Chapter 11 ideas

1.  One of the highest ranking factors of success for a project is effective communication among everyone involved.  Project managers will spend a lot of time communicating among the project stakeholders.  Every technique employed along the project is a means of communication.  It ensures that the right people have the correct information to make the necessary decisions and see them through.  Being able to write and speak well, lead meetings effectively, listen, and resolve conflicts constructively is a vital skill set for the project manager.   

2.  Communication within the project team is essential and there are four major needs.  The first is each team member needs to know what they are responsible for, known as responsibility.  The second is coordination where team members can work efficiently together to carry out their work.  Status is the third aspect where team members need to be updated on the status of the project to identify problems and take on corrective action if necessary.  Authorization is the last need.  Team members should know all decisions made by the stakeholders of the project for synchronization. 

3.  Make sure to make task assignments clear by explaining the deliverables.  Know what they are supposed to produce.  Hand out work assignments personally and give a reasonable frame of time.  Preparation will contribute to performance so invest into your team.  Make sure any known obstacles are communicated in the bunch.  Be clear about the expectations of effort and due dates.  The network diagram is a good tool to show how the pieces all fit together. 

4.  Regularly scheduled meetings to share information and make decisions keep a project on track.   Holding regular status meetings gives the project manager an opportunity to keep the team informed about developments, identify potential problems, increase team unity, ensure the progress of the project is understood uniformly, and objectives are being met.  The project status meeting should be participative because of the belief that involvement leads to ownership.  Preparation is key; team members should update their open task reports.  Take advantage of the fact that all team members are present in one setting in order to solve or iron out any issues.  Decisions made by management can be distributed out as well.  Review project logs, issue logs, and the risk log.  Answer the questions, are the risks being resolved or do they need to be escalated to higher management.  Don’t try to solve large problems if it can’t be corrected in five minutes.  Assign the problem as an action item instead.   

Chapter 10 ideas

1.  Building a project team can be a daunting task in itself.  Two challenges present themselves with every project team from becoming a high performing one, and they are:  Learning to solve complex problems together and they must learn to work together even though they are temporarily fixed.  If the team can learn to work together then they will produce effective decisions and improve their own efficiency.  There are multiple factors assigned to your project that have responsibilities to solve them.  Determining the goals and success criteria for the project, making tradeoffs between the equilibrium, and designing a product or service all require a solution.  Each task of the project requires a group of individuals to reach a conclusion. 

2.  There is a framework for constructing a high-performance team.  It is when the team reaches a point of an unexpected challenge where they will reveal their strength or their limitations.  Any team can be highly productive until this horizon is encountered.  A positive team environment consists of certain attributes.  These are Listening skills, meeting management, team identity, and ground rules.  The other side on the team arch needs continuous learning, conflict management, decision modes, and problem analysis.  The glue that binds both of these sides together is effective leadership. 

3. Leadership responsibilities are an important role of project management.  Attending to the overall health of the team is vital.  Since this is accomplished intangibly, the project manager needs to monitor and improve the building blocks of team performance along the way.  Doing helps to create a more highly performing team.  While the team members focus on the near term problems it is the job of the team leader to stay focused on the final outcomes of the project and its goals.  Team members are sensitive to human emotions and feelings, attending to these tendencies that potentially would affect motivation and performance results in a level of respect above normal expectation from the project manger.  Plans require execution so demanding and exhibiting accountability is an important factor of leadership.  It is important to the team that the efforts of some are not diminished by the nonperformance of others.  Most importantly I believe a leader must be energetic.  People do absorb the energy a leader portrays to the group, it is a great motivating and uplifting trait.

4.  Setting some ground rules will state the expectations about team behavior and values.  There needs to be an understanding among team members what is expected of them.  Through this measure the team can formulate its own culture.  An effective team needs a structure in place and this framework will provide that.  The values stated will support the accepted attitudes and the behaviors stated will ensure a level of respect. 

