Simplify Your Life to Find Your Authentic Self

 

In this world of tons of data, we have over complicated our lives to the max. Sometimes it takes just a little attention to simplify your life and therefore be much more at peace. I know in my house we have 6 computers, 2 printers, a scanner and storage on a wireless network. The amount of data I can get bogged down in daily is huge. I have one child in college and one that will be a senior in college. Just keeping the paper work for his test scores, college applications and checklists take a huge hunk of my time. Granted, I am an overachiever, but that’s my problem.

So what can we do to simplify our lives? Here are some ideas I have and have borrowed from others.

·       De-clutter your work area. I listen to the Oprah XM channel and there is a guy on the show that specializes in de-cluttering. He has some great recommendations that I have started implementing. Take 2 bags with you to your room. One bag is for garbage and one bag is for the Goodwill. It is amazing how my things have multiplied over the years! I have also promised not to keep another magazine without throwing one out first. Some things I have kept as mementoes, but it is amazing what I was able to get rid of.

·       Clean your desktop. Every evening, I clean my desktop off and write in my planner what I need to do the next day. That way, when I start work, I feel clean. Only problem, is I am a workaholic and sometimes the work hours are sporadic!

Sitting at a desk with no clutter will keep our minds clear and thinking about the task at hand. Also, keeping your planner up to date will make you feel on top of things.

·       Make your bed. Many of us don’t make our bed the first thing after we get up. I always do. I feel so much more comfortable with it made. Mostly since I work at home, it makes a clear start to the work day.

·       Clear your inbox. This is one of my harder tasks. I get so much email; I have to force myself to have set times when I read email. I have lots of folders, but I still end up with a mess of email to deal with. This is one of my goals for improvement.

·       Eat slowly. Sit down at the table and have a proper meal. This is hard for me. Sometimes I forget to eat lunch at all! With phone calls, webinars, writing, coaching, meetings…wait. I am doing exactly what I am preaching not to do. It is better for your digestive system to eat slowly and also to take a nice walk after lunch before getting back to the races.

·       Drive slower. I am very bad with this item. Luckily, working at home helps. But I live in the Houston area and people drive crazy here. One thing I have to make a habit of doing is turning my cell phone off while I’m in car. More than once, an angle has saved me from an accident while I was turning my purse inside out looking for my cell phone! Better yet, take a walk and enjoy the beautiful nature God has given us.

·       Laugh out loud or Smile. That’s one reason I listen to the XM radio channels to get in a few giggles. It does wonders for my spirit.

·       Talk to people. This is easy for me since I am such a people person. The only problem is I can get caught up in talking too long! It does help break the day up. Make sure to mix business discussions with pleasurable discussions to help even out your conversations.

·       Work on what is most important to you. If you have read my blog before, you know how much I believe in having a mission statement. If what you are doing does not fit in with your goals, drop it. We only have so much time and once it’s gone we can’t get it back. It is vital that you work on what is important to your goals, roles and mission.  If you have a job that doesn’t allow that – find a new one. Time is too short to waste. We never know when it is our time to go so let’s enjoy life as much as we can while we are here!

 

Work Breakdown Structure

Have you ever mapped out a family tree? Our family has done this for years tracing us back to Charlemagne. Genealogy is favorite habit started my Grandfather.

A work breakdown structure (WBS) is very similar to a family tree. It maps out the deliverables of the project, with sub deliverables and activities stemming in a tree format. One of my favorite ways to do the WBS is with yellow post it’s so you can move them around to where they belong. Once I worked on a project where we had to tape together all of the papers that included the post it’s and it was at least 25 pages. This served us well when we showed management the magnitude of the scope of the project!

Doing this on large sheets of paper is useful so you can capture the finished product. A Guide to the PMBOK describes a WBS this way: “A WBS is a deliverable oriented grouping of project components that organizes and defines the total scope of the project; work not defined in the WBS is outside of the project”.

A Work Breakdown Structure is break down the work packages to enable you to roll them back up to a schedule that is complete. A work package is usually no more than 40 hours.

