteer for a team by Thursday, I will assign you. In my experience, Team A usually has more go getters, then B, etc.MotivateI do believe in and try to practice finding out what makes others tick, not just to get something out of them, but to make them feel worthwhile. As I worked for the Government, I tried to understand how to motivate others. The bottom line was that I really couldn't other than on a personal basis. We managers and supervisors were not "allowed" to offer bonuses or perks that the worst workers would also have to get (a screwed up management system). The only true motivation had to come from within. People either have it or don't. I have a guy working for me now who, I'm afraid, doesn't have it, but I must use him according to my manager. An example of giving problem children a key job: I had a really negative team member. We created the "negative jar" where a quarter had to be deposited for every negative comment. This guy was even cheaper than he was negative, so we made him "treasurer" in charge of the negative jar, and he was charged very few quarters after that. Delegating interaction with users to a team member other than me promotes what we call "building people" where we give team members an opportunity to grow and add to our flexibility. Of course, team communication and controls are in place, so "trust but verify" exists.4265295352878When one of my grandsons was 6 1/2 years old (he insisted that the "1/2" is very important) he loved to play tinker toys with me. We built a Barbie House for his 8 3/4 year old sister one afternoon; just the two of us. He told me what he wanted done and I did it.The day before we had an absolutely terrible team project session where 8 3/4 was the "boss" and yelling at him because he was not following her instructions to the letter, or fast enough to suit her. I sat there observing and thinking about how to deal with this situation (and did not do very well with disparate and childish personalities). There was no reasoning with either of them. Then the worst thing that could happen: their mother (my daughter) came downstairs and got involved. World war three erupted and the 1 3/4 year old got into it as "the destroyer" and ripped up our tinker toy rocket ship. I am a total failure as a project manager. I resigned my position and bequeathed it to "the destroyer" as 8 3/4 was sent to her room and 6 1/2 just went away crying. I planned a make-up session that afternoon which made all of them happy(er). Not very well planned, but considering the situation, showing up was 90% of the success. OK, students; top this story. Another thought came to me … the need for MATURITY in team membership and task accomplishment.If you have immature team members who do not understand the goals, procedures, team spirit, etc., you could be doomed to failure, especially when you are joined by a "destroyer" who antagonizes one or more immature anizationAn example of a problem organization: My Material Department had a high powered guy as the head person, and a friend of mine. We worked together well to make sure no feathers were ruffled for him or anyone else. The chain of personnel, as you can imagine in a materiel group, were former fork lift drivers and shelf stockers who were there for a long, long time and evolved up the chain of supervisors. They were great people, but not well educated or too smart, so it made for interesting meetings in terms of group dynamics. As I said, it took only two weeks to figure out that the improvements were not going to come from the bottom up, when everyone was deferring to the boss to say anything important.ScopeIf you are not really clear on the Team Project, please re-read instructions about this being a real-life project from one of your work places. Please read my assignment, NOTES, and Team Recommendations, which explain the team selection process. Look for a topic and camaraderie to suit you. This project must have the potential for one of your team member's real organizations, and planning can be accomplished with legitimate activities by your team members during the next 5 weeks. Working on a project that you can't really propose to Mr. Big will be too frustrating and hard for you to get too excited over. Team C (please come up with a better name. I don't want any of you making a "C" in this course :-). For example, "C Consulting Company" using the "C" as a key part of the name. Implementation is not required during this course, but a proposal to Mr. Big is required, with a lot of the things that we'll be discussing.I will provide examples of previous team reports as a guide. If you don't understand, ask! You have skills that rocket scientists never even dreamed of. For project scopes, our eyes are usually bigger than our tummies, and that is where a team effort brings things back to earth from outer space. Problems with the front office is typical of many organizations without a fully funded, skilled and staffed IT department or liaison. From what you are learning in your coursework, you should be the one to step up for this role.Week 1 is just a proposal outline to Mr. Big (me) to determine if you should proceed on this project and path. I expect a great, but not perfect proposal."No" is an absolute that I avoid ... When a project dollar budget and time frame is developed, adding a fudge factor, say 10%, is normal, appropriate, and accepted by most managers. Planning is a plan, not an absolute dictum ... few of us are that smart to get estimates "perfec". Scope creep is a creepy thing where we don't have records of how much or %. Some of them doomed the project, while others were funded from future project funding pools. Most scope creeps are not documented by management since they don't want to get caught for it, or for not including it in the original plan (CYA). Scope creep is either managed or not. If not, the team and project suffers. A built in dollar or time allowance is not an excuse for scope creep, it is just a way to account for it. Managers who allow stakeholders and users to run amok are poor managers. Successful Project Managers must be strong in controlling scope.In most projects, there is some built-in leeway for changes, since there are few projects that don't have changes along the line, so they should be allowed for in some expected way, so the team does not have to nickel-dime small changes in budgets or time plans. Your example of allowing a website to be member operated and maintained really depends on the skills and the level of commitment of the stakeholders, which is very rare and not to be trusted. As in many areas, such as in our discussion of SharePoint, allowing a site to run amok is common and not particularly good. If a band or music company is going to invest in the creation of a site, they should also invest in a webmaster to maintain it, at least for a specified period, say a year. They can then decide if it is worth their money (or loss of business in having a poor website continuity). Overall, a bad idea in allowing the stakeholders to run both a band and a website, since most musicians are not either business people or techies. In this course we will discuss outsourcing for a week, so this would be a good example to come back to at that time and use the band as a core business and the website as something that should be outsourced. Margins are out of the window when tragedies such as floods and even man-made disasters happen. Murphy's Law is one you need to become familiar with as a project manager. 10% IS "NORMAL" but "It Depends" for really small and really large projects, based on best practices and Project Manager Experiences on particular projects. Sorry ... that is as close as I can come. We will spend a week in this course concentrating on budgets and estimates so you will get more exposure then. "Good Luck" in explaining overages and reasons for goof ups ... "zero tolerance" is a phrase that comes to my mind here. I would rather throw in a moderate percentage "fudge factor" (understood and accepted by most stakeholders) and not have to explain individual variances. I have a hard time with the term "best practices" since the definition of "best" is so hard to draw. I look at it as a way to draw out examples that would fit your situation, and use them as examples or standards. Do they have to be 100%? I don't think so ... they just have to be relevant to what you are doing ... and more relevant than lesser (???) applications. Whether top down or bottom up is less important to me than just starting somewhere. Once you start an estimate, you usually look at the bottom line and re-evaluate the individual tasks and times or costs, anyway. It is important to begin somewhere, then use the Plan Do Check Act (PDCA) feedback loop process to improve the estimate.The handiest tools I use are a Sharpie and the back of some envelope I pull out of my trash can, then I use Excel ... and when I need it, Project software or Access. Scope dictates tool usage, not some rule that says "Thou Must Use Gantt".Use of predecessors is a blessing and a curse. If done correctly you will save lots of time and be blessing the concept. Done wrong, all we will hear is screams. Biggest suggestion I can make is Google the best YouTube’s for your particular Project software (and any other software) and sit back and watch and listen, then rerun with a pen and paper and take just a few notes. Relax and enjoy the speaker’s expertise.There is no real incentive for the government to worry itself about best business practices since no one is ever really held accountable for failure. Not so! I am writing a proposal now that requires we build "best practices" into our work for the government since they do not have the budget to implement "worst practices". They must do the work that we are bidding on, and only want to do it in the best way, so they are relying on our research and recommendations to bring in the "proof of concept" for the original contract at three test sites to do all world-wide sites. They will be held accountable for failure. Government is made up of people, just like any private company. Government workers often get an undeserved bad rap.2.0 Week Two Lecture: Project Time ManagementObjectives:* Explain project time management.* Compare and contrast Gantt charts, Program Evaluation Review, and the Critical Path Method (CPM).After reading ”Read Me Firsts” and Chapter 4, The Human Side of Project Management, and discussing it in class, you should be able to:■ Describe the three major types of formal organizational structures: functional pure project, and matrix.■ Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the functional, pure project, and matrix organizational structures.■ Describe the informal organization.■ Develop a stakeholder analysis.■ Describe the difference between a work group and a team.■ Describe and apply the concept of learning cycles and lessons learned as a basis for knowledge management.After reading Chapter 6, The Work Breakdown Structure and Project Estimation, and discussing it in class, you should be able to:■ Develop a work breakdown structure.■ Describe the difference between a deliverable and a milestone.■ Describe and apply several project estimation methods. These include the Delphi technique, time boxing, top-down estimation, and bottom-up estimation.■ Describe and apply several software engineering estimation approaches. These include lines of code (LOC), function point analysis, COCOMO, and heuristics.We’ll learn the basics of project organization management. We’ll discuss project initiation, planning, definition, verification, and change control. We’ll discuss the pros and cons of some project selection methods. We’ll look at examples of the ways that Work Breakdown Structures can make us more productive by studying the guidelines, analogies, top-down and bottom-up approaches used. Project time management has encouraged the development of new scheduling techniques using activity definition, sequencing, and duration estimating. Project time management also includes baseline dates, deliverables and milestones, network diagrams, Gantt charts, CPM, and Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT), and other software aids. You’ll get to experience an entire different level of communication, which should affect your workplace with new methods of exchanging project data and ideas, and systems to help you make better decisions.One of your assignments asks you to describe some of your recent projects. You probably will include such information as shown in the example below. My project helped to plan the Preventive Maintenance schedule for a large 100-ton floating Navy Yard Derrick.* Project title: Navy YD PM Schedule * Your role: Project Planner and Project Instructor * Sponsoring organization: Navy Public Works Center * Team size: 4 Planners * Project scope: Compare 2, 5 & 9-week schedules, with multi-shift and multi-crew options * Project cost: N/A * Short description: To plan the Preventive Maintenance (PM) schedule for a 100-ton floating Yard Derrick (YD) by in-house employees * Results: We decided to use the 9-week strategy since skilled resources (people), limited deck space, and lack of supervision for 2nd and 3rd shift work were more limiting factors than completion times and costs. * Lessons learned: Project helped us to compile and format data. Without Project, we would have had a more difficult time in collecting data, analyzing and portraying the variables, and proving our conclusions. Digital photos also helped. This project plan: ** Defined the deliverables** Defined the work tasks** Sequenced the work tasks** Identified the critical path** Estimated the duration** Defined the risks** Calculated the budget, and** Determined the resourcesMore Examples of my Past Projects: Computer Specialist in Policy, Planning & Management. Navy Public Works Center (PWC), Info Resources Management (IRM) Department 1992-2002. I was recognized as one of PWC’s main subject matter experts in Project and Office applications. I taught estimating and project design to Planner-Estimators, wrote the Department of Defense’s training manuals for Engineered Performance Standards (EPS), and taught the EPS course around the US and overseas. I wrote and facilitated a course in Win Estimator, the recognized leader in construction estimating software. I managed implementing a major computer application for a non-PWC client, including purchasing and installing Dell Servers, and Oracle Server, and other software I used to scope, estimate, schedule, budget, track, and control this $3 million project. I was a business advisor, facilitator and author of many studies, presentations, web pages, annual operating plans, business case analyses, organization charts, position descriptions, standards of service, memos of agreement, marketing plans, performance indicators, and standard operating procedures, and I served as PWC rep to many local, regional and international IT teams.I served on an Oracle HR team for formal employee development and training programs. I assisted our PWC personnel in coordinating and planning training. I provided data for and analyzed the Information Resources Management (IRM) Department budget. I developed IRM business processes, organization charts, training, budgets, and special studies. I oversaw execution of IRM programs of broad scope and mission impact, including Strategic Business Plans, Annual Operating Plans, and benchmarking studies.I reviewed and interpreted new and established IRM directives, instructions, regulations, and policies. I wrote PWC’s Information Technology Life Cycle Management Instruction and the position description for a new Information Technology Inventory Manager position. I ensured that program goals and objectives were realistic and I advised management on performance and develop broad plans to improve it.Transition Manager. PWC Norfolk Site at Naval Weapons Station, Earle, NJ; 6/97-4/98. Principal civilian business manager, planner and change agent responsible for overseeing and coordinating overall efforts of standing up PWC Norfolk’s PWC Philadelphia Site office at NWS Earle NJ. I managed the transition process and coordinated all aspects of this complex endeavor, including coordinating the PWC computer conversion. I prepared and presented briefings to all customers that included expected changes and budget costs. Under my leadership and attention to detail, we coordinated a myriad of meetings and training sessions to establish the IT and financial process links to Philadelphia and Norfolk. I developed and executed a training plan to ensure that the new PWC systems could be utilized at Earle. Thanks to my leadership and attention to detail, a very painful and complex process of change was made palatable for the 135 Public Works people affected, as well as our many customers. A sample Project software for Week 1 contains task content, format, dates duration, and Task Name (not Resources) right of Gantt Task. Use an Action Verb and Task construction, for example: "Read Chapter 6".The following are key questions and answers that help Work Breakdown Structures (WBS) to better manage projects. Reading materials should echo many of these ideas in a lot more detail.What Are the Benefits of A Work Breakdown Structures (WBS)?Planning tool Communication Understanding of requirements and scope Costs to be tracked Basis for detailed plans/schedules Basis for control Project work versus cost/budget Performance measurement What Is The Definition and Key Points Of A WBS?* Hierarchical structure that defines the products and services to be delivered on a project * Breaks down components of a project to a level at which work can be performed managed * Defines the total scope of a program * WBS is a product-oriented family tree which organizes, displays, and defines products or services to be delivered and relates work elements to be accomplished to each other and end product(s) * The WBS is a planning tool that provides the foundation for managing the entire project * The WBS provides a basis for cost estimating and network development What Is The WBS Development Methodology?* Team job * Integration Strategy Requirement Technical design Project management plan * Tailored to scope and structure of the project Exhaustive, mutually exclusive Control account level * To develop a good WBS, one must consider four project functions: Planning Execution Controlling ClosingWhat Are Some Project Information Sources?* Project plan * Project charter * Statement Of Work (SOW) * Strategic plans * Documentation * Interviewing Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) * Similar programs What Are Some Project Plan - WBS Warning Signs And Trouble Spots?* Items other than products or services (e.g., people, organizations, activities) * Duplicate items * Missing items * Too flat * Too much or too little detail * Break in hierarchical logic * Unexplained differences in the number of levels Example WBS for this course:Course Recruitment (based on need, interest, talent, focus, compatibility, incentives)Training Planning, Organization and CharterStudy Topics per Week3.1Introduction to Project Management (including Requirements and Scope)3.2Time Estimating and Management3.3Cost and Quality Estimating and Management3.4Human Relations and Procurement Management3.5Risk Management3.6Communication ManagementInformation (including Recommendations, Examples and Attitudes)PMP (Certification Training Recommendations)Workforce Development for Adult learners: an established repeatable process with consulting intervention and customer focus: Mentoring, Experience, Education, Credentialing, Leadership Development, Succession Planning, Executive Coaching, Job Rotation and Benchmarking Training, provided by experienced and certified trainers. Repetition is used extensively to emphasize the key points in this course, for example, Re-read and Know Thy AudienceWhat is wrong with the following WBS List (show before & after versions; explain errors)? 1.0 Picnic 1.1 Site 1.1.1 Tables 1.1.2 Chairs 1.1.3 Garbage Cans 1.1.4 Stage 1.2 Entertainment 1.2.1 Music 1.2.2 Stage 1.2.4 Rides 1.3 Food and Drinks 1.3.1 Chef 1.3.2 Cook Hamburgers 1.3.3 Food 1.3.3.1 Appetizers/Side Dishes 1.3.3.1.1 Salad 1.3.3.2 Main Dishes 1.3.3.2.1 Hamburgers, Hotdogs and Desserts 1.3.4 Drinks 1.3.4.1 Cola 1.3.4.3 Lemonade Mix 1.3.5 Rolls 1.3.6 Hotdogs 1.4 Utensils 1.3.1 Silverware 1.3.2 Plates and Cups2.1 WBS Tasks NOTESAbsoluteI have written in FAQs about avoiding the use of absolutes. I object to the use of the absolute words of "all" and "new" that tend to put people and organizations into boxes that they may not be able to defend. BalanceI like the word and concept of "balance". Pulling out a stool leg causes a tumble in most cases.BenchmarkFor those of you who are unfamiliar with Benchmarking, or want to learn more see my writings on my website . When I managed benchmarking projects, we visited and interviewed some great organizations and people, and got some great ideas from them. In benchmarking, you also must reciprocate and let the folks you talk to come in and look at your organization and interview your people. No holds barred, unless you have the limitations provided in writing beforehand. Don't raise expectations and make problems for yourself during their visit! It's all about communication.Here is a link to my website where I discuss Benchmarking: you call it a deficit, balance or a slight surplus, budgeting is usually tough for all concerned; managers, employees, customers, and government. Large surpluses will get organizations in trouble by not watching their fiduciary responsibilities as closely as accountants would.CareerAs a DOD civil servant, I bid on and won a job as a continuation of what I was already doing for the Management Department. As an Industrial Engineer, I have been doing project management from college on. The project's MOV was probably negligible, even though I did a case study to show it was important. This was "in house" government to government project, with funding documents and no cash transfers.ChecklistThe Checklist Manifesto - a subset of WBS? I know that many of you are pretty familiar with checklists, but I thought it wouldn't to hurt to share. It could possibly be helpful with some of your client's operations. Below is a link to the most recent book review by Business Week on the "The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right". Just reading the review might be a good enough review of the importance of this simple tool for complex operations/processes. The actual printed version of the article listed five guidelines to create the perfect checklist for complex operations. They are: 1) Include all "stupid but critical" tasks so they are not overlooked. 2) Make it mandatory for team members to let other know when they complete one of those tasks. 3) Empower subordinates to question their superiors about the checklist. 4) Allow for improvisation in unusual circumstances. 5) Thoroughly test-drive your checklist before putting it into practice. Article/Review: you don't have work project experience, have you ever rebuilt a clock or planned a birthday party? It sounds silly, but I want you to explore, in these assignments, your reaction to project work, rather than the details of your project. If these options are not available, do a good research paper on the topic.FormatBrevity is prized in the "body" of a report, but lots of detail are highly prized in appendixes, so don't lose your detail, but make the reading palatable for both Mr. Big and his assistants who like lots of detail.Good Fast CheapGood and fast won’t be Cheap, Good and cheap won’t be Fast, and Cheap and Fast won’t be Good.PERTPERT is a tool often thought about, important to identifying critical paths, but not often used. Why? Few project managers know much about it, so it is important that you pay attention to this chapter to learn about the PERT concept. The PMP exam gets pretty heavy into PERT also, which proves that it is an important concept. I have heard of critical path, but have very rarely (ever) had to explain it in a chart format. PERT was developed by Booz Allen Hamilton, my former employer, to help design the Polaris missile system.ScopePlanning a project one step at a time, as it is going on, can be quite costly and produce scope creep, as we will discuss in future days. The purpose of the initial project plan is to try to think of as many of the small things that need to be done to make it a complete and well managed project. Yes, there will be things popping up as time goes on, but the fewer surprises the better. Scope creep often happens during project starts, where we don't know some of the details that creep in on us as time goes on. Being too tight on "allowing" scope creep can also harm the project by limiting important areas of endeavor. I don't know any "rules" to eliminate or agree to creep. If a guy wants to pay me enough, I creep, if I have a choice.SystemThe exercise above is to structure a set of tasks and to apply a WBS numbering system. There are clearly errors in it (on purpose). A WBS is just the Title and the WBS number. I've used the WBS numbering system even in writing reports (and in these NOTES), where the sub sets of numbers help organize the paper numerically, and can be linked to a graphical flow and to a Project software file. As outlined in the “NOTES” Table of Contents, several numbers were skipped (e.g., 0.4 and 0.5) to keep other numbers in logical but not sequential order; the X.6 is reserved for Team Notes.In the picnic list, I would have numbered Salad as 1.3.1.1 and Rolls as 1.3.1.2 instead of the "extra" set of digits. As a general rule, most WBS numbers just get too complicated beyond 4 sets of digits (same comment for Hamburgers and Hotdogs). I would have probably put "Cook Hamburgers" as 1.5.1.1 rather than 1.5.11, or as 1.6 Food Preparation. There is no one "correct" way to do task numbering as long as it makes logical sense and can drive a task monitoring system, such as Project. I have been reading class comments about WBS being a "system" that may be time consuming. I view it more of a way of thinking for a project planner. Make your Gantt useful to Mr. Big with an effective WBS numbering system. Put your task names into Action Verb and Task Description format. Show each of the Task Names to the right of the Gantt bar. I like the term "WBS in your mind" as something we can learn to write WBS tasks. WBS is a tool, and tools can be used correctly or incorrectly. Saws can cut wood or fingers. Screwdrivers can poke holes in walls, and so can power drills. The tool is in our hands. How we use them is up to us.It would bother me a LOT if my project manager did not have a written plan that looked a lot like a WBS, no matter what her/she called it. Putting the plan wholly in the hands of others is abdication of duty. A projected manager not keeping detailed track of his/her project is not good management. Just because the PM is not actively using a WBS, doesn't mean that WBS is not being used, even if by the contractor. This is not a contradiction, but an affirmation that a matrix organization applies total planning.TeamAs most things in life, we have to take things one step at a time. I did not have to come up with each and every idea all by myself. I had lots of ideas given to me by lots of people I worked with. Listening to other's suggestions and acting on them usually produces buy in from them and pretty positive results. The best part is that you don't have to do the heavy lifting all by yourself. The next time you do a similar project, and you have documented it well (so you don't forget the lessons learned) you have that tool in your bag.2.2 Time Management NOTES ChallengeIt seems like everyone this week is having time management and other sorts of challenges in this course, just like real life and real projects. This week, with travel and family events, and finding a reliable internet connection or borrowing my daughter's Mac, I too have had challenges in keeping up with you. We shall persevere and succeed, with each other’s help and tools such as Project software and the Help button.ChangeI take Weekly Summaries and recommendations very seriously and have been making changes after each course (more than 3 dozen to date). Keep them coming! One thing that I do NOT take so seriously in this course, due to the heavy reading and Project software requirements are strict time limits and generous grading since so much work is required that I can't really evaluate well. These "NOTES" are here to help you. If you are not receiving value from them, please suggest better methods of sharing.As someone who has seen many people and procedures in many situations over the year, and as a professional "change agent", I am still often reluctant to change my ways or processes to suit the whims of the latest fad. We must understand where others are coming from when we recommend changes to a tried and true process, and not deal with them as obstructionists or some other negative description. The important thing is to find out where they got their "position" and what was behind it. As a consultant, I listen a lot more than I talk. I learn a lot more that way, and usually am able to come up with a better solution than I could on my own or from my own past experiencesCostAs a PM, I track my project's costs, both in man-hours charged and travel and expense costs, such as cell phone charges per month. I just spent (wasted) about two hours separating my cell phone personal from business minutes, posting my charges onto our computer system, scanning my itemized bill into PDF, attaching it to my charge report, and sending an additional set to my Admin who posted the charges to another system. Did I say I wasted two hours??? Yes, I think I said that. Then I complained to my boss and admin about the waste and asked if they needed this "stuff".DeadlineMost due dates are not arbitrary. They are set for some "good" reasons that you and others may call arbitrary. Is dinner time arbitrary for the chef who wants to do something after cooking all day? A PM is responsible for meeting deadlines, or arguing the case for options. Some deadlines must be met, whether reasonable or not. For example, a hurricane was coming and had to be dealt with, no matter what. Project Management is a lot like medical doctors who "practice" medicine, working with people and systems is not pure science with firm time lines. If I promise a deadline, I usually have to bust my rear to meet the date. Not being a clock watcher, many due dates in this class are a little flexible, except when I do grades, say on Tuesdays (or Wednesdays or Saturdays sometimes). I too am busy with work and family. High-level managers do and should lose patience when a project takes longer than planned, including overdue milestones. A project manager can explain some things, but also prevent overdue stages by reordering priorities, resources