This presentation defines all details of project management beginning from the defining of the process all the way to the execution post-delegation.

1. Project Management Base Camp
Grab some refreshments, take a seat, name on both
sides of your name plate, meet your neighbors!
Kevin R. Thomas
Manager, Training & Development
x3542
Kevin.R.Thomas@williams.edu

2. What Do You Mean by Base Camp?
• In 2 hours we can’t climb the mountain, but
we can get oriented to the peaks around us.

3. Program Outline
• Planning
– Project mission
– Goals
– Stakeholder analysis and communication
• Implementation
– Milestones
– The Planning Fallacy
– Work breakdown and dependencies
– Project team meetings
• Completion
– After Action Review
– Celebration

4. Let’s Begin at the Ending
• Think of a project you were
involved in.
• Complete the worksheet.
• What did you learn?

5. Definitions
• Project:
a temporary group activity designed to
produce a unique product, service or result.
• Project Management:
the application of knowledge, skills and
techniques to execute projects effectively and
efficiently.

6. Planning
• Project Charter
– Mission
– Goals
– Stakeholder Analysis
– Others

7. Project Charter
a statement of the scope,
objectives, and
participants in a project.
It provides a preliminary delineation
of roles and responsibilities,
outlines the project objectives,
identifies the main stakeholders,
and defines the authority of the
project manager.

8. Project Mission
• Describes why the project is being
undertaken, and the benefits it hopes to
achieve.
"If you don't know where you are
going, you might wind up
someplace else." - Yogi Berra

9. Example
• By developing a robust program of HR Analytics,
we can:
– Fulfill our role as strategic partners to Harvard Library
Leadership by identifying strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities and threats with regard to the
development of the Harvard Library workforce.
– Prioritize and customize HR Programs and services to
maximize their value to the organization.
– Make powerful impact statements about the nature,
volume, and value of our work.

10. Your Turn!
• Write a mission statement for your project.
• Pair up and share your statement with your
partner.
• Get feedback on your mission statement from
your partner (strengths, opportunities for
improvement)

11. Project Goals
• Goals are the concrete
accomplishments that will
fulfill the project’s mission.

12. Project Goal Example
• "upgrade the helpdesk telephone system by
December 31 to achieve average client wait
times of no more than two minutes"

13. Your Turn!
• Write one of the goals for your project. Make
sure it meets all of the SMART criteria.
• Pair up with someone else, and share the goal
you’ve written.
• Get feedback from your partner.

14. Project Stakeholders
• Stakeholder: anyone that
has an interest in or will be
impacted by the project.
• Stakeholders have various
degrees of power and
influence, attitudes towards
the project, hopes and fears,
strengths and limitations,
etc.
• Communication is the key to
stakeholder management

15. Your Turn
• Complete the stakeholder analysis worksheet.
• What did you learn? How will you
communicate with this stakeholder based on
your analysis?

16. Other Planning Elements to Consider
• Take a look at the rest of the definitions.
• Complete Project Charters often describe all
of these elements.

17. Implementation
• Milestones
• Planning Fallacy
• Work breakdown and task dependencies
• Team meetings
• Managing people

18. Milestones
• Mark the completion of key
phases of the project.
• Aid in gauging the timeliness
of project completion.
• Create an occasion for mini-
celebrations

19. Example
PACK
PATCH
&
PAINT
MOVE
10/26
STYLE
OPEN
HOUSE
11/3

20. Example
PACK
PATCH
&
PAINT
MOVE
10/26
STYLE
OPEN
HOUSE
11/3
TODAY:
Buy
Boxes
and
Painting
Materials

21. Your Turn!
• What are the key milestones of your project,
and the deadlines associated with them?

22. Beware the Planning Fallacy
• The first edition of the
Oxford English Dictionary
was scheduled to take
two years to complete...
• Five years later they had
only reached the word
“ant.”
• Psych. research has
shown we systematically
underestimate how long
it will take to achieve
goals.

23. Addressing the Planning Fallacy
• Others are more accurate at predicting than
we are ourselves, so ask a colleague for a time
estimate.
• Or:
– Make a prediction now, later see how accurate it
was.
– In the future, multiply your time estimate by your
personal planning fallacy multiple.

24. Work Breakdown and Dependencies
• Work Breakdown Structure
• Dependencies: tasks that cannot be started
until other tasks are complete.
• Track the task, dependencies, who is assigned,
due date, and current status.

25. Project Team Meetings
• With some regularity (daily, weekly, monthly),
all team members gather to talk about:
– What they have done since the last meeting
– What obstacles they may have encountered
– What they plan to do by the next meeting
• Choose someone to take notes and review
action commitments at the end of the
meeting.

26. When They Don’t Do What They’re
Supposed To …
• People are complicated.
• All projects mean change.
• “Yes” does not always mean “Yes”.

27. Your Turn
• Think of a time (present or past) when
someone didn’t do something they were
supposed to do.
• Complete the worksheet.
• If you answered “Don’t Know”, how could you
find out?
• If you answered “Yes”, what could you do to
influence this factor?

28. Task Completion
• Post Project Review
• Celebration

29. Post Project Review
• Why would this be important?
• Meet with project team, discuss and record:
– What went well
– What you might have done differently
• Write up into a report for project sponsor

30. Celebration
• Keep the team motivated and looking forward to completion
• Leave people with a positive feeling about being on your
project team
• Plan and budget your celebration like any other part of the
project.
• Ideally, go to your celebration right after your post project
review.

31. Conclusion
• Project Manager is:
– Cheerleader
– Team Builder
– Nudge
– Politician
– Time and Resource Engineer
– Troubleshooter
• Every project you manage is an opportunity for you to
develop and communicate values:
– Accountability
– Cooperation
– Communication
– Resilience

32. Thank You!
• Program evaluation link will be emailed to you
today.
Kevin R. Thomas
Manager, Training & Development
x3542
kevin.r.thomas@williams.edu