The WBS should detail the full scope of work needed to complete the project. Accuracy and completeness are required when composing your WBS.

Decomposition is one of the tools you will use when preparing your WBS. You should be able to break down the deliverables to a point where you can easily plan, execute, control and close out the project deliverables. Each work package should be able to be easily estimated in the Activity Definition Process.

You can think of this process in 4 major steps:

1.    Identify all of the major deliverables. The PMBOK is clear on noting that the deliverables should be defined according to the way the project is organized. One way is to organize a project in phases. The phases become the first level of decomposition, followed by the deliverables.

2.    Step2 involves estimating cost and duration. If that cannot be done, then you have to decompose further until the work package can be estimated. I usually use a work package of 20-40 hours at the most. Not all deliverables will have the same level of decomposition. In any case, a schedule cannot be made until the WBS is complete and has estimates that are as accurate as possible.

3.    Step 3 involves identifying components that make up the deliverables.

4.    Step 4 is the verification step. You need to determine that each component listed is clear, complete and necessary to fulfill the requirements of the deliverable. Also, you need to easily add up all the estimates, budget and assignments to create a solid schedule.

A WBS looks very much like a flow chart. The goal is to break down the work so that each work package can be assigned to a specific person for accountability and the Project Manager can easily manage the schedule knowing that all parts of the project have been broken down to their smallest part.

Each Work package is assigned a unique identifier and these are documented in the WBS dictionary. The dictionary includes a description of the work package, costs, budgets, schedule dates, resource assignments and activity descriptions.

This process sounds like a lot of work, but it is a known fact that the more you plan, the better you will be in the end.  I like to use SharePoint to keep this document and keep for the project records.

The WBS plays a major part of Project Management. For those taking the PMP certification course, I was told that if you didn’t know the answer to a question WBD probably was it!

PMP Notes for Scope Management

Scope Management is the process of defining what work is required and then making sure that all of the work and only the work is done. This Process includes scope planning, scope defintion, creation of the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), scope verification and scope control.

Any Project Manager will tell you that “scope creep”is one of the worst problems on a project. That means you must institute a formal Change Control mechanism. All scope must fit the Program’s charter (defined earlier in the process).

You should be giving the customer what he asked for; no more, no less. I heard someone once compare it to having a customer order a VW and the engineering team building a Cadillac. Giving away extras is a waste of time and adds to the risk of the project. Maybe it only takes 30 minutes to code; but what about testing, documentation, and training to name a few.

Scope Management involves mastering both product and project scope. Product Scope is another way to say “requirements that relate to the product of the project”. Project scope is the work you need to deliver that product.  This includes meetings, reports, analysis and any other project related activities.

Scope baseline: Measurements of success on the project include whether the requirements have been met and whether the scope baseline has been met. The scope baseline is the scope statement , the work breakdown structure and the work breakdown structure dictionary.

Scope planning is focused on thinking ahead and thinking “how will I do this” before doing the work and the Scope Management Plan.

The Scope Management Plan answers “how will I do scope? What tools should I use to plan how the project will accomplish the scope of this project?” The output of Scope Planning is the Project Scope Management Plan. It should contain 3 parts: how will the scope be planned, executed and controlled. It may be created in iterative steps during project planning. Once complete, it becomes part of the overall Project Plan and cannot be changed without going through a formal Change review process. Once you get to Risk Planning, it is possible that changes will have to be made to the Scope using the formal Change review process.

Scope definition: Scope definition is primarily concerned with what is and is not included in the project.  Scope definition takes into account constraints and assumptions. The result is used to manage and measure the project performance.

Stakeholder Analysis: This process makes sure the stakeholders’ needs are metm and turned into requirements.

Product Analysis: This analyzes the objectives stated by the customer or sponsor and turns them into tangible requirements.

Project Scope Statement: The preliminary scope statement is expanded into the “final” project scope statement to be used on the project. Different approaches to performing the work and incorporating the needs of the stakeholders are taken into consideration.

