Aldersgate College, Solano, Nueva VizcayaInstructionalModules in GS-MPA 270-Project

Development Management & Planning

Module 4- Project Implementation and Management

Professor: Romeo M. Bicad, Ph.D

Preq. Skill :
Level : MPA 1
Allotted Time : Six (6) Hours

Overview

This course module focuses on project management. Today’s complex environments require
ongoing implementations. Project management is a method and mindset, a disciplined approach to
managing chaos. Project management provides framework for working amidst persistent change.

Objectives

Upon completion of this module, you should be able to:

1. Align projects to organizational mission, goals and objectives.

2. Get things done in an organization when not in control.
3. Manage smaller projects and keep track of them.
4. Be organized when organization is not your greatest strength.
5. Understand the establishment of a project management office.
6. Develop effective work teams with individuals who dislike one another.
7. Get realistic timeframes attached to project initiatives.
8. Control changes to development.
9. Improve change management practices.
10. Apply PM in higher education, a culture not known for application in business-like
methods.
Pretest

Answer the following questions based on your own opinion or personal view.

1. Define project management.

2. How to align projects to organizational mission, goals and objectives?
3. How do you develop effective work teams?
4. How do you improve change in management practices?
5. How is project management applied in higher education?

Learning Focus: (you may refer to the corresponding pdf file or ppt. presentations in the syllabus)
A. Project Management: Official Definition

 A project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product or service. It implies

 a specific timeframe
 a budget
 unique specifications
 working across organizational boundaries

Project Management: Unofficial Definition

 Project management is about organization

 Project management is about decision making
 Project management is about changing people’s behavior
 Project management is about creating an environment conducive togetting critical projects
done

Why Projects Fail

 Failure to align project with organizational objectives

 Poor scope
 Unrealistic expectations
 Lack of executive sponsorship
 Lack of project management
 Inability to move beyond individual and personality conflicts
 Politics

Why Projects Succeed

 Project Sponsorship at executive level

 Good project charter
 Strong project management
 The right mix of team players
 Good decision making structure
 Good communication
 Team members are working toward common goals

Why this matters to YOU

 Most of us get to where we are by some technical or specific set of skills

 If you want to get things done, you need a good blend of
 Business knowledge
 People management
 Knowledge of organizational politics
 AND an area of technical expertise

– Those are the people that make things happen!

B. Laws of Project Management

  No major project is ever installed on time, within budget, or with the same staff that started it.
Yours will not be the first.
 Projects progress quickly until they become 90% complete, then they remain at 90% complete
forever.
 When things are going well, something will go wrong.
 When things just cannot get any worse, they will.
 When things appear to be going better, you have overlooked something.
 No system is ever completely debugged. Attempts to debug a system inevitably introduce new
bugs that are even harder to find.
 A carelessly planned project will take three times longer to complete than expected
 A carefully planned project will take only twice as long.
 Project teams detest progress reporting because it vividly manifests their lack of progress.

C. Core Project Management Tools

 Project Charter
 Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
 Project Schedule
 Project Budget

Project Charter

 What must be done?

 What are the required resources?
 What are the constraints?
 What are the short and long term implications?
 Why do it?
 When must it be done?
 Where must it be done?
 Who does what?
 Who is behind the project?
 Who is funding the project?
 Who is performing the work of the project?

 Project Goal & Objective

 Sponsor
 Stakeholders
 Timeline
 Resources required
 Deliverables
 Decision making
 Assumptions
 Risks
 Business process changes
 Project manager
 Project team
 Budget
 Signatures

Assumptions

 Opportunity to put it all out there

 Challenges facing the project
 Implications
 Organizational history
 Political implications
 Impact to traditional power
 Requirements of decision-making
 Write down what cannot be said
 Keep it objective

Case Study – Mojo College

MoJo College, a small, private, liberal arts school with an enrollment of 2000, has determined
that they want to replace their homegrown student, HR and financial information system. They
survived Y2K by the heroic efforts of their IT team, the veteran staff who wrote the system 25 years
ago. However, administrators listened to their new CIO as she explained the growing risk to the
school by their ultimate reliance on a programming staff that was nearing retirement. Additionally,
enrollment has been in a steady decline for the past decade. College administrators are attuned to
the competition, many of which have instituted new enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems.
They wanted a new system that would allow them to perform better projections of student
recruitment and retention.

