Good Project Plan Schedules

February 12, 2010 — Bruce McGraw

I had a great conversation this week about one of my earlier posts on creating effective and predictive project schedules.  It appears this subject is one of the common topics used in the maturity models being utilized these days.  So I thought I would give another perspective on creating a good project schedule.

Project schedules are essential tools to manage a project effectively – and when constructed correctly they also provide a predictive view of that schedule. Creating a schedule requires the PM to breakdown tasks into manageable parts, establish relationships among tasks, ensure that deadlines can be met, and assign sufficient resources to tasks. Here are some guidelines about project plan schedules from authoritative project management sources.

According to the Project Management Institute (PMI) in the accepted Body of Knowledge for Project management (PMBOK)

Project plan development uses the outputs of the other planning processes, including strategic planning, to create a consistent, coherent document that can be used to guide both project execution and project control. This process is almost always iterated several times. (PMBOK 4.1.3, pg. 44)

The PMBOK further states:

The project plan is a document or collection of documents that should be expected to change over time as more information becomes available about the project. (IBID)


Also, according to the Software Engineering Institute’s (SEI) Capability Maturity Model® Integration (CMMI), Version 1.1, Project Management is a key part of the maturity process and has two key areas for project plans considered areas for achieving the higher levels of maturity: 

  • Project Planning – Goal 1: Establishing Estimates, Goal 2: Developing a project plan.
  • Project Monitoring and Control – Goal 1: Monitoring the Project against Plan

To create a Project Plan schedule that meets all of the standards of a mature project schedule, both as defined in the PMBOK, the CMMI v1.1, and as widely accepted by Professional, certified project managers, should contain at a minimum these 10 items:

  1. Sufficient level of detail (Work breakdown and task sizes)
  2. Defined resources (Named)
  3. A complete network of dependencies (Adequate hard logic)
  4. Specific assignments (Resources against tasks)
  5. Sufficient use of milestones (Includes all Deliverables)
  6. Plan baselines (A static copy of the “plan” against which measures can be taken)
  7. Few constraints on tasks (Constraints are fixed and not predictive – like “Must finish on”)
  8. Actual work being recorded in the plans ( Actual work done on a period by period basis)
  9. Accurate metrics being calculated (Earned Value)
  10. Integration of all project schedules to provide a dynamic forecast and predictive outcome of impacts (“Workplans” or tasks for each team which form the complete schedule)

SEI summarized the use of project plans as:
“A project’s documented plan is the basis for monitoring activities, communicating status, and taking corrective action. Progress is primarily determined by comparing actual work product and task attributes, effort, cost, and schedule to the plan at prescribed milestones or control levels within the project schedule or work breakdown structure. Appropriate visibility enables timely corrective action to be taken when performance deviates significantly from the plan. A deviation is significant if, when left unresolved, it precludes the project from meeting its objectives.”  (CMMI V1.1, pg 219)

One other bit of advice about schedules based on my observations and experience:

A dangerous time in the life of a project is in the middle of the schedule. After the excitement of beginning the project and before the end of project—everything has to be done by when?—there is the sometimes abandoned middle. In the middle of a complex project execution, it is easy to assume that “there is plenty of time left”. One forgets the logic and experience used to build the original schedule.  Remember that a project schedule is not a “wall chart” to be placed on the wall and admired!

Bad idea! Bad practice!

Project managers need the discipline to monitor schedule and plan compliance every week. During project execution, project schedules should be monitored by actual work recorded against the plan.  This means tracking time against tasks.  This allows metrics to be used in the project processes necessary on large projects.  Using staff estimates of percentage complete rather than actual work performed and estimates to complete, is not an accurate method of monitoring progress on a large, multi-project program.  Additionally, without documented, supportable statistics, managers have no credible evidence to support resource demands during the execution of the project.

Following these basic principles gives you a better than average chance that your project schedule is a useful, predictive schedule and not just a static wall chart.

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Project Team Member Development

January 10, 2010 — Bruce McGraw

Happy New Year!  I have taken some time off during the transition to 2010 and hope you have been able to take some time with your family and friends also.  I want to continue my discussion on careers and share the 3rd in the series on Career development.

One of the most rewarding aspects of a project manager’s job can be team member development. Helping and watching individuals grow and mature is sometimes our greatest accomplishment.  It can also be trivial and useless if not taken seriously. Which side of the coin you reside on depends on how you do it and the attitude you bring to the process. In my experience, the best PM’s are committed to developing team members because it improves the individual, the team, and the organization.

What is Team Member Development?
Team member development has two parts. The first is helping an individual become a more effective contributor to a project. The second is helping the individual achieve personal career goals while furthering organizational goals.

New project managers often get their first exposure to thinking about team member’s career development when they are involved in personnel reviews – you know that activity that is part of human resource management. The evaluation process includes rating the employee’s skills and performance against an idealized standard. Any skill or behavior considered less than acceptable or only “good” points to areas for team member development.

Helping an employee achieve longer-term goals requires understanding what the employee desires as well as seeing how his potential can be shaped into skills required by the organization. The formal performance review may serve as a catalyst for a project manager to think about the career development of team members. However, it should not be the only time. Team member development must be an ongoing process that effects assignments, training, and feedback.

For example, let us say that there is a project task to evaluate new software testing tools. It may be tempting to give that assignment to the lead testing engineer or a senior developer who the PM knows can do the task quickly and correctly. A no-brainer, huh?

Alternatively, consider the task assignment from the perspective of team member development. In that case, a PM may assign the task to a less senior team member who could achieve the same useful result, perhaps a bit more slowly, while learning skills that would be useful to him and the organization in the future. Make no mistake, in this scenario the PM takes a risk on an untried performer and may need to provide more support or coaching to get the job done than going with a senior staff member. However, that task will still be done and the PM may find that the developing employee took the software evaluation more seriously and tried harder because she viewed the assignment as an opportunity, not just another task.

Why is Team Member Development a PM Task?
Project managers are well positioned to foster the development of team members. They know individual capabilities, work attitudes, and skill gaps through frequent direct contact and observation. They know the skills needed because of their project planning responsibility. In addition, project managers have a broader view than team members of corporate strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats possibly because of the vision and planning meetings they are required to attend. Here are a few ways a PM can positively influence team member development:

  1. Make assignments designed to build skills through experience and opportunities to work closely with seasoned professionals.
  2. Ensure that in house or external training is consistent with career goals as well as project requirements
  3. Use one-on-one feedback meetings to help employees make an honest assessment of their skills and improve understanding of the skills needed in current and potential positions
  4. Include career planning in performance reviews and create a career development plan with each individual
  5. Offer development opportunities such as rotating work assignments, cross training, or special projects that have wide corporate interest
  6. Make sure the employee knows about company training and educational assistance programs.
  7. Provide suggestions on courses or seminars that you found useful
  8. Work cooperatively with other project and program managers to recommend individuals for assignments that offer advancement opportunities or learning experience even if that means you will have to fill the project gap

Project managers who do team member development successfully (and enjoy it) are often those who were coached and mentored in their own career by senior managers with a vision of what their future could be. They appreciate the guidance, role modeling, and support they received in their career development and want to be part of helping others achieve.

Hope this gives you some good tips on the role of assisting in team member development.

 

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