Scope planning inputs:

• Product description
• Project Charter
• Project constraints
• Project assumptions

The tools and techniques that may be used are benefit/cost analysis, expert judgement, product analysis and alternatives identification.

The main key message here is to have a clearly defined Change Management Plan to address any changes to the final scope. When a change is made, if it is deemed necessary, will cause many other plans and the schedule to be re-done. Changes should be documented as required, important, non-critical or nice to have.

 

 

Who Am I?

There are a myriad of personality tests out there to help with career assement, personality assessment etc. I thought I’d list a few for you to look at:

• Myers-Briggs: this has been around for a long time. Although some don’t think it goes into enough depth, It’s still used today. It is based on research by Carl Jung.It basically looks at 4 areas making up 16 different personality types:   Favorite World: Do you prefer to focus on the outer world or the inner world? This is called Extrovert (E) or Introvert). Information: Do you prefer to focus on the basic information you take in or do you prefer to interpret and add meaning? This is called Sensing (S or Intuition (N). Structure: When dealing with the outside world do you prefer to get things done or do you prefer to stay open to new information and options? This is called Judging (J) or Sensing (S). Your personality type:When you decide on your preferences in each category of the Myers-Briggs Indicator instrument you have your own personality type which is expressed in 4 letters. Mine is ENTJ.
• Winslow Dynamics Profile: This is an in depth description of your personality as determined by a self assessment test. My report was 38 pages.
• Various 360 degree tests: these are usually assessments done by your boss, your peers, your reports and yourself. The can be quite enlightening.
• The Birkman Advanced Report: This report consists of 298 questions and produces a series of related report sets that facilitates team building and personal development. It includes areas of interest, stress behaviors, unusual behaviors, underlying needs and organizational focus. My report was about 100 pages.
• Campbell Interest and skill survey: this measures self reported vocational interests and skills. It was written by David Campbell, PhD.
• MAPP Assessment: This takes about 15 minutes and identifies your motivations towards work allowing you to match yourself to the correct job.
• Self Management Profile: This quick assessment allows you to measure your effectiveness to be self employed.
• The Color Code: this test measures you to be a Red, Blue, Yellow or white. I am a purple

 

PMP Notes for Risk Management

• Risk - uncertainty; good or bad
• Project risk meetings should be an agenda item at each status team meeting
• Risk Management - strategically fit; progressively monitored and controlled
• Risks grouped, sorted and treated by experts
• Risk management plan does to address responses to individual risks;
• There is a separate Risk response plan for each risk
• Risk identification - inputs from all areas; iterative
• Risks evaluated and responses written and followed when needed
• Brainstorming - most popular technique for identifying risk
• Delphi technique - anonymous; facilitator required to analyze and categorize risks
• The nominal group technique - participants self nominate and then have open discussion/clarification
• Crawford slip - 10 times 10 different answers, less interactions
• Checklist - quick and simple; danger of inconclusive and prejudgement
• List of identified risks - progressively adjusted throughout project life cycle
• Risk categories; technical, performance, management, organizational, external
• Risk tolerance- willingness to accept risk; risk thresholds help to measure effectiveness of plan
• Severity of risk - impact and probability; ranking; only to events
• Risk scale - ordinal (L,M,H) or cardinal
• Documenting the rationale of risk ranges is important component of risk interview
• Data precision ranking - data about risk useful? Risk understanding, component of risk interview
• Affinity diagramming - separate risks into groups treated by experts
• Risk Response - avoidance, transfer (deflect), mitigation and acceptance take
• Risk register - risk response plan - residual v. secondary risks
• Risk avoidance - plan change; totally avoid by doing something; eliminate root cause; most preferable
• Insurance and contracting are the methods of transferring (deflecting) risk. Splitting order is a method of risk mitigation.
• Risk acceptance - setting up the risk tolerance first; within limit
• Passive acceptance - do nothing, work around
• Active acceptance - contingency plan, fullback plan, proactive, start early
• Contingency planning is defining the steps to be taken if an identified risk event occurs
• Risk mitigation - reduce the probability or impact; level to accept; change the conditions; planning for what to do in case the risk materializes - probability and impact; specific tasks dome regardless of whether a risk occurs
• Risk taxonomy - identify risks, assess their probability and impact and understand the effectiveness of a particular mitigation strategy on a specific risk
• Known risks- contingency budget or reserve set aside and approved by the project manager, reduced proportionally toward the end of the project
• Unknown risks - management reserve
• When a risk is identified, budget and schedule time are identified and put into the contingency reserve and added to the operating budget of the project
• Corrective action - itself the output of all the controlling process; performing the workaround or the contingency plan in cost and risk control; performing expediting in schedule control
• When the influence of standards and regulations is unknown or uncertain, they must be considered under Project Risk Management.

