3. LEARNING OBJECTIVES
To understand the importance of Project Management
Provide tools and techniques to improve the overall management
of a project
Help participants manage projects more efficiently & effectively
Share lessons learned and best practices
4. JILL ALMAGUER, PE, MBA, PMP
Registered Professional Engineer in Texas for over 20 years (B.S. in
Bioengineering from TAMU)
Managed large projects at HP, Agilent Technologies, Texas Medical
Center, Harris Health System, SWE
Experience in healthcare, IT, telecom, semi-conductors, education,
energy
Adjunct Faculty, DeVry University
Certified Project Management Professional, member PMI
President, Society of Women Engineers Houston Area Section
5. CARLA FAIR-WRIGHT, PMP, CSQE
President and CEO, Optimal Consulting LLC
Certified Software Engineer over 20 years (B.S. in Computer
Science)
Managed projects for Shell, BP, Pitney Bowes, CNPC, USAF,
Cameron, SWE
Experience in IT, Reliability Maintenance, EAM, public safety,
energy
Certified Project Management Professional
Past President, Society of Women Engineers Houston Area
Section
7. Challenges of Engineering Projects
The complexity of large engineering projects has led to the
abandonment of many expensive projects and led to highly impaired
implementations in other cases.
Yaneer Bar-Yam, New England Complex Systems Institute
•Constraints and
Dependencies
•People and Technology
•Evolutionary Process
8. What Is Project Success?
R. Ryan Nelson, University of
Virginia
9. Obstacles to Effective Leadership
Personal agenda
Micromanaging
Failure to act
Fear and self
doubt
11. Leading and Directing: Staff training, supervising, delegating,
motivating, counseling and coordinating
Planning: Deciding what needs to happen in the future (today, next
week, next month, next year, over the next five years, etc.) and
generating action plans
Organizing and Staffing: making optimum use of resources required
to successfully implement plans including structure and job analysis,
recruitment, and hiring for appropriate jobs
Controlling: Checking progress against plans
4 Functions of Management vs. Project Management
12. Planning is an essential part of project management.
The project plan is a roadmap with milestones.
The first step is to define the project objective (destination or deliverable).
The objective must be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time
bound (SMART).
The objective is usually defined in terms of scope, schedule and cost.
The project objective should be clear and concise and agreed to by the team
and sponsor at the beginning of the project.
Develop a baseline plan:
Divide and subdivide the project
Define the specific activities to be performed
Graphically portray the activities in a network diagram
Make a time estimate for how long it will take to complete each activity
Make a cost estimate for each activity
Calculate a project schedule and budget.
Determine if project can be accomplished within time, funds, and available
resources.
Planning
14. Monitor progress :
Measure actual progress; compare it to planned progress
Track which activities have been started and/or completed & when
How much money has been spent
Compare on a timely and regular basis
Take corrective action to get back on track
A regular reporting period should collect:
Data on actual performance
Information on any changes in scope, schedule, and budget
Data should be collected and used to update the schedule and budget
Compare updated schedule and budget to the baseline and analyze
Shorter the reporting period, better the chances of identifying problems
early and taking effective corrective actions
Controlling the Project
16. Project vs. Matrix Teams (Leadership)
Define roles and responsibilities clearly
Agreement between the functional and
project manager on roles and
responsibilities
Shared performance goals and metrics
17. Common Problems in Project Teams
Lencioni's Five Dysfunctions of a Team
1. Absence of trust
2. Fear of conflict
3. Lack of commitment
4. Avoidance of team accountability
5. Inattention to team objectives
18. The Role of the Project Manager
•Focus on collective Outcomes
•Confront Difficult Issues
•Force clarity and closure
•Mine for conflict
•Go First
19. Effective Global Teams / Virtual Teams
Challenges
•Differences in Work
Norms and Behaviors
•Violations of Respect
and Hierarchy
•Fluency (accents and
vocabulary)
22. HTTP://WWW.WIZIQ.COM/TUTORIAL/16-INTRODUCTION-TO-SCRUM-AGILE-PROJECT-MANAGEMENT
Coined in 2001 by the Agile Manifesto
Used primarily in software development projects
The premise of the Agile method is that a team of cross-
functional professionals works closely together to develop, test,
and implement the software in small steps called iterations. The
iterations are short in time and may last only a day, a week, or a
month. In the Agile process, the project team is focusing on just
getting a small component of the larger project completed and
then moving on to the next iteration.
The management of the project is different from traditional
scheduling methods in that a project manager isn’t scheduling
out the entire project at the outset. Typically, activities have
dependencies and don’t start until one activity has ended.
The Agile Process
23. Next Steps
Please fill out online evaluation for session
Thank you for coming and hope you enjoy WE ‘12 in Houston!
FY13 SWE Houston Area Section Theme: A Year of ENRG -
Encourage Networking Recognition and Growth
Next SWE Houston Area activities:
November - Professional Development meeting at BP
December – Ten Thousand Villages Holiday Networking Fundraiser
24. Please visit us at
SWEHouston.org
or
Stop by the Houston Area
Section Table at the SWE
Boutique
Jill Almaguer, PE, MBA, PMP, President@SWEHouston.org
Carla Fair-Wright, PMP, CSQE, fair@opc-houston.com
Editor's Notes
Absence of trust—unwilling to be vulnerable within the group
Fear of conflict—seeking artificial harmony over constructive passionate debate
Lack of commitment—feigning buy-in for group decisions creates ambiguity throughout the organization
Avoidance of accountability—ducking the responsibility to call peers on counterproductive behaviour which sets low standards
Inattention to results—focusing on personal success, status and ego before team success