Part 3: Managing the process • PART 3: Process

• Chapter 11: Managing project teams

Project management: the managerial process

• Chapter 9:Reducing project duration

Project management: The managerial process

• Chapter 13:Progress and performance measurement

and evaluation
Project management: The managerial process

• Chapter 14: Project closure

Project management: the managerial process

Project Management
29-10-19 | 1
Where We Are Now

4-11-2015
pag. 2
Conditions Favoring Development of
High Performance Project Teams
• Ten or fewer team members
• Voluntary team membership
• Continuous service on the
team
• Full-time assignment to the
team
• An organization culture of
cooperation and trust
• Members report only to the
project manager
• All relevant functional areas
are represented on the team
• The project has a
compelling objective
• Members are in speaking
distance of each other
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 Building High-Performance Project
Teams
• Recruiting Project Members
– Factors affecting recruiting
• Importance of the project
• Management structure used to complete the project
– How to recruit?
• Ask for volunteers
– Who to recruit?
• Problem-solving ability
• Availability
• Technological expertise
• Credibility
• Political connections
• Ambition, initiative, and energy

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Project Team Meetings

Managing
Establishing
Subsequent
Ground Rules
Meetings

Conducting
Relationship Planning
Decisions Project Decisions
Meetings

Managing Change Tracking

Decisions Decisions

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Establishing a Team Identity

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 Managing Project Reward Systems

• Group Rewards
– Who gets what as an individual reward?

– How to make the reward have lasting significance?

– How to recognize individual performance?

• Letters of recommendation
• Public recognition for outstanding work
• Desirable job assignments
• Increased personal flexibility

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 Managing Conflict within the
Project Team

• Encouraging Functional Conflict

– Encourage dissent by asking tough questions.
– Bring in people with different points of view.
– Designate someone to be a devil’s advocate.
– Ask the team to consider an unthinkable alternative
• Managing Dysfunctional Conflict
– Mediate the conflict.
– Arbitrate the conflict.
– Control the conflict.
– Accept the conflict.
– Eliminate the conflict.

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 Rejuvenating the Project Team

• Informal Techniques
– Institute new rituals.
– Take an off-site break as a team from the project.
– View an inspiration message or movie.
– Have the project sponsor give a pep talk.
• Formal Techniques
– Hold a team building session facilitated by an outsider to
clarify ownership issues affecting performance.
– Engage in an outside activity that provides an intense common
experience to promote social development of the team.

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 Managing Virtual Project Teams

• Challenges:
– Developing trust
• Exchange of social information.
• Set clear roles for each team member.
– Developing effective patterns of communication.
• Keep team members informed on
how the overall project is going.
• Don’t let team members vanish.
• Establish a code of conduct to avoid delays.
• Establish clear norms and protocols for surfacing assumptions and
conflicts.
• Share the pain.

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Project Team Pitfalls

Bureaucratic
Groupthink
Bypass Syndrome

Team Spirit Becomes

Going Native
Team Infatuation

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Key Terms

Brainstorming
Dysfunctional conflict
Functional conflict
Groupthink
Nominal group technique (NGT)
Positive synergy
Project kickoff meeting
Project vision
Team building
Team rituals
Virtual project team

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Part 3: Managing the process • PART 3: Process
• Chapter 11: Managing project teams
Project management: the managerial process

• Chapter 9:Reducing project duration

Project management: The managerial process

• Chapter 13:Progress and performance measurement

and evaluation
Project management: The managerial process

• Chapter 14: Project closure

Project management: the managerial process

Project Management
29-10-19 | 13
Where We Are Now

4-11-2015
pag. 14
 Rationale for Reducing Project
Duration

• Time Is Money: Cost-Time Tradeoffs

– Reducing the time of a critical activity usually incurs
additional direct costs.
• Cost-time solutions focus on reducing (crashing) activities on the
critical path to shorten overall duration of the project.
– Reasons for imposed project duration dates:
• Time-to-market pressures
• Unforeseen delays
• Incentive contracts (bonuses for early completion)
• Imposed deadlines and contract commitments
• Overhead and public goodwill costs
• Pressure to move resources to other projects

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 Options for Accelerating Project
Completion

• Resources Not Constrained • Resources Constrained

– Adding resources – Fast-tracking
– Outsourcing project work – Critical-chain
– Scheduling overtime – Reducing project
scope
– Establishing a core project team
– Compromise quality
– Do it twice—fast and
then correctly

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 Explanation of Project Costs

• Project Indirect Costs

– Costs that cannot be associated with any particular work package or
project activity.
• Supervision, administration, consultants, and interest
– Costs that vary (increase) with time.
• Reducing project time directly reduces indirect costs.
• Project Direct Costs
– Normal costs that can be assigned directly to a specific work package
or project activity.
• Labor, materials, equipment, and subcontractors
– Crashing activities increases direct costs.

