The document provides an overview of project management concepts and terminology. It discusses different project management approaches including agile, traditional, waterfall, critical path, and scrum. It also covers the project lifecycle process groups of initiating, planning, executing, monitoring and controlling, and closing. The document emphasizes establishing a clear project scope and work breakdown structure, creating timelines and benchmarks, acquiring necessary resources, and keeping the project on track to ensure success.

1. PROJECT MANAGEMENT 101
ROBIN FAY
1

2.  Just Do It!
 Approaches
 Process groups
 Characteristics of
projects
 Project management
success
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3. 3
SOME TERMINOLOGY
 Step (task, activity)—an initiative that takes time to complete, has
a definite starting and stopping point
 Milestone—an event, an instant in time at which something
significant happens in the life of the project, like the completion of
a deliverable
 Lifecycle—The stages a project goes through during its lifetime
 Scope—The content of the project, the nature and
functionality of the ultimate product

4. THINGS TO REMEMBER
Project management is planning and
evaluation. Both take time but will save time
(& headaches) when done properly. Investing
in PM will make projects go more smoothly,
potentially allow for delegation of work, save
money (& time), provide a roadmap for the
work that needs to be done, as well as help
document progress.
Project management is a process that is
organized, informed, and the opposite of
chaos & fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants
decision-making. Projects can be slow or fast;
a timeline is part of the project process.
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5. WHAT IS A PROJECT?
Any work that focuses on a specific
outcome can be a project. Do you have ILS
migration records that need investigating? A
stack of donations that need review? Does
your library want to start an instagram
account? Do you need to mentor a new staff
person? Setup a training program? Reorganize
your library? Redesign your website?
Those are all potential projects. 5

6. GOOD-FAST-CHEAP
Does
Not
Exist
Poor
Quality
Takes
Time
Expensive
Jim Jarmusch once told me “Fast,
Cheap, and Good…pick two. If it’s
fast and cheap it won’t be good. If
it’s cheap and good it won’t be fast.
If it’s fast and good it won’t be
cheap.” Fast, cheap, and good…pick
(2) words to live by. Tom Waits
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7. GOOD FAST CHEAP IN REAL LIFE
 Food is fast
 Food is cheap
 How do most fast food establishments
make that happen?
 Rely on part-time, low-paid staff
 May use inferior ingredients
 Limited menu – buy in bulk
 Cook in bulk 7

8. GOOD FAST CHEAP IN REAL LIFE
 Cons: food is generic, not
personalized (which can be a
good thing), higher
percentage of fat (less
healthy), can be cold (not
made to order) = impact on
quality
 “You get what you paid for”
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9. GOOD FAST CHEAP IN REAL LIFE
 Food is slow(er)
 Food is better quality
How do restaurants make that happen?
 Likely use fresher or higher quality
ingredients
 Still buy in bulk, but may also adapt
menus seasonally or buy local
 Cook to order
 Staff make up salaries with tips, so in
general, they make more money (& have
a vested interest in providing good
service) 9

10. MAGIC TRIANGLE
Cost
Quality/Scop
QUALITY
Time
1. The quality of work is
constrained by the project's
budget, deadlines and scope
(features).
2. The project manager can
trade between constraints.
Changes in one constraint
necessitate changes in others to
compensate or quality will
suffer.
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11. Let’s look
at some
approaches
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12. AGILE
Best for projects that require extreme flexibility &
speed; “sprint” based - milestones into “sprints”, or
short delivery cycles. “Design Sprints” ; incremental
 All teams member have autonomy to make
decisions over their work and make changes
 Timeframes can be short bursts or “sprints”
 Doesn’t work well in a traditional hierarchical
environment
 Often very collaborative with team working on
goals together
 Life Cycle
12

13. TRADITIONAL
 Best for projects with a traditional
hierarchical approach where a central
manager sets the agenda and work
plans
 PMs assess the project process,
creates benchmarks, deadlines, and
assigns work
 Works for large and small projects;
small and short deadlines
 Team members can be collaborative
or very independent ; when a team
member’s work depends on another
team member’s prior work
>Waterfall 13

14. WATERFALL
Sequential; Best for more linear projects where
team members can cycle off or teams
expand/contract as needed to achieve
Cascading impact – tasks and goals are reliant
on previous work
Work is sequential and task oriented; Tasks
must be completed in a sequence so that other
tasks can be completed
Team members are inter-dependent upon the
work of others in order to do their work 14