Chapter 9 ideas

1.  Project managers must establish realistic expectations when it comes to the parameters of the project.  They must employ the definition and planning techniques to balance the project scope against the constraints of time, money, and resources.  Balancing can take place at any of the three different levels listed. At the project level requires making changes that keep the project on track for its original cost, schedule, and quality objectives.  If the project can’t achieve its equilibrium goals then the business case for the project must be reevaluated.  This is due to the relationship of cost goals to profitability goals and schedules are closely linked to the business case.  Late projects can contribute to financial penalties or missed opportunities for the firm.  Also changing features and performance levels of the product affects the quality, which affects the value of the finished product.  When the project and business case balance the projects to pursue in the collective of multiple projects becomes the enterprising decision.  Deciding which projects to employ first and sequentially becomes another balancing act. 

2.  There are many different ways to balance a project at the project level.  You can reestimate the project by checking your original assumptions in the statement of work and work package estimates.  You can change task assignments to take advantage of the float time.  Adding people to the project can be good or bad also.  Too few people will take more time and too many will cost more money and possibly take even longer.   Using experts from within the firm is one way to increase productivity.  A project manager wants to be careful not to incorporate too many ‘stars’ on the project team because they may very well be assigned to other projects.  They can be slowed down from other lines of work which is a negative aspect according to the firm level.  Experts can be used from outside the firm, but that can come with a price tag.  Even the project itself can be outsourced or just portions of it.  When evaluating all the measures for a particular project, it may be optimal for a firm to pass off the project to someone else then to complete it in house.  Crashing the schedule can compress the duration but has its expense setbacks.  Last one can employ overtime work loads.

3.  At the business case level the product scope can be reduced.  The objectives can be scaled down to fit an appropriate equilibrium structure.  The work breakdown structure would be the first place to decipher the actual savings figures.  Projects that have strict time constraints will use a fixed-phase scheduling method.  The scope of the project is reevaluated at the end of each phase.  Fast tracking involves overlapping tasks that normally are done sequentially.  Phased product delivery will introduce some form of limited use of the project before the actual completion date occurs.  The profit margins can be changed as well. This would be used to stay competitive with alternate bids.

Chapter 8 ideas

1.  When it comes to estimating projects one does not want to generalize or use false assumptions.  Projects are unique and have many underlying factors and parts to their whole.  New problems are attempting to be solved, new products are attempting to be made, and it is not easy to just come up with a general figure if simply asked.  The key to success in the estimation process is to avoid the classic mistakes.  Making a “Ballpark” figure is one of them to avoid.  Another is estimating without complete specifications.  This is dangerous because it isn’t clear what the project will be producing, what’s included, and how long the duration will be.  Confusing a bid with an estimate is another mishap to make. A bid will include the profit margin for the firm where the estimate is a projection of just how much and how long the project will take to complete.  Padding the estimate adds more time and money to the project without any legitimate reasoning behind it.  That is not a good business practice because then those additional resources could be used up just because they were available and the project’s efficiency level would be compromised. 

2.  Try to have the appropriate attitude toward estimation.  One, have the right people make the estimate.  They must be experienced with the work they are estimating so they can understand the work that needs to be done.  The people who will actually perform the work should also be involved in the estimating process.  They will know how much time it will take to complete the tasks.  The goals and techniques of estimating need to be understood by the estimators themselves.  Estimating is a tough practice and needs to be respected with attention to detail and respect to limited resources.  Estimating should be based on experience and keeping a log or database of past projects will aid in the success of further projects down the road.

3.  There are a vast variety of ways to approach accurate estimating.  The art of estimation is a field of itself with extensive research and development behind it.  Some ways are known as apportioning or top-down estimating.  What it does is begins with a total project estimate then assigns a percentage of that total to each of the phases and tasks of the project.  The structure provided for the framework on top-down estimating is the work breakdown structure.  However, some large assumptions are made with this type of strategy: historical projects must be closely related to the project at hand in order to be accurate and the total project estimate must be precise as well.  It is not as accurate as using bottom-up estimating.