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Project Cost–Duration Graph

FIGURE 9.1

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 Constructing a Project Cost–
Duration Graph

• Find total direct costs for

selected project durations.
• Find total indirect costs for
selected project durations.
• Sum direct and indirect costs for these selected project
durations.
• Compare additional cost
alternatives for benefits.

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Constructing a Project Cost–Duration Graph

• Determining Activities to Shorten

– Shorten the activities with the smallest increase in cost
per unit of time.
– Assumptions:
• The cost relationship is linear.
• Normal time assumes low-cost, efficient
methods to complete the activity.
• Crash time represents a limit = the greatest time reduction
possible under realistic conditions.
• Slope represents a constant cost per unit of time.

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Activity Graph

FIGURE 9.2

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Summary Costs by Duration

FIGURE 9.5

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Project Cost–Duration Graph

FIGURE 9.6

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 What if Cost, Not Time Is the
Issue?

• Commonly Used Options for Cutting Costs

– Reduce project scope

– Have owner take on more responsibility

– Outsourcing project activities or even the entire

project

– Brainstorming cost savings options

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Key Terms

Crashing
Crash point
Crash time
Direct costs
Fast-tracking
Indirect costs
Outsourcing
Project cost–duration graph

4-11-2015
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Part 3: Managing the process • PART 3: Process
• Chapter 11: Managing project teams
Project management: the managerial process

• Chapter 9:Reducing project duration

Project management: The managerial process

• Chapter 13:Progress and performance

measurement and evaluation
Project management: The managerial process

• Chapter 14: Project closure

Project management: the managerial process

Project Management
29-10-19 | 26
Where We Are Now

4-11-2015
pag. 27
Structure of a Project Monitoring Information System

• Creating a project monitoring system involves determining:

– What data to collect
– How, when, and who will collect the data
– How to analyze the data
– How to report current progress to management

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 Project Monitoring Information
System

• Information System Structure

– What data are collected?
• Current status of project (schedule and cost)
• Remaining cost to compete project
• Date that project will be complete
• Potential problems to be addressed now
• Out-of-control activities requiring intervention
• Cost and/or schedule overruns and the reasons for them
• Forecast of overruns at time of project completion

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 Project Monitoring System…
(cont’d)
• Information System Structure (cont’d)
– Collecting data and analysis
• Who will collect project data?
• How will data be collected?
• When will the data be collected?
• Who will compile and analyze the data?
– Reports and reporting
• Who will receive the reports?
• How will the reports be transmitted?
• When will the reports be distributed?

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 The Project Control Process

• Control
– The process of comparing actual performance against plan to identify
deviations, evaluate courses of action, and take appropriate corrective
action.
• Project Control Steps
1. Setting a baseline plan.
2. Measuring progress and performance.
3. Comparing plan against actual.
4. Taking action.
• Tools
– Tracking and baseline Gantt charts
– Control charts

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Developing an Integrated Cost/Schedule
System
3. Develop a time-phased budget
1. Define the work using a WBS. using work packages included in
a. Scope an activity. Accumulate budgets
b. Work packages (PV).
c. Deliverables 4. At the work package level,
d. Organization units collect the actual costs for the
work performed (AC). Multiply
e. Resources
percent complete times original
f. Budgets budget (EV).`
2. Develop work and 5. Compute the schedule variance
resource schedules. (EV-PV) and the cost variance
a. Schedule resources (EV-AC).
to activities
b. Time-phase work packages into a network

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 Development of Project Baselines

• Purposes of a Baseline (PV)

– An anchor point for measuring performance
• A planned cost and expected schedule against which
actual cost and schedule are measured.
• A basis for cash flows and awarding progress payments.
• A summation of time-phased budgets (cost accounts as summed
work packages) along a project timeline.
• What Costs Are Included in Baselines?
– Labor, equipment, materials, project direct overhead
costs (DOC)

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 Development of Project Baselines
(cont’d)

• Rules for Placing Costs in Baselines

– Costs are placed exactly as they are expected to be
“earned” in order to track them to their point of
origin.
– Percent Complete Rule
• Costs are periodically assigned to a baseline as units of
work are completed over the duration of a work package.

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 Methods of Variance Analysis

• Comparing Earned Value

– With the expected schedule value.
– With the actual costs.
• Assessing Status of a Project
– Required data elements
• Data Budgeted cost of the work scheduled (PV)
• Budgeted cost of the work completed (EV)
• Actual cost of the work completed (AC)
– Calculate schedule and cost variances
• A positive variance indicates a desirable condition,
while a negative variance suggests problems or
changes that have taken place.