15. WATERFALL
Team members are inter-dependent upon the
work of others in order to do their work
Project timelines and dependencies must be
tracked to keep projects moving forward.
Common in libraries.
Can be a way to handle project or scope creep
(additional tasks keep getting added to the
project team, stretching the work and potentially
the timelines)
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16. CRITICAL PATH
 Critical Path - more of a method - critical path
identifies the critical tasks of a project and builds a
linear path for it. (We’’ look at examples) Similar to
a waterfall approach, except that the path is
defined and focused on task time.
 A more advanced form of a traditional PM style in
that it identifies and creates a workflow to achieve
the critical tasks for project success.
 Often used with timelines, milestones, and bench
marks. Critical path also identifies non-critical
tasks, which can be a useful tool in identifying
scope/project creep tasks.
 It’s all about prioritizing and sticking to a plan.
 Less flexible as a whole*
 LEAN often fits here.
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17. CRITICAL
PATH
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18. SCRUM
 Adaptative, Role based,
resource and event oriented
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19. INVOLVING PEOPLE
 Brainstorming
 Planning
•Executing
•Project
Documentation
•Monitoring
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20. “ROBERT’S RULES OF ORDER FOR PROJECT MANAGEMENT”
1. Get a project charter
2. Create the project scope statement
3. Create the WBS with the project team
4. Create the activity list from the WBS
5. Sequence the activities in the order in which they must – or should –
happen
6. Estimate the time of the activities based on which resources you have
to complete the activities
7. Assign the needed resources to the activities
8. Get it done.
From “Real Life Project Management: Managing the
Project Scope” by Joseph Phillips Jan 28, 2005
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21. GETTING STARTED
WITH PROJECTS
 Establish the project (Scope, and
Charter/Statement)
 Develop an action plan
 Identify resources needed
 Once you have resources
approved/authorized/funded/hired,
develop project outline, benchmarks, &
timelines.
 Brainstorming for the project should
occur prior to timelines being set OR
when an issue (or question) is
encountered.
 If you start a project before resources are
gathered (people hired, equipment
purchased, etc.) build in as much time as
you think it will take + (bake in time for
unexpected delays)
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22. 5W + H = WHO,
WHAT, WHEN,
WHY, WHERE +
HOW
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23. ACTION PLANS –
HELP IDENTIFY
TIMELINES,
RESOURCES
NEEDED, TASKS &
GOALS
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24. WHAT IS A WBS (WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE)?
• Defines the project’s work entirely as it relates
to the objectives & establishes the structure for
managing the work to its completion through
defining
• the project’s work (activities that create
deliverables)
• the project’s life-cycle process (timeline) 24

25. WHAT IS A WBS (WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE)?
• Needs to be easy to update
• Anything outside of the WBS falls into project creep / outside
scope
• Helps to establish cost
• Can help identify risk
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26. WBS
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27. SCREENSHOT CTL
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28. SCHEDULING
 Two most common scheduling methodologies
 Bar Charts (aka Gantt Charts)
 Critical Path Method (CPM)
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29. BAR / GANTT CHARTS
 Analyze and specify workflow
 Breakdown tasks into activities
 Estimate the time required and duration
 PM puts activities in chronological order
 Adjust as needed
 Simple to use
 Needs to be updated
 Useful for communicating to others
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA
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30. TIME LINES
(SEQUENCE) –
KEEPING ON
TRACK,
COMMUNICATING
PROGRESS, AND
PROVIDES A
HEADS-UP WHEN
YOU NEED TO
ADJUST
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31. TIME LINES –
KEEPING ON
TRACK,
COMMUNICATING
PROGRESS, AND
PROVIDES A
HEADS-UP WHEN
YOU NEED TO
ADJUST
Powerpoint GANT Chart Creater
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32. WHAT TOOLS
DO YOU USE?
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY
32

33. SOFTWARE
Trello Basecamp Wrike
Google
Calendars
IFTTT to push Slack, Github
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34. Trello
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38.  ASANA
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40. PROJECT
MANAGEMENT
KEYS TO SUCCESS
PLAN THE PROJECT ACQUIRE THE
RESOURCES
ESTABLISH BENCHMARKS
AND TIMELINES
DO THE WORK STAY ON TRACK AND
KEEP STAFF ON TRACK
WHEN BUMPS OCCUR,
ADDRESS THEM
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41. PROJECT MANAGEMENT KEYS TO SUCCESS
Keep an “enhancements”
list or stage 2 (Scope
Creep)
Communicate and keep
Stakeholder buy-in and
support
Complete of project
Publicize the product Evaluate the ROI
Plan for next steps –
maintenance,
enhancements, etc
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SUCCESSFUL PROJECT MANAGEMENT
 On time, within budget, at the desired level of
functionality, and using the assigned resources
effectively
 Ability to communicate success

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