Posts tagged Project Management

Project Management Earned Value Terms

Jun01
2010 7 Comments Written by elroyking

As a project manager you need to talk the talk and walk the walk. Among the most important concepts to learn for the PMP exam and for managing projects, are the Earned Value Terms. These can help you in the planning processes, the executing processes, and the monitoring and controlling processes. These terms will give you a shared vocabulary with upper management, they understand planned value, estimated value, and performance value, and with a few terms and formulas you can have all of that information at your fingertips. So let’s get down to the terms that you really need to know:

PV is the acronym for Planned Value, it is the estimated value of the work. As an example, let’s say that you have a software project that is estimated to cost $100,000 dollars when it is completed. The estimated cost, as of today, is $100,000. This represents how much value is planned into the project and is also the Planned Value of the project.

EV is the acronym for Earned Value. As the work is accomplished on your project, the value associated with that work becomes the new, actual value of the completed portion of the project. If we stick with the same $100,000 project from Planned Value, and we have been able to check off 1/2 of the work packages as being complete, then the project has an Earned Value of 1/2 of $100,000 or $50,000.

AC is the acronym for Actual Cost. This is just the actual cost, to date, for the project.

BAC is the acronym for Budget at Completion, as of today, what is the total budget for the project.

EAC is the Acronym for Estimate at completion. This is the forecast for what we think the cost of the project will be when it is complete. This is a calculation that should be made often to understand where the project expenditures stand.

ETC is the Acronym for Estimate to Complete. From this point forward, how much more will the project cost.

VAC is the Acronym for Variance at Completion. As of today, how much over budget or under budget to we expect to be?

I hope these definitions will help you out on the PMP exam and while managing your projects. Use the project management language as often as you can. It helps you communicate with upper management, it helps you sound more educated and more project competent! Being able to give the project current and expected values also helps stake holders understand where you are and what you expect to be spending along the way.

For a broader discussion of the Earned Value Formulas, check into PMP Certification For Dummies by Peter Nathan and Gerald Everett Jones or Head First PMP: A Brain-Friendly Guide to Passing the Project Management Professional Exam.

For a deeper discussion on Earned Value, see Earned Value Management Book by PMI. Earned value is a great subject to spend some time with.

If you want to pass the PMP exam, you are going to have to learn to understand the Project Management terms the way the PMI knows them. Rita Mulcahy, a prominent PMP and Project Management author, explains that 50% of those that fail the PMP exam fail it because they have not had project management training that uses PMI terminology. The bottom line, you need to see the terms the way the PMI sees them to pass the PMP exam. About the only way to get that knowledge is through some PMI approved training.

Now you have a number of options:

You can attend a 4-7 day training course held by MosaicProjects or GlobalKnowledge. The rates vary, but will cost between $1500 and $2000. The actual number of contact hours awarded from the class depends on the number of classroom hours you attend, but they vary between 21 and 25.

There are some online classes Point Advantage, Online Training or Simplilearn online training. Either one will cost between $699 and $999.

However, the very best value will be the The PM-Prepcast.

The PM-Prepcast gives you:
38 hours of PMI approved PMP training in a podcast.
35 contact hours recognized by the PMI.
Exclusive tips and tricks for taking the PMP exam.
Sample test questions and more. For a one time fee of about $99.

Check out the PM-Prepcast and start preparing for the PMP exam in the PMI way today!.

If you have any questions about the PMP exam or Project Management, leave them as a comment, and I will try to answer them.

Elroy King

Don’t crash and burn on the PMP exam. Get prepared with the PMP Exam Simulation Software. 6000 unique PMP questions for less than most PMP exam prep texts.

Get help passing the PMP Exam.

Share this:

Posted in PMP Exam - Tagged Earned Value, PMP Exam Prep

Project Basics

May27
2010 7 Comments Written by elroyking

Definition of a Project

A project is a one time endeavor that produces a unique product or service. I has clearly defined deliverable, schedule, and cost.

Projects are not standard operating activities for the following reasons:

A project is unique, it is not repetitive–each project is different from the last, where operations are repetitive processes that happen again and again.

A project will have a specific business need or case that is the driving force behind it. If there is not business need or business case, then there probably is no project, or the project will fail for lack of focus.

A project has a defined schedule, it has a definite start date, and a planned end date.

A project will have an approved budget. There are specific financial limitation within which a project must operate. Projects always have limited resources that must be managed. Projects that operate outside of the budget are in danger of being re-evaluated and/or canceled

Projects involve risk, both business risk and operational risk.