and other aspects within the project. Losing patience is the time when changes must be made, hopefully before it hits the fan. I do the planning and get the team together to understand!EstimateI support the concept that "things change" but many tools can be useful to develop a starting point. A good and experienced estimator knows where the pitfalls are, and to usually at least DOUBLE the original time and costs estimated. Adding extra time to a project for bidding can lose you the project, and gives workers "too much time" to get the work done, in a relaxed rather than an intense atmosphere. As in this course, which could take 10 weeks or more, we only have 6 weeks to get it done. I am an optimist and have often been forced to agree to unreasonable pressures by folks who did not have to actually do the work. I have not often had reliable estimating tools or records, even though I worked for 5 years in generating work hour estimates for maintenance workers, and even more years in estimating production standards. This is very difficult to do accurately. Let's go back to thinking about how a project manager or a top boss thinks about paying us to do work. If they knew how much time we put in, I think that they would make our life really more difficult than they are already. The same goes for our significant others and team mates. They want us to spend time with them doing "fun" things (for them) while we are doing what we think is fun ("work"?).FeedbackI agree that feedback is important to us. I wrote somewhere that we full time workers are time challenged. As project managers, we must use the resources available. In this class we have eText, articles, lectures, fellow student postings and responses, weekly grades, research, and individual feedback such as this. Thanks for encouraging me to provide such feedback by asking (Know Thy Audience)!Instant Messenger (IM)I do NOT require IM or NetMeeting team collaborations in this course, but I do HIGHLY RECOMMEND that you use and improve your use of these growing technologies. My most successful teams (in class and at work) use them regularly and very successfully.PriorityConsider the point count for DQs (15 per week) versus point counts for other assignments, and your time available and effort required. Manage your time accordingly. We will discuss time management in this course, so this is a good example of letting a few points go to put your effort into heavier assignments. I agree that 30 postings per week is a lot, but please do not consider very low DQ answers and responses! There are penalties for lack of participation, including not learning very much if you slack off on DQs.TrackingData gathering on time spent in performing in a project is a sore point for us salaried personnel who do lots of tasks and rarely keep track of time spent. For example, I have been saying for years that I should keep track of how much time I spend facilitating this course. Maybe I really don't want to know, because if I did, I may say "it’s not worth it" but it is since I love seeing ya'll "get it" (so if you get lost in reading my writings, I apologize, but I want to share with you the best I have). I agree with setting task due dates can sometimes be padded, or too tight. Getting them just right (what some call the "Goldilocks Syndrome” or what I sometimes call "clock watching") is really tough. This is why I rarely deduct points here in class or complain too loudly when students are a minute or a day late on an assignment. The same goes for project managers who get so nit-picky that they cause general team discontent. Some limits must be set if general abuse is occurring, or if Mr. Big is an aggravating clock watcher.2.3 Class NOTES CommunicationPOOR COMMUNICATION IS WHY OUR HEALTH CARE COSTS ARE SO HIGH!!!Bubba had shingles. Those of us who spend much time in a doctor's office should appreciate this! Doesn't it seem more and more that physicians are running their practices like an assembly line? Here's what happened to Bubba:Bubba walked into a doctor's office and the receptionist asked him what he had.Bubba said 'Shingles.' So she wrote down his name, address, medical insurance number and told him to have a seat. Fifteen minutes later a nurse's aide came out and asked Bubba what he had. Bubba said, 'Shingles.' So she wrote down his height, weight, a complete medical history, and told Bubba to wait in the examining room. A half hour later a nurse came in and asked Bubba what he had. Bubba said, 'Shingles' so the nurse gave Bubba a blood test, a blood pressure test, an electrocardiogram, and told Bubba to take off all his clothes and wait for the doctor. An hour later the doctor came in and found Bubba sitting patiently in the nude and asked Bubba what he had. Bubba said, 'Shingles.' The doctor asked, 'Where?Bubba said, 'Outside on the truck. Where do you want me to unload 'em??'DeadlineA Sunday deadline should not be a problem due to religious, family or even football considerations. If that is the case for your team members, or in general class assignments, there is no penalty for EARLY submissions (as long as they are not more than 4 - 5 days early, without advance permission).Format"Compliancy" will be represented by a good and full explanation of your proposal, using the Executive Summary outline in my Team Recommendations and other locations. Let's not, in this class, get too wrapped around the axle on strict "requirements" when I offer "suggestions". I am here to help, not restrict. I've made recommendations for this week's format, but they are just that, recommendations, not requirements. I am looking for information and "my" format may not be as good as "yours".LateReminder to students on late or missing assignments. Please read the Syllabus on these topics, including the “Get out of jail free” requests and reminders to me that you will be late or not doing an assignment. You DO NOT want any zeroes in this course. Unless requested in advance, and I grant permission for late or early postings, I do not normally accept assignments more than 4 days from due dates. Zeros will be posted, unless there are severe technical problems, which I’ll deal with case-by-case. Except for one “Get Out Of Jail Free” pass, approved late posting will result in a minimum of a one (1) letter grade reduction (for example, a B+ paper will receive no better than a C+ grade). In addition, "late" will normally be determined in terms of the day and time the assignment is posted.LessonIn weekly summaries, I’m looking for not just what you did, but your reactions to them and how we can get better for the next week's class. This is an exercise in "lessons learned" that you should get used to doing during and at the end of each project in which you are involved.Don't worry about rewriting this week's summary if you did not follow this suggestion. We have too many other things to do, like day jobs. I agree totally with post mortems. I prefer the term "Lessons Learned" (not so deadly sounding) which is why I encourage and provide more credit for summaries and evaluations at course end.MottoMy motto is "Life is a Project, so …Lead, Follow, or Get Out Of The Way" which is another way of saying that as long as you take care of business, I'm not going to get involved or comment on each assignment.ReadPlease read my comments to other students on their assignments to get a sense of what I am looking for in terms of depth of insight on this course content, meaning, importance, and masters level writings. I know that we are pressed for time. What personal observations on the topic, course, fellow students, your facilitator, etc. are you observing that would help us get more from the topic and course? I'm not looking for a doctoral dissertation here, but 200 to 500 words shows more depth than the minimum 1 or 2 points a weekly summary may provide. I know, it is only a 5 point topic, and a 1 or 2 point loss doesn't hurt your total score that much, considering the time available. Your goal is to explain to yourself, especially, and others secondarily, what you are really getting from the assignment.ScopeYour project should be done for a student's company, organization, or a related situation. The only fictitious part of the paper should be the real organization's name if providing the real name is a problem. How else would you get the needed information and advice? I hope that you understand why the syllabus and course design is so packed with assignments and reading. It takes years to really learn the roles and responsibilities of project management. After 40+ years, I learn daily how to do it better as I work with other managers and consultants.You will not become a great project manager in six weeks. I am here to introduce to you the basics.ThinkI often ask for disagreements with writings. We can agree with someone’s comments, but until you look for faults in their arguments, you don't usually get your brain wrapped around the concepts being presented. Critical thinking gets us looking at tangential issues, where the author may be 100% correct in the focused points. Where could his argument break down? Later in this course we are going to get heavy into Risk Analysis, where these "disagreements" will help you dig into what could go wrong with a project you are working on, and how to prevent it in the early stages and how to mitigate it after the oil is in the gulf waters.VolumeThere is way too much material in this 6 week course that would be more appropriate for 12 to 18 weeks, but it is what it is, and we dictate the eText and article readings. Any ideas you have for offering assignments more clearly, we would appreciate your suggestions. Over the years I have received many recommendations that I have incorporated, so yours are most welcome. I'm glad that you gave me and this course syllabus a chance. Yes, a lot to learn and a lot to cope with.Project management is designed to cope with drinking from a fire hose without getting washed away. You will be no more confused in determining the course requirements than any other student or new project member in any project. Remember that when you bring new folks into one of your projects. Sometimes it is a quick start and short time duration, and sometimes you will bring in folks just to do a small part of a project. Think about how to best present that "need to know" material.2.4 Gantt NOTESDeadlineTask endpoints are often on day 7 (Mondays) which show that they may begin on the deadline date, but the discussions may continue through the end of the project period (in this particular case: Monday). The example for the Week 2 assignment will have a different concept, where the "project" is a 6 week period.EstimateAs in any new endeavor, estimating the requirements is tough. You might try estimating in Project software the time required for each task, add any subtasks as you come to them, and post the actual hours spent. Few students do this, but with you A-Type personalities in this class, there may be some competition in terms of who can earn the highest scores and spend the least time. There is no way I would spend time tracking like that, but I'm not that competitive either, but your future project managers could do this as a team incentive.ExampleThe example Course Preparation Gantt contains some example color coding to make some tasks and groupings stand out. Also note the legend that I created to identify the meanings of some of the colors. I posted tasks out to the right of the Gantt bar so Mr. Big can see what is happening without having to read just the table text. One of your main objectives is to take a complicated set of planning tasks and help other stakeholders see and understand them, and help them plan their time and actions by the use of the Project software Gantt and other views, such as calendar and resource summaries, that you have provided them. Remember that Project software is not just for YOUR use!My example schedule and tasks is the one that I used for a class before this syllabus. Please review it for style, but do NOT use it for tasks or schedule for this class development and facilitation activities. I will be showing an example for a Gantt assignment which will have a multi-week concept, where the "project" is a 6 week period. I have set my calendar to begin on Tuesdays (our Day 1). When holidays are celebrated on Mondays, get your summaries done in time to enjoy your holiday. Mark Gantt Charts with this and similar information about holidays, travel dates, and other “project interfering" events.ReworkI must now rework the entire schedule to accommodate the revised syllabus tasks and schedule. This will take me hours and hours, so don't feel too bad about spending hours on your Project software work.TaskThere are so many variations to the organization of tasks in students 6 week plans. Review each of the plans and think about how you and project teams might best follow the plan to get it accomplished.2.5 Interview NOTES ChargeSince you are a student, you should not have to charge the client for "school time". I'm a full time, on site consultant. I don't see a problem in taking work time for explaining assignments and interviewing.FeedbackWrite a set of particular questions before the interview and post them in the write up, take great Notes during the interview. Do as many interviews as possible face to face for the many reasons I have written about, e.g., you can get to know the interviewees and they can get to know you. Find out what your project managers do. Develop other contacts that you might otherwise not have. I encourage you to promote yourselves by demonstrating your interest in what your managers are doing and volunteering to lead future projects. That is the best way I know to get ahead in your careers. You gain an advantage from meeting and speaking to folks in your organization. Remember, you don't need to have a school assignment to take advantage of their experience and for them to get to know you. It is most often who you know and not what you know that gets you ahead in your career.You do not have to "reference" your interviewees in the body of the paper. Include more of the conversation quotes, and yours, your interviewees, and any other take aways. I have no problem with your quoting and referencing our illustrious eText author (Marchewka, 2009) but I suggest that if you do quote him, you also research what other experts in the field have to say on a topic. Most Mr. Bigs would expect his project managers to refer to more than one point of view when evaluating projects' solutions. If your interviewee has only been employed for a short time, will this be substantial enough to provide an answer? He/she may have been with another organization where their experience would be "quotable". Another advantage of these interviews is that you get on their radar as an interested team member, as well as gain some insight on where they are taking your organization.I don't think that a short interview is adequate for the kind of course we are dealing with here, but I do understand that if you are in a different situation and don't have a manager to talk to in your organization, you may get a low grade with a short response. Let's find a time to talk over the phone so I don't short change you with short answers that may not help you very much. If your comments are good and complimentary, nothing may happen; if they are negative comments, all heck will break loose and you may get nailed. This is from personal experienced where I objectively analyzed poor management and processes and it came back to bite me big time in very personal ways. Honesty does not pay in surveys if you are criticizing immediate superiors in the corporate chain. They will GET you and make your life miserable, whether it is supposed to be anonymous or not, they can figure out who snitched on their bad acts or bad management styles, and they will get you, sooner or later. If you want to save your job and your sanity, don't direct negatives at an individual in management, and don't address practices close to your immediate organization, even "constructive" criticism, because criticism in surveys are destructive to you personally.FormalInterviews are major assignments. They should be formal with pre-written and organized questions. So many of my students have approached interviews in many wonderful ways. I am hard pressed to dictate to you how to approach yours. Some have been in the Executive Summary format, others have been more conversational, some just posted and answered questions in some logical order, and some just transcribed their interviews. This is an assignment to get familiar with "your" organization and personnel more so than one of following a set format. Don't worry about "me", rather, get yourself known to your particular manager and glean what you can from their input. Oh, yes, and have fun with this assignment! Your interview assignments are major papers for this course, and I do expect much more than the minimum 500 words in order for you to realize the importance of setting and keeping appointments for these interviews. You should discuss philosophy of your questions and answers and how they relate to you and to your organization. You may be able to interview managers in these positions in a client/friend/relative company. Academic research is a fall back, although probably not as worthwhile. This is your learning opportunity that students enjoy and learn from. Also explain what lessons learned would help you on future interviews.OptionsInterviews can be substituted by a research paper on the topic, or an appropriate interview with someone not in your work organization. Do a brief write up, preferably using the Executive Summary format. I can be fairly loose on these requirements for those not in a good interviewing situation. Many organizations do not have that exact title or function, but the head of most organizations consider and plan in many ways.ReportYour interview reports are wonderful in so many ways. If you don’t feel that your current organization has enough to give you, you may interview another person with the answers that would help you. You may also weave in other issues that I had not thought about before about your business model and services needed in such unusual areas as healthcare and food service, outside of the core services of a provider. First explain the background, list a number of points in bullet formats, and then explain the end results.ScheduleAn interviewee on vacation is not a valid excuse. I told you on day one of the course what the interview requirements were going to be and to schedule them in advance. You may have to change plans and interview someone else, whether at a ball game or in an office.2.6 Team NOTES Business Requirements Definition (BRD)From your initial project outline from Week 1, I'll make recommendations on team composition and project scope, just as a PM should do as projects get started. Relax and have fun in this class. The class is tough, but I am not so (Just watch out for Mr. Big!!!). Remember that while deliberating a proposed budget, you should bring the sticker shock into perspective by first, coming up with the accurate or appropriate cost for the scope. Then divide the cost by several known quantities, such as number of users, number of work stations, unit cost of products or activities, what other people charge for similar work, etc. Don't lose your stakeholders in a bottom line cost shock. Provide some alternative realities to compare the cost and scope to. If Mr. Big is not comfortable with your cost or scope, you are just wasting everyone's time. Give the stakeholders information in such a way that they can believe in what you are offering, and provide them a way to pay for it, fiscally and mentally.FeedbackCall on me to help if you need it, or else I'll just look over your shoulders until asked for suggestions. I read most of your team postings. I usually only comment when you ask or I see you in trouble. I suggest that you pick the project that you can best benefit from your learning team assistance and one where you have sufficient information already prepared so you don't have to spend a lot of time and effort putting it together at this time. I usually do counts to give you team credit. Big brother is watching to help and not to hinder! That is the role of a project manager, not a micro manager. My only suggestion at this time, for Week 2's submittal, is to work on your scope so that you are not too ambitious for a 6 week planning effort in this class. You are expected for the project scope to go out for many months / years, but make sure that your team can handle the planning part of the scope definition. Past and completed work will not help you in this course, unless you are working on an add-on or a new phase which requires planning from the course topics that are being discussed here in this course. I do want one of you to have the assistance of classmates to present a real project to a real Mr. Big. Please don't wait for me. I'll get into it if I think you are off track. Post drafts here and your weekly "finals" in the <main> forum. Even if you post a "final" there, and need to make a change, nothing is final until it is final. I do not give "bad" grades unless you are not following my suggestions or I think that your quality is poor, given my Team or other written recommendations. Read and reread my writings. Post team related assignments in your team folder, and incorporate your response in your final paper as a comment, paragraph, or section, as you see fit. FormatThis is a great place to learn how to do a Business Requirements Definition (BRD). Not much penalty for not doing a great one first time! I'll be posting examples of various expected formats, which may or may not be "pure" APA ... which I am not particularly strict on in my reviews/grading.In this class, when you are developing your draft and final team documents, if you do not use such a tool as Google Docs, you will find yourself in big trouble since there are so many sections and so many formats (Word, Project, PowerPoint, Excel, Visio, etc.). Full thoughts go into the briefing notes ... almost anything can be "bulleted". For example, Winston Churchill once gave the world's shortest speech, during World War II, "NEVER, NEVER, NEVER GIVE UP" (5 words). The bulleted version could be "Don't Quit!" (2 words). The briefer would give the full speech and be very effective, without ever reading the bullet to his audience. See the point?Too wordy in PowerPoint is what I call violating the T-Shirt rule (as many words as a typical t-shirt. maybe 6? No hard and fast number ... but enough to get the point across as you pass a person wearing a good one). Place the mass of words in the speaker’s notes, and pare down each bullet to a readable few (t-shirt rule). We are now in week 4. The draft PowerPoint is not really due until the end of week 5, and the final PP is not due until the middle of week 6. Don't stress out too much here in week 4.Nothing is really final until the end of week 6, so mistakes are not "counted" until the end of this course. Each week's work is a work in progress, and I am looking for progress, not for perfection, as I have explained many times in this "stress free?" Project Management course.If your phraseology is not perfect, that is OK. We are not looking for perfection in this course. We are looking for progress in your learning. Team mates are looking for insight from computer and other experts, and whatever talents you have, not for what you don't. We are in this course to develop our talents and knowledge, not just to pass a course or to get a degree. I envy those of you with technical credentials and certifications, which I do not have. I respect you for your knowledge of subjects which I would like, but have not pursued. I would love to be a language expert in Chinese, German, Italian, Hebrew, but I have not worked hard enough to attain that knowledge, yet; maybe in my next career.LessonBeing a member of a project team is a great learning experience of how to manage and not manage. Even after managing 40 or 50 projects, I love to be a sit back and watch member of teams to observe how others do it. I usually learn great tips. I have rarely seen small projects fail in government, although I have been involved in a few that should have been stopped long ago and Billions (with a B) of dollars later. One was a SAP project that should have died before it was begun, but high up Pentagon Generals were influenced by SAP consultants. It still goes on wasting incredible amounts of money and people's energy with few positive results (my opinion).OptionWhat do you do, as a PM when the absolute "wrong" person is assigned by Mr. Big to your team? All projects should include discussion of most possibilities, even if the "boss" insists on just one method. You are there to also suggest other options. Have at it, team.SkillTechie projects should be managed by technical experts, but those techies should also have "soft" management skills. Stuffing characteristics into a single category is not logical.You might want to apply some of the following suggestions to your work or school team meetings. Feel free to distribute these "rules" to others, with proper attribution to Ken Klein, of course.2.6.1 Meeting Ground Rules(1) Follow Vision, Mission, Goal, and Objectives Statements, Plan of Action & Milestones (POA&M), Timeliness, and meeting Agendas without digression or concentration on other goals or agendas. There are no "sacred cows" (off-limit areas) within the project scope if they may be hurting productivity or effectiveness, or impeding competitive advantage. Define new terms and process beginnings and endings to document what is discussed. (2) The Team Leader will prepare written agenda and copy them for each meeting. New agenda items must be submitted to the leader at least an hour before announced start times. (3) Volunteers will act as Note Takers, Time Keepers, and Sergeant at Arms. Rotate tasks or allow members to keep tasks if they are good at it, like to do it, and others do not want to do it. The Team Leader role can be rotated periodically to give others the feeling of what the job is like, and the confidence for assuming that role in future projects or as a substitute. (4) The Note Taker will record all discussions by paraphrasing comments in agreed upon outline form. The Note Taker or Facilitator will transcribe the NOTES and distribute them to team members for verification of accuracy and completeness no later than the next regular meeting, or as appropriate. Edited versions will be distributed to management. (5) The penalty for violation of team ground rules may range from expulsion to a contribution to the "negative jar" (to finance team social activities; the goal is to have "cheap" parties). IOUs must be paid by the next meeting. The Sergeant at Arms will be the "treasurer." (6) Attendance at all regular and special team meetings is mandatory. The Team Leader can excuse a member for good cause. Three unexcused absences are grounds for expulsion from the team. The Team Leader can excuse tardiness if notified prior to the meeting’s call to order. A $0.50 fine will be donated to a "negative jar" for each unexcused tardiness. The team can vote to expel a member for such abuse. (7) A majority vote of attending regular team members is required for passage of a motion. A quorum will consist of 50% of regular team members. (8) Breaks will be limited to 5 or 10 minutes, or as agreed to by the team. Tardy rules apply. (9) Things said in the meeting (off the record) stay in the meeting, unless the team decides to go out and discuss it (gossip or business items) with others. Penalty for violation can range from $0.25 to expulsion, as agreed to by the team. (10) Only one person will talk at a time. Raised hands will be recognized by the Facilitator or Team Leader. No side-bar conversations either. Topic changes must be agreed to by the team before the change is made. The penalty is $0.25 per person. (11) Beeping cell phones or pagers (not set on "vibrate") will incur a $0.25 fine per occurrence. (12) Limit excess talking, telling and re-telling of non-essential anecdotes and "war stories." Time Keepers can use egg timers or hourglasses or say "What’s your point?" to close run-on or off-agenda discussions. Give them one minute to summarize. Team members can call for a vote to fine abusers $0.25 per story or for running over the one minute limit. (13) Respect the minority opinion and agree to disagree. Don’t allow negative "zinger" statements that put someone’s ideas down (e.g., "That won’t work. We tried that. That’s stupid") No finger pointing, or open personal animosity. Penalty is $1.00 per offense.(14) Complete each assignment on time. Follow through with promises and commitments. Up to a $5.00 fine can be voted on by the team for failure of responsibility. Three failures are grounds for expulsion. (15) At the end of each meeting, the Facilitator or Team Leader will summarize accomplishments and review action items. Each team member will then have the opportunity for closing comments and a round of last chance comments. Negative jar rules still apply. (16) Give invited guests a time limit. Do not try to solve problems during guest presentations. SUGGESTION: Post ground rules on the wall as a reminder to attendees, including guests. Guests should not be fined, but give warnings to guests who violate rules. Note: The miniscule fines were more of an attention getting gimmick to encourage rule abiding. Have you ever taken a memory course where in order to remember something you mentally envisioned an outrageous object or situation to trigger the memory of something. Same thing here; you gotta come up with some unusual ideas to get folks attention. The "negative jar" was just such a vehicle. The fines list was an expansion that the team came up with to have some fun with the concept. Feel free to distribute these "rules" to others.Source: Ken Klein’s website 3.0 Week Three Lecture: Project Cost and Quality ManagementObjectives:* Explain project cost management.* Explain project quality management.After reading “Read Me Firsts” and Chapter 7, The Project Schedule and Budget, and discussing it in class, you should be able to:■ Describe the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK?) area called project cost management.■ Develop a Gantt chart.■ Develop a project network diagram using a technique called activity on the node (AON) technique.■ Identify a project’s critical path and explain why it must be controlled and managed.■ Develop a PERT diagram.■ Describe the concept of precedence diagramming and identify finish-to-start, start-to-start, finish-to-finish, and start-to-finish activity relationships.■ Describe the concept of critical chain project management (CCPM).■ Describe the various types of costs that make up the project’s budget.