The CIO prepared a project proposal. Trained in project management methodology, she
completed a project charter delineated the major components of the project. Among her
assumptions, she stated that in order to be successful her IT staff will need to be complemented by
a team of IT contractors to not only implement the new system, but help the current staff maintain
the existing system. She later presented a budget to administrators for more than $5 million, two
thirds ($2 million) of which was contract support.

The executive team of MoJo College reviewed the project plan. They agreed with the goals,
objectives, project team and the schedule. The only area where they balked was the budget. The
CFO was concerned that the new CIO was being overly cautious by bringing in so much contract
help. Furthermore, he was worried that the school’s endowment could not afford $5 million. The
 last few years saw endowment fund income drop dramatically due to the stock market fluctuations.
He proposed that the project budget scale back the contract help in half, to $1 million. His
assumption was that the current IT staff could shoulder the load for a few years.

The CIO was taken aback. She was confident that she had presented realistic budget projections.
She had worked with counterparts at other schools, the vendor and her staff. She had a strong
understanding of the realistic workload of such an endeavor based on her experience in a previous
job. A warning signal was going off in her head! However, the experienced professional that she
was, she absorbed the feedback, asked for any other suggestions and then asked for some
additional time to review them in total and return to the administrative team in a week.

D. Work Breakdown Structure

 Identify the major task categories

 Identify sub-tasks, and sub-sub-tasks
 Use verb-noun to imply action to something
 Example: Getting up in the morning
– Hit snooze button
– Hit snooze button again
– Get outa bed
– Avoid dog
– Go to bathroom…
  Requires structured brainstorming

E. Project Schedule Tools

 Many tools available
 Microsoft Project
 Many more specialized software
 [Link]
 Excel
 Most important
 Monitor tasks
 Gantt views of project
– one page views for executives
– rollout and more complex views for work teams
 Critical Paths
 Inputs from multiple teams that roll up to project manager
 Dependencies
 Resources assigned to tasks

Project Schedule
Critical Paths

 Milestones that impact downstream milestones and the overall timeline of project
 If you miss a Critical Path, the entire project is delayed, or
 You have to make up ground on downstream critical paths

Project Budget

 Direct Costs
 Indirect Costs
 Ongoing costs
Managing the Project

 Triple Constraint
 Five Stages
 Project Manager Role
 Decision Making Structure
 Communication Plan
 Meeting Management
 Team Development
 Navigating Organizational Politic

Triple Constraint

Five Stages of Project Management

Project Management (in our industry) is divided into five parts:

1. Project charter development
2. RFP Development and Process
3. Planning & Design
 Project team creation
 Project kick-off
 Planning (WBS, schedule)
 Budget
4. Implementation/construction
5. Project termination, hand-off to operations mgt.

Controlling Change Procedures

 Your Needs Assessment is your baseline document

 Establish process early for managing change orders
 Original scoping should be thorough as possible
 Any subsequent changes must be thoroughly vetted, a form should be completed and
members and executives must sign off

Managing Change

Project Manager’s Role

 Leadership
 Organization
 Communication
 Finance
 Technical savvy
 Politicking
 Team building
 Praising
 Punishing

People Problems

 2/3 of project problems are people related

 You will find many operational leaders demonstrate a “just do-it” mentality. While that
may be effective in some environments, this is NOT effective in managing change.
 There will always be conflict over goals and scope, resources and between departments
 You are likely to find a lack of understanding basic project management methods
 Some people will never get along

So you want to be a Project Manager

 You used to be good friends with your co-workers

 Project manager sandwich: pressure between co-workers and stakeholders
 The skills that brought you to this role are no longer as vital; now you need new skills
 You used to be really good at your work

Project Manager’s Key Strength

 Be the eye of the hurricane

Strategies for Managing Change

 Team Development

 Select the right players

 Complementary skillsets
 Blend of technical and business
 Align with WBS
 Stages of Team Development
 Formin’
 Stormin’
 Normin’
 Performin’
Learning Activities

Case Study: Analyze the following cases.

Case 1: Case Study – Mojo College

Case2: Methodology of ERP System Implementation- A Case Study of Project-Driven

Enterprise

Case 3: The Custom Woodworking Company- Woody 2000 Project (A Project

Management Case Study)