PMP Notes for Human Resource Management

• Responsibility Assignment Matrix (RAM) - people who are working on tasks identified on the WBS
• Staffing Management Plan - when and how you need to hire what kind of talent
• Learning Curve Theory - the cost to produce an item will decrease each time the production is doubled
• Leading - establishing direction, aligning people and motivating and inspiring the team
• Staff selection - base on previous experience, personal interests, personal characteristics, availability, competencies and proficiency
• Reward and recognition - based on separately budgeted controllable cost; clear, explicit, achievable and cultural
• Scientific Management - clear and specific procedures result in effeciency and motivation
• Expectancy theory - results can be applied bu treating people with encouragement, givings them a sense of recognition and achievement, and giving praise publicly and criticism privately
• Maslov theory - hierarchy of needs; 5 levels (physiological, safety, love and affection, esteem and self actualization); lower needs met first
• Hertzberg theory - motivation/hygiene;hygiene factors need to be maintained;motivators or satisfiers are a sense of achievement and a sense of recognition for things done, the work itself, responsibility, advancement, growth etc. the dis-satisfiers or hygiene factors are company policies, relationships with supervisor, personal factors, status, security,  and others. Maintain hygiene factors by having a good working personal policy and good leadership practices, feeling of achievement, and recognition for work done; responsibility and empowerment.  
• McGregor theory - Theory X managers think that all people are basically lazy and that unless they are threatened or in some way forced to do work, they will not do any work. These managers work direct work to be done and do not allow very much participation in any decision making. Theory Y managers think that people will do a good job for the sake of doing it. They believe in participative management and sharing information with the worker. These managers also listen to problems that are brought by their staff.
• Theory Z - this theory believes that high levels of trust, confidence and commitment to work on the part of management leads to high levels of motivation and productivity.
• Job design - change negative attitudes
• Job enrichment - plan and control included; for motivational effects; a lack of boredom, a feeling that the work is meaningful, a feeling of being responsible, for the consequences of what work is done and how it is done and a feeling of competence in accomplishing the task.
• Quality Circles - ad-hoc; volunteer group; address quality problems
• Outputs from team development - performance improvements and input to performance appraisals
• Project required direct and indirect costs for training are generally paid by the performing organization
• Coercive and reward power depends on the person being influenced believing that the the thing being requested can actually be done, that the reward or punishment can actually be given by the influencer, and that the reward or punishment is sufficient to motivate the person being influenced to do the work.
• Legitimate power - formal authority
• Referent power - charismatic and virtues of the leader give him power
• Expert power - knowledge or ability
• Representative power - delegated
• Conflict resolution - frustration acceptable; 5 ways of resolving conflicts: forcing, smoothing, compromising, problem solving (confrontation), withdrawing.
• Forcing - permanent solution, win-win lose approach, not good for building teams
• Smoothing - minimizing disagreement by making differences seem less important; demphasize area of difference, good for team but conflict may return
• Compromise - give up something to reach a common ground
• Problem solving (confrontation) - all disagreements must have one correct solution
• Withdraw - worst; negative; “Cooling off”
• For most meetings 10 people are optimum. Have a clear agenda, facilitator and time keeper. Things off the agenda are not discussed but a new meeting will be scheduled to discuss.

