Archive for category project planing
Creating a Work Breakdown Structure With Microsoft Project
Posted by admin in project planing on May 24, 2011
Creating a Killer Work Breakdown Structure with Microsoft Project
The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is a hierarchical decomposition of the project objectives into deliverable-oriented tasks that are executed by the project team to accomplish the overall project goals. The WBS forms the backbone of all the project planning activities. The WBS divides the scope of the project work into smaller, manageable work packages for maintaining better control of the project activities. As you move from the higher levels of the WBS to the lower levels, the definition of the project works gets more detailed with the upper levels representing the major phases of the project. It is imperative to remember that the WBS represents 100% of all the work defined in the project scope. Anything that is not included in the WBS is considered out of scope for the project.
Uses of the WBS
The WBS addresses the following requirements of the project:
· Defining the project scope in terms of deliverables and components
· Providing the framework on which the project status and progress reports are based
· Facilitating communication regarding the project scope, schedule, risk, performance, cost etc with the stakeholders throughout the project life cycle
· Providing inputs for other project management processes like estimation, scheduling, risk assessment etc
While creating the WBS, it is important to ensure that the WBS format is standardized across an entire portfolio of projects. This will ensure that data from a specific project can be easily retrieved and a repository comprising project data can be formed for future reference over a period of time.
Components of the Work Breakdown Structure Read the rest of this entry »
Best Practice Guide To Project Success by Lee McCance
Posted by admin in project audits, project planing, Project Success, software project on May 2, 2011
1. Question The Need For The Project
The quickest, cheapest and simplest way of improving your organisation’s levels of project success is to stop starting new projects. Question whether your new project is really required right now. If you aren’t going to do anything different between this new project and a previous project, chances are that this one will fail as well.
Instead plan a strategy for improving your project success rates. Once you have begun to implement some of the changes the start new projects. For the time being, stop projects failing by simply not starting any new ones.
2. Always Prototype Solutions
The use of prototypes will improve the rates of project success. From simple pictures and diagrams to functional working models, prototypes will improve the frequency, quality and quantity of stakeholder feedback into a project.
Train project members to storyboard user scenarios. Look to include a web developer in the plan to create basic mock-up application screens. One of the first deliverables in any project plan should be a form of prototype. Start getting stakeholder feedback as soon as possible.
The most effective teams, build prototypes, get feedback and then incorporate the feedback into the next set of prototypes. By providing stakeholders with this level of attention and focus leads to greater support. Individuals like to see their vision and ideas presented as a tangible entity rather than as a set of bullet points in a document.
3. Don’t Always Use Standard Templates For Documentation
Project documentation rarely gets properly read and fed back on. Stakeholders are too busy to read the amount of information that they are expected to read through and comment on. Invariable most will simply skim through large documents, read the executive summary and provide some high level feedback. The risk of this is that the Project Manager and team believe that they have got stakeholder buy-in whilst in reality they have just been lucky (unlucky?) because an area of potential contention has been missed by a stakeholder. Let the team document what is required against a set of prompts not rigid templates.
4. Make Sure Everyone Is Together
Where feasible make sure all of the project team are located in the same office. The quality and ease of communication flows directly affects the levels of project success.
Teams located in close proximity with their suppliers and other project members benefit because:
* Face to face communication is proven to be the most effective form
* It reduces the time of feedback loops
* It builds stronger team relationships
5. Give Them Space
If you want a successful project then you need team members 100% focused on delivering. Put the somewhere where they can’t be distracted from usual e-mails and telephone calls. Ideally rent project space away from your offices. This prevents any distractions as well as encourages teams to focus on the task in hand.
Whilst stakeholders will have to travel to the project team it will ensure that once there they will devote their time to the project team’s needs.
6. Team Building
As the project sponsor make sure that you have an effective team working for you. Are they motivated to deliver the project? Do you know the team dynamics? Be prepared to change team members if the dynamics aren’t working. Also invest in team-building activities early in the project and on an ongoing basis. Read the rest of this entry »