How to Manage Project Management

INTRODUCTION

As more organizations move to formal project work, it becomes critical to capably manage those projects. The best way to do so most effectively is to establish standards for project management that are corporate-wide, or at least span the information systems (IS) department. These standards include project management methodologies and life cycles, as well as software packages for project management, process management, and time accounting.

This Section discusses project management methodologies and life cycles, reviews some of the more common features of each, and explains the three types of software commonly used to support corporate project management systems.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT METHODOLOGIES and LIFE CYCLES

Although managers can manage projects without a formal methodology, having one can be a big help. This section explains what project management methodologies are and why they are important, and gives a brief history of project management methodologies. It also defines life cycles, describes some common IS life cycles, and explains how life cycles relate to methodologies.

Project management methodologies have been around for decades, but first started to become popular in IS in the early 1970s. These methodologies usually have two components. The first is an overall process for doing things, while the second consists of templates or forms required at specific portions of that process. While the process itself is the true methodology, most project managers consider the templates and forms to be part and parcel of the methodology. However, most project managers also agree that templates alone don’t a methodology make. Project management methodologies are important for two reasons. First, they standardize the way in which an organization manages its projects. This allows people from anywhere in the organization to talk with one another using the same terms and the same definitions for those terms. Presenting a consistent approach to project management via standards also allows project managers to cover for one another when the need arises. The second reason that methodologies are important is that they provide novice project managers with the tools to manage projects, without requiring a long learning curve.

Project life cycles generally go hand in hand with project methodologies. Such life cycles break a project' s life into a series of phases or stages. The end of each phase provides a convenient project review point for senior management to institute go or no-go decisions, and also allows project managers to plan the next phases in more detail. While project life cycles can have many phases, the majority have three to five. They include some type of project start-up or initiation, a project construction or implementation stage, and, finally, a project evaluation or post-implementation review.

SELECTING PROJECT MANAGEMENT METHODOLOGIES

For organizations that don’t have a methodology or are looking for a new one, this section explains what to look for in project management methodologies. It discusses the benefits and drawbacks of in house versus vendor-supplied methodologies, as well as canned versus customized methodologies. It then describes the most popular vendor methodologies.

First, an exploration of the benefits and drawbacks of vendor methodologies is in order. The greatest benefit of a vendor methodology is that the work is already done, which can save an organization literally years of developing an internal methodology.

The vendor methodology has also been tested and proven to work, saving both the time and headaches involved in smoothing out process wrinkles.

On the downside, however, purchased methodologies require an organization to change its existing practices to match those of the methodology. If it does not, then the organization must customize at least some of the methodology. These customizations can vary from minor tweaks of the process, to customizations so severe that the original purchased methodology is virtually obliterated.

Another drawback of purchased methodologies is their price. Many vendor-supplied methodologies cost $60,000 or more for a perpetual license. In addition, some vendors charge thousands of dollars annually. Some of the more popular methodologies for IS projects include Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM) from Computer Associates and PRIDE from Computacenter.

IMPLEMENTING PROJECT MANAGEMENT METHODOLOGIES

This section explains how to implement a project management methodology. It covers how to establish project work breakdown structures (WBSs), as well as estimating, tracking, change control, quality control, and communication standards.

It then explains how to conduct IS departmental and client training regarding both the methodology and the standards.

Once an organization has either selected a vendor methodology or developed one in house, it’s ready to start the long, often tedious process of creating project standards. While some of the purchased methodologies come with standards for various project components, organizations will need to develop standards for those that don’t have them.

Creating WBS, Estimating, and Tracking Standards

The first standard to be established is how project WBSs will be created. Many organizations develop project templates for the most common types of projects developed in the organization, and then specify that project managers work from these templates. The advantage of this is that project managers are not " reinventing the wheel" on each project. In turn, this speeds up planning, and allows better project tracking.

After WBS standards are established, the organization must decide how estimates will be created. Estimates can be determined from expert opinions, weighted averages, statistics from previous projects, or from techniques such as function point analysis. If organizations track their projects accurately and religiously, they can use statistics from previous projects to provide the most accurate estimates. This highlights the need for standards in tracking projects.

Most organizations use some type of automated time -keeping package to track time against projects. Time tracking has three project-related purposes. The most critical is to accurately judge where a current project stands. However, other reasons that are almost as important are the uses of time tracking for project cost accounting, and for data collection - in order to better estimate the next project.

To provide the best database for estimating future projects, these packages should allow tracking against each task in the WBS, reinforcing the desirability of standard WBSs.

Change Control, Quality Control, and Communications Standards

Standards for change control, quality control, and communications are equally important to project success. Change control in this context does not refer to changes in functioning production systems, but rather to changes in the project itself.

The most common modifications to be managed are scope changes, generally expressed as a need for increased or different functionality. Because estimates are based on functionality as originally conceived, changes to initial functionality will obviously impact the project' s cost and schedule. To minimize this effect, change control policies outline the project manager' s range of discretion for approving changes, and spell out escalation levels and procedures. While these two standards can be negotiated at the beginning of each project, general guidelines can prove helpful.

Quality standards in an IS department tend to address how the department handles testing and production turnover. Some examples include how unit testing, system testing, and user acceptance testing will be performed.

Communications standards are also important to successful projects. The main reason that projects change as often as they do is that someone misunderstood a communication, be it the systems person or the client. The organization can significantly reduce the number of changes to a project in its later stages by setting clear communication guidelines during planning, and then constantly updating everyone involved in the project as it progresses, and doing so in a standard manner. Methodology Training

While it’s attractive to start training employees on the new methodology as soon as it’s selected, this 'jumping the gun' can be hazardous to the ultimate success of methodology implementation. Certainly, the methodology will evolve as employees start using it, but there should be a base of standards in place prior to training, lest employees, at a minimum, require retraining. In some organizations, employees have actually revolted and chosen not to use the methodology at all - until standards have been established.