■ Define what is meant by the baseline project plan.After reading and discussing Chapter 10, IT Project Quality Management, you should be able to:■ Describe the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK?) area called project quality management (PQM) and how it supports quality planning, quality assurance, quality control, and continuous improvement of the project’s products and supporting processes.■ Identify several quality gurus, or founders of the quality movement, and their role in shaping quality philosophies worldwide.■ Describe some of the more common quality initiatives and management systems that include ISO certification, Six Sigma, and the capability maturity model (CMM) for software engineering.■ Distinguish between verification and validation activities and how these activities support IT project quality management.■ Describe the software engineering discipline called configuration management and how it is used to manage the changes associated with the project’s deliverables and work products.■ Apply quality concepts, methods, and tools introduced in this chapter to develop a quality plan.Your team project should be well under way as you expand and revise your Executive Summary details from last week. You should be integrating your subprojects into the team project plan using Project and identifying and defining dependencies between subproject tasks. If you are having difficulty in identifying and correcting resource conflicts between subprojects, please ask your teammates and me for assistance. You should be progressing with your Project software tutorials.Your reading assignment for this week in the eText goes into great detail about these two critical components of every project: schedule and budget. As a project manager, it is your responsibility, not necessarily to secure them, but surely to adequately include them in the plan and analyze whether the plan makes for a good investment or venture with proper quality.Many projects that you work on may be fairly quick duration and don’t require very much detailed planning and scheduling, while others may be much more involved and cover fairly long time periods. The Data Project Example shown below is a multi-year data systems integration project that I was involved in during my Navy Public Works Information Technology (IT) Management job. As a team of contractors, vendors, in-house Navy engineers and IT managers, we developed detailed outlines of resources and requirements. Our goal was to take about seventy of our stand-alone computer systems and develop 3 to 5 composite database systems that would communicate with each other by coordinated data warehousing functions.One of our first steps was to identify the cost and quality definitions required by our customers to build an effective production management system. We knew that no matter what we began with, we would have to continue to refine the definitions describing the ideal system’s cost and quality factors. We then developed a migration strategy to reach the “ideal” system and prototyped a production module to link downloads from existing work execution modules. We defined process costs and data relationships between functional areas and then defined the core data elements.We divided our plan into near-term, mid-term, and long-term increments and prioritized each element, especially our scarce resources of talented programmers and database administrators. There was a lot of planning involved in some interesting and important areas, some of which may give you some ideas in developing your class projects such as in communication to all levels of our organization. We then planned for focus groups with subject matter experts and stakeholders at various skill levels. We prepared near-term management processes, business system concepts, workflow analyses, design specifications, development and implementation plans, and other elements. We established and monitored our multi-million dollar variable, fixed and overhead budgets for most elements. Our project budget included only expenditures without offsetting incomes. We then expanded our near-term elements into mid-term and long-term activities such as systems maintenance and upgrades.Our big challenge was to justify our needs and our plans to management as a reflection of our corporate strategic goals. We addressed the seven key factors of competition, profit, cash flow, risk, technological ability, resources, and perceived needs. Even though we were a government agency, we had to take each factor seriously at each project and budgeting stage. We justified our project on cost-benefit analysis, as well as business and data communication requirements and technology issues.My job as project manager was to monitor the implementation processes, track the funding by posting actual expenditures into the Project software file next to the budget item, and to make sure that we involved our corporate sponsors and organizational partners from seven other sites at each planning and implementation stages to help insure proper funding and successful operating results. This was a top-down approach to budget preparation for this project type.This was not the only plan we developed during the initial stages. Resources, politics and conditions changed through time and new milestones and dates were established. Each stage required detailed cost and quality level planning, especially when new technologies and new managers affected resources.Politics in organizations, by definition, applies to most things during each section of a Strength / Weaknesses / Opportunity / Threat (SWOT) analysis. A second truth is that most political risks are local, so should be analyzed locally, as well as globally. There are many books and articles on political risks, so let's not beat this horse too much; do include politics in your risk and decision list.3.3 Class NOTESComplexityYou are indeed realizing the complexity of Project Management in the structure and activities of this course. The project manager is responsible for so many aspects of the project and team leadership. That it is so totally unsurprising that you are confused and overwhelmed with how hard this course is. Did I not warn you, not to scare you off, but to get you ready for the volume and detail and my expectations for you. Now that you have realized this, now you can relax and have fun, as I will be providing more excellent examples of past projects and templates that you can use in your management tool kit.FormatI promote sharing information, which is why I am facilitating this course, and why I provide mostly a free structure in which you can share. I often restructure this course based on the many insightful suggestions offered by my students. Keep the suggestions coming and I will continue sharing experiences and advice.ProfitsKeep profits in mind when establishing project scopes. In this course I ask you to make proposals and pitches to Mr. Big which should be based on the overall welfare of your organizations to sustain mission and goals3.4 Gantt NOTESAssignmentThis week's Gantt must have (1) the Task Name to the right of the Gantt bar; (2) Tasks must have an Action Verb and Topic format (e.g., "Read WK3 Lecture"), and (3) reorganize tasks to easily follow and accomplish by adding and using a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) number and concept discussed in Week 2.These NOTES should help you in updating your Gantt Charts this week according to my "requirements" which are really just "suggestions". I recognize that many of you are agonizing over your Gantt assignments, and saving them in 2010, so relax and do the best you can with what we have here. I will help as I can, but the best thing I can do is to give you a bit of slack, and also recommend for you to use the tutorials in YouTube and Google resources.You may purchase a student copy which I have seen for way less than $400 (Google it and see what the latest prices are.). I will give you a short amount of time to get it and get your home computer fixed. Keep me informed and I will do what I can to help. See <Course Materials> for a Project software Example I developed. Hang in there and look at my examples, Team Recommendations, and NOTES ... everything should be there that you need to be successful, and you've got me to help. I'm your facilitator and PM, not just a professor who gives out grades.Recreating a Gantt weekly or even twice would drive me crazy too. Practice saving a line or two before the next go-round, and learn how to Save-Save-Save! Then go to step 2. Some of your Gantt task descriptions have the due day included, which is ok, but redundant, since you also have a timeline built into the Gantt. To get the tasks on the bar, right click on a bar, select Format Bar, then click on the Bar Text tab, then select the Right of Bar dropdown menu, then select the task "Name". This sounds complicated, but it is kinda easy one you do it once or twice. Highlight all of your bars and they will all replicate this format (don't try to do each bar individually, or it will take you all day). The two attached examples portray what I am looking for from you in your class and team Gantt assignments: The "Six Week" sample is just one way of organizing the class assignments. If yours is different, I have no problem with that. The "Course Prep" Gantt will show you some enhanced usages, including color, abbreviations, a legend, and also the past, present and future aspects of a project plan. Take a look and try to emulate in your class and work projects as they apply to you.CalendarYou can set Saturday and Sunday work dates in project setup. Also, if you have tasks linked and have start or end no later than or not before. The software does some unwanted "stuff" and you cannot always set the dates the way you want them. Make some changes to predecessors, links, and constraint rules to see what happens. That is the best way to learn some of the "finer" points of ProjectExplainConsider your 1-day 1-line task for interviews. You will not only interview folks, but you will first have to plan the interview, contact the interviewee and make an appointment, perform the interview, and in many cases reschedule it or go back for additional information, then you will write the interview report, submit it for peer and instructor review to this class, then submit your report back to your interviewee for feedback (and to earn brownie points with him/her/your organization as you recommend improvements). When you begin a Gantt or project plan, I expect a one liner for a starting point. Be ready to expand your plan and Gantt as you move on in time and thoughts about that task. By the end of this course, your Gantt’s should be expanded greatly beyond the initial plan. Gantt’s and project plans are meant to be "living" documents that grow with time as a tracking medium and prepare you for the next time you plan and perform a similar task set. Your comment about taking a lot of time is correct, and is one of the (many) faults with Project. Your assignment is to explain and demonstrate to the class, for example, how to change months on software file's dates, and advance them to this class, semi-automatically, and then how to change dates for a class that will begin on the third Tuesday in November, saving each as a separate file with an appropriate name.IntroductionWhen you provide an attachment to me, other students, stakeholders, or to Mr. Big, I suggest that you provide a good introduction, that should serve several purposes (similar to what I have described for an abstract): 1) Introduction of the attached, 2) a "sales piece" to get them to read your entire attachment, 3) a request for the reader to do something after reading the attachment, 4) other reasons or comments that you can describe. Don't make it very long (at least a sentence or two, something like this posting), but give it a good go. This is a good habit to get into for any file updates, so folks receiving and reviewing your files will know what to look for FIRST in your revision. For example: "Added Weeks 2 - 6 Tasks".Introductions tell what was done, is short, and begins or continues a dialog with the recipient. It is a lot better than just "Here it is." And what where your changes from last week? All (absolute) students, please use an introduction to All (absolute) attachments. And please review each other's attached assignments so you can compare yours to theirs so you can lean and improve ... or help each other in their struggles ... this is a part of project management. My job as facilitator is to get you to help each other, not to do all of the "helping".PrintI pasted this from my Week 3 NOTES to give you an idea of what may be required, just when you thought you had your Gantt "finished": One of the more challenging parts after the Gantt Chart [ NOT ] shown here was developed and finalized in structure and content, was how to print it for our final deliverable. I tried different font "percentages" and multiple page configurations (portrait and landscape). The first one I printed out was at 100% and took 24 sheets of paper. I also tried a one sheet of 11 x 17 paper. I needed a microscope to read it. I finally settled on a four page portrait view for printing out on my color computer printer. I then took it to my commercial printer who modified the column and page headers on the lower two sheets and the row headings on the two right hand sheets, and deleted some repetitive columns. They punched just the top left sheet and folded the bottom and right hand sheet nicely for the final deliverable to the client.My description here is very hard to follow, so don't read it too close or worry about it:Just understand that just when you think that a phase of your project is over, such as development of a Gantt chart, there is usually something else to do, such as taking the book to Kinkos or some other commercial printer, who has years (or minutes) of experience who can help you publish your final product for Mr. Big. During Weeks 5 and 6 in this course, you will be spending a lot of time making your Word, Excel, Project and presentation reports not only complete, but readable, agreeable, American Psychology Association (APA) style, and "pretty" for Mr. Big, including layouts, graphics, and even (not for this course, but for your "real" Mr. Big) how to best print in color double sided pages with blank pages set up so that the first page of each section begins on the right side, bind, punch, and fold your Gantt Chart, with printed separator tabs for your various appendixes, using Avery labels and a spiral binder with a clear front and a black vinyl back sheet. Yes, I had to do this, including getting a quote from the printer for 12 copies for a prescribed set of specifications (page counts varied after several trial printings), emailing the printer a 20 MB file to his personal email address because his business email address could not accept such a large document. I drove over to his shop to proof the first printing (one copy); we found errors and had to fix them while I was there, took the revised first draft back to my team for review, made corrections, emailed the revised files back to the printer, drove back over to proof the second printing (one copy), and took the revised second draft back to my team for final review. That copy was fine, so I called the printer and told him to print 11 more copies. There were some changes to our specifications and page counts, but I told him that we were only approved for his initial quoted price (less than $1000 for a 220 page double sided document with tabs, punched and bound). We negotiated over the phone and he printed 12 more copies at the same price he quoted me originally (his shop needed the work and he did not want to screw up the sale, even for such a small quantity). They delivered the 12 copies before the agreed 11 am delivery time and after a 100% page check on all 12 copies, I only found one Gantt chart that had not been inserted into the binder (of course it was the 12th book, so I'm glad that I did not just spot check the first six and send the books unchecked to the client).The client was delighted with our product, and so was my project manager. I took the next day off to celebrate the end of another successful project. A celebration at the end of a project is very important! It keeps you going when you start your next project, look forward to something “fun”.StrategiesSome projects are started "too quickly" (as in this course), sometimes it must be done so satisfy a given time limit (6 weeks) ... so you are learning the strategies in this course to take shortcuts, delegate responsibilities, put in late nights, and following guidelines such as the PMBOK and my course NOTEbook suggestions. The more experience you have in practicing these principles, the more successful you should be in your future projects, whether short timelines or long. There is a limit to delegation, and assignments are one of those "core" responsibilities that should not be delegated. I use the examples of the President of a company, and the Contracting Officer as two positions that should not be contracted; doing your own homework is another.TaskI suggest that you tag the task title rather than the resource on the Gantt; if Mr. Big read your Gantt, showing the resource in that manner doesn't tell him anything. You are also linking the 3 DQs per week, but they are not really linked requirements. Consider linking other tasks if they must follow each other in completion, not just in time, where you have start dates to do that. In the graphic Gantt chart section, there should be a short title that anyone can read and understand the task flow, without having to read the details on the left side of the view. My basic feedback about your Gantt is to evaluate if the tasks noted are as useful as they can be, first for your use, then for your colleagues' use, then for Mr. Big's use. There are many ways to present menting on your approach might not be as helpful as providing my example Gantt, and you’re looking at classmate's Gantts, and deciding for yourself how to best present them. The mechanics of preparing the Gantt and the elements is in the tutorials, where experts more talented than I have put together instructions and suggestions. Week 3 asks that you add WBS from Week 2 readings and other attributes that come through the learning process. You may receive a full 30 or 70 point score for "trying" and advancing your skills, so don't worry about your grade in this learning process, and have fun with it. Topics discussed this week or read in articles or text that could apply to the Gantt in terms of classroom tasks should be added, especially those that may add new features of Project software that you may not have tried yet. It is a fairly general comment that will flex your muscles in new features (for you) of Project software.TeamThe Team Project software is the plan for the team project to be presented to Mr. Big, to manage the project that you are proposing. There will be only one Project software file for him, with many tasks that your team will be improving each week with ideas from the course to make proposed plans better.TutorialAs I've said a number of times, keep poking around with Project software and the different aspects of it. It will begin making sense after a while. It is so complex and not so intuitive, that it does take time to become proficient. Try to "break" it then try to fix it. You'll get there. I don't grade on proficiency as much as trying new things and reporting on your progress. Ask for "HELP" on such magic steps as weeks starting where you want them automatically. It looks like you have mastered the copy/paste knack for repeating tasks from week to week; a very good technique! This comment is for you and the entire class (so I don't have to copy and paste since I expect everyone to read all posts, including those addressed to another student): Next week, start "decorating your Gantt what with task titles, and also marking off accomplished tasks as complete each week throughout this course. This will give you the feeling that Project software is not just a plan and forget tool. I apologize for a very difficult to learn software. There are tutorials available, but my "step by step instructing" is not within the scope of this course. Many features are available in Project, including copy/paste for repetitive tasks in different time and topic areas, color coding (see my example chart with critical and non-critical tasks), etc. Tutorials are great, but trying the features as you read the tutorial is the smart way to do it.Just doing the tutorial from start to finish, then "doing" will provide less learning than read and do. Project software takes more than six weeks to learn and use, so I understand your frustration. This is why Project software is only a small, yet important, but not critical, portion of this course. I've been using Project, Excel, Word, presentation and many other applications, and am still learning new features in each, especially when upgrades. I'm not "re" learning Office. Start, finish and duration do not play nice together. I suggest you delete the finish date column and see what happens. See List of Constraints in Week 1 Lecture.3.5 Report NOTESAudienceYour audience is Mr. Big and you must get the point across to him that he can accept, including the fact that he (the Emperor) has no clothes. The message is one thing. But if you can't get it to him, why bother? Ticking him off doesn't solve any problems, so I'm referring to delivery to the person who must hear. If Mr. Big only listens to Mr. Jones, then Mr. Jones is the audience during a briefing. Remember that this project is for Mr. Big, a businessman who is not looking for a research paper or psychobabble buzz words. He wants to understand what is going to be done, by whom, and how it will help his bottom line, customer service, product quality, etc.My brain likes to keep things in appropriate boxes and paths, so I like the structure ... but have been around long enough to keep perspective on casual and loose on less important activities, such as clock watching and exact copying of my formats... use your brain and stay creative in this course except when Mr. Big tells you something that turns him on or off ... He is your AUDIENCE ... and you as a Project Manager should pay very careful attention to your stakeholders' wants and needs. You don't always have to follow them, but you MUST be aware.We managers also should pick and choose our fights. For example, here in class, I do not worry much about firm clock watcher deadlines, but when it comes to formats for final reports, I am very picky because I want you to realize what is important to YOUR Mr. Big, even if it is out of your comfort zone. My formatting may be different from your normal format for reports, but I am looking to teach you some possibly new reasons for formatting in a particular way. This is why I tend to make a big deal out of the Executive Summary (ES) format, not for busy work, but to help Mr. Big be able to follow your logic. See my NOTES on the subject and you should get more ideas on formats, WBS usage, and Knowing Thy Audience.It DependsI'm not trying to be cute here, but one of my favorite answers to many questions, including leadership and management is "it depends". There is not just one way to lead or manage. So much depends on the people and the politics, as well as the project goal. I like to use the example of an organizational chart, where lines can be drawn in many ways, but the success or failure of an organization really depends on the personalities of the people involved, not how the lines are drawn. The same is true for working a project or word smithing a report. The audience is Mr. Big, and no matter what you as a project manager think or say, it is up to Mr. Big to tell you whether you have succeeded or failed. He is really the only one who counts in this project. I will say in this course many times and in many ways: "Know Thy Audience”.Executive Summary (ES)The Executive Summary (ES) format consists of Purpose & Objectives, Problems & Background, Discussions & Findings, and Conclusions & Recommendations. You have an ES "titled", but it appears to be the beginning of the body of the paper. Remember that the ES is a 1 to 2 page summary with background facts and figures, using the format we have been using throughout this course. There should be nothing new in the ES, and it should repeat what is in the body (copy paste is fine for key sentences). Be sure to tell the story in the ES with dollar and time figures also.PerfectIn most projects, go for good, not perfect. 80% at this stage is as good as it gets; 60% is not bad either. This is too early to worry about perfection. You can spend a lot of time in going from 80 to even 90% 3.6 Team NOTESAnalysisEven in a small office, significant improvements can be made by analyzing small processes. As MBA's and Project Managers, process steps are similar, yet the details can differ dramatically. As an Industrial Engineer, MBA and PMP, I feel I can work in almost any industry and environment by applying the proper processes for the situation. You can also!AssignmentThe assignment is to produce a 2010 version, which would be a similar assignment for a work project where Mr. Big has a set of rules. Give the original file a name and alter it for subsequent file versions. Your Week 3 team assignment is to ADD to your project paper issues related to Project Cost and Quality Management (PCQM). Research the Virtual Organizations Service Requests for useful information and templates (You do not need to write a report on this info, but you may want to use ideas from it). Develop the sequence of the project tasks by establishing the task dependencies. Update the Project software file with the Classroom Materials to be assigned to the revised project task by Day 6 (Sunday).This is NOT a brand new product, or expected to be a "finished" product since team members and I will be reviewing, editing, and recommending changes. It should include previous work to date that you will be using for your final project deliverable, and possibly an outline of where your final paper is going. This is the same concept you will be using for the next one or two weeks for this project. Feel free to ask any more questions, and I'm going to provide feedback on your individual project reports.AudienceEven "Knowing thy audience" is often a crap shoot, even by a long and experienced friend of a Mr. Big. But you have to take your best knowledge and go from there. There are no guarantees in life or in project management. And when you hit Mr. Big having a bad day, even the best presentation could ?????BriefingSteering committee meetings can run the gamut from an executive getting together with a project manager to a full briefing and exchange with a large group of stakeholders. The project manager will present the long and short goals and progress report, as well as asking for guidance or decisions to be made on particular issues. I'm not sure how much more detail I can give you. A steering committee is usually made up of a variety of stakeholders that are or will be affected by the project development or the results. They want to give their OPINION such as a focus group, but this focus group is longer standing than a one shot meeting. The steering committee is normally ADVISORY and not normally in the project members' chains of command nor do they explicitly tell the project team what to do in detail. They more advise on the results, and not the method. The Project Manager is sometimes the committee chairman. Burn RateIn the consulting world, the term "burn rate" is measured as how fast the budgeted or funded monies (not labor hours or calendar or work days or weeks are left to completion) are being used. It is often measured in PERCENTAGE, then accompanied by how many dollars are left before zero dollars are left and deadline date is reached. For example, if you have "burned" 75% of the money, and you have 25% of the calendar or work days left, you are perfectly on target. If you have "burned" 75% of the money, and you only have 5% of the calendar or work days left, you are in trouble. You may "have to spend" 25% of the money in 5% of the time, not over the $ budget, just short on time left to finish ... I could have used any numbers in the example to cause scrambling to a smooth completion. Most project managers track and report burn rate MONTHLY on longer projects, weekly or even daily on shorter ones, especially in the final 25% of the project.The reason dollars are measured, is that most teams have members at varying hourly rates. For Example, a Project Manager may be charged out at $200 per hour, 3 analysts at $100 an hour each, and 1/3 of a clerk at $50 an hour. Measuring dollars becomes much easier than measuring hours. By the way, those are theoretical and "charged" labor rates, and not what the personnel receive in their paychecks.There is also a similar term "Burden Rate", but this refers to the rate that the consulting company charges the client, which includes overhead costs and profit. A $200 burden rate may include a 100% overhead rate and a 15% profit rate, so the PM may receive "only" a gross pay of $85 an hour. Let's not get into the "standard pay" numbers and calculations here, since they depend on so many experience, industry and location factors. Depending on the size and complexity of a project, and the statistical software and experience of the project manager, sophisticated or simple analysis can be done.ExamplesNone of the reports provided as examples are "perfect" but they are examples that you can learn from in preparing your team reports for this course and in real life. Each set of three reports is supposed to convince Mr. Big to invest and support their ideas for their IT project. The development process was identical to the one you are being asked to work.FormatIn this class and in project management we can "fix" a bad paragraph or section that we wrote or even presented in the past based on new information or feedback from the client or other sources. Another way of looking at it is that I don't usually change grades from prior weeks. I can adjust current week grades based on excellent work in the current week. Team project members can upset Mr. Big by a bad week's performance, which may or may not stick in his craw for a long time. Live with it and learn from it.MentorFinding and using a great mentor is actually a rare situation for most people. I encourage my students to find good mentors (multiple) since each mentor will have different skills and experiences.OptionIn many cases, replacing personnel is not an option, so trying to enforce good management and project practices is the alternative to a successful project. As a team, we are all here to help each other succeed and learn. We each have our skills as well as out limitations, thus team effectiveness if well managed.PersonalityOne of my most interesting learning experiences was in a team building course where we studied the Myers-Briggs (MB) personality test (I am an INTJ, for those of you who have used MB). I was having a devil of a time working with a peer, who was in that course with me. We discovered that we were both INTJs, learned from the instructor and book how INTJs should best work with each other and became best friends, golfing buddies, and successful team mates. Once you know how to work with a team member or co-worker, whether the same personality type or not, the better off you are as a project manager. MB teaches how to know yourself, how other types think and work, and how to deal with them.PresentationWorking the Presentation at this "mid" stage of the project also helps the team identify flaws in projects, logic, and papers by reviewing the various topic summaries from our different perspectives (IT, project managers, subject matter experts, editors, Mr. Big’s, etc.).PracticeThe term "Practicing Medicine" comes to mind in that physicians often run into new problems, new drugs in new configurations and doses which may produce different results. I love to watch the TV show "House" who gets into many interesting situations, as do Project Managers; thus the stories I like to tell here.4.0 Week Four Lecture: Project Procurement Management and LeadershipObjectives: * Explain project HR management * Explain procurement managementAfter reading ”Read Me Firsts” and Chapter 12, Project Procurement Management and Outsourcing, and discussing it in class, you should be able to:■ Describe the PMBOK area called project procurement management.