1. Project Management: A Critical Skill for Princeton
Presented by Hetty Baiz
Princeton Project Office
OIT, Princeton University

2. Background Multiple Projects Cross-functional Mutually Interdependent
Success and failure is no longer within the total control of that project.

3. What’s A Project?

4. What’s A Project? A “project” Will deliver
Business and/or technical objectives
Is made up of
Defined processes & tasks
Will run for
Set period of time
Has a budget
Resources and $’s

5. What is Project Success?

6. What is Project Success?
Project success occurs when we have: I
A delighted client (expectations met)
Delivered the agreed objectives
Met an agreed budget - $, resources etc.
Within an agreed time frame
Objectives
Time
Cost
Project Success
The 'Golden Triangle' of
and I
Done it all professionally &
without killing the team

7. Why Do Projects Fail? Changing scope Insufficient planning
No risk or issues management
Poor communication
Lack of commitment and responsibility by stakeholders

8. Who Are Stakeholders? Steering Committee Senior Mgmt Clients & Users
Project
Interdependent
Projects
Academic &
Business Units
Outside Groups
(Vendors)
Information
Technology
Team
Members

9. Project Management A Maturity Model best practice best practice
competent
Success rate better
than 75%
aware
aware
aware e
Success rate of 45
to 75%
seat
seat
of the of
pants
pants
Success rate of 30
to 45%
Success rate less
than 30%

10. Seat of Pants Projects happen without correct initiation
Success rate less
than 30%
Projects happen without correct initiation
Planning is insufficient
Benefits are unknown
There is often inadequate buy-in
Communication is poor
Interdependencies are not managed
Standards, if any, are poorly defined or unenforced.

11. Aware
aware
Success rate of 30
To 40%
Projects are formally initiated & plans endorsed but with varying standards and few disciplines
Methodology has been introduced
Stakeholders support projects overall
The number of projects is rationalized
Projects are explicitly associated with business planning

12. Competent Methodology and standards are well established and supported
Success rate of 45 To 75%
competent
Methodology and standards are well established and supported
Stakeholders understand and accept roles
Discrete measures support good management
Projects are set up and managed end-to-end
Risks are clearly defined and controlled

13. Best Practice Improvement programs are formal
Success rate better than 75%
Improvement programs are formal
Good measurement enables optimization
Level of confidence sees organization taking on high risk projects successfully
Respect and support of projects and project managers

14. Why Should We Care? To Increase the likelihood that projects will :
be done on time and within budget
meet people’s expectations
be done well

15. Project Office Mission
To enable the successful implementation of OIT initiatives in a way that establishes a project management culture so that we deliver projects on time, within budget and with expected results.

16. How? Define a Princeton Project Management Methodology (PPMM)
Support and Mentor
Offer Training
Facilitation, Audit, Review

17. P2K Project Office Methodology Continuous Improvement
Consulting/Mentoring
Education/Training

18. Project Management Process
Tracking
& Control
Planning
Initiation
Complete
&
Assess
Reporting
Review
Initiation
Plan
Detailed
Plan
Status
Report
Post
Project
Review
Report

19. Management Techniques
To increase the likelihood of project success you must manage:
Stakeholders
Risks
Issues
Change

20. How to Manage Stakeholders
A stakeholder is any person or group who, if their support were to be withdrawn, could cause the project to fail.
- Get them involved
- Keep them informed
- Gain their endorsement

21. How to Manage Stakeholders
Identify stakeholders
Involve in planning
Establish expectations / accountabilities
Formal communication
Gain sign-off
Change and issues resolution
Project reviews
Define project completion

22. Risk Management What is “risk”?
Any factor capable of causing the project to go off track.
Develop and monitor a Risk Plan

23. Issues Management
Unresolved issues will drive a project towards failure and consume a significant part of a project manager’s time.
Stakeholders play key role in issues management and resolution
- Establish Issues log, review, escalation process

24. Change Management
Uncontrolled changes to a project will probably account for up to 30% of a project’s total effort.
If these changes are not managed, the project will be viewed to be over time and over budget.
- Establish a Change management process

25. PPMM Summary Overview The Process Initiation
Planning - Track/Control - Report - Review
Completion and Assessment
Management Techniques
Stakeholder Management
Risk Management
Issues Management
Change Management

26. PPMM Deliverables
Project Plans
Status Reports
Audit & Review Report

27. PPMM Tools
Office 2000
Word
Excel
Access
MS Project 2000

28. For more information…... Call the Princeton Project Office at 8-6335
Send to
Visit our web site at…

30. Recommended Best Practices
Project Planning and Management
Follow proven methodologies
Active Executive/Project Sponsor
Identify / revisit “critical success” factors
Document assumptions
Business process change vs. customization
What has worked at Princeton over the past 1 1/2 years according to our project managers?
It is essential to follow a proven methodology in managing projects.
A strong executive sponsor is critical. It was Ray Clark who, as the Ex. Sponsor on the Coeus project, was able to get stakeholder buy in and consensus on the project.
Active Project Sponsor -- it was Van Williams acting as the STRipes project sponsor who played a key role as the project champion. He attended team meetings and sent congratulating the team for completing milestones as the project unfolded.