PMP Notes for Quality Managment

• Quality - characteristics; ability to satisfy stated or implied needs; conformance to requirements; fitness for use
• Grade - a category or rank given to entities having the same functional use but use different technical characteristics. Determining and delivering the required levels of both quality and grade are the responsibilities of the Project Manager and project management team.
• Modern quality management complements project management in customer satisfaction, prevention over inspection, management responsibility and processes within phases (plan-do-act-check).
• Quality planning - determine quality standards; may need to modify organization quality policy, stakeholders fully aware, have inputs from the scope statement, product description and other related processes; risks weighed.
• Quality assurance - monitor overall quality; provide confidence that the project will satisfy the relevant quality standards; through the project; internal and external.
• Quality Control - measure specific quality
• The quality assurance and control processes share the same inputs as the quality management plan and operational definitions, which are outputs of the quality planning. The work results and checklists are inputs to the quality control while the results of quality control measurements input to quality assurance. The outputs of both have quality improvement.
• Cost of quality - tools of quality planning, prevention, appraisal,  and failure (prevention, evaluation, repair)  costs the  the latter is broken down into internal and external costs; memeasurement and test equipment costs. Deming  said “85% of the cost of quality are the direct responsibility of management”.
• Metrics - operational definitions; output of quality planning; specify what and how to measure.
• Quality inspection - attributes or measurements
• Attribute sampling - result can either conform or not; fast; cheap; accurate
• Variables sampling - result rated in a continuous scale that measures the degree of conformity
• AQL (acceptable quality level)- % limit to accept; AQL 5% in 100 means that among 100 tested, of no more than 5 unqualified are found it will be acceptable.
• “Buyer’s Risk” - unqualified products are shipped to the customer as the result of sampling not being able to detect issues
• “Seller’s Risk” - qualified products are rejected to ship to the customer as the result of sampling not treating the whole
• In a control chart, the X is the mean value of the process data; X bar is the line. The Upper Control Limit (UCL) is 3* SD, the LCL (lower control limit is -3*SD.
• R chart means the range chart. Usually the sample’s range is calculated and the R is the mean of the range. R bar is the line.
• Usually the sample average ford not equal to the control average, X bar can be a calculated value or intentionally set up to manage the control.
• “Rule of 7″ - if there are 7 or more points in succession that are either above or below the mean value there is cause for concern about the process.
• Special causes - unusual events; specific people operating; intermittent and unpredictable; output is not stable over time and unpredictable; output is not stable oer time and not predictable; all processes must be brought into statistical control by first detecting and removing the Special cause variation.
• Common causes - system design; only corrected by  the management; output distribution stable over time; no adjustment; normal process variables
• Kaizen - continuous quality improvement; even the processes are operating without problem

 

PMP Notes for Project Cost Managment

These are just notes I had during my PMP study sessions More can be said and examples given for all of these notes.