■ Describe the six processes that make up project procurement management.■ Describe the three general categories for procurement-type contracts.■ Define outsourcing, business process outsourcing, and off shoring.■ Describe the reasons why organizations outsource projects and project components.■ Describe the advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing.■ Describe several ways to improve the likelihood of outsourcing success. After reading Chapter 13, Leadership & Ethics, and discussing it in class, you should be able to:■ Define leadership; understand its role and importance in successfully managing IT projects.■ Describe the five approaches to exemplary leadership.■ Describe six leadership styles.■ Define the concept of emotional intelligence and how it can help one to become a more effective leader.■ Define ethics and understand its importance in project leadership.■ Understand some of the ethical challenges that you may face as a project leader or project team member.■ Describe a process for making ethical decisions.■ Understand culture and diversity, as well as the some of the challenges of leading and managing a multicultural project.To provide some procurement management and leadership examples of project management, I’ll discuss my role as a transition manager for Public Works Center (PWC). From these examples, the impact that project procurement management, outsourcing, leadership and ethics has on project management and how information is shared across organizations as an integral part of our businesses should become apparent.In May 1997, I learned about, applied for, and was accepted for the Transition Manager position, a one-year temporary promotion at the Naval Weapons Station in Earle, New Jersey. During June, I met with PWC and Earle personnel as we developed the draft transition plan. I found temporary housing and moved to New Jersey in July, driving home to Virginia about every other week. In August, we developed a Business Case Analysis to analyze the workforce, financials, facilities, and equipment for the Industrial Division to be consolidated along with the Navy Public Works Department at Earle. The Industrial Division was productive, well managed, and the projective workload was stable and increased direct labor hours. Considering these things, adding the Industrial Division was a low risk acquisition. We decided to bring them into our comptroller and computer system arena.The following was our Statement of Work:Provide business transition consulting and project management services needed in the creation of a PWC Detachment Philadelphia site office in Earle NJ. This support encompasses planning, overseeing, and coordinating the transition efforts involved in the stand-up of a PWC detachment based on a transfer of responsibilities from a PWD. Transition efforts include organizational, business process, and information system changes and realignments necessary for Earle to be functional and operational by 1 Oct 1997.As discussed in the eText, human resources and communication proved to be ever so important. The following is a list of transition issues I developed, from which detailed requirements, solutions, resources and target completion dates were later established and posted into a Project Work Breakdown Structure (WBS):4.01 Personnel: Staffing Plan, Work Center Organization Chart, Work Hours, Break Times, Leave Policies, Alternative Work Schedules, Functional & Mission Statements, Labor Spread Sheets, Personnel Evaluations (PARS), Position Descriptions, and Personnel Actions.4.02 HRO/Union: Rules, Selection [NLRB]/Elections, Files Admin/Location, Admin Costs/Budgets.4.03 Personnel Programs: Safety Shoes/Glasses/Medical Surveillance & Reports, FECA, Workman’s Compensation Review, Emergency and Inclement Weather Policies.4.04 Admin Support: Shared Contractor Costs, Clerical Activity, Equipment, Supplies, Funding Document Flow, Mail, Travel & Training Requests, Telephones/Faxes, Badges, Vehicle Passes, Building Keys, Purchase Cards.4.05 Military Personnel: Base Civil Engineer/PWC Site Manager Liaison, Billet Assignment.4.06 ADP: ADP Connectivity, Work Station Setups, ADP Clearance List, User & Administrator Training, Data Processing, User On-Site Assistance & Phone Help Desk, Software Upgrades, MAXIMO POA&M.4.07 Financial: Customer & PW Training, FY98/99 Rates/Budgets, Revenue Matrix, Job Order Structure, A-11 FY98 Apportionment Budget & Customer Reports/Liaison, Communication between Earle, Philly, Norfolk and Charleston.4.08 CTARS Labor Time System: Profile Data & Setups, Training, Time Data Entry, Job Order Lists, Labor Rejects, Data & Voice Communication between Earle, Philly, Norfolk and Charleston.4.09 Network Operating Center / Transfer Costs: $2.3M Overhead & Labor Transfer Costs.4.10 E-Mail: Exchange Mail Setup & Conversion from G-Mail, Training & Administration.4.11 Communication, Operations & Commodities: Philly, Norfolk & Earle Interfaces, Common Policies/Procedures/Systems/Data Consolidation, Customer Relations, All-Hands Meetings.4.12 Facilities: Ownership Lists, MRP Budgets, Property Record Cards Maintenance, Relocation of Maintenance and Rehabilitations [Offices, Windows, Floors, Electrical, etc.].4.13 Transportation: NFTS Setup [convert data from PC Transport] & Administration [Philly, Norfolk & Earle], Data Breakdowns/Reports, Work Locations, Equipment Inventory Reduction, Customer Budgets, Crane Services, Vehicle Battery Maintenance, Rail Car Ownership & Maintenance, FY98 Vehicle Replacement Plan, GSA Issues Status.4.14 Maintenance: Facility, Preventive Maintenance Program, LRMP Inspections, Work Locations.4.15 Utilities: Tally Sheets, Electric & Water Meter Installations/Reading, Major Maintenance.4.16 Fleet Industrial Division: BCA Data, Personnel Transfers, M&U Manager/Org Chart, Facility.4.17 Production Control: Customer Service, Facilities Management, Base Civil Engineering Liaison.4.18 Contracts: Contracts Preparation, Administration & Quality Assurance Procedures. 4.19 Material: PW & Fleet Industrial Requirements, FISC Ops/Cost Proposal, Shop Stores & Tool Room Locations/Funding/Setups/Ops, ADP Process, Job Order Rejects, Purchase Cards, Fuels Administration [Vehicle Gasoline & Diesel Fuel, Heating & Steam Plant Oil Delivery, QA & Billing, Natural Gas Billing].To enhance communications for myself and for the entire organization, which we will discuss in more detail in Week 6, I developed a Points Of Contact (POC) list with names, phone numbers and positions in Norfolk and corresponding positions at Earle and Philly to be responsible for the issues.During the transition process, communications was key in helping our customers know what was going on, and in bringing our in-house resources to Earle and to Philadelphia for frequent meetings and training sessions.To let the workforce know what was happening in their organization, I prepared several articles for publication.In April 1998, after I left Earle to return to Norfolk for my next assignment and my daughter’s wedding, I wrote the following newsletter article:“PWC Earle Area Site Transition Lessons Learned and Issues” On 1 October 1997, The Naval Weapons Station (NWS) Earle NJ became a Site of PWC Detachment (Det) Philadelphia (Philly). There were many lessons learned in achieving a better, faster, cheaper and safer organization at Earle. Some of the key lessons learned were that making a system work that is as complex as PWC's takes a lot more patience, hard work, time, and great attitudes than anyone expected. The Earle organization has been in "right-sizing" for several years, so this transition was a challenge to all in terms of personnel, comptroller, computer, contracts, customer service, maintenance, utilities, transportation and material issues. The Base Civil Engineering organization left behind was also significantly impacted. We also evaluated and wrote a Business Case Analysis which resulted in PWC's adoption of the Industrial Services Branch which broadened PWC’s overall capabilities.One key success factor was that Earle, Philly and Norfolk Site Managers, Division Directors, Supervisors, and Administrative workers provided strong and tireless leadership in having everyone involved to learn and implement PWC’s computer systems and business processes. It is critical that all Philly Sites operate like Philly and that all Commodity Managers and Supervisors interface with each other to insure that processes stay on similar tracks.Another key was the liberal and frequent visits and phone calls by and to experts from Norfolk and Philly. The state of the art computer network and systems at Earle presented new challenges to our experts. They worked overtime to make systems work, get people trained, evaluate procedures and to create new systems. Advance planning included preparing Rates, Organization Charts, Work Center Lists, Personnel Codes and Shift Assignments, Position Descriptions, Facility Location Maps, Equipment Lists, Work Rules, and many other administrative issues.The only promise made for a 01 October transition date deadline was that "everyone would get paid." In order to make this happen, CTARS timekeeping was made a very high priority. We set up a networked computer training room with 20 workstations. We developed a list of CTARS Clerks and Supervisors. CTARS trainers from Norfolk and Philly conducted formal classes and workshops and assisted in setting up CTARS Profiles over several months.CTARS personnel, due to their extensive computer backgrounds, also assisted in setting up individual workstations and did other application program user training. Existing computers had different capabilities, configurations, user requirements, and user skill levels. Therefore, the original plan to set up all machines identically had to be changed, which added to the estimated set up time for each workstation. A single ADP Systems Administrator (SA) could not keep up with the workload. A contractor was hired to assist the SA and users with hardware and software.PWC Site Earle leaders had to overcome unexpected challenges with non-PWC organizations such as Fleet Industrial Supply Center (FISC) which provides material support, and Cinc Lant Fleet which provides computer network support. Many brainstorming and planning sessions resulted in agreement and buy-in by the key employees involved. Many subsequent meetings and efforts were required to achieve desired support from FISC.Job Order Number (JON) development and assignment training used by PWC Site personnel was one of the most difficult transition hurdles to overcome. PWC’s JON system is complex, confusing, and cumbersome, thus requiring extensive training, assistance and review from Norfolk and Philly Comptroller and ADP personnel. A full time PWC Budget person should be assigned for about three months before and after the transition date. A minimum of three local Finance Clerks plus a Customer Service Representative (CSR) should be selected and trained well in advance to handle the abundant and stressful workload.Approximately 40% of CSR time should be spent coordinating daily requirements, 10% setting up work requests & JONs, 10% collecting unbillables, 10% marketing new customers, 5% modifying or establishing processes, 5% doing written communications, and 10% in meetings.Customers demanded work performance without funding in place. This forced assignment of labor times and material charges to overhead, incorrect JONs. Norfolk agreed to assign un-funded JONs with Customers’ Letters of Commitment to reduce charging adjustments. Many Customers were not used to paying for services, which had previously been provided by host commands. Others discovered that full costing under Navy Working Capital Fund increased their costs dramatically.A key preliminary and ongoing activity is development of Commodity Rates and estimated Customer Revenue Matrices. These were presented formally to customers before the transition date with explanations of how rates were calculated, how to work with PWC, and what changes to expect. Once customers understood the new processes and funding requirements most cooperated willingly.Utility costs are still our customer’s biggest concern since these rates reflect so much of the transition costs. To make matters worse, there were very few water or electric meters installed or operating. A full metering program is a top priority for accurate customer billing. Transportation’s NFTS operation is also a very high priority.4.1 Organization Management NOTESBuy InUser buy in for Government organizations is usually (changed from "always" since that is an absolute) tough, especially, in my experience, when upper ranks and managers "know it all" because 30 years ago they used to be a lower rank or user. I've done surveys of multi-level users from Privates to Generals and GS1's to Executive Service employees. Results were mixed; getting to "all" levels is hit and miss at best. My company did what we called a 360 degree assessment where each employee was assessed based on input from administrative assistants to vice presidents. Some evaluations are good; others "don't have time or interest" to respond. We needed project managers to design the surveys to get needed municationSome folks are reluctant to use the telephone and would rather text or email. If you are going to be an effective leader, follower, techie or generalist, you have to learn to love that 500 pound telephone. It is one of the tools that your audience may favor, so ignoring it is not going to do you or them much good.LeadershipLeadership outweighs managing in getting real work done with people. A student once told me that he was not "looking for a hug". We all (an absolute that I will admit to) need a hug more often than we admit to. Why? Because just about the only motivator that most of us have are good and kind words when raises or bonuses are not available. Meeting moderators who don't often praise their speakers and team members are probably not very good leaders. Positive recognition is one of the rare true motivators. If shy, embarrass or encourage them; shyness won't last long.MatrixI more often than not work in a matrix organization where folks with varied skills from several different departments work together on a project. We each have administrative bosses who approve our time sheets and provide opportunities for raises (annual evaluations), and a Team or Project Leader who guides daily activities, and provides input to annual assessments or boss to fire us if we are pitiful. Matrix organizations are complicated and difficult, but through good communications by the members and effective support by the member's management, they can perform effectively sometimes. I'm not sure that matrix organizations are any more confusing that "regular" organizations. They each have idiosyncrasies that some managers make un-nerving. I've developed so many organization charts, and whether they were successful or not depended on the personalities involved and not much on how the lines of chains of command were drawn.MBWAA more popular method than "Undercover Boss" is called Management By Walking Around (MBWA), where the people get to know the boss and the boss gets to know him/her, and workers get to teach the boss their job! Amazing how simple and un-time consuming and effective the process. Even Henry Ford III (or whatever his number is) and other great leaders promote MBWA in their factories. "Undercover Boss" that provides so many good lessons of what should be done to make for a more effective organization.I used MBWA to a great extent when I was managing an engineering and manufacturing operation. I knew that I was not the expert and did not have the best answers to a quality or volume or production rate problem, but the machine operator knew what the problem was, and how to fix it. Most of my best consulting ideas came not from my brain, but from the brain of the folks I "interviewed" or had a cup of coffee with (best ideas came from many more cups than meetings).OperationAn operations manager works on day to day problems and solutions. A project manager plans the project, often executes it from "above" and follows through after the project is complete. Operations don't usually end. Projects have a beginning middle and an END. Don't you think yard work is an “operation”? A never ending one? It has tasks, but they can be set up once, then stepped through, say weekly. The major difference, in my opinion, is a department manager is there for an ongoing operation. OutsourceAlmost anything can be outsourced, except for management of core business activities. For example, an organization cannot outsource the CEO or the contracting department, since they are the decision makers for and monitors of outsourcing. If the restaurant is the core activity of a restaurant company, shame on a manager who wants to outsource that function!!! My "simple" evaluation of outsourcing is that it is good for two groups of people, and only two. The stockholders if they are not involved in company operations or a customer. The outsourcing is profitable for the outsourcing company, and for the company doing the work and the workers who are now able to feed their families. I've often seen that outsourcing is "easier" for, excuse me, lazy managers who would rather turn responsibilities over to others to avoid the work.PMBOKThe PMBOK is a guidebook, not a rulebook. The PMP is an accreditation title, such as an MD for a physician, not a rite of passage. The MD "practices" medicine. PMPs must practice managing projects.StructureGiven all other project management factors, communication, attention to detail, and hard work are key. The organization structure is secondary, whether there is a third party involved or not. I've developed many organization charts and the success or failure of the organization depends on the personalities involved and their attention to their key tasks, not in how the lines are drawn. When a third party is involved, there are sometimes time zone or language differences. Knowing the other folks and learning how to best communicate is a process that should be given time to mature before team frustration rules.Temporary WorkersMy wife worked for a temp agency. She "sold" their employees to hiring companies. The rationale for temps and temp to hires are manifold. Most are good for all parties concerned in the long run. I recommend it for some situations that we have discussed and read in articles. You’ve got to know what you want and need, as in many management situations, before you can judge whether temps are right for your organization.4.2 Career NOTES Annual ReviewsMy company did a 360 degree annual review, where personnel that we identified in advance were asked to review us in writing or verbally to a peer reviewer (someone we didn't work with regularly, or in some cases, didn't know, but at our organizational level, say Associate, in my case). We also wrote a self-evaluation to be reviewed before our peer reviewed other's observations. After the interviews and experiences recorded for our review in advance, we were interviewed by the peer and our boss and folks from HR for a "stay" review. There was also a "board" review process and a salary review. The annual review system worked really well, except when the company was in the layoff mode since it was being sold off in an IPO, and senior employees were being "taken off of the bottom line" to be replaced by younger and cheaper folks. So goes corporate life on the unemployment line. It took me 4 months to get a job (with a 20% pay increase). No more venting! AudienceI recently spoke to one of the biggest lawyers in the area when I asked him the key to his success. His answer was "Listening to the client". He reaffirmed what I have been telling you and will tell you again and again: “know thy audience”. I often ask my audience of new hires when discussing project management (PM) if they have ever managed a project. If few hands go up, I ask them if they have ever organized a picnic or a birthday party, of course they all have. Then I tell them that they have managed a project. Something as small as a day's outing can be called a project that could use some of the tools that you mentioned in your DQ. Great job in helping me out so often with your comments, so I did not have to pipe in with "professorial" comments. You made my life in this course so much easier!BalanceI understand balance, and one of the more important balance factors is maintaining the support of top management. This can be done by brown nosing, of course, but getting the stakeholders involved in the project to voice their support for the project is probably the best approach. This is where communication and finding out what Mr. Big wants is key to success.CertificationsI'm a PMP, a Six Sigma Black Belt, a Benchmarking expert, a Quality Circle master, an Industrial Engineer, an MBA. I've got credentials, without a way to lead teams with skill and personality and effectiveness. It's all a lot of paper. I once had a boss who had all the paper credentials and not a lick of sense or ability. We once took one of those personality tests in a team building training class. She saw herself as a "Nurturer" and everyone else rated her at whatever the description was that was 180 degrees opposite of being a nurturer. Be careful how you see yourself!Chain of CommandProper chains of command and walking a fine line of proper project management is the art, rather than the science of effective project management, which is being stated well in these communication municationI was in a three day teleconference where there were 37 stakeholders and about 7 people talking to each other. I think I am one of the 30 who are doing many other things here at our desks going nuts as those seven droooooooooooooooooooooooone on. Our all day and multiday meetings boggle my mind and my behind. Our leaders don't get it because they are doing the talking and are more than fully engaged, while 30 of us sit there blank faced or "multi-tasking". I used to sit at "their" desk, plan and conduct those all day meetings. I hated it as much as everyone else, so when I have the chance to do the planning now, they are short, "sweet" and to the point, much as these classes are conducted where I provide needed information, but try not to bore you to death. I have shared the Meeting Ground Rules for your use as needed. I find teleconferences and voice conference calls worthless without firm and thoughtful agendas. People who text, read, email, and do crosswords or games drive me nuts.DatabasesOne of my latest work projects is to develop a mega database to track many corporate certifications, training, organization codes, drug testing and many other factors that have long been wanted by management, but did not have the foresight to develop. Many people were maintaining dozens of databases. I’m putting them together for general use. Justifying this database was my next challenge.DifferenceI attended a recent graduation where Tom Brokaw spoke and 3000 students were awarded diplomas. What an awe inspiring experience showing that we are masters of our educational fate. With several hundred Doctoral graduates, I'm even thinking about going for it. My wife just told me to retire and hang it up. I don't think I'm ready for either. Mom lived to 99. Why shouldn't I? Being of value where you are can be as important as changing careers or chasing the buck. Tom Brokaw just spoke to us at graduation about "chasing the buck or making a difference". Basically, he said to do both!ExperienceI agree that relating and exhibiting experience, not just bragging, does go a long way to establishing credibility with co-workers. Not having experience in a particular facility or industry may be seen as a negative. I have not worked in many industries or settings, but I can still be of value due to my knowledge and experience with similar systems or processes. Taking time to get to know the current project setting and people is important to the "new" project manager's effectiveness. Don't discount your effectiveness just because you did not work in exactly the situation or facility or industry before, if you take the steps to learn and relate. Do not try to come across as an expert without first establishing yourself with the people as someone who can think and learn and be of value to them. Look at them and determine their "What's in it for me" (WIIFM). I'll be taking my first Yiddish class ... right after a Yoga class ...lol. Yiddish was my Dad's first language ... and the "secret" language around the house when he and Mom didn't want us to know what was going on. I was also just in a "Silver Sneakers" class where the little "old" ladies nearly wiped the floor with me. I used to “jump around with the 20 year olds”, but they were too serious, but fun to watch from the back row.I began with FrontPage, learned java and html, but most often use Yahoo and Angelfire to keep my development time down ... let the software folks support the programming while I develop and update site content requirements, for example, see and va/KenKlein.Although I have the experience and the certifications and the degrees, many employers can't see beyond the "color of my hair" or do not want to pay for my skills. Just remember, that in life, it is always something, but we must move on and do the best we can with what we have... and try to get better. Help me define this is 10 years of experience "one year's experience for 10 years" or "10 years of doing a lot of things and growing". This is where the term "experience" gets pretty muddy. I like certifications as a better measure. See the topic of "Experience" in many of my "Career NOTES". Politics is the art of "Strategic Communication" where the right message is thought out in advance or thinking before you speak. Think about that. Politics is a driving point in success. Whether detestable or not, it is a truism in ALL (yes, an absolute from me) phases of life. For example, it is who you know, not what you know that helps many of us succeed. I suggest that you try to find a glass half full rather than half empty (a positive attitude) that team members and co-workers will find your contributions more acceptable. I find claims of lack of experience or knowledge hard to swallow. Have you ever moved to a new house or planned a family reunion? These are projects in my mind. Let's hear about those projects.I recently began a brand new project at work, where I am the Project Manager, with a myriad of reading material in a brand new environment. To stop stressing out, I have gone to dinner, took a shower, and then went back to keep tackling the details. I feel your pain in this course!ExpertI was listening to a CSPAN congressional hearing where the TSA did not send an "expert" in the particular field that a Congressman had requested, and he was really ticked. The underling that was sent could not answer his questions, nor did he have the authority to promise written answers as a follow up. They were discussing canines as bomb sniffers being more effective than a machine and the latest technology of "sniffing" passengers and of the cost of dog vs. machine. A machine could operate 24/7 but a dog only works 3 hours a day. A dog needs a handler, and a machine needs 3 operators. A machine costs $100,000+ and a dog $30,000+ to be trained. Man, the TSA had a hard time doing their cost estimates for this congressman. The dog handler they sent was probably not a cost guy (or a college guy either). Such frustrations! FutureA student wrote, "Concepts discussed throughout the course are very beneficial to learn if I were to seek a career in project management." IF? Of course you will and are a project manager. Concepts should be applied to birthday parties or building a sky scraper.Help DesksI worked for a Navy command that has several Distance Support help desks that are available 24/7/365 and triage questions and responses. Some take a few seconds to respond while other questions may take 90 days or more, depending on the scope of the response. I was "The Metrics Guy" for these help desks and data analyst to recommend improved performances by the subject matter expert responders.Human Resources (HR)I really don't agree with calling human resources "capital" since people cannot really be bought and sold by a company as chattel. There is a fine line of interpretation I suppose, when a company, such as mine, invests in our training, education and future potential, in "hopes" of retaining us as employees. We could debate the term for a long time. Let's not. Not that is doesn't happen, I've rarely seen HR get into selection of project managers. They are usually, in my experience, folks who are involved in the project area and have shown the ability to manage or contribute significantly to similar rmationThe boss deserves to know what is happening in his organization. How else can he make intelligent decisions? There was a TV ad where they talked about taking a picture of a traffic intersection and a business making decisions "now" based on pictures taken 5 minutes (or 5 seconds) later.LessonsGaining knowledge based on others’ experiences is a great way to avoid pain while "giving birth" to ideas.MentorMentoring is a great part of being a great manager! Finding the right mentors is key to a team and organizational structure. We have to make ourselves