April « 2009 « Dr. John A. Estrella’s Blog

Archive for April, 2009

Learn the fastest way to create a work breakdown structure (WBS)

7 April 2009

Whisk through work breakdown structures by using WBS Chart Pro™

In the past, I used to create work breakdown structures (WBS) by brainstorming with my project team using a white board, sticky notes or by projecting my notes (old organizational hierarchy feature of Microsoft Office PowerPoint, a bullet list in Microsoft Office Word or the Gantt Chart view in Microsoft Office Project).

With WBS Chart Pro, you can visually create a WBS, as it should be, and then export the results into Microsoft Office Project. The bidirectional feature is really neat (changes in WBS Chart Pro get reflected in Microsoft Office Project in real-time and vice-versa). During your weekly progress meeting, you can use WBS Chart Pro to show a graphical summary of your project.

Go to Critical Tools to get more information and to download a trial version.

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Tags: critical tools, wbs, wbs chart pro
Posted in Project Management | 2 Comments »

How do you make your contingency reserves 99.73% accurate?

7 April 2009

Use three-point estimates to make contingency reserves more accurate

Duration and cost estimates can be greatly improved by incorporating uncertainty and risks. Unfortunately, some project managers simply pick an arbitrary percentage when allocating contingency reserves (e.g., 10% or 25% of the total duration or cost).

For each project activity, ask your team members to provide three estimates: most likely (t_M), optimistic (t_O) and pessimistic (T_M). You can do this for duration only, cost only or both. Use PERT analysis to calculate the expected value (t_E) using the formula t_E = (t_O + 4t_M + t_P) / 6. Calculate the standard deviation (t_S) = (t_P – t_O) / 6.

Manage your project based on t_E. Your contingency reserve should be +/- 3t_S. In doing so, statistically, there is a 99.73% probability that the duration or cost will fall within t_E +/- 3t_S.

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Tags: estimating, three-point estimates
Posted in Project Management | No Comments »

What is the most important thing to remember in a project?

7 April 2009

Project Team Remember that you are managing people in your projects

Regardless of the size of your project, remember that you are managing people—not processes, not procedures, not the PMBOK® Guide! People will develop the project charter and the project management plan—and collect requirements, define the scope, create the WBS and so on. Given this, you need to take the time to know your project team members. Find out their likes and dislikes.

What type of work do they like to do? What motivates them? Do they need detailed instructions or will a high-level description of the objective be sufficient? How did they perform on their last project? Most importantly, you need to treat them with respect.

If you take good care of the people in your project, they will take good care of your project.

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Tags: project team
Posted in Project Management | 2 Comments »

Lessons Learned: SharePoint for Project Management

2 April 2009

A client of mine installed SharePoint back in 2007 to manage a large program which comprised of twelve projects. Ten senior managers (not necessarily project managers) managed the projects. I chaired the monthly steering committee meetings and provided expert guidance on various aspects of the program.

Only three to four project managers used the SharePoint site regularly to upload the weekly status reports. Although it is common sense, we learned that we need to train ALL users how to use SharePoint in order for them to actively use it. We hardly used the following features: picture libraries, lists (announcements, calendars, tasks, etc.), discussion boards, surveys and so on. Again, it could be because of the lack of training.

We found the collaboration feature useful for team members who happened to be in North America, Europe and South America at various times. The e-mail notification for new uploads was useful too.

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Tags: lessons learned, sharepoint
Posted in Project Management | 5 Comments »

What is missing in the PMBOK® Guide Fourth Edition Collect Requirements process?

1 April 2009

I applaud the new Collect Requirements process in the Project Scope Management knowledge area of the PMBOK® Guide Fourth Edition. Although eight tools and techniques were listed, I did not see practical tips to discern the advantages and disadvantages of each tool or technique. Such guidelines would have been useful for project managers when deciding which tool or technique to use. I am hoping to see it on the next edition.

Interviews—ideal if you have few stakeholders who are all located in one place; the disadvantage is it takes too much time to do

Focus groups, facilitated workshops, group creativity techniques and group decision making techniques—project managers should watch out for groupthink

Questionnaires and surveys—potential problems with low response rates

Existing stuff—valuable source of requirements; not even mentioned in the PMBOK Guide

What do you think? Please click on the comment link to share your thoughts.

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Tags: #pmot, cbap, pmbok
Posted in Business Analysis, Project Management | 2 Comments »