• Price - what customer is willing to pay; justify the cost
• Cost - resources consumed; spending -  time phased expenditures
• “50 - 50 rule” - 50% of the earned value is credited as earned value when the activity begines. The remaining 50% is not credited until all the work is done.
• Resource planning - affected by the nature of the project and organization.
• Life cycle costing - product/ service future committments (guaruntees, warrenties and ongoing services)
• Value engineering - creative approach used to optimize life cycle costs, save time, increase profits, improve quality, expand market share, solve problems, and/or use resources more effectively. It is used with life cycle costing to reduce cost and time, improve quality and performance and optimize the decision-making. A technique used in product analysis in the scope planning process.
• “Order of magnitude scheduling” - beginnning; -25% to +75%
• Budget scheduling  -10% to +25%
• Definitive estimate  -5% to +10%
• Bottom up scheduling - definitive; rolling up the items of the WBS, -5% to +10%; higher cost and longer time to get estimate
• Top Down scheduling - limited infomrmation; on single estimate; not very accurate
• Anallogous scheduling - top downl; use of experts; for example, a 1000 sq foot house costs $50 for each foot in the past, now a 1000 new one should have the same cost and a 3000 sq foot one should cost 3 times more.
• Parametric - top down; use parameters; statistical relationsips; most likely to be reliable when 1) historical information used to develop the model is accurate; 2) the parameters used in the model are readily quantifiable; 3) the model is scalable (i.e. it works well for a very large project as well as a very small project). For example, a 1000 sq ft house costs $50 for each foot in the past and the new house has 3000 sq ft so the new cost should be 3000*$50.
• Cost budgeting - allocating; include cost of risk reponses; contigency plans and management reserve for unidentified risks.
• Variances many have differt impact over project phases. Earlier variances are more significant.
• Earned Value - approved cost estimates for activities completed during a given period. IT usually comes from the budget unit cost with actual units.
• Cost performance index (CPI) = Earned Value (EV) / Actual cost (AC), the amount of work accomplished per dollar spend.
• Cost variance (CV) = EV - AC
• Schedule Performance index (SPI) =  EV - Present Value (PV)
• Critical ration = CPI * SPI
• Estimate at completion (EAC) can be calculated different ways; When it is based on project performace and risk quatificaiton, current variances are typical. EAC = BAC/CPI or EAC = AC + (BAC-EV/(CPI * SPI)
• A more optimistic calculation when current variances are atypical and similar variances are not likely to occur in the future: EAC = AC + BAC - EV
• The estimate to complete (ETC) = EAC - EV = BAC/CPI - EV = BAC/EV*AC - EV
• Estimated time to complete is the budgeted tome to complete / SPI
• Variance at completion (VAC) = EAC - BAC
• Project completed, EV = PV. All values available to e earned have been earned
• Level of effort costs - AC = EV, earned on passage of time
• Spending variance = Present value (PV) - Actual value (AC)
• Project physical progress valued by schedule variance EV - PV. You are ahead of if this calculation is >0.
• If a project is over budget 25% during project phases, the project wil be completed with an iver budget condition greater than 25%
• Economic Value Added (EVA) - net profit compensates for cost of assets
• Sum of hte year’s digits method - 5 year, total is 5+4+3+2+1=15, first year 5/15, second year 4/15, third yeat 3/15…
• Double declining balances - 50% off the book value each year
• The total project budget contains the operating project budget or baseline, the contingency reserve and the management reserve. The projet baseline is increased by the amount of risk although the total project budget stays the same.

 

PMP Project Time Management Notes

My notes on Time Management for the PMP test.

 

     ·Baseline - original approved with approved change 

·Work Breakdown Structure: WBS - most central item; deliverable oriented;

 The WBS helps to define scope. One teacher told me if you do not know the answer to a

 question, it is probably WBS.

·Refinements = WBS updates; Revisions = Schedule updates

 (usually a result of scope/cost change, start/finish date)

·Work package - lowest level to manage; lowest level of WBS;

 assigned to one person; broken into activities, and then discrete tasks;

 level-of-effort, proportionate

·WBS dictionary - work package descriptions; schedules; budgets;

 and staff assignments

·CWBS, Contractual WBS – when and what information supplied

 to the buyer

·OBS, Organizational BS - relate work package to individuals and

 resources; organizational WBS

·Change control process – set up in scope definition; implemented with baseline;

 authorized change; itself need to be authorized

·Dependencies - mandatory, discretionary, or external; restricted by constraints

·Project network diagrams - activities and the logical relationships; explanation of their

 sequencing; PERT chart; PDM is a method

·Activity duration estimates – specific numbers, range, possibility; 2 weeks ± 2 days

 or 85% probability 3 weeks or less

·Leads – start earlier; -; FS –2 the successor start 2 days earlier before the finish of the

 predecessor

·Lags - more time needed, +; FS +2 the successor start 2 days later after the

 finish of predecessor

·Effort - people-hours; estimated cost

·Duration - time to do a task; only working time

·Span - time that elapsed between the start and finish; considered in activity

 duration estimating

·Total float, or Slack = LF – EF or LS – ES based on duration, not activity

·Total float (slack) – time of activity can be delayed without causing a delay in