known in an organization as someone to trust for such advice, and to Lead, Follow, or Get Out Of My Way!Never Give UpJust suck it up and keep going. I look at the Winston Churchill "speech" (history's shortest speech) posted on my desk: "NEVER, NEVER, NEVER GIVE UP" NotesIn one project, I volunteered to take Notes during teleconferences and distribute them as action items. This accomplished several things: 1) showed I was willing to contribute above and beyond the call of duty, 2) provide information to my control-freak supervisor, 3) assume the role of project manager, and more importantly, 4) state what I want to do before someone else tells me to do something I don't want.Others’ CareersMy best friend is my former doctor (Dr. D) and is on the executive board of the largest health care corporation and owner of many hospitals and physician practices in our area. For the past 30+ years I have very closely followed his practice and rise in the medical corporate world. Stereotyping physicians and healthcare organizations is at times unfair, but it is what it is. When you work in these organizations, try not to let generalizations warp your view of conditions and what is really needed. I met one of Dr. D's new hires and discussed areas we are covering in this course, so I am picking up information from the "other" side. Managing IT and other portions of large and small companies is challenging, of course, but not paying attention to the facts of the here and now can cause a problem in team proposals. Keep your eyes and ears open as you ask questions in your interviews and in your project management activities.PathI learned a long time ago that yes, the grass can be greener on the other side of the fence. I had my 20 years retirement pay covered, so off I went, receiving a nice "guaranteed by Uncle Sam" check every month, and work for a great company with great benefits, and a jerk for a boss. I only had to see him once a week, until he fired me because I earned my Medicare Card (no kidding). Fair is fair when managers of a "current" project will fire consultants in a heartbeat when costs or politics or many other factors not related to employee performance. Been there done that, such as when my company went public and the IPO stock prices were more important than employee or company loyalty.My undergraduate degree was in Industrial Engineering (IE). Project management was a natural progression of the IE discipline. As far as I know, there is no degree in project management. Most of my projects were in the IE field of combining people or resources with the technology of IT and equipment used in manufacturing. I can't see how anyone can first be a project manager, then an engineer or an accountant or a nurse or pilot. First you become a subject matter expert (SME), and then you can more or less effectively manage a project in that field. After enough practice with many SMEs and process areas, managing a project using the key PMBOK areas becomes possible. Someone who has missed one or more PMBOK areas in their career may not be a very effective manager.PMBOKA good project manager is one who can deal with current facts by following a general path, such as the PMBOK, and using their head to roll with the punches. Setting strict guidelines and interpretations is a killer to completing or discussing projects. Religious fundamentalists are examples of dangerous results.PMPThe PMP is a check list item in many cases that firms require since they look good to the clients. A college degree is similar as it checks off that the person could complete something important. That is fine, but I agree, does not guarantee success. Training for the PMP exam requires an application to PMI which includes a list of projects managed over the recent years and hours of work. It also requires at least 35 hours of classroom training in project management, which you will have by taking this course. I highly recommend a PMP Boot Camp to teach you how to take and pass the exam the first time (don't consider NOT taking the Boot Camp, no matter how much experience you have). PMP's require significant preliminary justifications and continuing education units and PMI club participations. PMP retains an excellent referring reputation to prospective employers. My PMP boot camp was a 4 day, 10 hour a day crash course in how to pass the exam. We learned little about how to MANAGE projects, but lots on how to ORGANIZE them. My company paid the fees for the training and for taking the exam. Find out if yours will do the same. There are books on the exam, but taking a boot camp is much more efficient. Get your info at too have been involved in almost every quality and organizational buzz word program since 1965 and they are all the same. Do more with less. Be very good. Atta - boy! 1 aw-XXXX trumps all. I have no fault with the many quality "acronym" programs over the years, as a matter of fact I approved of most of them. What I faulted was management who promoted them so they could prove to their higher ups and their constituents that they have checked off the latest buzz word program. The problem was that these programs would have been good for the organization, but they had expensive up front training costs and "took time away" form participant team member "day jobs". I was leading a quality team one time and the President of the company stuck his head in the conference room, looked around and saw his management team (he really saw $$$$$) sitting there, went back to his office and wrote a note (this was before email) to his VP to cancel the program because we were not doing what he thought should be done on his pet program, which was to figure out to finance his private $300,000 a year Lear jet lease.ReadI agree that most experts are widely read and not narrowly focused. I do find that many papers and articles are balanced in their writing and sometimes and editor or a faculty advisor says to the author. We only have x number of words budgeted, so cut it down by using a couple of key points so we can sell it to "the committee" for publication. This can ignore (in writing) the more balanced approach, especially when an "expert" is trying to get lecture or consulting dollars on his pet project.RegionalI worked for an organization that had local maintenance shops that decided to have a "regional" shop where mechanics were dispatched from a central shop on a first come first served basis where the next mechanic was sent to the latest call. Chaos reigned when a mechanic showed up at a new site and had no clue as to where the switches and valves were located, or how the circuits or pipes were distributed. What a cost savings! Except when sewerage backed up and air conditioners stayed off while the new mechanic tried desperately to find someone who knew where "stuff" was and how it worked. A Brilliant Management Concept! I was also shipped off from a well-tuned and effective local organization to a central office, to FIX the problems that regionalization caused. I knew the answer (go back to local shops and personnel) but the manager who tied their career to regionalization would not budge until they went to work for a consulting company and sold their expertise as a regionalization expert to my former organization, for the really big bucks. I know because I went to work for the same consultant.RiskWhat do they say about 20-20 hindsight? Seeing the future and being able to know all risks in advance is a tough job, but those who get caught by unforeseen failures that "should have" been seen is a scary, but all too frequent situation. No good deed goes unpunished!RoleA point about the term or title "Project Manager (PM)". A person does not have to have the title of PM to be one or to perform the duties. Most department managers or company officers are PMs by the nature of what they do. They may not use lots of PMBOK guidelines or step-by-steps, but they do manage projects, even if by the seat of their pants. I used the example of planning a picnic in the WBS discussion. Few people write a WBS to plan a picnic, but they do go through the mental processes and steps, so let's get off of the titles and think about the actions required when we think about PMs in this course and beyond.To repeat myself just a little bit, as project managers in the future, don't get hung up on the title or even the functional position. Your take-away from this course should be to follow the guidelines of the PMBOK, eText, and points made by myself, your peers and your interviewees, as applied appropriately to a project (picnic or 5 year plan).As I've mentioned many times, I did not get the designation of being a project manager until I had dozens of practices of being a project manager and team leader.Only since I got my PMP did I get a project which "required" a PMP. I used my Industrial Engineering degree to get experience in project leadership and advancing positions, them my MBA degree to advance further, then a PMP to advance even further. It was a long, planned evolution. SkillSure, you could manage a major project. It is all common sense, a good way with people, and applying tools you've been exposed to in this and other courses. Projects are easy. People are hard!StressAmen to this project management career as being stressful, but the stress is reduced by knowing the skills that you are learning in this course and in your masters programs. Study the PMBOK and the other materials offered here and elsewhere and you will at least be ready to deal with the stress with your knowledge. Risk analysis is the way to deal with the stress.TimeI sometimes work a half day at the office (say, 5am to 5 pm) then go home and work another few hours on "teaching" school; not quite a full day, but I do get to go to bed and start all over again in the morning. I may lighten up some day and let my investments support me and my wife. This is a lifestyle decision and a career decision. If I hit the lottery big (but I don't "play"), I can make a decision change.VarietyI did a lot of things which gave me many experiences, not out of boredom, but out of competence as an industrial engineer (IE) (I tell people that IEs can do anything, and I mean that). I became an IE first, and a PM second. I did not really "manage" projects until I had about 20 years of IE experience, so it is best to be a good team member before you become a team leader, then you grow in effectiveness. I still question my effectiveness, but I am a lot better than many. I have my PM heroes who I try to emulate.I also look for mentors. Mentorship is a great way to teach and learn many talents.WorkerI stay in the trenches and manage projects as a sideline practically. I rarely just manage a project. I usually wear several hats as a worker bee. That way I can manage others while doing my part of the heavy lifting. Few project managers just manage others without doing key parts of the data collection, analysis, and communication. We must be able to do it all, especially when we train new team members.4.3 Class NOTES DepthQuick summaries are nice, but you really should use more depth and personal analysis, especially if you are looking for full credit for your weekly report. My clients use my weekly reports to determine if he got his money's worth from me that week since I don't see him often or provide finished products every week. I also use my weekly reports to remind me what I did for my annual assessments. Without specific details, I would not be able to convince my evaluators to keep me employed or to give me a big raise.FeedbackI would like your weekly summaries to provide some insight on the course organization and facilitation. I really use student recommendations to make constructive changes in following classes. If you do a beautiful job, I can sit back and kvell (a Yiddish word loosely meaning enjoying the success of "my children").Your comments provide a LOT of common sense and I support your "simple" approach and not a text book approach, which is why most of my replies are short and to the point. I provide these NOTES from prior courses that get straight to the point, which is what most Mr. Bigs want to hear first. Then they can get into the details if they like the summaries that they hear.ReadI should not have to remind each student of this as each of you should have been reading my posts to other students, and written your papers accordingly. Project Management (PM) includes reminders of this nature, with certain EXPECTATIONS that attention would be paid to mistakes made by others and not having to make those mistakes yourself (lessons learned) especially at what I have been calling "at the Masters level".Another part of PM is "scolding" as a parent would do to a child, as nicely as possible, but also forcefully, with possible consequences. I suggest you take a re-look at the sample word projects and presentations and reading eText assignments. Assign specific writing sections to each team member. Make sure the subject matter expert fills in the factual and cost blanks, and address key issues where you lack expertise to interviewees (ask for help on your project from them. They should be glad to help if you ask).Most articles are experience oriented and not a truism for all cases, so analysis or casual reading is also based on your reality and experience. Lots of articles I read mean little if I don't have experience. Reading and then experiencing also has an impact on appreciating the experience. And why did not each team member see my example sets? Please forgive my "scolding" tone, but when a project manager suggests that the team review posted material, each team member should take (be given) the responsibility to review them all. I consider that each of my posted documents are important enough to be taken seriously, or I would not have taken YOUR time to do so, knowing how busy each of you are in your daily activities, including work, home and class.Please remember to respect your co-workers time and assignments when you are a team or project manager. I try not to scold in this course, as that is not my nature, but I needed to say this as an example to make the point you have commented on. Thanks!4.4 Gantt NOTESCapabilityAn advantages of Project software is the “expand and roll up” capability, where any task can be broken down to subtasks. Going overboard and breaking tasks down too small is like trying to describe how a centipede really moves its legs and creates a walking motion. Don't take things out to the ridiculous, but don't just say "build car" to an assembly line worker. There is no information in that. We must understand the audience. I urge you to learn what Mr. Big wants, and to give it to him the way he wants, not how you want to give it, unless you communicate with him to agree on a happy medium (to make HIM happy).DocumentationAs has been stated many times in many ways, project documentation is often thought of as too time consuming and difficult, but if it is done within the context of and inserted into the project plan of Project, it is accomplished a lot easier. Documentation often falls apart in the organization stage. Much of the detail material is developed nicely, but folks don't know where to put it. I put a lot of my concepts into Excel spread sheets as "Read Me" worksheets (I do the same with my Access databases). I could just as easily put them into Project software to show when they were developed, where they should be implemented, and what the results were during implementation on a date scale for the tasks. It tells a story that can be easily told with few words; all together in one place.ExamplePlease do not title your paper “Executive Summary”. Review my sample papers and check your format. Add a WBS numbering system to your paper paragraphs to match your major Project software WBS tasks so Mr. Big and the deployment team can more easily follow your plan. Let me know when you are ready for my pre-final review. Don't wait as I want to help you as much as I can. Plagiarism will not be an issue on Project software content in this course, so liberally borrow from each other’s Gantts to make YOURs the best it can be (both your course Gantt and your Team project Gantt). I will be "grading" your Gantts on improvement and use of new features, not on originality or task content. Please HELP each other by pointing out what new features you have discovered and used, including which tutorials you found useful.FormatHighlight a series of tasks, then you can "indent" them to sub-group them, as well as creating common color coding and formatting. See the tutorials or help for "sub-groups" and "indent" then play with it to get what you want. "Playing" with Project is the hands-on way to learn and discover new features, while you are referencing the tutorials and other guides. This is going to sound really stupid, coming from me, but Pretty is Good. A Project software file and Gantt Chart is not just for you or your project team, but also for Mr. Big and his staff.Make your file as easy to read, navigate and understand as you can so you can get your project completed with all goals reached, by gaining user and sponsor support. Use Project as a presentation as well as a planning tool. Project has lots of "pretty" features that will help you accomplish your end results, so use them and take the time to pretty them up (not for me or for a course grade, but to gain experience in form and format). I often find that the format takes more time than the facts. Also look at some of the canned formats available from developers to save you time in the "Pretty Department."After you have collected and developed the data, have fun with fonts, clip art, embedded photos, and colors, after you have checked with Mr. Big to see if that is what he wants. The Mr. Big I often talk about in this course is a fuddy-duddy on graphics, so check with him before you go crazy with pretty. Some Mr. Bigs will say you just wasted a lot of my money on pretty when all he wanted was the facts, so, Know Thy Audience!Please consider that when Mr. Big (me AND the other guy) review your Gantt; he may (will) get tired of looking at redundant information (such as your name and your team name, over and over and over and over and over again). The Gantt is meant to be a visual tool, so don't clutter it with extraneous information that may (will) distract your audience. Know thy audience!When you print the text with color backgrounds, you (and Mr. Big) may not be able to read the text easily or at all for some colors. Show Gantt bars in colors to color code task types, since we don't usually embed text into the bar, but it does help Mr. Big see your outline concept from the back of the room. Not just in grayscale, but also printed in color with black font on dark red or dark blue, etc. Changing the font to white is a pain also.Add a few words of description to your DQ tasks, for example, "WK4-DQ3 Gantt Chart Update". Use WBS and Tasks to the right of the Gantt bar. This is my requirement, not for all Gantts. "Know Thy Audience" (me).Organize your elements. Lay them out well. Assure that your team and management group understands them, as if you were presenting this as a plan. Make your week numbers clear in the task summary titles and make your WBS system consistent with tasks and numbers, so an auditor can track them easily. I hope that you find this organization helped you in negotiating this course. I will appreciate feedback by email.ResourceFor this particular Gantt, where you, for the most part, are the resource, you should not show your name next to each bar. Show the task title instead. Keep improving your Project software and trying to use as many features as you can to learn them and to decide on what NOT to show to Mr. Big.RFPMy problem, especially with RFP's I've written for the Federal Government is in telling the contractors what I want, but not how to do some aspects where I knew what problems I had in previous contracts, but could not fairly tell the new contractors. It was very frustrating, where I used to be able to put into the original RFP some restrictions that the new Federal Acquisition Rules (FAR) did not allow. We had to work around this during preliminary meetings with new responders, but had to be "legal" in responses to some questions, and could not make some "suggestions" that could get us in trouble. I cannot be more specific here in examples due to FAR rules and confidentiality agreements. RFPs can include advice in certain ways but must adhere to other "certain" restrictions. The team that write and monitor RFPs must take and pass many courses on acquisition and regulations that have various levels of certifications and content paths, such as service, hardware, software, personnel and other topics. This is a career path for federal employees and contractors.TaskDon't assume anything in your task list. You may have a new Mr. Big getting involved in a project or new team members. Don't make them ask you either. Then they may think that you are not on top of things and they may not have time or energy to ask, so give them at least the basics, like titles.ToolProject management softwares are very powerful tools. You don't need sledge hammers to push thumb tacks into cork boards. I use Project, PrimaVera, Milestones, and other tools (Google: “Wikipedia – Comparison of other Project Management Software”) when appropriate. I would not advise others to take hours to do a job that pencil, paper and a checklist would accomplish. Project software is so powerful, that one could make a career of expanding the use of its features. You are just getting a sprinkling of its power. UsersUnderstand that not everyone in the organization needs to understand how to "operate" Project software but they should understand how to read a Gantt and some of the other reports available. You do the heavy lifting.ViewDevelop views other than just the Gantt and the Calendar, as needed for your particular project (in this course as well as for work or your family picnic [impress your family with how much spare time you had on your hands by doing a Gantt for your next family picnic, with photos]). Once you have worked up a pleasing Project file for class, copy the template for work and just change the tasks.4.5 Report NOTESAbstractIntroductory is the Abstract, Simple is the Executive Summary, Information and "Sales" is the Body, and Details are in the Appendixes, so your paper should satisfy these REQUIREMENTS.FormatI have not seen a real world document that is TOO short or TOO long, nor have I seen JUST RIGHT. Mr. Big wants to see just enough to sell him on the proposal. His assistants want surety that the details of the proposal show that the team has thought through the requirements and risks. Sometimes we project managers have to cater to boring fuddy-duddies. Don't try to overwhelm him with your creativity.GrammarReview your postings; check your work for grammar and missing words before posting. For those of you who are having challenges with grammar, spelling, punctuation, sentence structure, etc., use your Word Spelling and Grammar Checker and Writing Guides before posting your graded assignments, and even some of your response postings if you are not sure about your skills.Your Mr. Bigs expect excellent English writing and speaking skills, unlike this example: "How can a customer who is the end product of a project, be consider success project. That why their call customers, with all kinds of views and ideologies. While there opinion count, the companies leaders should be consider in terms of having a successful project."I do have a point of view on English for Masters of Business Administration and similar graduates. They should read, write and speak proper English or else jeopardize reputation and career. Grammar, spelling, and clearly written thoughts should be used in formal settings and reports. Slang and misspellings could possibly be excused, but not often or in formal circumstances.I don’t do much word smithing on your team reports, but I may be reviewing your correct use of English for Mr. Big to be more accepting of your report content. If I find a misspelling or a grammatical error early in a document, my acceptance of subsequent verbiage may be quite reduced. This is normal for most managers and decision makers in today's business.Human Resources (HR)If you already have a team selected and "hired" then you probably don't need much in your report about "Human Capital and Procurement Management" other than possibly mentioning the concept, or if you need to add some verbiage to your report, you may discuss hiring some particular skills. Since you are not really procuring hardware, procurement is probably not needed in your report. I don't believe in busy work, so if you don't need it, don't do it. Ok?PMBOKDon’t tell Mr. Big what some book is telling him what he “must” do. You might tell him what the experts in the field, of which you are some of those experts, “suggest” as “best practices”. This should be one of your main themes when quoting Six Sigma and PMBOK and other references. As consultants, you are the experts, not some book or author. References are good, but don’t beat him over the head with them. A lot of the following communication and time management, PCQM, etc. suggestions are theoretical “advice” from the reference document(s). In your final 12-15 page paper this might best be placed in your appendix as a reference since it is not addressing specific problems or situations for your particular project. Summarize with specificity how they address project specific issues and leave pertinent portions in the body, while referencing appendixes for the remainder.4.6 Team NOTESAbbreviateIf you use the abbreviation "IV", which I suppose we are all familiar with, such as Intravenous (IV). There could be some in the audience who may think it means "Idiot Venue", or who knows what? Another abbreviation (TMI) could mean “too much information” or "Three Mile Island" (the site of a nuclear accident in Pennsylvania awhile back). I deal with so many acronyms and abbreviations in working with the government that I keep a list on my computer desktop, where I regularly add new definitions. You hit one of my Hot Buttons (HBs). Know thy audience, about the abbreviations!ExamplesThe examples and notes that I provide should be a good guide as to how to format and approach these topics. Your job is to either absorb these offerings as written, or to ask me for help. My feedback provides suggestions, not criticisms, since school is the better place to make mistakes, rather than the workplace; I encourage you to work together with each other and me to get this project done well. I'm not a clock watcher, so work till you are ready to submit this week's contribution. Since your projects are original projects for one of the team member's real Mr. Big, I do not worry about plagiarism. As a project manager, you exist to match scope to requirements. If you try to reinvent wheels, you may not finish or succeed.In HouseI had not thought of it before reading a student’s comment about keeping some activities in house, where there is allegiance to the organization and passion for the cause, Kodak and other torn apart companies could have succeeded. Mom and Pop organizations run by founders and families may not prosper like corporations, but there is continuity and pride of ownership that keeps the show goingLeadersThe most 'famous" leaders are our parents; protective, guiding, setting standards by example, and (usually) unconditional love that helps us go through live with some guidance. Parents are not perfect, nor are leaders, team members or instructors, but we take what we can and learn from them and accomplish our goals through their leadership, no matter how skilled or well equipped with tools. My Mom is still teaching me. She passed away at age 99 years. I looked at her and how I could be in 30 years so I need to prepare and decide now what I want and what I will have financially. I had the wonderful experience of enjoying my mother's first experience with Facetime on my iPhone with each of her 5 great-grandchildren and two grand-daughters. Mom was talking to them and they talked back as she looked on in total awe with a huge smile on her face. Just think about all of the technological changes we have seen lately and she had seen in 99+ years.Measure"If it isn't measured, it isn't done". Measurements must be included in charters or at least in the planning.5.0 Week Five Lecture: Project Risk ManagementObjectives: * Explain project risk management * Develop a project management plan After reading ”Read Me Firsts” and Chapter 8, Managing Project Risk, and discussing it in class, you should be able to:■ Describe the project risk management planning framework introduced in this chapter.■ Define risk identification and the causes, effects, and integrative nature of project risks.■ Apply several qualitative and quantitative analysis techniques that can be used to prioritize and analyze various project risks.■ Describe the various risk strategies, such as insurance, avoidance, or mitigation.■ Describe risk monitoring and control.