List of some project management best practices. Define project success criteria Define acceptance criteria What should be part of planning? What should be estimated? When and what to track Why did projects fail? Project Management Rule

1. Project Management Good Practices
Presented by
Hari Prasad Thapliyal
Agilest & Project Management Trainer, Coach & Consultant
(MBA, MCA, PGDOM, PGDFM, CIC, PMP, PMI-ACP, CSM, SCPO, SDC
PRINCE2-Trainer, Scrum Certified Trainer, Microsoft Certified Trainer, ZED Master Trainer)

2. This presentation is for the Practicing Project Managers. In
this presentation I have discussed some tips for making
project successful from the day one.

3. 1. Define Project Success Criteria- At the start of project
2. Identify Project Drivers, Constraints and degree of freedom – At the start of
project
3. Identify Product Release Criteria – During Planning
4. Negotiate achievable commitments – At the start of project & when estimation
is complete
5. While Planning the Project
6. While Estimating the Work
7. While Tracking Project’s Progress
Major Activities in Project Life Cycle – for Project Success

4. Success Criteria from Product Perspective May be
 Profit Increase %
 Market Share %
 Sales Volume %
 Customer Satisfaction Index %
 Saving money %
 Reducing transaction time %
 Increasing transaction %
Success Criteria from Project Perspective May be
 Schedule Variance
 Cost Variance
 Scope
 Quality (defects, reviews, issues etc)
While working on project you are responsible to meet “Success Criteria from Project Perspective” but keep doing business
justification keeping “Success Criteria from Product Perspective”
1. Define Project Success Criteria

5.  Schedule
 Cost
 Quality
 Features
 Staff
Everything is not equally limited. One can be negotiated with respect to others.
Know what is negotiable in your project.
2. Identify Project Drivers, Constraints & Degree of Freedom

6.  Should contain release note
 No open critical defects
 No of defects decreased %
 Specific functionality fully working
 N% of test cases passed
 Specific legal, contractual or regulatory goals met
 All UA test cases passes
3. Define Product Release Criteria

7.  No open critical defects
 No of defects decreased %
 Specific functionality fully working
 N% of test cases passed
 Specific legal, contractual or regulatory goals met
 All UA test cases passes
4. Negotiate Achievable commitments

8.  Write a Plan not only schedule
 Decompose task into traceable granularity 8/80 rule
 Develop planning worksheet for common large tasks
 Plan to do rework after a quality control activity
 Manage Project Risks
 Plan time for process improvement
 Respect the learning curve. Everything cannot be planned in great
detail at the start.
5. While Planning the Project

9.  Estimate based on efforts, not calendar times
 Generally don’t schedule multi-tasking people
 Do not schedule more than 80% of available time (risk, improvement,
rework will consume remaining time)
 Build training time into schedule
 Record estimates & basis of estimates
 Use estimation tools
 Plan contingency buffer towards the end of milestone
6. While Estimating the Work

10.  Record actuals and estimates
 Count tasks as complete only when 100% complete
 Track project status openly and honestly
7. While Tracking Project Progress

11.  Conduct Project Retrospectives
8. Learning for the future

12.  Surrender to the long pipe of requirements. They will keep coming…
You can manage this but not stop.
 Always assume that there is high probability of initial set
requirements being wrong. But it does not mean that you start only
when requirements are frozen. They will keep changing…
 Accept that all requirements change, so do not be panic. Plan
accordingly knowing this fact.
 Simplify your change-management approach. Learn to manage
requirements and getting those validated using different delivery
methods.
Reality of the Requirement Management

13.  Poor Alignment
 Bad Planning
 Lack of executive support
 Incomplete requirements
 Unclear expectations
 Scope creep
 Lack of resources
 Choice of technology
 Inexperience
Why Project Fails?

14. 1. A bad idea executed to perfection is still a bad idea. A good idea poorly executed is of no use to
anyone. Augustine's Law
2. Failing to plan is planning to fail. Lakein's Law
3. Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to
take away. Saint Exupery's Law
4. There are two states to any larg project -too early to tell or too late to stop. Fitzgerald's Law
5. Work will expand to fill the time available. Parkinson's Law
6. A fool with a tool is still fool. Constantine's Law
7. If they know nothing of what you are doing they suspect you are doing nothing. Graham's Law
8. If anything can go wrong, it will. Murphy's Law
9. Project Management is about applying common sense with uncommon discipline. O'Brochta's
Law
10. About the time you finish doing something, you know enough to start. Kinser's Law
Project Management Laws

15. hari.prasad@vedavit-ps.com
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