Understanding The Definition of a Project is Important

Knowing the difference between a project and standard operations are important, because the PMP Exam will have some questions that broach the subject. It might be easy to be derailed by a question asking about what a project manager should do with a specific situation, and the answer would be that the task is repetitive and is not a project, has no definite beginning or end and, therefore it should be turned over to operations.

A project needs a Project Charter and a Project Manager.

Projects should follow the project management process.

If you have any questions about project management or the PMP exam, leave them as a comment, and I will try to answer them.

Elroy King

Don’t crash and burn on the PMP exam. Get prepared with the PMP Exam Simulation Software. 6000 unique PMP questions for less than most PMP exam prep texts.

Get help with the PMP Exam Formulas. You need to learn them for the exam. Get the help you need learning those formulas.

Share this:

Posted in PMP Exam - Tagged PMP Exam Prep, Project Management Professional

Project Management Checklist

May17
2010 1 Comment Written by elroyking

The PMBOK guide is a great resource for managing projects and presenting the processes that can be employed to make planning, executing, and monitoring and controlling your project more of a science than an art, but I think that at times it can be too generic and too broad. I have a few guidelines that I try to implement as part of every project that help me to focus the processes in the PMBOK guide. I put them into a little checklist.

1. Start with the business need! True technical projects don’t really exist, they are all business projects. They may have technical components and require technical expertise, but if they don’t solve a business problem, they won’t get past the initial phases.

2. As the project manager, you will be able to influence the project the most early on. Be there during the project inception, you may be able to add your two cents when it comes to how to implement pieces and you probably know better than anyone else which resources you have access to. In the end, the project will have a better chance of being successful with you understanding the needs and requirements that are talked about during inception.

3. Do your due diligence when it comes to planning. Poor planning leads to moving targets and unclear objectives.

4. Write down decisions made and why they were made. This includes minutes from meetings and chat/email discussions. If it isn’t documented, it didn’t happen.

5. Address the issues as they come up, don’t procrastinate. The problems won’t solve themselves, they typically just get worse. Deal with them promptly.

6. Listen to project team members. If team members feel they can come to you, and tell you about the issues and problems without you getting mad, they may tell you about risks sooner rather than later, and save you a lot of headaches.

7. Be the first one to follow the rules and implement the suggestions. Nothing tears up moral more quickly than a leader that does something different than he says. Be the example, and you will win the respect of your team.

8. Include the entire team, or representatives of each discipline in decision making and discussion. QA can often add a lot and help to make features testable from the beginning, Engineering and Marketing can work together on how to implement features in ways that can be marketed. When you leave out a discipline, you create walls that sometimes become difficult to breach.

9. Make sure the sponsor’s vision is shared by the team and can work as a driving source to keep the project focused. Use an integrated change system that incorporates all disciplines on the project and is approved by the sponsors. Projects that veer off course can loose sponsor buy off at the last minute.

This check list always keeps me on track. I hope it can help you navigate the processes of the PMBOK guide and keep your projects on track.

Elroy King

Ever wonder about those pesky PMI-isms? For a great discussion and some definitions of some critical PMI-isms , look at PMI-isms, Indispensible Terms .

Check out the great PMP Exam Simulator with over 6000 quality PMP exam questions, for under $50. You can’t beat this kind of Quality PMP Exam Resource.

If you have any questions about project management or the PMP exam, leave them for me in a comment and I will try to answer them.

Share this:

Tagged PMP Exam, Project Management Professional, project managment exam

The Project Charter

May07
2010 3 Comments Written by elroyking

The project charter is the document that officially starts the project. Projects that don’t have a charter can have a number of problems and issues because they lack the tangible factors that allow the project manager and the project team focus on what is important about the project. A project cannot be started without a project charter.

A project charter should contain the following:

A project title and description.
A project manager should be named and authorized.
The businesses need should be stated.
The business case or justification should be stated.
Initially assigned resources stated.
Intended stakeholders identified.
Stake holder requirements defined.
A description of the end results or deliverables.
The constraints and assumptions taken into consideration.
The sponsoring entities identified.
Signature or approval of sponsoring entities.

There are a number of benefits to creating a project charter. For one, it formally recognizes the existence of the project, in most instances this means that the project doesn’t exist or isn’t real without a project charter. The charter gives the project manager his authority to spend money and commit resources. The charter outlines the high-level requirements for the project and links the project to the overall work of the organization.

Some things to keep in mind, the project charter is issued by the project sponsor and NOT the project manager. It is among the first things done in the project and it should be sufficiently broad so that it doesn’t change through the life of the project. If the charter needs to be changed, there needs to be a serious look at whether the project should even continue, because it would mean that the basic assumptions and foundation for the project has somehow changed.

