Five tools for managing projects

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Copyright 2017 John Goodpasture All Rights Reserved
Essentials of Project Management
Five tools for Managing
Produced by
Square Peg Consulting, LLC
www.sqpegconsulting.com

Five Tools for managing
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WIP Kanban
Milestones
Theory of
constraints
Remaining
cost

Backlog-to-WIP and DONE
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Backlog
• Master TO DO list: All stuff you need
to do for business and client, by
affinity
Increment • A subset of Master “TO DO”
WIP
• Stuff you are working
on (doing), typically
less than the whole
increment
DONECompleted stuff

An example
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Backlog
Increment
WIP
• Some database
tasks
DONECompleted database tasks
1. Business databases
2. Client deliverables
3. Project closeout
Database increment
Related database debris

Simplest WIP model
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To Do
Doing
Done
Three STAGES

My favorite
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Backlog (increment)
Narrative, outline, design
Construction
Validation, verification
Done

It’s a Kanban
Kanban:
• Successor stage pulls from predecessor stage
• Capacity limited at each stage
• As stage capacity becomes free (by doing), capacity is filled from
predecessor stage
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Stage 1
Stage 2
Stage 3 …

Kanban board
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• Each card color is represents a common affinity grouping of stories
• Each card with the same color is an individual story (requirement,
to-do, or task) within that affinity group
• Note: Cards may not progress in “number” order; progress and
promotion between stages is governed by project demands

Stages operate on stories
For example
• Narrative: Design, develop an outline
• Construction: Gather data
• Construction: Apply data to a narrative or to the outline
• ….
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Narrative
Construction
Validation …

Debt in the backlog
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Debt: unfinished WIP
Incomplete reports; drafts or appendices not finalized
Tests not complete
Incomplete validations or verifications
Left over when the increment is DONE
Punch list for later
Adds to the Backlog

Theory of constraints*
What is a constraint?
• Limitation on throughput
What’s throughput?
• Stuff, outcomes, that are valuable to business or client
• That which is value-add to the business value proposition
• Debris is not throughput; it’s overhead
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* “The Goal”
Dr. Eliyahu M. Goldratt

Subordinate to the constraint
• Once a stage is full, there’s no advantage to keep piling up WIP
inventory at earlier stages
– “Efficiency” of widgets/hour at earlier stages is meaningless
• To clear the constraint, subordinate all resource allocations to the
priority of working on the constraint
– All hands on deck rule
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More capable constraints
• Add similar resources (parallelism)*
• Re-organize methodology at the constraint
• Re-tool or re-train
• Avoid constraint by going a different direction
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*Brooks Law: “Adding resources to a late task will make it later”
Dr. Fred Brooks
Author: Mythical Manmonth

Managing with milestones
Milestone:
• Measurable, discernible event
• Evident to business and client
• Usually zero-duration point-in-time, but not always
• Valuable to business and client
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Backward planning
• Establish the client’s most valuable milestone
– May not be the project ending
• Buffer the client’s most valuable milestone (to protect it’s integrity)
• Set the earliest start milestone
• Narrative reduction in between
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Backward planning sequence
• Establish the client’s most valuable milestone
– May not be the project ending
• Buffer the client’s most valuable milestone (to protect it’s integrity)
• Set the earliest start milestone
• Narrative reduction in between
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Backlog
Buffer
Backlog
Most valuable
End
Start
“White space”

No-o-o!
• Latest start is procrastination
• Uses buffer without value-add
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BacklogBuffer
Backlog
Most valuable
End
Latest Start
“White space”
Start

Milestone merge
• Independent streams of stuff comes together for integration
• A&B depends on the success of A and the success of B
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“DONE” A
“DONE” B
Merge of results, A & B

Merge confidence
Do the math
• IF: confidence* in A is 70%, and B 90%
• THEN: merged confidence in A&B is 63%
– 70% of 90%
– It’s a lot worse if there are three or more merges
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*Confidence: An event will happen at a predicted time, or
sooner, with a % confidence.
The event could be later by 100 - % confidence. How much
later? Unpredictable, as a practical matter

Merge bias
• A&B depends on the success of A and the success of B
• IF: confidence* in A is 80%, and B 90%
• THUS: to restore confidence to 70%, or 90%, SHIFT RIGHT
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“DONE” A
“DONE” B
Bias of A & B at the
merge point to shift right
Higher confidence with more
time provided by shift right

Merge bias fix
• IF: confidence* in A is 100% due to buffer, and B 90%
– 100% of 90%
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“DONE” A
“DONE” B
100% confidence
Buffer
THUS: to maintain confidence, buffer at least one milestone
Confidence at merge is
confidence of B

Cost Management
Cost Management
Concepts
Commentary
Earned Value:
How much does it cost
to earn* $1 of value?
Remaining Cost
How much to finish?
Throughput value
Only the value-add
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* aka: deliver

Cost Management
Cost Management
Concepts
Commentary
Earned Value:
to earn $1 of value?
• The objective Value of an object, in $, is
established as a budget
• When that object is DONE, it’s value has been
“Earned”
• Actual cost may be different
• “Efficiency” of cost management:
• $Value Earned per $Actual Cost
Remaining Cost
How much to finish?
Throughput value
Only the value-add
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Cost Management
Cost Management
Concepts
Commentary
Earned Value:
Remaining Cost
How much to finish?
• Forecast cost of what’s left to be done
• Budgeted value of stuff not done, adjusted for
cost efficiency (to date)
Throughput value
Only the value-add
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Cost Management
Cost Management
Concepts
Commentary
Earned Value:
Remaining Cost
How much to finish?
Throughput value
Only the value-add
• Value of the client’s deliverables less
value of project inputs (parts, data, etc),
ignoring in-direct or overhead costs
• Essentially: cost efficiency of “cost of goods
sold”
• Value-add of the project “transformation”
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Five Tools Learning points
Learning Point take away Commentary
All projects have WIP
Stuff you’re going to do; are doing; and have
done
Kanban pulls stuff in
A capacity management tool so that WIP
does not overwhelm
Theory of Constraints
Keep the constraint “full”; but not “fuller” than
its capacity
Milestones
Aim for the most valuable milestone; beware
merging milestones—shift right!
Cost management
Did you deliver a dollar of value for a dollar
of cost?
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Five Tools: For discussion
In this presentation, “quality” has been the silent partner. It’s
presumed that quality is a constant, no matter the WIP, constraints,
milestones, and value to be earned.
For discussion: Is this presumption true, or practical? Can quality
be constant, regardless of the other variables? Are there no
compromises? Is it zero-defects everywhere?
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Five tools for managing projects

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