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Developing A Status Report: A Hypothetical
Example

• Assumptions
– Each cost account has only one work package, and
each cost account will be represented as an activity
on the network.
– The project network early start times will serve as
the basis for assigning the baseline values.
– From the moment work an activity begins, some
actual costs will be incurred each period until the
activity is completed.

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 Indexes to Monitor Progress

• Performance Indexes
– Cost Performance Index (CPI)
• Measures the cost efficiency of work accomplished to date.
• CPI = EV/AC
– Scheduling Performance Index (SPI)
• Measures scheduling efficiency
• SPI = EV/PV
– Percent Complete Indexes
• Indicates how much of the work accomplished represents of
the total budgeted (BAC) and actual (AC) dollars to date.
• PCIB = EV/BAC
• PCIC = AC/EAC

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 Additional Earned Value Rules

• Rules applied to short-duration activities and/or small-cost

activities
– 0/100 percent rule
• Assumes 100 % of budget credit is earned at once and only
when the work is completed.
– 50/50 rule
• Allows for 50% of the value of the work package budget to be earned
when it is started and 50% to be earned when the package is
completed.
– Percent complete with weighted monitoring gates
• Uses subjective estimated percent complete in
combination with hard, tangible monitoring points.

4-11-2015
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 Forecasting Final Project Cost

• Methods used to revise estimates of future project costs:

– EACre
• Allows experts in the field to change original baseline
durations and costs because new information tells them
the original estimates are not accurate.
– EACf
• Uses actual costs-to-date plus an efficiency index to
project final costs in large projects where the original
budget is unreliable.

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Key Terms

Baseline budget
Control chart
Cost performance index (CPI) Cost
variance (CV)
Earned value (EV)
Estimated Cost at Completion—Forecasted (EACf)
Estimated Cost at Completion—Revised Estimates (EACre) Percent
complete index—budget costs (PCIB)
Percent complete index—actual costs (PCIC) Schedule
performance index (SPI)
Schedule variance (SV)
Scope creep
To complete performance index (TCPI) Tracking
Gantt chart
Variance at completion (VAC)

4-11-2015
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Part 3: Managing the process • PART 3: Process
• Chapter 11: Managing project teams
Project management: the managerial process

• Chapter 9:Reducing project duration

Project management: The managerial process

• Chapter 13:Progress and performance measurement

and evaluation
Project management: The managerial process

• Chapter 14: Project closure

Project management: the managerial process

Project Management
29-10-19 | 41
Where We Are Now

4-11-2015
pag. 42
 Major Tasks of Project Closure

1. Evaluate if the project delivered the expected benefits to all

stakeholders.

• Was the project managed well?

• Was the customer satisfied?
2. Assess what was done wrong and what contributed to
successes.
3. Identify changes to improve
the delivery of future projects.

4-11-2015
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 Project Monitoring Components

• A review of why the project was selected.

• A reassessment of the project’s role
in the organization’s priorities.
• A check on the organizational culture to ensure it
facilitates the type of project being implemented.
• An assessment of how well the project team is functioning
well and if its is appropriately staffed.
• A check on external factors that might change
where the project is heading or its importance.
• A review of all factors relevant to the project and to
managing future projects.

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 Project Closure
• Types of Project Closure • Close-out Plan:
– Normal Questions to be Asked
– Premature – What tasks are required
to close the project?
– Perpetual
– Who will be responsible
– Failed Project for these tasks?
– Changed Priority – When will closure begin
and end?
– How will the project be
delivered?

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 Implementing Closedown

1. Getting delivery acceptance

from the customer.
2. Shutting down resources
and releasing to new uses.
3. Reassigning project team members.
4. Closing accounts and paying all bills.
5. Evaluating the project team, project team members, and the
project manager.

4-11-2015
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 Creating the Final Report
• Executive Summary
– Project goals met/unmet
– Stakeholder satisfaction
with project
– User reactions to quality
• of deliverables
• Analysis
– Project mission and objective
– Procedures and
systems used
– Organization resources
used
• Recommendations
– Technical improvements
– Corrective actions
• Lessons Learned
– Reminders
– Retrospectives
• Appendix
– Backup data
– Critical information

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 Retrospectives

• Lessons Learned
– An analysis carried out during and shortly after the
project life cycle to capture positive and negative
project learning—“what worked and what didn’t?”
• Goals of Retrospectives
– To reuse learned solutions
– To stop repetitive mistakes

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 Retrospectives (cont’d)

• Barriers to Organizational Learning

– Lack of post-project time for developing lessons

– No post-project direction or support for teams
– Lessons become blame sessions
– Lessons are not applied in other locations
– Organizational culture does not recognize
value of learning

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Key Terms

Lessons learned
Organization evaluation
Performance review
Project closure
Project evaluation
Project facilitator
Retrospective
Team evaluation
360-degree review

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