Theory, Tools, and Obstacles Project Management Theory, Tools, and Obstacles

Project Management Skills Schedule management Cost management Quality management People management Risk management Communication skills

How Good Are Your Project Management Skills? Not at All Rarely Sometimes Often Very Often 1 2 3 4 5

How Good Are Your Project Management Skills? 0-20 points Uh-oh!! You may be focusing more on day-to-day activities than the bigger picture. 20-35 points Your project management skills are probably ok for relatively simple projects, but the more complex the projects you manage, the more trouble you will face. 36-50 points Good job! You are already an accomplished project manager.

Project Management Theory

What do we do at ICNL? (solicit sample tasks and divide them between project management and substantive work)-

Project Management vs. Technical Work

Responsible vs. Accountable

Project Management Program management Portfolio management Definitions Project Management- Discipline of planning, organizing and managing resources to bring about the successful delivery of specific project goals, outcomes and outputs, while honoring the preconceived project constraints related to scope budget, schedule and quality Program management- process of managing a group of related projects in a coordinated way to obtain benefits and control not available through managing them individually. Portfolio management- oversees the performance of the organization’s collection of project and programs. Portfolio management is not concerned with day-to-day project tasks, but focuses instead on selecting, initiating, and managing the overall collection of projects in a way that addresses the strategic objective of the organization.

Triple Constraint Model Resources Time Scope

Scope: Too Broad Cost Time Scope

Cost: Not Enough Money Time Cost Scope

Time: Not Enough Cost Time Scope

Project Lifecycle Project Identification and Design Project Set Up Project Planning Project Implementation End of Project

Activity Duration Estimating Research- 3 days Write first draft- 4 days Supervisor review- 2 days Revisions- 1 day Local partner review- 1 week Revisions- 2 days

Key Concepts Critical Path- series of tasks that determine the minimum amount of time required to complete project activities Project ‘float’ or ‘slack’- float or slack is the amount of time that a task in a project can be delayed without causing a delay to the project completion date.

Project Management Tools

Project Management Tools Calendar To do list Check list Microsoft Project Manager and other Project Management software

Gantt Charts

Gantt Charts Visual snapshot of how the project is organized Phases  Milestones  Tasks Who is responsible Timing Can be used to determine realistic dates or work backwards from deadlines to plan work Helps you monitor whether the project is on schedule if updated frequently Whole purpose is to make your lives easier! What are the key steps that you need to accomplish to get to the deliverables?  Think through the process of accomplishing the activity.  Can you identify 2-3-4 phases in the project?   Milestones are the main outputs (concrete results) that you will need to accomplish before you can get to the next phase.    Determine the duration of each phase – this will often depend on deadlines for the outputs (milestones and other deliverables)

Gantt Charts: Common Problems Not enough detail Missing activities Budgeting Reporting Training compliance Milestones vs. tasks Unclear use of colors

Small Group Exercises Workshop Study Tour Publication/Research Paper Proposal Grants

Obstacles to Effective Project Management