31. Recommended Best Practices
Project Planning and Management
Have technical staff in place at start-up
Plan for backfill
Involve Steering Committee early
Plan production support in central offices
Plan for applying fixes
Plan for “end of project”
Plan for vacation/sick time
Technical staff in place -- UFINSI was interviewing for 3 technical positions when the project had already begun. Have people hired and in place ready to go when project officially starts.
Backfill -- may not be able to backfill certain positions by hiring new person (since they won’t know how University works). May have to give pieces of job to a group of individuals and hire clerical person to pick up pieces. Be creative when backfilling. Plan for space where individuals backfilling can work.
Production support -- have adequate resources trained and taking the lead in central offices. This should be individuals, such as Assistant Directors or Managers, who will be project champions and can make certain that new processes and work procedures are in place to accommodate the new system.
Plan for a strategy of applying fixes. There can be a lot of them.
Plan for redesign and “production mock up” -- When testing try to have the environment simulate the production environment as realistically as possible (data, security, customizations, schedules).

32. Recommended Best Practices
Scheduling, Tracking and Control
Break large projects into phases
(no > months total)
Control phase “bleed over”
Post phase assessments
“Go/No Go” decision points
Sponsor sign-off
Review Scope periodically
At the beginning (Initiation Plan) its difficult to know effort required on project. Won’t really understand until complete scoping (what are our business processes;what are our priorities/prototyping (how does this fit with PeopleSoft) how long project will take.
Give date ranges up front. Get understanding from sponsor that critical milestone dates can be adjusted once complete prototyping.
Control phase bleed over by holding post phase assessment at end of each phase. Isolate, analyze, monitor and control tasks that are bleeding over.
Review scope periodically -- do at least quarterly to make sure staying on track and that there isn’t scope creep (UFINSI wrote once and never revisited).

33. Recommended Best Practices
Scheduling, Tracking and Control
Building learning curve into plans
Weekly team meetings
Detail planning in 1-2 month segments
Define and manage to “critical path”
What’s important
Prioritize
Who, what, when
UFINSI and STRIPES hold weekly team meetings to keep project on track
UFINSI found detail planning in two month segments worked well and was manageable
UFINSI used consultants to help keep project on track since they had good people management skills
Oral status reports were ofen more efficient for project manager to put together and worked effectively with sponsor
Stripes & UFINSI recommends looking at critical milestones and then analyzing what is absolutely essential to do, prioritize those tasks, and determine who does what when.

34. Recommended Best Practices
Reporting
Establish monthly status reporting
Hold monthly status reviews with key stakeholders
Oral status reports are effective
Keep users of system (middle managers) informed
UFINSI and STRIPES hold weekly team meetings to keep project on track
UFINSI found detail planning in two month segments worked well and was manageable
UFINSI used consultants to help keep project on track since they had good people management skills
Oral status reports were ofen more efficient for project manager to put together and worked effectively with sponsor
Stripes & UFINSI recommends looking at critical milestones and then analyzing what is absolutely essential to do, prioritize those tasks, and determine who does what when.

35. Recommended Best Practices
Resourcing
Resource Plan
Cross functional teams work
Co-locate teams
Projects are full time job
Complete training before prototyping
Have full team train together
Leverage investment
Build team spirit
Team building -- take team on retreat if they haven’t worked together before (Kim is doing this with Student project); build memories (pictures in scrap book, mugs, t-shirts)
Stripes team had lots of parties -- pizza parties, cakes celebrating milestones, orange and black stripes halloween party, to build team spirit.
Other suggestions: Build team memories (t shirts

36. Recommended Best Practices
Managing Expectations
Communication Plan
Make major policy decisions up front
Don’t make promises to users up front
Monthly status report and review
Monthly / bi-monthly presentations
Articles, web pages, newsletters
Special communications from sponsor
Focus groups, demos, town meetings

37. Recommended Best Practices
Promoting the System
Focus Groups during gap analysis
Demos for every user after first release
Active Executive Committee showed support
Town meetings to endorse system
Major presentation to users
“Pretzel stick” advertisement

38. Recommended Best Practices
Methodology
Follow proven methodologies
Consolidate methodology ( pre-kick off )
Functional reps go to all prototyping
Use standard report formats
Co-locate developer with tester (short term)

39. Recommended Best Practices
Managing the Consulting Partner
Selection criteria should include
Ability to transfer knowledge
Help organize team
Follow proven methodology
Provide good implementation tools
Ability to form good working partnership
Higher Education experience
Work locally (near by or on-site)

40. Recommended Best Practices
Managing the Consulting Partner
Take time to define contract
Terms and conditions / Statement of work (metrics)
Review by Legal, tech., bus., purchasing
Veto power to select / reject resources
Fixed price gives University more control
Tie payments to acceptance of deliverables
Review quality plans
State that the University has methodology

41. Recommended Best Practices
Managing the Consulting Partner
Form partnership - make part of team
Have single point of contact
Build one project plan
Consultant defines phase objectives
Build in reviews with decision points
Meet expectations / Go-no go decision
Plan for early transition of knowledge
Implementation done by Princeton

42. Recommended Best Practices
Managing the Vendor
Have single point of contact
Include RFP responses / bind vendor to meet
Cap maintenance fees (post impl. Phase)
Don’t presume product works from day 1
Fixes required?
Review Quality Plans

43. Recommended Best Practices
Managing the Vendor
Know package after prototyping (not sales)
Include vendor milestones in project plan
Build “decision points” into plan where tight vendor dependencies
Have contingency plans in place

44. For more information…...
Visit our Web site at…