Chapter 7 ideas

1.  A realistic schedule is a key component of a successful project.  It includes a detailed knowledge of work to be done and has task sequences in the correct order.  It also accounts for external constraints beyond the control of the team.  It can be accomplished on time, given the availability of skilled people and adequate resources.  A realistic schedule takes into account all the objectives for the project. 

2.  Planning the project is important groundwork to follow.  First you want to create the project definition.  The project manager and the project team develop the statement of work, which identifies the purpose, scope, and deliverables for the project.  Second, develop a risk management strategy, which evaluates the likely obstacles and creates a strategy for balancing costs, schedule, and quality.  Build a work breakdown structure that identifies all the tasks required to build the specified deliverables.   Identify task relationships by placing the work packages in their proper sequence.  Then estimate the work packages by the amount of labor and resources needed for the duration of the task; after the team calculates the total duration of the project.  Revisions will probably be needed down the line.  Last you want to assign and level resources for constraints.  The tasks are rescheduled to optimize the use of all resources efficiently. 

3.  Setting markers along the sequence of the project planning schedule is a useful tool.  Many project managers use these milestones in the work breakdown structure and network diagrams.  Project start and finish milestones are useful anchors for the network.  Setting these makes the project diagram easier for people to interpret.  Also milestones can be used to mark input from one party to another.  Team members and public events can be external sources that can cause setbacks to the timing of the project.  Last, a milestone can represent significant events that aren’t already represented by a work package or summary task.  Basically, milestones are useful to show major progress points, but the ultimate progress indicator lies in the detailed work packages. 

4.  Bottom-Up estimating is a cost and schedule estimate for each work package.  A lot of information is generated in the estimating process, so being systematic is important.  Cost estimates come from four sources: Labor estimates, equipment estimates, materials estimates, and fixed-price bids.  It is necessary to concentrate on costs because they all represent a resource constraint.  This is due to the significant nature of living in a world of limited resources.

Risk Analysis #2

	Risk analysis template - fill out for a specific risk
Project Name	Bathroom Remodel
Risk ID #	2
Responsible person	Time constraints not met
Risk identification date	[mm/dd/yy]
Condition	The project could extend into extra working days.
Trigger event	Finding contingencies along the way that take adjustments to fix
Consequence/Impact description	The project would extend for a longer time period costing more money and taking away vital time for the use of our facility.
Consequence/Impact value (quantify impact)	200.00
Probability (choose from 20, 40, 60, 80)	80.00%
Expected Value	160
Response Strategy	Stay up to date on outcomes and resolve issues effectively and promptly
Known Cost of Response	This will cost $25/hr for every hour of overtime spent on the project.
Contingency for Response	From the start the demolition phase will determine the amount of time to construct the bathroom.  The quicker we can get the old fixtures out and prep the area, the faster the project can get underway.
WBS Relationship (tasks associated with condition or response strategy)	I will get a head start with the demolition of the old fixtures, most likely the night before I will start some removal. Mark will arrive early in the day to help finish with the rest.

Risk Analysis

	Risk analysis template - fill out for a specific risk
Project Name	Bathroom Remodel
Risk ID #	1
Responsible person	Water leakage or uncovering previous water damage behind walls or flooring
Risk identification date	[mm/dd/yy]
Condition	When removing the backerboard from the wall finding a leaking pipe
Trigger event	Discovering the problem upon removal of items
Consequence/Impact description	Have to replace the pipes, wall studs, and or floorfoundation on the upperlevel of the condominium.
Consequence/Impact value (quantify impact)	2500.00
Probability (choose from 20, 40, 60, 80)	20.00%
Expected Value	500
Response Strategy	Assuming no pre-existing water damage, do not damage existing piping.
Known Cost of Response	0
Contingency for Response	Have the plumber be present when working around the piping.  Also have plumber pre-inspect the area before continuing with instalation.
WBS Relationship (tasks associated with condition or response strategy)	The general contractor will work with the removal of tile, backerboard, and tub.  The plumber will inspect the area before having to replace any piping. We already will replace parts of the piping for the faucet.