DEV234 Project Management For.NET Developers Marc Gusmano Director of Emerging Technologies The Information Management Group

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Today’s Focus Project Managers, Leads on small to medium projects (size, complexity) Who would like some simple, proven techniques, and tools To help their projects get more predictable results To help assure user buy in To help make more informed tradeoff decisions “In a world without data, opinion prevails”

Sources Of Tools And Techniques Project Management Institute Microsoft Solutions Framework Microsoft ITG, Operations best practices 20 yrs experience on software projects Managing projects, project mgrs, teaching, consulting, test, analysis, support, methodology

How Are Things Working Today? Software-development projects fail all the time, no matter what their size According to the Standish Group In a 2000 Study Only 28% of software projects could be classed as complete successes (they were executed on time and on budget) 23% failed outright (meaning that they were abandoned) Those numbers are improvements over a 16% success rate and a 31% failure rate (when the first study was done, in 1994)

Why Do I Need Project Management? Does anyone care? WHAT gets done WHEN it gets done HOW much it costs Do you need resources from outside your group; have dependencies on other groups? Would you like an “insurance” policy? To increase a project’ s predictability

A Framework For Project Management Guidance to help organizations be more successful delivering IT Solutions: Faster, With fewer people, Less risk, While enabling higher quality results A collection of principles, processes and best practices

Project Startup Considerations

Starting Up A Project Structure the project and define scope The amount of structure, process is a function of the risks involved Project Initiation, Scope Planning, Scope Definition (from Project Mgmt Institute) Key Deliverables Project Definition Document (Vision, Charter) Project Issues, Risks, Communication Plan

MSF Team ModelCommunication Delivering the solution within project constraints Satisfied customers Enhanced user effectiveness Smooth deployment and ongoing operations Approval for release only after all quality issues are identified and addressed Building to specification Development Test Release Management User Experience Product Management Program Management

MSF Process Model Vision/Scope Approved Project Plans Approved Scope Complete Release Readiness Approved Deployment Complete

Defining The Scope Resources Features Schedule

Where To Start? A few simple best practices Project Definition Document How do people know What this project is about and “Who gets a vote, who only gets a opinion” Project Schedule What needs to get done by when Who is responsible Communication Plan How do people know Where and when to look for project “stuff“ How raise issues, bugs, request changes…

1-Envisioning Milestone: Vision-Scope Approved

Current State Infrastructure Assessment Feature proposal Milestone Review Report Project Structure Risk Assessment Team Lead Project Progress Report Team Member Project Progress Report Vision Scope Document Envisioning – Key Deliverables

Where To Start: “Tools R Us”? Project Definition Document MSF: Vision ScopeVision Scope PMI : Project Charter Other PM Websites Project Schedule Microsoft Project Excel, Visio, Word, Outlook Others…?? Communication Plan Word, Excel, Custom Web pageExcel SharePoint, Project ServerProject Server Others…??

Project Definition Document Suggested Content Areas Why are we doing this How will we know we are successful Who needs to help, know about the project Assumptions, Exclusions, Dependencies Issues, Risks

Project Schedule Focus on Deliverables and Milestones ~1day to 1 week duration Consider: How often will you update the schedule Consider Checklists for detailed activities Duration-Based versus Effort-Based Estimating Resource Tracking may require up to 50-75% more maintenance time (make sure it’s worth it) Contact field allows notifications Option: Roles and Responsibilities using custom view

Develop A Communication Plan How does it happen today – is it working well? How do team members, stakeholders find out about project “stuff”? Meetings (official, ad-hoc) Phone calls Hallway conversations E. S. P. – Psychic Hotline????? Don’t forget about new people joining the project

Key Project Communications What Project “stuff” do people need Overall Project Status Detail Project Status Key Decisions, Changes Schedule, Budget Issues, Risks Project Deliverables, Milestones How do they know? Where to look??? When to look???

2-Planning Milestone: Project Plans Approved

Planning - Key Deliverables Availability Plan Backup and Recovery Plan Budget Plan Capacity Plan Communications Plan Deployment Plan Development Plan End-User Support Plan Master Project Plan Microsoft Support Plan Migration Plan Monitoring Plan Operations Plan Performance Plan Pilot Plan Purchasing and Facilities Plan Security Plan Support Plan Test Plan Training Plan

MSF Application Model Business Services User Services DataServices Application 1 Application 2

Design Process Overview Logical Design Conceptual Design Scenarios Physical Design Components, User Interface, and Physical Database Objects and Services, User Interface, and Logical Database

3-Developing Milestone: Scope Complete

Developing - Key Deliverables Testing and Bug Reporting Traceability Audit

4-Stabilizing Milestone: Release Readiness Approved

Stabilizing - Key Deliverables Pilot Review Release Signoff Form Test Specification

5-Deploying Milestone: Deployment Complete

Deploying - Key Deliverables Post Project Analysis Project Close-out Report

Resources Project Management Institute Microsoft Solutions Framework Gantthead: IT Project Mgmt SW Program Mgrs Network

Summary Start small 1 thing you can sustain is better than 5 that you can’t Just enough process Look at the size, complexity, risks of your project The simpler the better Look around, see what works for peers Websites, Books, Professional Orgs

Community Resources Most Valuable Professional (MVP) Newsgroups Converse online with Microsoft Newsgroups, including Worldwide User Groups Meet and learn with your peers

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