24. Make Dinner
1.0.0
Plan Menu 1h
3.0.0
Prepare Meal
(3.25h)
2.0.0
Grocery Shopping (1.75h)
3.1.0
Slice Bread .25h
3.3.0
Prepare Entrée (2.25h)
3.2.0
Prepare Salad
(.75h)
Ready to
Serve
4.0.0
Set Table .75h
Begin
Project
Critical Path: Longest sequence of a plan must be
time for the complete on date. An activity on the
critical path cannot be started until its predecessor
activity is complete; if it is delayed for a, the entire
project will be delayed for a day unless the activity
following the delayed activity is completed a day
earlier.
http://www.businessdictionary.com/defini
tion/critical-path.html#ixzz43HU1vftJ
25. Make Dinner
Plan Menu Prepare MealGrocery Shopping
Slice
Bread
Prepare Entrée
Prepare Salad
Set Table
Serve Meal Clean Up
Appetiz
er
Salad Entree Desser
t
Begin
12:00pm
Ready to Serve
6:00pm
Cleanup
7:30pm
End
8:30pm
Go to Store
2:00pm
Starting with your activities, we can morph them from a pile of things that need to get done into an outline for the most efficient way to do so with given resources….
My definition of a Project, for the purposes of today’s session
What is Project Management and why do we need it?
5:5
ResourcesPeople, equipment, material
TimeTask durations, dependencies, critical path
MoneyCosts, contingencies, profit
ScopeProject size, goals, requirements
Time, Money. Resources – “Triple Constraint”
What is your Primary Project Driver? The constraint that absolutely can’t be altered?
Discussion:
What kinds of library activities constitute projects?
What are some recent projects you have worked on?
What are the hardest parts of making your projects successful?
What’s different about library projects
ROI measured in Value, not Profit
5:15
Given these responsibilities, What makes a good project manager?
Who normally manages projects in the library?
What skill set should we be working on to make ourselves better PMs?
PLANNING – The most important part of the process. Do this well, and your project is much more likely to be successful.
FOLLOW THE PLAN – including plans to change the plan
I always recommend a formal process with lots of documentation. Well worth the time and effort for this project, as well as future ones.
5:25
Three parts of planning:
WHO, WHAT, HOW
Planning of these usually happens somewhat simultaneously, so it’s a little artificial in a workshop like this
5:30
PEOPLE
We are a people-oriented profession, and most projects in libraries need to revolve around taking care of the stakeholder’s needs first and foremost.
5:50
Complete list of who will be impacted (Or thinks they’re impacted)
Fill out the Stakeholder Register in your groups, making up whatever info or specifics you need to.
Skip RACI and Communication columns for now.
Discuss the group results - Compare entries from each team Differences/Similarities? Different Interpretations?
Modify this for every project, but keep a template on hand because your list is likely similar each time.
15:1.5
Discuss RACI Chart, looking at example and the worksheet – May need to be filled in later when tasks are ready
Forms the basis for Communication Needs, which in turn is what you should base your communication plan on
5:1.10
Communication is super complicated and Comm needs vary widely from project to project
COMMUNICATION PLAN = Make or break in most projects
Communicating with Whom?
About What?
Frequency
Method
Special considerations
Exceptions
Use this to set expectations with all stakeholders
5:1.15
BREAK 10:1.25
PRODUCT
Essential questions: WHAT & WHY
Define these formally. Makes a good group activity with your project team. Give them a basic outline and let them flesh it out.
This is HARD
Purpose – Formal Purpose statement saying why you’re doing the project.
This should relate to the organizational mission
Goals – SMART Goals
specific, measurable, attainable (assignable), realistic, timely
Define these carefully – they are the basis for your project
Objectives – concrete “stuff” that has to happen to reach your goals – Goals are principles, objectives are steps to reach goals
Requirements – Specific outcomes
Example- Web design
Goal: Provide intuitive access to library holdings information
Objective: Make finding the catalog intuitive, Choose a user-friendly search interface, cataloging
Requirements: To consider Objective 1 complete: User testing results, load times, etc
Should be able to track back from Requirements to Purpose
Once you outline these, the tasks (project activities)can be defined
PROCESS
Once Requirements are established, Make a list of ALL ACTIVITIES needed to meet those requirements
Activity Register is one option.
WBS
All of the activities needed to meet requirements = SCOPE
Activity Register and/or chart
SCOPE CREEP – one of the most dangerous things for your project.
Libraries are customer service oriented = “Above and Beyond”
But this can set a project back in schedule, budget, or resources (triple constraint)
This doesn’t mean you can’t add things or make changes, but there should be a process in place for doing so.
Change Management Plan is essential – it makes sure that anything added is NECESSARY TO THE OVERALL PURPOSE
Keep people happy by responding positively to suggestions and keeping them for consideration in future projects
DO NOT SKIP AHEAD or you will do rework and/or cost the library money and time
Activity:
Take the post-its and put them on the paper Left to right roughly in order. Look at the Handout example of Making Dinner.
Once the tasks are in order, use the markers to show how they connect to one another. What MUST happen before another task can? Draw arrows to show this. See handout
If an item MUST be done first, move it to the left
30:3.0
Look at team charts and compare. What did the teams do differently?
WBS
BREAK: LUNCH – Look at what the others have put up
Starting with your activities, we can morph them from a pile of things that need to get done into an outline for the most efficient way to do so with given resources….
Re-convene: Discuss what you noticed about other teams work
5:5
Each task will take time.
Work = how many hours of effort will it take to complete
Duration = how many days will this span?
5:10
Add a Duration to each task (down to .25 days) ESTIMATE
LOOK AT A CALENDAR – are there other time constraints?
IF TIME, space out a little more accurately
15:25
If we start the project April 1: (Why you do that)
Add up the days to see when each of the following milestones can occur:
When will the temp space be ready?
When will the storage items be ready to move to that space?
When will materials be ready to move to temporary facility?
When will the staff be ready to move?
MOVE DATE
15:40
Compare between teams
10:50
This now can become a schedule by adding in Resources
Resource Register: List of team members who can be assigned, with # hours available, vacation time, special skills, etc
Include outsourced resources if applicable
Use this to assign people to tasks
This will adjust the schedule
Discuss how adding the resources will change the Gantt
Tools for managing this (Asana, Trello, etc)
NOW YOU CAN CREATE A TIMELINE
10:60
Schedule begins to emerge
Critical Path
Timeline
This process is complicated
Use Gantt software to do this
What could possibly go wrong???Use the dots to mark placed on the schedule where you might for see a potential problem
When in the schedule could something threaten the budget or schedule?
Where might communication fail (or be extremely critical) – Make a list of these to be sure extra effort is made
Where might quality get messed up and requirements missed? – List these to make sure QA is performed at these points.
Take all of the documents you’ve amassed so far, and compile them into a single document that covers everything.
This is something any stakeholder should be able to understand, any team member should be able to follow and implement.
5:1.25
Depending on the project, you may need to have additional documents
Discuss some of these and why you might want them included.
Look at a sample template
DON’T DO ANYTHING UNTIL THE BOSS SIGNS OFF ON IT
15: 1.40
Revise that plan over and over if you need to. Always get changes approved, though.
What do we do now? Discuss
Questions, concerns, other things that came up
20: 2
Additional time:
Look at some tools for managing this (Asana, Trello, Gantter, Slack, etc)