■ Describe risk evaluation in terms of how the entire risk management process should be evaluated in order to learn from experience and to identify best practices.Since you are going to get a heavy dose of risk management in your team project and in discussion questions, my “lecture” this week concentrates on the Earned Values of risk management. In my previous job, I developed and taught courses and assisted in the practical use of the earned value concept. This was the basis for the Army Workload and Performance System (AWPS), designed to assist the industrial-based depots (major repair facilities for Army vehicles, artillery, helicopters, electronics, ammunition, etc.) in managing complex workload and employment strategies.Project managers can use AWPS to perform several management functions:?Plan workload.?Manage human resources more effectively.?Control costs and schedule for current execution year work.?Provide ways to analyze and balance workloads and work forces in future years.The Performance Measurement and Control (PMC) module collects weekly time keeping, planning, and scheduling data to create performance trends and projections. PMC is designed to display cost, schedule, and budget information. PMC is used by an organization to manage by variance and identify areas in the organization that are key cost and schedule drivers.So, what does all this have to do with the term “earned value”? Earned value is what you get when something is produced and reported. It is the quantity or dollar value that gets reported when work is produced. Production, or earned value, is the reference point for comparing cost, schedule, and budget.For example, let’s say one widget rolls off of the assembly line and it is worth one dollar. We report one widget produced, so we earned the value of one dollar. If it cost a dollar in labor, there is no variance. We can see this info in tabular or graphical views, and in terms of dollars and hours as colored lines:BUDGET: (BAC/QAC) Budget is the total allotment of either labor hours or dollars that may be expended on a work grouping. Budget is shown as Budget at Completion, BAC (in dollars) or Quantity at Completion, QAC (in hours).SCHEDULE: (BCWS/BQWS) Schedule is the time-phased allocation of the total allowance in labor hours or dollars allotted for a work grouping and is shown as Budgeted Cost of Work Scheduled, BCWS (in dollars) or Budgeted Quantity of Work Scheduled, BQWS (in hours).PROGRESS: (BCWP/BQWP) Progress (Earned Value) is an expression of production counts from the labor reporting system as an aggregate cost in either labor hours or dollars. This represents what production a work center has completed in relation to the target schedule as Budgeted Cost of Work Performed, BCWP (in dollars) or Budgeted Quantity of Work Performed, BQWP (in hours).ACTUAL: (ACWP/AQWP) Actuals’ are the actual quantities of labor hours or actual expended costs of work performed. These values are derived from reported charges and are shown as Actual Cost of Work Performed, ACWP (in dollars) or Actual Quantity of Work Performed, AQWP (in hours).?The red line (red the commonly used color for an alarm situation – “The boiler is about to blow if you exceed this line!”) represents the planned man hours or dollars for the work.?The blue line represents the time phased plan of execution of the work.?The green line (green -> greenbacks -> $$$$) represents expenditures of labor.?The yellow line (yellow like gold to represent value) represents the production achieved, or earned value.?In the acronyms, if there is a “Q”, the acronym is in man hours. “Q” stands for quantity. If there is NO “Q”, but there is a “C”, the acronym is in dollars. “C” stands for cost.?The yellow line is the standard by which the blue schedule and green charges are compared.?If the yellow line is above the blue line at the current time (the vertical line marked with the t in the diagram) then the work is ahead of schedule. Production is more than planned. Vice versa for the yellow line being under the blue line. Then the work is behind schedule.?If the yellow line is above the green line, then the work is under cost. You could say that in terms of labor, a profit is being made. Again vice versa for the green line being above the yellow line. Then the work is over cost.5.5 Report NOTESDocumentationDocumentation, or lack thereof, is one of my pet peeves in programming and systems design. I’ve had too many projects and data sets that were not well described or explained. I had to spend hours/ days/ weeks tracking down the meaning of the data, or the continuance of the data accumulation/ analysis. Without documented statistics and facts in your appendixes to back up people’s comments, undocumented articles, testimonials or opinions. Mr. Big (me and the real one) would probably tear you apart before you got a good chance to present your proposed numbers and recommendations without a really solid set of numbers and written justifications. Don't step on that bear trap!FormatIf you use the Team Recommendations, templates and example reports provided in <Course Materials>, life may be a bit less stressful! I am not worried about some details and times, but very conscious about others, such as formats and deliverable contents. This is based on years of experience with many levels of Mr. Big's. There is a method to my madness. This is an object lesson in asking for help. I make the point that sometimes "formats are obscure but there is a cure" if you ask. Project management does not all come from experience, checklists, or from the book. Sometimes you just have to ask for help, for example, how do you change information in the Presentation slide footer? The easiest way to locate the footer in "Slide Master" is to do a Ctrl-F (find) and enter "Project or Organization Name" then change the footer to YOUR project name. Whenever you "think" Mr. Big may have trouble seeing or understanding something, fix it! You will have enough trouble convincing him to support and fund your project, no matter how good you may think it is, that you don't want to leave an identified risk unfixed, such as report formatting. It would have been nicer if you had used the Executive Summary format, not only for class work, but in your work life also.IntroductionIntroductions should not be too generic for the development and deployment for your project. Use locations and organizations that are "real" and add people numbers and costs to this.PlanPlanning is usually the "worst" part of a project, except for everything else. Each phase of project development is difficult if the project is worthwhile. Easy projects and phases are rare. Be ready for what comes next.5.6 Team NOTESFeedbackI do not try to control or lead your projects beyond providing initial direction, source materials, and an idea of what Mr. Big is expecting. I'm not a clock watcher for weekly team assignments since teams move along at their own pace. The final result, of course, is what we're looking for! Apply comments and suggestions to other portions of the paper as well as to presentations and project documents as appropriate.FormatMr. Big does NOT like dark backgrounds. Make sure that your Gantt is readable on the slide, even if it is in Visio if the key portions are too small and hard to understand "from the back of the room". Some of your slides are a bit too general in content and don't look like they are focused on your particular website. Make your fonts consistent in size from slide to slide. Slide 2 Agenda is needed. You should show some example web site screenshots to give your Mr. Big a feeling of where you are going with your design since you have not designed a site as a part of your project. Be much more specific on costs and other details, since you are asking for funding and project approval.Backup Slides could be similar to "Appendixes" where the "body" is limited to 12-15 pages but Appendixes are unlimited. I don't think you would need some material in the backup if it is already in the first 11. Add information on the backup slides to the "Notes" section.ReadMake sure all thoughts, facts, figures, and recommendations are coordinated and are posted with the proper file naming formats. I prefer my reviews in this order: 1) Abstract, 2) Presentations, 3) Word, 4) Project, 5) Spreadsheets (optional). Read each other's work to ensure wording and meanings are consistent.ReferenceReferences are not needed on each Presentation slide, but may be shown in the Notes section, or you can simply refer to your Word Document reference section, possibly with a page number. Follow American Psychology Association (APA) format requirements on references.RiskRisk questions have to be my favorite DQ of all times! The answers are so interesting. I think that MY risk is doing too much, pushing the envelope too far, burning many ends of my candles at the same time; and buying too much insurance, betting that I am going to get sick, die, crash my car, or other horrible results; and the insurance company betting that I won't. The positive result is living a long and safe and comfortable life!RisksI agree that individual risks should be learned and understood ... and the more stakeholders information is gathered from, the more the risks can be understood. For example, if we listen to one side other today's political debate or one candidate only, we'll probably come up with the wrong conclusion and the wrong response, and the wrong result. We have to weigh the pros and cons in our PM analysis, and use a set of analytical tools that will bring us the best result, but small focus and small number of stakeholders could be a serious mistake."All" stakeholders is a mighty goal ... a good goal, but a little unrealistic when a good job of recruiting the best set of multi-dimensional stakeholders. Identifying stakeholders who will be active in a project, at whatever types of activities are appropriate, is important, and maybe not well addressed in our discussions. Depth and breadth of stakeholder "membership" is an important phase of risk analysis.I want to pick on the word "you" as the identifier of risks ... where I see the Project Manager as the facilitator to gather risks from collections of stakeholders, including management, users of the project results, and other important (to the project) stakeholders. This is a team effort, where the PM is the organizer and compiler of risk identifications and mitigation planning.SWOT is my favorite tool for risk analysis, but as I think about what I wrote in just the past few minutes, having a wide and deep enough stakeholder team is so important to make SWOT work properly.These tools are extremely important ... as long as there is proper "input" into the data tools, and effective analysis and conclusions and planning and COMMUNICATION built into the "output".I have often found a limited "bench" of folks available to do a job when the key person is not available is a tough call. Cross training and running a fat rather than a lean organization is really tough for managers and bean counters / metrics analysts. When times are good, we can have more backup folks and afford cross training. Job creation is the big topic being discussed in politics today. How has cross training and backup been treated in your organization? Mine has been layoff the high priced folks and screw the mission.Leaders can be trained to use tools to become more (or less) effective ... the jury is out in my mind as to whether leaders can be developed from scratch from folks who just don't "have it".Making generalizations is a subset of my abhorrence of "absolutes" ... some "old" doctors keep up with and use the latest, while others don't. Some "young" doctors have not a clue on how the make the patient comfortable or to give him/her the right information ... let's not, as Project Managers, generalize too much, but take the situation case by case ... understanding pros and cons, and making decisions accordingly.Both positive and negative risks should be identified and analyzed, and appropriate plans made in how to deal with them BEFORE they occur.A vast array of stakeholders can be declared decision makers or advisors. If their individual votes or permissions are required, then management has relinquished their managerial role to that of score counters. Advisors who are given a time limit to respond, then an executive decision is made, is called management. Set the rules of stakeholders, and do your managerial jobs, then stakeholder and management jobs are more effective.I discussed this role of stakeholders with a company president/CEO who understood her role as decision maker. She loved this concept as I described it and agreed that she would make the decision as manager.This version of the Word doc needs a little bit of tweaking. This doc should be reworded slightly to be a proposal asking Mr. Big to approve and fund. He needs clear funding and time and resource estimates. See examples for assistance rather than me trying to do track change word smithing.I often hear at the end of heated discussions the we should "agree to disagree", which is the START of coming together for a final conclusion, rather than just talking past each other.Such non-structured banter is quite constructive, and should be built into the scope/budget of a body such as a board. This brainstorming is where the best ideas come from.Successful ProjectsI could tell more stories about failed projects that I have been associated with. The worst is where the project was dead long before management decided to bury it, and $ millions were spent long afterwards; and it is still on life support, but the folks who are still making money on it are trying to keep themselves employed. My latest project, I basically fired myself by recommending it not be continued since it was "done", so they agreed and let me go without putting me on the new assignment I recommended, and “replaced” me with two “children”.Team GanttThe Gantt for the team is a developmental product that the team develops and submits for review weekly, to make sure that the final product is correct. Since many of you folks are seeing and using Project for the first time, it is a learning experience for you, and this gives you another example to hone your skills. One team Gantt, not one separate team Gantt for each team member. What tasks are required to perform your team's project goals? Not your course activities. Use the Gantt to portray to your team's Mr. Big what tasks, timeline and resources are required to accomplish your team's project. You may want to add such % information to your individual Gantts that you have been posting during weeks 1-5, but not for the Team Project Gantt. Use the Team Gantt to portray tasks and timeline and resources required to accomplish your team's project goals.LearningI believe in repetition in various forms. I must read things several times to get it the first time, then read it several more to remember it, then use it to "cement" it into my tool bag. That is me and my brain. Each of us have different ways of learning. I have a lot to learn ... which is why I love to facilitate this course since I love to learn about how other organizations operate and people learn to get along and prosper on teams. So, don't feel that your learning or experiencing is "over" or even "matured". When my Mom was age 98, she still enjoyed and showed bright eyes when she learned a new task or experience. Often she was "stuck" in a wheelchair, then was proud when she was able to walk again!6.0 Week Six Lecture: Project Communication ManagementObjectives: * Explain project communication managementAfter reading ”Read Me Firsts” and Chapter 9, Project Communication, Tracking, and Reporting, and discussing it in class, you should be able to:■ Identify and describe processes associated with the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK?) area called project communications management, which includes communications planning, information distribution, performance reporting, and managing stakeholders.■ Describe several types of reporting tools that support the communications plan.■ Apply the concept of earned value and discuss how earned value provides a means of tracking and monitoring a project’s scope, schedule, and budget.■ Describe how information may be distributed to the project stakeholders and the role information technology plays to support project communication.The objective of this lesson is to develop a project communication plan. In your project and DQs, you have researched and reviewed project management models that managers use and apply in analysis and in executing daily responsibilities and duties. You have researched related processes affected by project management that strategic managers use to identify problem areas and to determine if there are major trends throughout yours and other organizations.Without these project management and communication systems, the decision models identified in the eText would not exist. During this final week of the course, you will complete team projects and present them to your facilitator for grading and to classmates for review and comment.Since we spend so much time and effort in this course with technology, let’s ask some questions about our team experiences and to this week’s assigned article: Did your team project bog down in technical issues? Did it have enough technical resources, even to plan the project? Will it likely exceed planned budgets? Could it fail or be abandoned easily? How did you really interact with your clients (not just your team mates) during your project’s development … or did you fake it till you made it? Did you assume what the client subject matter experts and top brass wanted or did not want without fully getting their input and support? Did you identify critical points of possible failure? Did you define the success factors to be meaningful and usable? As stakeholders, did you have realistic expectations? What were the signs of either success or failure in your team project?Project was a key part of this course, so how did it and your WBS affect the success of your team project? Did you appreciate the ease of “what-if” calculations as you fine-tuned the plan? Bottom line: How can Project be used effectively in your work projects?The concluding portion of the Text discusses communicating a successful (or unsuccessful) project. Ending a project, whether a success or a failure can often be traumatic, whether a work or home project, or the birth of a child. It takes all the strength of those who have been so involved to “let go” and go off to do other things. The best way to do this is to, first, have another project to fill the void, and last, to celebrate the success, so that the next project will be more bearable in terms of having something really good to look forward to. Remember, projects are not all technical and work; there has to be some fun and human issues involved. I have been involved in so many different projects during my career … some fun, others not … some had big rewards and others just a kick in the teeth, whether successful or not.For example, the Earle NJ project was a big success. At the logical and agreed-upon end, I evaluated and reported the results, wrote a lessons learned article and a contact list, received a farewell luncheon with speeches, plaques, awards and gifts, and I drove back to Virginia. I married off my daughter, began a new project at my old desk, transferred to a new job in a new building, and went on with life. I was called often to answer questions about Earle and to assist a new project manager implement a similar project at another site. I wanted that job, but he was an in-house resource.In another example, I was an IT deployment manager where my boss could not let go of the details. He called me the project manager, but we all knew the truth. I decided to end my involvement with the project by leaving the government. I must have been very efficient since my part-time job was turned over to three full-time people based on the plan that I developed and was accepted.I was the benchmarking team leader of a team that had a direct-line organization: the division manager, department manager, branch supervisor, and branch workers. Everyone deferred to the division manager to speak and make decisions. I pulled the plug on that project and restructured the team after two weeks of meetings.I managed my Business and Information Resources Management Department’s strategic planning. We based our long range planning on future scenarios developed as a result of the corporate strategic planning process, advances in Information Technology (IT), and changing business and best management practices. In this context, we developed planning assumptions that included general environmental assumptions about how we would work over the next five years, as well as technology assumptions that helped us focus on the tactical actions required to meet our strategic goals. Each tactical or short-range objective was linked to a specific strategic goal. Our plan focused on innovative plans to improve the business and information support to the Public Works Center. We generated, organized, and terminated many IT projects based on our strategic plan.On a regional IT project, I developed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) for PWC to stipulate personnel costs, transfers, locations, supervision, work assignments, helpdesk, duty customer support representatives (CSRs), Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and regional service levels. The partnership objective was to reduce costs and improve effectiveness through consolidation of functional areas. The MOA wasn’t implemented and the project terminated due to politics and for other reasons. The MOA was really written to "scare off the competition" so we could keep the help-desk and on-site Customer Service Rep (CSR) work in house. We wanted to control the activities and direction of the people involved, so we wrote ourselves in to be the directors and approvers of daily tasks, not the regional organization.PWC did not trust their management, and the same was probably the same for them. We were told by HQ to consolidate functions, but nobody in the Navy really pays much attention to HQ since Navy captains "drive their own ships" and "damn the torpedoes, full steam ahead" and besides that, the Navy/Marine Corp Intranet (NMCI) was staring down our periscope and was going to take over these functions eventually. We could not come up with a reasonable service level agreement that both parties could live with since we had NO RECORDS of past performance of these individuals. Besides, there were really not enough people in the deal to excite anyone after we got into negotiations; it first started with over 20 network and database admin people, then dwindled down to only the 5 help desk and CSR people. The NMCI was coming, trust was not there, HQ did not insist. We all lost interest. A reorganization in our department resulted in a former computer technician without management skills being put in charge of the support function, so the help desk / CSR function languished. Service level standards and goals were not really established, therefore not enforced. Lessons learned here were that the MOA exercise was a good management tool, and we referred to the MOA many time in our IT planning, but before you go writing one of these documents or plans, make sure the politics and other external factors fit the purpose.Did the project management and communication skills you learned in this class help you develop a much better project plan than you might have before this class? Of course! But will it be enough? How about your particular people issues? Did you have family, personal, job or communication problems during planning phases that could have been dealt with better? Did you have time and interest commitment from your teammates that could have been improved? Did you ask for specific help from your facilitator, or did you just wait for feedback?Yes, this project was probably just a “case study”, but in such courses, they should become more. They should become “real life” in order to gain the needed experience to deal with real projects when they really do get assigned and your career depends on your skills.6.2 Communication NOTESAudienceVenting and personal ways of saying things is a part of a PM's success or failure in dealing with others. We all know that different people react in different ways, and a lot depends on what ELSE is going on in their life at the time, as well as their "biorhythms" of physical, emotional and intellectual attributes during the time period (I don't believe biorhythms are conclusive or scientific. I do have a biorhythm application on my smart phone for myself and my wife, just to check once and a while when one of us is out of sorts). Knowing Thy Audience helps to improve interactions and achieving success.It DependsThere is just not one answer for many of your questions (going back to my "it depends" comment). We project managers do our best to juggle MANY issues while some folks are throwing pies in our face or pulling rugs out from under us, for whatever reasons. We PMs have to keep our eyes and ears open for internal and external issues. One way to do this is to do a frequent Strengths/ Weaknesses/Opportunities/ Threats (SWOT) Analysis to make sure the project is not derailed by a known issue that we have just not recognized adequately and elevated in attention. We use SWOT analysis when we develop strategic plans, where internal and external opportunities and threats is the definition of creating strategic plans, if done right. Reputations are critical to success or failure of an organization. SWOT is also one of the most important parts of strategic planning. Without SWOT, the plan may address the totally wrong issues. Technology, and the lack of it, has the PM digging into the facts of the current situation. Perform SWOT so that the team assumptions are valid in terms of local office culture, corporate culture, patient culture, etc.FeedbackCommunications is an ever changing challenge. We humans are interacting with folks who are at different places in their life from us at any point in time, so being "perfect" in our communication does not happen often. My syllabus being just one example. If we are unclear about something, and we don't try to clarify, we can get in some real trouble. Some folks don't like being questioned because they think what they said was perfectly clear. I know that I can be unclear many times, so I don't like NOT being questioned when the other person goes off and spends time doing the "wrong" thing when a simple questions and answers could have cleared up the confusion. I have seen that many times in this course. That is why I provide so many examples of projects and case studies of my past project in my lectures. This is a teaching and learning situation, as should be most projects. When you are on a project, there will be another and another and another following that. The more we do things right, the more time we will be able to go out later and hit GOLF BALLS! FORE!My company regularly asked that employees meet with top leaders for frank discussions and to fill out surveys that "cannot be attributed to an individual". I'm not going to get caught in that trap again! I'll tell you my stories, but not my top management. Whistle blowers do not win, usually (not an absolute). A mind reader I am not. Sometimes not even a lip reader, and often not a hearer of the spoken word or seer of body language. My wife thinks I am superman in these respects. Oh well. She is often quite disappointed. Someone is "always" going to find an uncovered spot, and kick it! Be ready for it! The solution to that dilemma is COMMUNICATION! Outsourcing (or anything else, for that matter) without proper and efficient communication is suicide, or Valentine’s day without flowers, a card, candy, kind words, and a kiss.Take the opportunity on your PPT Slide 1 to better introduce the team and "sell" their virtues, as well as the virtues of Mr. Big supporting and funding your project; repeat it on slide 11. Techies tend to present facts that are supposed to stand on their own; this course is designed to help you sell your ideas, no matter how technically sound they may be.Reading my wife's mind would be a wonderful thing, and even when she speaks, if I could more often know what she really wants, that too would be wonderful. After 50+ years with her, I still have to work at reading her. I guess I am a reallllllly slow learner. Projects with short durations often rely on tools discussed in this class to shorten the learning curve, and to tighten up the concentration instead of tuning someone out. Did I make my point, guys? (The gals got it, I bet).GrammarBefore you publish a paper to me or anyone else, please run Grammar Checker before posting your reports, and re-read what you wrote. Don't be in a big hurry to hit the Post Message button.LessonCommunication of project results comes about in many venues, such as telling my stories in this course and you reading the weekly articles. Hopefully this teaches you some lessons, without having to experience the failures yourselves. My most recent experience in a very successful project found me with a knife in my back from a supervisor who loved to find fault in everything, even after he was recognized with an award from my company for a successful project. This reinforces one of my trite mottoes: "No good deed goes unpunished". As a project manager, be ready for anything! Complaints on whistle blower retaliations is a lose-lose situation. I believe that whistle blowing is a job-ending act of joy. I probably won't do any more of them where I will be bitten in the buttocks, no matter what the cause.OutsourceIT is not a "Core Activity" of most businesses. I also agree that some core activities must be held in house, such as the contracting department and the office of the President, and in many circumstances, the IT department. Since information is power, I believe it is not appropriate to outsource information or the organization that handles its efficiencies. Sure, parts of it can be outsourced, such as digging trenches for fiber cables, but not the folks who operate the help desk or security. A bad idea in most business models.Strategic CommunicationStrategic communication is the up and coming area of effective management: telling the right story to the right audience at the right time with the right material, with pre-planning at a strategic level, not just a tactical one. This is VERY important to do in "ALL" (ABSOLUTELY) cases. Strategic Communication (SC) development will help the project team to establish and follow through these various stakeholder dilemmas. I can't over emphasize this tool for effective communication. I hope that this topic and course opened your eyes more to the fire hose of information that most projects require, and helped you filter the “need to knows” at each stage of Strategic Communication.Technical understanding is why I emphasize project proposals and reports with levels of 1) Abstracts, 2) Executive Summaries, 3) Introductions, 4) Bodies, 5) References, 6) Appendixes, 7) Presentation bullets with Tee Shirt Rules, 8) Briefing Notes, 9) Attachments, and 10) many types of communication methods, technologies and timelines, all geared to "KNOW THY AUDIENCE" via "Strategic Communication" PLANNING, not ad hoc "whatever" methods to suit the moment, or audience. Unless the customer is involved in the project planning, DEVELOPMENT, EXECUTION AND FOLLOWUP process, the customer will not own the solution once complete. The customer does not have to "do" the project, but should be involved at the appropriate milestones and gates to review the project status, questions, directions and other issues that only he or she can answer to the project manager or munication is needed at each stage of a project, especially from the beginning. My example is the many documents I provided you in this course. Though overwhelming at times, you were encouraged to go back and reread documents which may not have been absorbed well at the first or second reading, especially after other class and team examples were experienced.ScopeMy AWPS project was in its 20th year when I left, and is still going strong. It should have been completed years ago, but my company keeps selling the client on needing their services to support it. Self-Licking Lollipop Operation may be closer to the truth I suppose. We have been providing great value through the years, but recent management changes have turned my head a bit as to its true efficacy in the current worlds of government cost cutbacks. They are still riding the gig until it cruises over the cliff with Butch and Sundance, or was that Thelma and