Preface
Projects are facts of life. A project is an effort to create a unique product or service with a desired outcome that is precisely defined and a completion that can be demonstrated.
Project management does not work nearly as well as it should. Projects end up costing far more than expected, they finish late, and often the finished product is not precisely what it was originally intended to be. Some projects are abandoned altogether and left to die. The ideal project goal of finishing on time, within budget, and to specifications is seldom met.
Mistakes in project management affect projects large and small and are costly: overruns of time and money often reach, or exceed, 500 percent. According to survey data, around 30 percent of projects are never completed.[1]
[1] P. M. Network, (Newton Square, PA: Project Management Institute, Publishing Division, September 1996): 24 (Selin Corp. Reports for 1995).
A body of knowledge on project management exists that explains the various steps and procedures to accomplish a project. Software for planning, budgeting, resource leveling (not assigning more than 100 percent of a person's time), and monitoring a project is also readily available. Yet something is still missing; the projects continue to get into trouble. Does this mean that the ideal project goal of finishing to specifications and on time is impossible? Should the goal be abandoned and project management be left in its current mess? Or, should the missing information be pursued and added to the existing body of knowledge? This book will offer the information and practices that are currently missing.
How is Integrated Project Management different from other project management methods? IPM follows the same steps and concepts found in A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK®), however IPM adds new procedures for following these steps, and these procedures make a big difference. IPM also adds a special method of creating useful time buffers, or “risk factors.” But most importantly, IPM employs step-by-step activities whereby the project manager involves everyone who is responsible for project tasks in planning the project.
The Organization of this Book
Integrated Project Management is written for college juniors and seniors with projects in their future and for graduate students needing help with projects in technical fields.
The book follows a project, step by step, explaining the what, why, and how of executing project steps. These steps are tightly linked together, ending with a completed project. The style is informal, which makes it easier to read. This book is about our life work and is written to help you with your life work.
We present a basic approach to project management with leadership, teaming, tools, and methods all integrated into one seamless planning and execution process. Using this integrated project management method, projects will finish to their specifications, and will be both on time and within budget!
Chapter 1 discusses leadership and its importance in project management. In addition, collaborative leadership between a project manager and team is also discussed in this chapter.
Chapter 2 describes the many ways projects emerge and how an individual comes to be a project manager. It is important for a new project manager to realize that a lot of work is required even before project planning begins—such as helping the customer examine the circumstances that justify the project and also identify the project's outcome. A new project manager often is unprepared for these roles.
Chapter 3 deals with developing the work breakdown structure and recruiting the project team. The project manager should be prepared with a system for getting help from within the organization, and for facilitating drawing this information into a project plan. The skills in developing collaborative leadership that were first considered in Chapter 1 now become the project manager's working role. In addition, selecting and recruiting a project team, whose members will collaboratively help plan and execute the project, is also explained in this chapter.
Chapter 4 describes the kickoff meeting, which brings the entire team together for the first time. Some team members will be leading a workgroup to accomplish a project task; others will work alone on a particular task. The project manager will explain to them how they will work collaboratively to plan and execute the project. This kind of collaboration is unique to Integrated Project Management.
Chapter 5 describes the effort to create the project's task list, which involves one or two two-hour team meetings. The “affinity diagram exercise” is used to consolidate and organize the individual task lists, which each team member created following the kickoff meeting, into a composite task list. Each team member will work on the affinity diagram exercise and help to create the task list.
Chapter 6 deals with the Gantt chart development, or the process of determining task sequences, the duration of each task, and who will do each task. The work of defining and sequencing tasks, identifying task start dates, providing careful and unbuffered time estimates of each task, and identifying who will do the task will be the focus of one or several successive two-hour meetings. The project manager will facilitate the Gantt chart development by displaying the emerging project Gantt chart on a screen in the front of the meeting room, using a PC loaded with Microsoft Project 2002® software and a projector. Anyone not familiar with this equipment can rest easy because instructions for its use are covered. This chapter also describes the project planning effort that concludes with the completion of the basic project Gantt chart. A 120-day trial version of Microsoft Project 2002 is found on the CD-ROM packaged with this text.
Chapter 7 explains and demonstrates how the project manager can create a critical path chart. Several ways of displaying the critical path will be introduced. One method in particular, the arrow diagram, is a very useful tool for managing the execution of the project.
Chapters 8 and 9 explain time buffer-risk analysis. The task time estimates in the Gantt chart are just that—estimates—and are subject to uncertainty. Due to the nature of the processes used throughout project planning, the original working Gantt chart—the pre-risk analysis Gantt chart—defines a completion date that is unrealistic. Because the project will take longer, a time buffer must be added to define a realistic completion date. These chapters will explain how to get it right.
Chapter 10 explains how the project budget is created. Modern software makes this task easy, and its application is explained in this chapter.
Chapter 11 explains the steps to create a graphic display for the customer/manager. The means to effectively make this presentation and to bring the customer into a discussion are also described. Along the way, the customer may want some changes. Because shortening a project is the most requested change, this procedure is explained.
Chapter 12 follows the project from launch to completion—the point at which the project objectives have been fully met. Chapter 13 deals with project change. Procedures for dealing with change will be discussed in this chapter.
Chapter 14 explains the steps to achieve project closure. Chapter 15 describes the duties and responsibilities of a project team member. In this chapter, we also restate the process of planning and executing the project from the perspective of a project team member.
Chapter 16 defines basic, major, and macro projects and expands on the project management role required for each project type. The means by which someone with basic project management experience can grow into the role of a major, and later, macro project manager is also noted.