 the overall project time; negative float not enough time; accident of the logic;

 no risk consideration involved; chain activity floats are all the same but can only

 be used once

· Free float – time of activity can be delayed without delaying the early start of

 any immediately following activities; no negative; occur when two or more

 activities share a common successor

·Float variance analysis – sorted sub critical activities analyzed

·Critical path - group of activities; “zero float”; longest path; shortest

 finish time; could not delay without delaying the project no resource constraints

 considered; deterministic numbers; not critical activities, just activity duration;

 may change as time progresses; may have more than 1

·Overloaded resources may result inefficiencies

·Resource leveling – accommodate resource constraint; result longer than

 preliminary schedule; adjustments to critical activities; reduce the over-utilization

 of resources. This is very easy to use with Microsoft Project Server.

·Critical chain – schedule with resource limits; buffers used; time/resource/risk

·Crashing - doing anything to reduce delay; often higher cost; time/cost optimization

·Fast tracking - overlapping of project phases or activities; often rework or higher risk.

· A project schedule should not be adjusted by lengthening the duration of the activities

·Buffering – increase schedule or reduce risk; using lags in the relationships

 or creating buffer activities (create a duplicate activity for each activity that is to be buffered)

·Gantt Charts - timing and orders; hide relationships and resource requirements

·PERT, Project Evaluation and Review Technique

·Expected Value = (Optimistic + 4*Most Likely + Pessimistic)/6

 Normally, the expected value is higher than the average value and  

 the most likely value because most activities take more time rather than less.

 The most likely value has a higher probability than the expected value (Standard Deviation =

(Pessimistic – Optimistic)/6

·95.5% probability of being within 2* Standard Deviation of the expected value (mean value)

·99.7% probability of being within 3*Standard Deviation of the expected value

·Project duration – only the critical path duration and SD

·In PERT, if the scheduled project completion time and sum of the average completion

 time for critical path activities are the same, the probability of completing the project

 on schedule is estimated at 50%, assuming no other paths are near-critical.

·PERT assumptions – stable critical path; “Beta” probability distribution; defined time;

 resource free; cost direct of time; no time value

·GERT, Graphic Evaluation and Review Technique – simulation; probability distributions

 and conditional logic; looping

·The result of CPM, PERT, GERT dates are not the schedule, but rather indicate the

 time periods within which the activity could be scheduled given resource limits and

 other known constraints.

·Monte Carlo – simulation; result probability of each possible date or cost;

 You need pessimistic, optimistic, and most likely values and likelihood of the estimate between

 the optimistic and most likely values

·Simulation – uncertainties translated into impacts and possibilities; used in schedule

 development & quantitative risk analysis; Monte Carlo, GERT, What-if;

·The project schedule remains preliminary until resource assignments have

  been confirmed. This would usually happen no later than the completion of project

  plan development.

·The supporting details of the project schedule - resource requirements by time period;

 Alternative schedules and schedule contingency reserves may be used.

·When risk occurs, schedule baseline will be adjusted to include the contingency

 reserve time, which will be deducted from the reserve pool.

 

PMP Integration Notes

 

·         Project management - application of knowledge, skills,

       and techniques to project  activities to meet or exceed

       stakeholder needs and expectations

·         Operations and projects share many characteristics: performed

       by people; constrained by limited resources; planned, executed 

       and controlled

·         Project - temporary endeavor; unique product or service; beginning

       and ending; life cycle; milestones; process groups 

·         Project – should be aligned with the organizational strategic objectives

·         Projects - progressively elaborated; products, goals and objectives

·         Project management – organizational efficiency and flexibility

·         Project Management Methodologies – detailed project life cycle descriptions

·         Project interfaces – organizational, technical, interpersonal

·         Project stakeholders – anyone has something associated with

       the project

·         Characteristics of phases: milestones, objectives, activities and 

       deliverables

·         Information flow between the executing process group and the

       controlling process group; knowledge areas of project quality

       management (quality assurance process, quality control process)

       and project communication management (information distribution

       process, performance reporting process)