Louise?6.3 Class NOTESChallengeMy pleasure is in offering most of you a new challenge. Some of you were time challenged, and others were thrown off by my "real life" requirements, while some of you wanted the "book" version. I hope that I gave you "both". Now, go celebrate your successes in this course!DeadlineI'm not watching the clock, but we do have a time limit to complete the project by the weekend. Grades will be turned in next Tuesday or Wednesday, so must be final - final no later than Monday night.FeedbackI know you've had a tough time these past few weeks, so I'm glad that this course kept your mind occupied with "interesting" topics. Your feedback should keep me going on the sharing end of things, for I too learn nearly as much as my students from each class I facilitate (I would say "teach", but my role is more of a facilitator, since I don't join in on many of the dialogs in this course). Many of my key inputs are already posted in my lectures, FAQs, Team. Suggestions, etc. that emphasize a practical rather than an academic approach for learning project management and get folks to know that you are serious about getting involved in more systematic approaches to problem solving. Perfect is not required in this course or in project management. Effort is not a factor that can be easily measured. What are important are results.Mistakesl'll repeat myself to reinforce your comment about making mistakes. Making mistakes here in class is expected and safe. I don't usually grade down when making true mistakes. I do grade down when you don't follow instructions (or read the instructions in the first place, but that is not so unusual when there is so much to read). We project managers need to read, re-read and really understand the instructions given to us by our stakeholders, and get to know thy audience really well. It is so important in managing a project. We have to follow the PMBOK, but the PMBOK guidelines must be tempered and adapted to the client's needs and desires. It is also our job to advise the client / stakeholder if they are violating key principles, and what those risks could be.ReadWords to the Wise: in <Course Materials>, Re-Read "NOTES to Students", especially the NOTES for Weeks 5 & 6 to make sure that you are maximizing your Team Project performance and grades. Reading these articles, whether directly applied by you or your organization, at least give you exposure to what others are doing in our field. I often get overwhelmed by time or events and fail to read lots of articles. Try your best to stay up on other's ideas and keep learning. “it’s fun", I tell my grandkids, and they look at me like I'm crazy, just like you are doing now! My daughters used to tell me, "just tell me what time it is. I don't care how a clock works."6.5 Report NOTESAbsoluteYou have some "almost absolutes" (I'll have to come up with a better name for those) in here that are a bit too strong, for example, we want to have or hire the "best". I understand what you are saying, but can you afford a $100,000 a year guy or a $20,000 a year guy? Tone down your requirements to a dollar range and possibly an accreditation range. Saying the "best" will probably turn off Mr. Big since he (me) doesn't understand what "best" will buy or will cost or whether (not "weather" as I read in one paper) a super artistic or fancy portion of the web site is worth the extra cost or effort. Remember that Mr. Big is a fuddy-duddy and may not (doesn't) appreciate "fancy". If you are going to promote or include "fancy" in your proposal, you are going to have to explain to Mr. Big what your proposed "fancy" is worth in his expenditure, and in your time to produce. Mr. Big is a money guy, so you will have to convince him that X dollars of expense and time will bring in Y dollars in profit to your site's bottom line. Saying it "will" be pretty won't help much with him. Saying it "should" attract an additional 5,000 viewers and "could" generate an additional 5% in profit is OK for a proposal, but be careful how you estimate and justify those numbers. You should ("must") base them on comparisons with several other SUCCESSFUL blogs, web sites, and advertising companies; or don't use them in your proposal.AbstractThe Abstract is your first contact with folks who you want to read your full report. The following is a very long and complicated run-on sentence: "This digital archival system enables medical facilities and their practitioners to store electronic versions of patient medical records to facilitate expeditious exchange, sharing, posting, and review of records by bypassing cumbersome manual retrieval processes." Begin it with a clincher statement, break it up into meaningful topic areas and make it interesting. The Abstract concepts also apply to the ES as the key sales piece to Mr. Big (after the abstract), thus selling him to read the rest of the report, and to give him the key information he needs to make an investment decision in your project. This is not just a summary, not just information. It is the second step in a sell, sell, sell process. Learn to understand "strategic communication" concepts.AttitudeOne conclusion stated "If approved, this will serve as a guideline for Bravo Consulting to move forward to complete this project" which is correct except for one word: "If". A strong project manager is also a strong sales person who would say "When" not "IF". Put a winning ATTITUDE into your presentation and into your success as a project manager. First get your project approved and then completed.AudiencePeople do things, so concentrate on the authorized people and their revised processes which you are recommending in this paper. Sell not only your recommendations, but also sell your team as consultants and experts in the field of process improvement and project management. Know what buzz words Mr. Big likes, and use them in your case study and report." Now do (at least) one more proof read for yourselves (before I do it): give it the WWMBD test (What Would Mr. Big Do?) Based on your content, especially in the Executive Summary, will Mr. Big support and fund your project? Please see my comments on "your" Mr. Big not liking graphics that are not directly related to and enhancing topic results; know thy audience!This is why I keep talking about Mr. Big and providing him with reports in the way that he wants to receive them, even if it is frustrating to we worker bees who want to tell him all the "good" stuff that he is too busy or not understanding or caring about. Know thy audience, folks! When discussing training, I would begin with the need statement, then quickly follow up with how this particular recommended system requires less training or less time to learn than other candidate systems, or whatever will convince Mr. Big that you have chosen the right software for your organization. Sell, sell, sell, especially when it comes to training, which most executives try to avoid because it is expensive and takes folks away from their day jobs. Your conclusion may be a bit strong where you assume that Mr. Big has approved and funded your high cost and long lead time project, especially toward the end where you make the recommendation, but are not clearly explaining the cost and performance benefit comparisons.ChangeExplain to your team and to others in your audience the changes in this version. We want to know so we can know what to look at first, since we have probably looked at the previous version and only want to look at the recent changes or the changes asked for. I'm only asking for a few words, not as "busy work" in this busy class, but I am pointing out that "selling" your audience on reading your work. I often ask my boss, who asks me to update a metrics chart, if this information is important, and to who, so I can address it to that audience with notes or comments. I introduce these points in my email to make sure they know what to look for since they are so busy, and it shows that I appreciate their time, or lack thereof.EstimateAt this late date, put in your own estimates for unknown prices, with an asterisk noting the estimate and future update. Mr. Big won't like it, but he (your "real" Mr. Big, not my guy) will understand as long as you provide a firm price before he makes the funding decision.ExamplePlease review the sample PPT template I posted. Remember, slide 2 is an agenda (tell Mr. Big what you are going to tell him, and should be based on "Knowing Thy Audience" and provides the plan to match his personality and needs), slides 3-10 tell Mr. Big your story, including asking him for the support and $, slide 11 tells what you told him, and asks again for support and $. This begins the discussion, why he does not support your proposal as presented, and what you can do to get support.FeedbackHi Team! Your report is looking good. I made a few suggestions and had some questions on the attached. Your executive summary (2 pages maximum, but one page is better, with financial and implementation time information included) flows right into the report body. These should be two separate sections. Repetition is allowed. Don't be at all discouraged by my comments and recommendations in the attached. If you don't object, please post this in the <Main> folder for your classmates to learn from your efforts and my comments. There are also a few spelling, grammar, and formatting errors. I do have a problem with your word "will", used a number of times as an absolute. Your Risk Report needs review by other team members. Also, I'm picking on a small issue here, but in the category of "know thy audience", your Mr. Big does not like absolutes, and I still see too many unreasonable "wills". For example, "The new attractive will create a massive advertising campaign".I did approve your individual weekly submissions, but when they came together and I reviewed your final composite, I am concerned. This will not affect anyone's grade, so don't worry about that. I'm concerned that when the real Mr. Big receives your report, he may object. Please see my suggested changes, many of which should have been caught in team edits. Some of your abbreviation should have been used throughout the report since it was identified at the beginning of the paper. I want this paper written as a consultant's report, with a screen print of your Project software Gantt Chart right in the paper, and a summary Gantt (just the main tasks) in the Executive Summary and in the Presentation. In your Word document, you should not refer to my suggestion for buy rather than build. We are a team and do not need to attribute any suggestions or work to a particular member. The ES and the conclusion section should beef up the justification for the expenditure in terms of dollar and time savings, etc. Also ask for the money and support convincingly in the ES. Do not show "pennies" ($.00 just clutters the table). Right justify the whole numbers $ figures (rounded to the nearest $100 if appropriate. Keep it simple). Add briefing Notes to Gantt.In your next writing, convincingly sell sell sell your proposal, in as simple a way as possible. Most reports or views in Project software can be exported to folks who do not have Project software on their computers in PDF or screen shot formats. Try some of those techniques to see how they may fit your paper. Please don't finalize your paper until I review and approve your changes. I don't want to finalize your course grades until I am satisfied with your final products and can award you a worthy grade. I am working here as a project manager who wants a set of quality products, and not as a professor who is just thinking about student grades. A good project manager will go the extra mile (or ten miles) to support his or her team. I'm not worried about "late" either since last night at 3 am was an artificial target in this particular case. You are supposed to be telling a story and convincing Mr. Big to support and fund a large project.FormatA lot of background detail is great for the uninitiated, like me, but Mr. Big may not need or want it in the main body. Summarize it in ES and Body, with full detail in an appendix, depending on how your 12-15 pages work out and how knowledgeable your Mr. Big is on the subject. In Risk Assessment sections, I like color coding of risk levels, for example, "High" risk should be Red, not Orange.This is not a mystery story, so begin your paper with a spotlight on your key findings. Use them as examples in your opening "Purpose" paragraph. Take a look at your really long sentences. Break them up so Mr. Big won't have to fight his way through a convoluted, lengthy, or hard to read list (I broke up this paragraph).Use bullets whenever possible in summary paragraphs. Remember that this paper is a selling piece to get Mr. Big to support your project. Think about how it will come across to a busy executive. Lengthy details go in appendixes in this paper, for geeky analysts who advise Mr. Big on a go or no-go, and for the folks who will be implementing this project.In Presentations, Mr. Big does NOT like dark backgrounds. Ensure that your Gantt is readable on the slide, even if you have to present it in Visio if the key portions are too small or hard to get "from the back of the room".Remember the 11 slide limit. If you have several slides that can be combined with others or info that can be placed in the Notes, do so. Bullets that are just a list of numbers are probably going to put Mr. Big to sleep.Change timelines to a Gantt summary as a pictorial. Present your "big" Gantt during the Presentation. Word documents should be in portrait, not landscape view. The team should be trusted to present a final paper with their words and formatting, after I offer samples, instructions, and these NOTES. Please, let me know how the "real" Mr. Big takes your proposal.GrammarPlease use grammar and other review tools, especially in written communications. This short note has so many mistakes that go beyond typos often seen in today's texting: "You made a good point they are many times when because of poor communications we get crossed up at my job. For example just last week my co-workers was waiting all day for contractor to show up, and once he finally got there he was met by my other co-worker who was on his way to lunch and he simply just sent the guy away."HyperlinksHyperlinked documents may work during your in-house presentation, but it may not be a good idea, technically, in other forums unless the document is embedded into the document. Some systems may not be able to handle it. We should educate ourselves on such technical issues, and create documents that will work properly during appropriate presentations.PresentationThis presentation is miles from being done. You have inconsistent font sizes with some too small to read (remember Mr. Big's trifocals), An Appendix is not needed in presentation. Use the Word Appendix for that purpose. Add complete speaker Notes to EVERY slide (copy paste from the executive summary and the body, as needed for explanations of the bullets. Keep the T-Shirt rule for each bullet.ReadMost experts are widely read and not narrowly focused. I do find that many papers and articles are balanced in their writing. Sometimes an editor or a faculty advisor says to the author, “We only have x number of words budgeted, so cut it down by using a couple of key points so we can sell it to the committee for publication.” This can ignore (in writing) the more balanced approach, especially when an expert is trying to get lecture or consulting dollars on his pet project.RecommendationsI just read one team's personnel procurement plan that explained many options, but did not provide recommendations as to which option Mr. Big should choose. Your paper is not a lecture on project management or a mystery story where you wait until the end for "the answer". Make recommendations up front as to what Mr. Big should do, then back it up with the options you considered, and provide the logic for your recommendation. Then summarize recommendations (repetition is fine if Mr. Big doesn't mind (Know Thy Audience)). "Tell them what you are going to tell them; tell them; then, tell them what you told them.TaskAs you make statements in your report, such as "We recommend that the manager monitors" something, state who should monitor and why. Expect that the reader will question recommendations “now”, so tell him “now” and make your case on how you plan to explain, design, and develop the task. Stay ahead of Mr. Big’s questions, which is why Mr. Big doesn't want a report that is a mystery story.TenseThis report should be focused on presenting facts and recommendations to Mr. Big to make sure that he understands the advantages and disadvantages (pros and cons). I prefer and have been taught to use the active tense in making these points. Consultants are expected to be active and not passive. Consider that you are face to face with Mr. Big. Would you really speak to him in the passive tense?TOCTable of Contents (TOC) is not a requirement for this paper. If you feel that you need one, do it. TOC won't be counted as a part of the 12-15 pages for the "body".6.6 Team NOTESAbsoluteThe "exact number" is not all that important, as much as I harp against "absolutes", be they the pennies in a chart or saying "all" of anything being a “discreditor” since there are very few 100% values of anything. Even Ivory Soap is advertised as 99 and 44 one hundredths percent pure.AnalogyRandom Access memory (RAM) is like a sports car and tractor trailer; the fast and agile speedster takes time or resources away from long haul processes. When conveying medical information to a patient receiving a bad diagnosis can invoke powerful emotions in both parties. There a fewer emotions involved when discussing information systems.However if data is not conveyed in a manner that a stakeholder or patient can understand the result can be confusion and frustration. Technical information is often relayed through the use of metaphor and simile. This method is most successful when you know the audience that you are addressing so that you can select the best metaphor.When reviewing a user's workstation to determine if it needs an upgrade I'll check the amount of Random Access Memory (RAM) installed. If it is determined that the cost effective method for obtaining a satisfactory workstation includes a RAM upgrade then we can explain the process as: Imagine if you needed to transport several items from your home to another destination. Someone gave you a fleet of sports cars (RAM) and tractor trailers (HDD). The sports car is super-fast and can get small items to the destination very quickly. However, the tractor trailer can haul more but is very slow. If someone gave you a large number of sports cars you could get a larger number of the items to their destination faster. RAM and the hard disk act in a similar manner. Items stored in RAM are able travel to the CPU much faster than those stored on the hard drive. Although the hard drive is able to store much more data.AnalysisYou have hit one of my hot buttons with proliferation of technology for technology's sake. Taking the focus off of intelligent decision making. In my current position of the "metrics guy" I have to ask way too often about the "so what?" of a metric; what does a spike or a trend tell the user? Folks are tracking data, but have not got a clue about why or what it is telling them. You have echoed my thoughts so well here. Using new software that slows down the process of the core activities is so aggravating, if it is not fully justified and then explained to the users. Data integrity is key, but it needs to be understood at all levels.AttitudeYour conclusion states "If approved, this will serve as a guideline for Bravo Consulting to move forward to complete this project" which is correct except for one word: "If". A strong project manager is also a strong sales person who would say "When" not "IF". Put ATTITUDE of a winner into the presentation and into your success as a project manager in getting your project first approved and then completed.AudienceSome audiences do not like technical jargon. My hero, Jethro Gibbs is not a techie, and he so often has his techies give him way too much technical information, which he probably appreciates, but doesn't need to make a decision. His staff needs that depth to feel comfortable about their recommendations and conclusions, but Gibbs wants the bottom line. Have it ready, but give thy audience what they want in the manner in which they can best understand and use it. In your Presentation, both Slides 1 and 11 offer special opportunities for the "sales job". Sell Mr. Big on the team, their expertness and the benefits of the proposed project. This is too important an opportunity for you to miss in the presentation or for you students to understand. Don't rely on mere facts to sell. It takes personality and sales comparisons. Both the presenters and the listeners should be communicated with, not just talked to. Communication is that element of actually making sure that the audience UNDERSTANDS what you are trying to say, and will remember it and understand HOW to DO what is needed, not just acknowledge understanding.This project is must be designed and destined for a real company and a real project. I thank all of you who have shared your organization’s information. We are curious about what is going to happen to the effort we have put in these documents. I will be satisfied if you can share these documents with your management so our efforts can bear fruits. I think that your peer to peer remarks are most valuable to each other, for each of you have just gone through similar trials and tribulations of starting from nothing and developing a full blown project in less than six weeks, ready to present to a real Mr. Big. This is what I like about these projects. They are real and not academic. They get you prepared for a real world scenario. "Know thy audience" and wow him/them the way they are ready to support and fund your project. Congratulations to each team member on each team for surviving this most difficult course!CostSome “final” documents may have a few minor formatting glitches that are not nearly as important as the issues dealing with the cost of your proposal. Be sure that you state that the cost of implementation, and try not to underestimate its significance. For example, a $920,000 estimate is a mighty big number! Make an effort to avoid sticker shock by explaining the Return on Investment (ROI). For example, be specific in the number of assets being tracked and employees, so you can do a proper comparison. Keep working on the cost and benefit angle so Mr. Big can better accept huge costs and better understand the benefits.DeadlineI want each team to post as a reply to a new thread to post your most current documents that you plan to post as Finals tomorrow. This way I will have the most current set of documents for which to review and comment; so that I can HELP you finalize this most difficult assignment. My role in this case is Project Manager, not Professor, to make sure that Mr. Big will understand what you are providing him, and so you can tweak anything before his briefing! I probably will not wordsmith, but I want to make sure that your structure and tone is good for him since you have been making so many constructive changes to your documents during the past few days. If edits need to be made before the last day of the class, that is fine. "Late is not an issue. “Right" is important. This is meant to be a "real life", not a "school" project.FeedbackIf I think that some portions need extra work, I'll provide feedback, for example:“Hi Team, I hate to be negative, but I'm not at all impressed by your Presentation. This is not a sales piece nor does it explain your proposal well, for example, your pie chart does not say anything. Team reprimands should be done in private, with specific examples so that the recipient will be totally clear on what needs to be corrected. This is covered here in class with postings to the <individual> forum. I often repeat the "reprimand" or direction in the <Main> or <Team> forum, without attribution to a particular student. This way I can put my thoughts together for one student, and then later generalize for the benefit to the entire class; or at work, the department. I don't believe in embarrassment as an incentive for people. I believe that if I carefully, and gently or harshly, depending on the personality of the audience, I can get my point across.Praise in public! As a Project Manager, Facilitator and Clock watcher. I have (privately, so as not to embarrass you in front of your colleagues), reminded some of you to turn in your Gantt updates and HR Interviews. Midnight tonight, Arizona Time is your deadline. When you are ready for me to review your almost final drafts, please post them with a "this is it" in the subject.Excellent job in translating the monumental requirements for this project into the attached documents and concepts. As I stated earlier, I could wordsmith and make finite suggestions as there are some areas of conflict such as presenting the project as a proposal to Mr. Big, where I perceive the project may have already been completed as of this writing.I do not care for your use of "will" as this is a proposal and should use less "absolute" terms to soften your approach to your Mr. Big. You also show day/month but not year in many instances.I did not see any references or Appendixes in the copy I downloaded, so make sure they are included. Your other three documents look very good. Your teamwork showed remarkably well and the results taught you all much. Job well done! Turn in final with corrections and we should be able to call this a success!”TenseThe wordiness of your proposal loses me, although I’m familiar with the terms and recommendations. Mr. Big may be a bit overwhelmed, so help him out with summary statements. If there are structural problems with your proposal, you should review the sample reports. Appendixes should be individually referenced in the paper and by letter in the appendixes. Show differences between before and after in comparison diagrams. Also, keep the proposal in the active, not the passive tense.TeamI have been reading your internal debates all along, and any disagreements will not negatively affect your final grade. Mr. Big will judge your project on final results, as in most projects where Mr. Big is not privy to internal situations. He is just interested in what you present and propose for his benefit.VolumeWhile some team members are left in the dark with not enough information or communication, I often see in my class where some students become befuddled with the torrent of information that I provide. I do not apologize for the vast volume I provide, since it is somewhat like the vast volume of information on the Internet that no mere mortal can absorb, and it would bother me a lot if I did not at least offer my Syllabus, Instructor Policies and Lectures.We Project Managers each have our own styles and each team member has their own way of working and learning, so we each do what we have to do. My way is to frequently remind you of those resources and to read and re-read them to help you stay on track. It may not be the best way, but at least I feel OK about it since I told you up front about what to expect, thus communicated expectations. Now that you are in your final week of this course, how do you feel about this type of communication?Appendix A: Weekly AssignmentsWeek One: Project ManagementDetailsDuePointsObjectivesDefine project life cycle.Identify types of management within project management.Explain project scope management.Readings Read Welcome Letter, Syllabus, Lecture and Miscellaneous NOTES to Students in <Course-Materials>, various postings in <Main>, and Ken’s Biography in <Chat> by Day One (Tuesday).Read Chapter 1 (Nature of IT) by Day Three (Thursday). I suggest that you try to read the entire eText at the course beginning, and re-read each chapter as a review in upcoming weeks.Read Chapter 3 (Charter & Baseline) by Day Four (Friday).Read Chapter 5 (Scope) by Day Five (Saturday).Read Article(s) by Day Six (Sunday).Days 1 - 5Points for Comments on readings are counted in Participation and in DQs ParticipationParticipate in class discussion of key topics in <Main> but formal reports or summaries of Lecture, NOTES, eText Chapters and Articles are NOT required.Begin with DQ3 by explaining why you DISAGREE with project management as described by the Lecture, NOTES, eText and article authors.4 to 7 days15IndividualAssignmentsPost your biography to the <CHAT> forum with a Subject: Biography-<your name> so we can get to know each other by Day Two (Wednesday). I’ve posted mine with a photo, so use it as a model if you wish. Tell us about where you live and work, your work career and experience, computer expertise and skills, and family life as a minimum. Also tell us about your favorite hobbies, activities, and interests, and what “makes you smile”.Create a basic Project Gantt Chart 10-step plan for the first week of this course to get familiar with Project software (see example below). Next week you will be required to plot the rest of the course with sub-tasks to get more familiar with Project software and course requirements. Post in <INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENTS> AND in <Main> WK1-DQ1 Gantt-<Your Name>.Day 2Day 71070Discussion QuestionsAnswer Discussion Questions (DQs) in <Main>: DQ1 by Day Four (Friday), DQ2 by Day Five (Saturday) and DQ3 by Day 6 (Sunday) (5 possible points for a minimum of 200 SIGNIFICANT and MASTERS level quality words per DQ). DQ1 What is the difference between an operation and a project in YOUR ORGANIZATION?DQ2 Why is it so important to manage the scope of a project in YOUR ORGANIZATION? DQ3 What two Best Practices in EACH eText Chapter and Article read this week apply to YOUR ORGANIZATION, and how? Try not to repeat another student’s choice. In your follow-on responses, why do you DISAGREE with their position?Schedule interviews with your organization’s personnel (see Weeks 3, 4 & 5 Individual Assignments).Days 4 - 615TeamTeam Project: Project Managementa) Read Team Project Recommendations by Day Three (Thursday).b) Identify other Learning Team members by Day Three (Thursday).c) Read Team Toolkit in Student website.d) Prepare and agree to a graded Team Charter by the end of Week One and post it in your Team folder. A sample is available in Classroom Materials by clicking on “Learning Team Toolkit” > “Toolkit Essentials”.Draft and submit to the instructor in <TEAM ASSIGNMENTS> by Day Seven (Monday) a team generated outline (1 page maximum) named WK1-TeamX Project that describes a real-life team IT/CIS project that outlines the project purpose and scope of business needs to be solved, constraints and assumptions for the particular business. Outline possible project management processes, skills, tools, etc. The