With at least tentative project tracking, estimating, change control, quality control, and project communication standards in place, the organization is ready to conduct IS departmental and client training. This training can be performed in three ways: using outside consultants, who often develop the training as well; via internal employees; or using a combination of consultants and employees. If the organization chooses the combination approach, external consultants often develop the training, whereupon they train the internal employees regarding how to deliver the training. Since both project managers and project participants must understand the new methodology, it often makes sense to have two separate classes. The more in-depth class, for project managers and project leaders, ideally provides case studies, so they can actually practice the critical portions of the methodology. Although this type of training initially takes longer, the learning curve is less steep when project managers and leaders start following the methodology on " real" projects.

The training for project participants can be less detailed, focusing on their roles in the new methodology. It need not specifically train them to use all the pieces of the methodology.

IMPLEMENTING PROJECT MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE PACKAGES

While selecting appropriate software packages is important, it’s more critical to successfully implement these packages. This section discusses the differences between project management software, process management software, and time accounting software, and then examines various methods for implementing these packages. It also discusses the benefits and drawbacks of each approach, and outlines a process for successful implementation.

Although there are various software tools on the market today to help project managers manage their projects, having these tools does not a project manager make. Project managers must still perform the nine basic competencies of project management set forth by the Project Management Institute, an international project management professional association. Still, having these packages certainly can make performing these functions less arduous.

Package Types

Project management-related software tools are generally divided into the three categories of project management software, process management software, and time accounting software. Project management software packages perform scheduling, as well as limited project tracking. They do this by allowing project managers to enter project WBSs, assign inter-task dependencies, allocate resources, and assign effort/work estimates for each task. Once these basics are entered, the tool calculates and displays the project schedule, often graphically, via either Gantt charts or PERT/CPM (program evaluation and review technique/critical path method) network charts.

After initial project schedules have been created, the tools allow project managers to baseline the original schedule, and track the project' s progress against that schedule.

Since some of the project management tools are better at such tracking than others, organizations must weigh how important the tracking feature is to them when analyzing and selecting a particular software package. Evaluation of this feature is particularly important because tracking is critical to future project planning. Low-end project management packages include MS-Project from Microsoft and SureTrak from Primavera. Low-end packages cost approximately $300 and have adequate scheduling features, but tend to have less robust tracking features.

Mid-range project management packages include Project Scheduler from Scitor and CA-SuperProject from Computer Associates. Mid-range packages generally have better schedule-modeling features, better tracking, and better output capabilities, but the purchaser pays for it. They range in price from $1500 to $2300. High-end project management packages include Primavera Project Planner, usually called P3. The high-end packages include the features of the mid-range products, but also feature better multi-project handling capabilities.

Rather than focusing on project scheduling and tracking, process management packages allow project managers to more easily plan their projects. Typical process management packages come with standard, yet customizable, templates for a wide variety of information systems projects. However, unlike the templates that come with some project management packages, these templates suggest dependency relationships between tasks, suggest the type of skills needed to perform each task, and generally also provide a variety of estimating techniques and metrics. Process management packages include Process Continuum from Computer Associates, which includes Process Engineer.

The third type of project management-related software is time accounting software.

These packages allow individuals and project managers to charge actual hours back to project tasks. They do so by creating online and hardcopy time sheets, listing each team member' s tasks. The team member then keeps track of the hours spent on each task, and, usually, the date that each task was started, as well as the date that each task was completed. This information is then transferred to whatever project management package in use at the organization. While time accounting software c an be used without integration with project management packages, when integrated, it can greatly simplify the sometimes difficult tracking functions in project management packages.

An example of time accounting packages is Time Sheet Professional from Timeslips

Implementing Packages

Certainly, it helps project managers manage their projects more effectively if they break projects down into phases, activities, and tasks. Similarly, software package implementation tends to be more effective when phased in. Unfortunately, however, in their zeal to " get current," organizations often try to implement too many changes at once. Thus organizations that formerly had no tools at all might acquire three or more. The acceptance of those tools, and sometimes even the methodology, plummets.

For organizations starting from scratch with project management-related software tools, the following order can help tremendously in implementation:

++ Time accounting packages. These packages should be introduced first because they affect the largest number of people. When using these packages, everyone on a project team has to track his or her time, and it’s often quite a shock to people who have never had to track time before. When a time accounting system is implemented, it’s critical that people understand that the purpose is not to police their work. Rather, the goal is to collect accurate data on how a current project is going, and to build an accurate database for estimating future projects.

++ Project management packages. The organization will be ready to standardize on a project management software package three to six months after it introduces a time accounting package. Project managers should be involved in the selection of this standard. Otherwise, implementing the tool will be more difficult because managers feel they were not included, or don’t understand the rationale behind the selection of a specific tool. Having a core group of project managers supporting the selected tool enables the company to include them in pilot testing of the system, and in system training. This also forms a core advocacy group for the new tool.

++ Process management packages. In another three to six months after the project management package is introduced, project managers will be ready to further hone their project management skills. With a few projects under their belts using the time accounting and project management tools, they will be able to more fully integrate the new process management tools into their project planning process. If, however, process management tools are introduced too soon, project managers might not have enough real project experience to appreciate the benefits of the somewhat complicated process management tools.

CONCLUSION

Successful projects are critical to the success of not only project managers, but to the whole IS department - and even to the company. Selecting appropriate project management methodologies and life cycles, and supporting them with the proper software tools, can help immeasurably with project success.

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