·         Project Integration Management – processes integration;

       operation integration; project/product scope integration;

       describes the processes required to ensure that the various

       elements of the project are properly coordinated

·         Project Management Information System (PMIS) – tool of

       integration management; gather, integrate, and disseminate;

       outputs of all the project management processes

·         Configuration management  - ensure that the description of the

       product is correct and complete; an integrated change control

       technique; when change happens, make sure product functions

       and design characteristics are still kept correct; documented

       procedure used to apply technical and administrative direction

       and surveillance to 4 steps procedures

·         Projectized organization  - project manager power; focus

       and goals clear; efficiency sacrificed; no flexibility; used for large sized

       projects or remote projects.

·         Matrix organization - functional managers staffing and

       administrative work; project manager project work; balance of

       power; complex; demanding for communications and management skills;   

·         Traditional organization - functionally organized; difficult to changes;

       internally focused; still can have projects

·         Project office - projects processes and practices integration;

       provides direction, controls, and reporting structure for projects;

       centralized project management expertise; 3 functions – project

       management services, operation support, management competency;

       danger of project team authority eroding

·         The organization that is a formalized structure directed toward

       the support of the project community within the organization –

       project office

·         The organization that is a formalized structure where the project

       teams and the project managers reside – project management office

·         Planning - most important; executing – most time and costs;

       input preventive and corrective actions; Controlling – taking

       preventive and corrective actions

·         Change control system – tool for change control; a collection

       of formal, documented procedures that defines how project

       performance will be monitored and evaluated, and includes

       the steps by which official project documents may be changed.

       Also defines the Change Control Board.

·         Project conflicts – schedule, project priorities, personal resources

·         Lessons learned and historical records - essential inputs to every

       process

·         Historical records – project files, commercial database, project

       team knowledge

·         Inputs:

o   Contract Closeout has the least inputs

    (1, contract documents);

o   Risk Response Planning has the most inputs (11),

     followed by the Schedule Development (10)

·         Tools and techniques

o   4 processes; Scope Verification (inspection), Communications

      Planning (stakeholder analysis), Risk Management Planning

      (planning meetings) and Contract Closeout (procurement audits)

      have the least tools

o   3 processes; Project Plan Execution (6), Schedule Development (6),

      and Quality Control (6) have the most tools

·         Outputs

o   7 processes; Scope Verification (formal acceptance),

      Resource Planning (resource requirements),

      Cost Budgeting (cost baseline), Quality Assurance

      (quality improvement), Risk Management Planning

      (risk management plan), Solicitation (proposals) and

      Source Selection (contract) have the least outputs 

o   Risk Response Planning has the most outputs (11),

     followed by Cost Control (6) and Risk Monitoring

     and Control (6)

·         The project management team should familiar – statistical

       sampling techniques; organizational theory; team building

       activities

·         ISO 9000 provides minimum requirements for an organization

       to meet their quality certification standards

·         Same tools and techniques used

o   Cost Estimating and Cost Budgeting

o   Quality Planning and Quality Assurance

o   Information Distribution, Performance

     Reporting (Partial) and Administrative Closure (Partial)

·         Most used inputs

o   Constraints/Assumptions - 8

o   Project plan development

o   Scope planning

o   Scope definition

o   Activity duration estimating

o   Schedule development

o   Communication planning

o   Qualitative risk analysis

o   Procurement planning

o   WBS - 7

·         Scope verification

·         Scope control

·         Activity definition

·         Resource planning

·         Cost estimating

·         Cost budgeting

·         Risk management planning

·         Scope statement - 6

·         Scope definition

·         Scope verification

·         Activity definition

·         Resource planning

·         Quality planning

·         Procurement planning

·         Project plan

·         Project plan execution

·         Integrated change control

·         Team development

·         Information distribution

·         Performance reporting

·         Most used tools and techniques – expert judgments

o   Initiation

o   Scope planning

o   Activity duration estimating

o   Resource planning

o   Procurement planning

o   Solicitation planning

o   Source selection