objective of this team project is to introduce methodologies used in projects. System solutions are large capital investments in today’s business world. Application of large investments must be based on specific business needs and subsequent returns. Projects are being held accountable for meeting business needs, so it is critical to identify verbally and quantifiably, project scheduling needs to successfully manage projects. For the learning team project in this course, select NOT yet planned or completed real-life IT/CIS business situation that requires project management solutions and develop a proposal for a project that will meet business needs of one of your team member’s work-related projects. GET WITH YOUR TEAM MATES; DO THIS IMMEDIATELY (Due Monday Night)!!!Please confer with your facilitator before finalizing your selection. The requirements for the selected project are as follows:1) The team project must have Subprojects (divide the project areas this week).2) Each subproject must have a minimum of 10 tasks (determine tasks this week).3) Each team member is responsible for specific Subproject(s) (volunteer this week). In each subsequent week, the team will meet via Instant Messenger (IM), Net Meeting (NM), teleconference, or other electronic medium(s) to ensure that the Subproject plans will integrate. The final scope definition (Executive Summary) memo will be submitted for grading during Week Two. Each project will build on prior weeks’ work. In Week Six, each team will present their final project plan in Project, Word and Presentation.Days 3 – 6Day 7Day 7535SummaryThe concepts introduced during Week One provide you with a basic understanding of what a project is, the different kinds of projects you might be a part of, the different elements that make up a project, and how to make sure a project stays within the bounds in which it was established. These topics are the foundation on which the topics in future weeks build.A written summary is NOT required for week 1.Day 70Example of Week 1 Gantt AssignmentWeek Two: Project Time ManagementDetailsDuePointsObjectivesExplain project time pare and contrast Gantt charts, Program Evaluation Review, and the Critical Path Method (CPM).ReadingsRead Lecture by Day One (Tuesday).Read Responses to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) and Miscellaneous NOTES to Students in <Course-Materials> by Day One (Tuesday) … re-read often!Read Chapter 4 (Human Side) by Day One (Tuesday).Read Chapter 6 (Work Breakdown & Estimation) by Day Two (Wednesday).Read assigned Articles by Day Four (Friday).Days 1 - 4Points for Comments on readings are counted in Participation and in DQsParticipationParticipate in class discussion of key topics in <Main>, but Formal reports or summaries of Lecture, NOTES, eText Chapters and Articles are NOT required. Begin with DQ3 by explaining why you DISAGREE with project management as described by the eText and article authors?Also describe problems you are having with Project software and approaches.4 to 7 days15IndividualUpdate Project Gantt of last week to cover all six weeks of tasks, sub-tasks, and sub-sub-tasks. Post in <INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENTS> AND in <Main> by Day Seven (Monday) as WK2-DQ1 Gantt-<Your Name>.Project History: List at least three major projects that you have managed or have been involved in within the past three or four years and provide some personal examples of how your organizational culture affected one of your projects.Days 3 – 7Day 77010Discussion QuestionsAnswer Discussion Questions (DQs) in <Main>: DQ1 by Day Four (Friday), DQ2 by Day Five (Saturday) and DQ3 by Day 6 (Sunday) (5 possible points for a minimum of 200 SIGNIFICANT and MASTERS level quality words per DQ). DQ1 Why is or should a WBS so important to the success of a project in YOUR ORGANIZATION? DQ2 What is the relationship between time, cost, and quality in YOUR ORGANIZATION DQ3 What two Best Practices in EACH eText Chapter and Article read this week apply to YOUR ORGANIZATION, and how? Try not to repeat another student’s choice. In your follow-on responses, why do you DISAGREE with their position?Days 4 - 615TeamTeam (continued)Team Project: Project Time Management: Review Team Project Recommendations in <Course-Materials>. Complete the Business Requirements Definition (BRD) for your team project and post it in <MAIN> AND in <TEAM ASSIGNMENTS> by Day 6 (Sunday) of Week 2.Business Requirements Definition (BRD)Define you project’s Business Requirements, and also focus on Project Time3:13 PM Management Issues. Prepare and submit a 2 – 3 page Executive Summary (ES) memorandum, giving a scope definition for the subprojects for each team member. (An ES consists of: Purpose & Objectives, Problems & Background, Discussions & Findings, and Conclusions & Recommendations). You may use process flow charts, procedures, or policy statements to articulate the project requirements in terms of specific process or business development needs. Review the Subprojects that have been outlined by each team member and begin the team Project plan; include this Project software plan in your submittal.This week's assignment should expand on those conceptual issues sketched out during Week 1, but not limited to the project’s Scope, Time, Cost, Quality, HR, Procurement, Risk and Communication. If team members research "future" issues, it should be included in the current set of material. We are working on a step-by-step approach to a full report at the end of six weeks, and if we get a bit ahead (or behind) of the "plan", that is OK. The above project "requirements" or "assignments" should be thought of more as "guidelines" to accomplish the final goal. Use the materials offered to design your own plan of action in getting the final product completed, just as you would in a real-life project, which this is supposed to be. If you need more guidance, please let your facilitator know.Please name your Word paper and Project file. Post SUBJECT in format Year-Month Team Letter-Official Project Name – Version XXX (Initials of creator), i.e., 13-03 X-SYSTEMS UPGRADE PROPOSAL FOR XYZ INC – Version XXX (ABC).docx … and .mpp.Days 1 - 640SummaryWeek Two adds more project management concepts to your PM toolbox, including time management, scheduling, and using Gantt and Pert charts and the Critical Path Method. A project manager uses these critical tools as they kick-off and manage projects.Summarize this week’s study in an Executive Summary (ES) format (Purpose & Objectives, Problems & Background, Discussions & Findings, and Conclusions & Recommendations). Post your Weekly Summary (at least 200 words) in <MAIN> AND in <INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENTS> by Day Seven (Monday). Use the subject format WK2-Weekly Summary-<Your Name>.(see examples of ES format in Appendix A)Day 75Week Three: Project Cost and Quality ManagementDetailsDuePointsObjectivesExplain project cost management.Explain project quality management.ReadingsRead Lecture and Miscellaneous NOTES to Students in <Course-Materials>by Day One (Tuesday).Read Chapter 7 (Schedule & Budget) by Day One (Tuesday).Read Chapter 10 [optional reading] by Day Two (Wednesday).Read assigned Articles by Day Four (Friday).Days 1 - 4Points for Comments on readings are counted in Participation and in DQsParticipationParticipate in class discussion of key topics in <Main, but Formal reports or summaries of lecture, eText Chapters and Articles are NOT required. Begin with DQ3 by explaining how the best practices in this week’s Lecture, NOTES, eText and articles can be used in your organization4 – 7 days15IndividualInterview Project Manager(s) in your organization on how they emphasize project schedule and budget management and other components of their jobs to reduce the likelihood of failure? This is a major paper so make firm appointments and report on your findings with an ES format and significant observations and insights. Update Project Gantt (see example below). With any new requirements, new Project software tools learned, task completion percentages to date, and the TASK NAME (not the Resource) to the RIGHT of the Gantt Bar (see example Gantt). Post by Day Seven (Monday) in <INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENTS> AND in <Main> as WK3-Gantt-<Your Name>.Day 4Day 77030Discussion QuestionsAnswer Discussion Questions (DQs) in <Main>: DQ1 by Day Four (Friday), DQ2 by Day Five (Saturday) and DQ3 by Day 6 (Sunday) (5 possible points for a minimum of 200 SIGNIFICANT and MASTERS level quality words per DQ).DQ1How do you determine the quality of a work product in YOUR ORGANIZATION?DQ2What is the relationship between the WBS and the project schedule in YOUR ORGANIZATION? DQ3 What two Best Practices in EACH eText Chapter and Article read this week apply to YOUR ORGANIZATION, and how? Try not to repeat another student’s choice. In your follow-on responses, why do you DISAGREE with their position?Days 4 - 615TeamTeam Project: Project Cost and Quality Management (PCQM). Focus on PCQM issues in your Word integration plan. Update the Project solution design and develop the sequence of the project tasks by establishing the task dependencies. Post updated reports in <TEAM ASSIGNMENTS>by Day 6 (Sunday). Begin your Presentation formatting this week!Please name documents and posting Subject with the format as shown below with Year-Month Team Letter-Official Project Name – Version XXX (Initials of Creator): 13-03 X-SYSTEMS UPGRADE PROPOSAL FOR XYZ INC – Version XXX (ABC) Please send your facilitator a private and confidential email if you have significant concerns about your teammates on the following:Do you feel everyone in the group contributed to the project equally? If not, explain? Was there an equal division of tasks in the group? If not, please explain? Did the group work together collaboratively? If not, please explain? Were all the members of the group polite and respectful of others? If not, please explain.Your responses will be kept confidential. I will get involved to resolve any serious issues that cannot be handled effectively by fellow team members. Also, if you believe a particular student deserves special praise, please pass that along also.Days 1 - 640SummaryThe concepts of cost and quality management are introduced to you during this week of the course. You learn how to perform a pert analysis to estimate costs and, with the help of Microsoft? Project, you learn how to establish a project budget.Summarize this week’s study in an Executive Summary (ES) format (Purpose & Objectives, Problems & Background, Discussions & Findings, and Conclusions & Recommendations). Post your Weekly Summary (at least 200 words) in <MAIN> AND in <INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENTS> by Day Seven (Monday) as WK3-Weekly Summary-<Your Name>.Day 75Example of Week 3 Gantt AssignmentWeek Four: Project Human Resources (HR) and Procurement ManagementDetailsDuePointsObjectivesExplain project HR management.Explain procurement management.ReadingsRead Lecture and Miscellaneous NOTES to Students for Week Four by Day One (Tuesday).Read Chapter 12 Procurement & Outsourcing) by Day One (Tuesday); do not outline. . Re-read Chapter 4 this week. Discuss in <Main> what you gained from your re-read.Read Chapter 13 (Leadership & Ethics) by Day Two (Wednesday).Read assigned Articles for Week Four by Day Four (Friday).Days 1 - 4Points for Comments on readings are counted in Participation and in DQsParticipationParticipate in class discussion of key topics in <Main, but Formal reports or summaries of Lecture, eText Chapters and Articles are NOT required. Begin with DQ3 by explaining why you DISAGREE with project management as described by the eText and article authors?4 – 7 days15IndividualAssignmentsInterview your HR Director and describe how outsourcing can be an effective means of procuring additional Human Resources in your organization, and other components of their jobs to reduce the likelihood of failure? This is a major paper so make firm appointments and report on your findings with an ES format and significant observations and insights.Update Project Gantt with any new Project software tools learned, task completions % to date, color coding, and WBS. Post in <INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENTS> AND in <Main> as Gantt-<Your Name>.Day 3Day 77030Discussion QuestionsAnswer Discussion Questions (DQs) in <Main>: DQ1 by Day Four (Friday), DQ2 by Day Five (Saturday) and DQ3 by Day 6 (Sunday) (5 possible points for a minimum of 200 SIGNIFICANT and MASTERS level quality words per DQ). DQ1 Why is the way an RFP is structured so critical to the success of the RFP in YOUR ORGANIZATION? DQ2 What relationship does the management of Human Resources have with the creation of the project schedule in YOUR ORGANIZATION?DQ3 What two Best Practices in EACH eText Chapter and Article read this week apply to YOUR ORGANIZATION, and how? Try not to repeat another student’s choice. In your follow-on responses, why do you DISAGREE with their position?Days 4 - 615TeamTeam (continued)Team Project: Project Human Capital and Procurement Management.Develop HR and Procurement Integration plans in Word & Project.Continue to identify the Human Capital needed for the project in Word & Project.Identify the Project Procurement Management issues for the project in Word.Begin preparing proposed costs involved in the project using spreadsheets.Begin or continue preparing timeline estimates in Project.Draft a narrative that recaps the team actions taken to update the project plan. Include a description of how your team will ensure the proper execution of the project plan in the future, so it will stay on schedule until the project is completed.Continue preparing a 12-15-page Word Paper plus Cover Page, Abstract, Executive Summary and Appendices (with PAGE-BREAKS separating sections), plus Project plan and a Presentation (see required format in <Course-Materials>) integrating the teamwork of the project. The completed Word paper, Project software plan and Presentation (first draft) is due next week (Week 5).Post draft materials it in your team forum AND in <TEAM ASSIGNMENTS> by Day 6 (Sunday) this week.Days 1 - 640SummaryThis week’s focus on Human Resource and procurement management add to your knowledge of all aspects of project management. The aspects provide knowledge of staffing a project as well as the details of procuring necessary materials and other resources.Summarize this week’s study in an Executive Summary format in <MAIN> AND in <INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENTS> by Day Seven (Monday) (200 word minimum). Use the subject format WK4-Weekly Summary-<Your Name>. Comment in your Weekly Summary and possibly in <Main> whether you find the Project Calendar or Project software Gantt a more valuable tool to use to stay on track.Day 75Week Five: Project Risk ManagementDetailsDuePointsObjectivesExplain project risk management.Develop a project management plan.ReadingsRead Lecture and Miscellaneous NOTES to Students in <Course-Materials> by Day One (Tuesday).Read Chapter 8 (Risk) by Day One (Tuesday). Reread your favorite prior chapters; report in <Main> what you gained from your re-read.Read assigned Articles by Day Four (Friday).Days 1 - 4Points for Comments on readings are counted in Participation and in DQsParticipationParticipate in class discussion of key topics in <Main>, but Formal reports or summaries of Lecture, eText Chapters and Articles are NOT required. Begin with DQ3 by explaining why you DISAGREE with project management as described by the eText and article authors?4 – 7 days15IndividualInterview IT Risk Manager(s) in your organization. Develop an Executive Summary of your own company’s Risk Management Plan and other components of their jobs to reduce the likelihood of failure? This is a major paper so make firm appointments and report on your findings with an ES format and significant observations and insights.Update Project Gantt with any new requirements, new Project software tools learned, and task completions. Post in <INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENTS> AND in <MAIN> as WK5-Gantt-<Your Name>. Day 3Day 77030Discussion QuestionsAnswer Discussion Questions (DQs) in <Main>: DQ1 by Day Four (Friday), DQ2 by Day Five (Saturday) and DQ3 by Day 6 (Sunday) (5 possible points for a minimum of 200 SIGNIFICANT and MASTERS level quality words per DQ). DQ1Why are positive, unexpected events also considered risks in YOUR ORGANIZATION? DQ2What tools are available to a project manager to help you perform quantitative risk analysis in YOUR ORGANIZATION? DQ3 What two Best Practices in EACH eText Chapter and Article read this week apply to YOUR ORGANIZATION, and how? Try not to repeat another student’s choice. In your follow-on responses, why do you DISAGREE with their position?Days 4 -615TeamTeam Project: Project Risk Management.Develop Project Risk Management Integration plan in Word & Project.Identify the Risk Management issues for your project in Word & Presentation.Continue preparing proposed costs involved in the project using Excel spreadsheets.Continue preparing timeline estimates in Project.Continue preparing a 12-15-page Word Paper plus Cover Page, Abstract, Executive Summary and Appendices (with PAGE-BREAKS separating sections), plus Project plan and a Presentation. The completed Word paper, Project software plan and Presentation (final draft) is due by Day 5 next week. Post drafts in <TEAM ASSIGNMENTS> by Day 6 (Sunday) this week.Days 1 - 640SummarySuccessfully managing risks in a project is critical to a project’s success. Most of the events that cause projects to fail could have been identified early in the life of the project and managed to avoid the failure. The tools and techniques that you learn this week help you to know just how to proactively manage these unexpected events.Summarize your week in <INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENTS> (200 word minimum) by Day Seven (Monday) in WK5-Weekly Summary-<Your Name>.Day 75Week Six: Project Communication ManagementDetailsDuePointsObjectivesExplain project communication management.ReadingsRead Lecture and Miscellaneous NOTES to Students in <Course-Materials> by Day One (Tuesday). Read Chapter 9 (Communication, Tracking & Reporting) by Day One (Tuesday).Read assigned Articles by Day Four (Friday).Days 1 - 4Comments on readings are counted in DQs & team report topicsParticipationParticipate in class discussion of key topics in <Main> on Team Presentations.4 – 7 days15Discussion QuestionsAnswer Discussion Questions (DQs) in <Main>: DQ1 by Day Four (Friday) and DQ2 by Day Five (Saturday) (5 possible points for a minimum of 200 SIGNIFICANT and MASTERS level quality words per DQ). DQ1 Why is communication so important to the success of a project and why is managing the expectations of stakeholders so critical for a project manager in YOUR ORGANIZATION? DQ2 What two Best Practices in your eText Chapter and each Article read this week apply to YOUR ORGANIZATION, and how? Try not to repeat another student’s choice. In your follow-on responses, why do you DISAGREE with their position?Days 4 - 510TeamTeam (continued)Team Project: Project Communication Management. One more thing for ALL of you to do as a quality check is to review your Abstract., ES, Project and Presentation materials to ensure that they all say what your final paper and conclusions say. At the end of such a whirlwind, things don't always get updated and coordinated, so there will be “facilitations” as needed.Teams shall exchange their presentations with the other class members by Day 5 (Saturday) and engage in a critique and discussion of team projects.Copy / paste your Abstract text into the <MAIN> AND <TEAM ASSIGNMENTS> forums as your introduction and attach your documents to that message. Update your Team Project Gantt with your personal team task completions.Post in <INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENTS> AND in <Team> as Team Gantt-<Your Name>.Name documents and post Subject as: 13 - 03 X-SYSTEMS UPGRADE PROPOSAL FOR XYZ INC – FINAL.XXXPlease fill out the “Learning Team Evaluation” from the “Learning Team Toolkit” in Classroom Materials for each member of your team, including yourself. Post in <INDIVIDUAL FORUM> by Day 7 - Week 6.Days 1 – 6Day 610020SummaryThe topic of project communication management wraps up the ongoing discussion of the various project management processes found in the PMBK. These processes provide the project manager with the skills and techniques they need to manage the smallest to the largest of projects.Summarize this week’s study (200 words; 5 possible points).Also provide a Total Course Summary (500 words minimum; 20 possible points) (see Appendix) in <INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENTS> : Include a discussion of how can the concepts in this course’s lecture, eText and articles enhance projects in your organization.and How can the concepts discussed in this course enhance your career?Submit by Day Seven (Monday) as WK6-Course Summary-<Your Name>. Please submit your End-Of-Course Survey by Day Seven (Monday).Day 7Day 7520Example Final Report – PresentationExample Final Report – Project Example Final Report – WordAppendix B: Student Testimonials continued from PrologueThe following additional comments are from my former Project Management students. Their inspiring participation in our classes encouraged me to share my thoughts with you, your friends, and "Mr. Big". Let me know how you were helped by our class and by this book!Ken KleinI have advanced now to a Nurse Director role and rely on my Project Management skills every day. I was often looking at project management from an end-user perspective. Then I took this course. The concepts in this class helped define project structure, member roles, work breakdown structures, and tools that help the project succeed. I understand that planning a project doesn’t just mean dreaming up an idea and putting it in motion. It takes careful initiation, planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation. I also learned about risk management and communication management. This helped me identify issues within my organization that could potentially affect the outcomes of my future projects. Lack of a governance structure, formalized communication and risk plans, and ineffective project management have left our organization at a disadvantage in the past. Understanding [that] these issues exist have already helped me in my approach in my current team processes and project planning. This has probably been my favorite class to date. I think that it is because the material was very applicable to my current position and was actually information I could put into practice.R. Hopper I can say with confidence that [this course] was the most challenging course that I have taken so far in my Master’s studies and I suspect it will probably remain at the top as I finish out my last few classes. The course was challenging not just because of the volume of the assignments due but also because the instructor pushed the students to keep learning, improving, and to become even more involved with the rest of the class and the rest of the different learning teams. The amount of structure to the assignments and also the facilitator’s personal course plan was apparent once I saw the Project file that shows the "project plan" for the course.N. SchumpeThe team assignment for this course taught me a great deal about time management and communication. It was a large scale project that spanned the entire six weeks which required time management and organization. Work, life, and responsibilities, in addition to full-time studies, are difficult and without effective time management techniques, one will fail. Time management is important in nursing because there will be several tasks that need to be completed within a twelve hour shift, sometimes too many tasks requiring a great deal of time. This course has taught me a great deal of concepts that will be useful in both my professional and personal life.T. DaughtryWhat an outstanding course! Team communication is essential for a healthy and thriving team. When team members appear to be at odds with one another and lacking direction, it is due to the fact that effective communication is absent. Good communication creates an environment where all team members are inspired to reach a common goal. Effective communication within a team keeps everyone on the same page and allows for open expression and direct feedback. This is what helped team A complete the project on time. Good luck everyone and thanks Ken for the great course.F. Hamissi The most important tool that I have from this class is Project Management Course Notebook. You have done very well for this document. I know that it takes time for digest information since I am working on operation side of the house. However, there are still some information from these note that I still be able apply into my real life jobs. It looks like this is your living document that you can add and delete along the way from one class to anotherS. TontapanishWe are familiar with, “Practice makes perfect.” These concepts can help me with focusing on the vision of the project from beginning to end that can also be applied to future projects. PM concepts reinforces the ability to organize. Organization helps me be maintain structure ensuring clarity and understanding to team members. Finally, the concepts in this course enhances diplomatic skills allowing me to act objectively and see the whole picture as a leader, manager, and mentor. This also helps to balance the decision-making process in that when decisions are made.R. TurcicIt would have been beneficial if the section on communication was at the beginning of the class. Many leaders are unable to find effective ways to express themselves to other [team members]. Keeping lines of communication open and effective takes time and practice, but is ultimately worth [it]. It is recommended that a possible project for the beginning of class focus on effective team planning and leadership of projects with the incorporation of effective communication.M. StewartThis [course] has made me understand the meaning of project management and has helped me gain self-confidence and dependability to learn and develop the basic fundamentals on learning how to develop strong leadership skills in order to be successful in the organization I work for, and how to define and develop the benefits which always starts with talking to the stakeholders. V. ArceThis class was an excellent source for helping comprehend and apply some of the more complex areas professionally. There have been few classes where I could look back at previous work experiences and have the light bulb go off after covering related materials in class but this has been one. The aha! moment is when you realize you have learned something. When you can apply what you've learned to past experience I think it helps you retain it better. You have a frame of reference that makes more sense and can be applied to future situations. This class has been excellent in bringing forth valid and current information. Professionally, I have already seen some small influences from topics covered in this class and firmly expect to see more as I continue to develop.J. NickersonSuccessful project managers should be well positioned for promotion into broader management ranks, as they have proven abilities for understanding and managing people, and exposure to many departments and businesses within the organization. I recommend that this course should be moved much closer to the beginning of this particular degree program, and really wish we'd all had the opportunity to have taken it much earlier in our [school] careers.B. Kobleur This was most challenging course. Not so much of the actual work but having to work with your team throughout the entire course instead of having individual writing assignments. The structure of the course, requirements, and expectations gave me a challenge. The challenge was something that I needed to prepare me to be a better project manager or team member in the future.K. CrenshawThe course provide sufficient information to ensure that anyone involved in a project team can understand the complexities that exists on a day to day basis with the management aspects of the project. Not only that, but the information provided can form a foundation to permit those members of the team to interact with their peers and management on a more informed basis to identify the various points in a project and their impact on those points.D. Munson This was the first class where I used the executive summary to write discussion questions and weekly summaries. Sometimes upper management gets important information and doesn't share it with the other employees so they are left in the dark. Which is really not fair the employees.C. TownsendIt is only right that “slackers” be identified early and dealt with by the instructor and removed from teams early so those that do care about the presentation of quality work are allowed to do so. I really do appreciate everything I learned in this class. I also appreciate our instructor's attempts to make learning new and in real time.J. StottsQuality management should be used for projects to reduce the chance of failures and to increase the quality of the product / service being created. Project costs should be established and then double and tripled checked to ensure all contingencies are accounted for. Bad project costing could result and in the denial of a project because it’s too expensive or a failure because there were insufficient funds to complete the project.L. JohnsonDuring our team project development, even we had to revise our project estimates, project schedule and budget, and various sections on our project to build the warehouse barcode management system that is feasible and realistic for a company. This required each member of our team to be on top of communicating every change required for our project.B. PradhanAll and all I personally enjoyed the course and wish I could have more time working in Project. Ken, I have to let you know one of my favorite actor Chuck Norris sayings, “Pain is weakness leaving the body....Chuck Norris is pain entering the body.” Thank you for a wonderful class and all the tools you have given me will be used in my career.L. EddingsThis course taught me the value of using some type of system to track projects no matter how large or small they are. In some previous projects, there has been friction among team members and by understanding more the needed communication skills and leadership skills I could have handled things differently. Future projects will be handled with skills learned in this class. I can see in the future me referring back to the skills I learned in this class many times.R. A. Hendrick ................
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