Also remember that the project charter is NOT the project management plan. It does not contain the detail of how the work is to be performed, but it does include enough of the business needs, product requirements, and expected return on investment (ROI) to let the sponsor and stake holders know whether this is the project they want to undertake or not.

On the PMP exam you can expect several questions about the project charter. Knowing what a project charter is and what it contains will help you through those questions.

Another good discussion to have at this time is the definition of a project. The PMI tries to catch test takers with the common mistakes of project managers. One of the big mistakes is to not be able to differentiate between a project and on going operations. Some project managers may find that, authority wise, they are closer to a project coordinator. Which one are you?

If you have any questions about the PMP exam or project management in general, leave me the questions in a comment, and I might be able to answer them.

Elroy King

Share this:

Tagged PMP Exam Prep, project charter

Project Life Cycle

May01
2010 1 Comment Written by elroyking

The project life cycle is a term used to represent the phases that a project goes through from beginning to end. The project life cycle can be different for every industry and field. For example the building industry might have 1) a feasibility study, 2)planning, 3)design, 4) execution, 5) turn over to operations and project closure. The software industry may look more like 1) requirements gathering, 2) high level design, 3) low level design, 4) coding, 5) testing, 6) distribution, 7) turn over to maintenance and closure. The project life cycle could very for many industries and products. The project life cycle can generate many projects for every phase. A single project could be the feasibility study or the requirements gathering. A separate project could be the high level and low level design.

The project life cycle is sometimes referred to as the organization’s methodology for projects. Because of this variability between industries, you can expect to see the term project life cycle on the PMP exam, but the questions will not be detailed. Just remember that the life cycle does exist and that it is dependent on the organization performing the project.

Do you have any questions about the project life cycle? Leave the questions in a comment for me, and I might be able to answer it for you.

For more information on what you can expect to find on the PMP Exam, see the PMP exam description Being able to pass the PMP exam is a lot easier with information about what is on the test.

Share this:

Tagged PMP Exam, project life cycle

Earn PDUs From a Podcast

Apr16
2010 11 Comments Written by elroyking

You worked hard to get your PMP or PgMP, celebrate that certification, but now you need to think about re-certification. Over the course of three years, each credentialed PMP or PgMP will need to re-certify by completing 60 Professional Development Units (PDUs), each unit consists of 1 hour of professional development activities. The re-certification requirement is spelled out by the PMI in their Continuing Certification Requirements (CCR) Program. The PMI publishes a number of ways to get those PDUs. Here is a way to get your PDUs from the convenience of your iPod or MP3 player. It is called the PDU Podcast™. The PDU Podcast delivers at least 1 PDU per month. The PDU podcast is PMI Registered Education Provider (R.E.P.) and therefore the PDU Podcast™ offers “Category 3″ PDUs. There is no limit to how many PDUs you can earn in this category. This is the perfect way to acquire those PDUs and keep your certification current. The PDU podcast gets experts on Project Management topics as the guest lecturers, so it is the latest information by the experts in the field. You won’t get better training, and to get it from the convenience of your iPod on your own schedule is just icing on the cake.

Check out the PDU Podcast.

Share this:

Tagged PDUs, project management exam, Project Management Professional

The Project Management Process

Apr03
2010 6 Comments Written by elroyking

Get Ready For The PMP Exam

The process for managing projects follows an old saying “plan, do, check, act”. However since a project has a definite beginning and a definite end, we will start the project and end it also. So this is how the process is broken down and mapped into the PMP exam processes:

Initiating (Start)
Planning (Plan)
Executing (Do)
Monitoring and Controlling (Check, and act)
Closing (End)

The Project Management Process encompasses all of the project management process groups. Important processes inside each of the process groups are the following:

Initiating
Select project manager.
Understand the business case for the project.
Determine the culture and systems of the company.
Acquire historical information, processes, etc. from past projects.
Discover requirements and risks.
Identify stakeholders and their needs.
Create project charter and stakeholder management strategy.

Planning
Create a strategy for developing project plans.
Determine final requirements.
Create a project scope statement.
Decide what you will purchase and what will be developed in house.
Select project team.
Create Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and WBS dictionary.
Develop activity list.
Produce network diagram.
Estimate resources, time, and cost.
Discover critical path.
Create a schedule and a budget.
Create measurable metrics, milestones, and quality standards.
Divide up roles and responsibilities.
Create communication plan.
Perform risk analysis, both quantitative and qualitative.
Create project baselines.
Receive formal approval.
(some of the above steps are iterative)
Also, break large projects into phases and do each step for each phase.

Executing
acquire the final team.
Perform the work according to the management plan.
Request changes, but only implement approved changes.
Make changes to the affected baselines.
Continuously improve processes.
Provide for a common understanding across the team and stakeholders.
Manage stakeholders.
Evaluate team and project performance.
Do team-building activities.
Recognize and reward project participants.
Handle conflict resolution.
Create issue logs.

Monitoring and Controlling
Measure performance against baselines.
Calculate variances, determine if changes are needed.
Request only needed changes, and influence the factors that cause change.
Approve or reject changes.
Present changes to stakeholders.
Manage the configuration.
Perform quality control.
Perform process improvement.
Perform risk audits.
Procure purchases.
Report on performance.
Execute on integrated change control.

Closing
Complete work to specifications.
Complete performance reporting.
Complete procurement processes.
Get formal acceptance of deliverable s and the project.
Index and archive records.
Release resources.

With in these steps can be multiple phases and multiple iterations as the project grinds through to completion. Pay attention to the critical path, it is the project bottle neck and will determine the length of the project. All aspects of the project processes are important, but some may be coalesced and condensed. This is the project management process, and it is comprised of the PMP project management processes. There is a table in the PMBOK guide that spells out these processes in more detail and in table format.

Share this:

Tagged PMP Exam, Project management processes

Company Organizational Structure

Mar30
2010 3 Comments Written by elroyking

Get Ready For The PMP Exam

A company’s culture is influenced by the organizational structure it employs. As for project managers, the company organizational structure determines how much authority and responsibility the project manager ends up with. The three types of organizational structure are outlined below. The advantages and disadvantages of each are discussed.

Functional

Advantages	Disadvantages
Specialists are grouped together, and can be managed more eaisily.	Specialties have greater emphasis than the projects.
Members of the team only need to report to one supervisor, and clear career paths in specialties.	The career path is in the specialties, not in project management.
Resources are organized by specialties, and can be effectively deployed from a centralized point.	Little or no authority goes to the project manager.

Projectized

Advantages	Disadvantages
Organized efficiently for Projects.	Project participants don’t have a place to go back to when the project completes.
Resources are more loyal to the project, and have less distractions from the project.	No cohesiveness with-in disciplines, participants are project resources before functional resources.
Communication can be more effective, because it is across all disciplines.	Resources used less efficiently because of duplication of facilities and job functions.

Matrix

Advantages	Disadvantages
Project objectives more visible than in a functional organization.	Requires additional administration.
Better control by project manager.	Team members report to more than one “boss”.
Better support from disciplines than in a projectized organization.	Monitoring and Controlling is more complex.
Best organization for co-ordination, may utilize scarce resources the best.	Most difficult to allocate resources, may require more policies and procedures to be successful.

In a functional organization project managers find they have the least authority. In a projectized organization, the project manager has the most authority, but also the most responsibility to the project team and team members. In a matrix organization, project managers have lots of authority over the project, but may have little authority over resources.

PMP Exam Tip

When referring to organizational structures on the PMP exam, and asking about advantages or disadvantages, it is usually implied that they are the advantages or disadvantages over the functional organization, if the organizational structure being referred to is not mentioned.

Be sure to understand the company organizational structure when referring to some questions on the PMP exam. The best answer for a company with a matrix organization will not be the same as for a company with a functional organization. I think the default is assumed that you are working in a matrix organization, unless otherwise stated.

Share this:

Tagged PMP Exam, project management exam, project manager

Project Constraints

Mar28
2010 21 Comments Written by elroyking

Get Ready For The PMP Exam

There are many things that project managers have to take into consideration on a project. Although the projects objectives and the products of the project are the most important things to the project, the resources, the time it takes to perform the projects, the risk of project failure and others weigh heavily on what can be accomplished by the project and what cannot. The factors that may limit the project are classified as the project constraints. They include, but are not limited to, Time, Cost, Scope, Risk, Quality, and Resources. The three common constraints recognized universally are Time, Cost, and Scope. The reason they are called constraints is that they are inter-dependent. When you change one of them, the others will be affected. For example, if you try to cut the time to accomplish a project by say 20 percent, the only way to accomplish that is usually adding more resources. The end result is that the cost goes up significantly. The other things that may be affected is the quality, for instance. Perhaps shortening the product cycle will reduce the time and iterations for testing–which means that more defects will be missed and the over-all quality of the project will suffer.

The chronic antithesis of projects is “scope creep”. This condition is realized when more features are added onto a product, or it is changed significantly from its inception as more stakeholders add more requirements. When the scope is changed to add, yet another feature, the time to complete the project grows, the cost grows, the quality may suffer, and the risk of completing the project on time grows exponentially. Can you see how the constraints are connected? Any change to one of the constraints usually results in a consequence for the others. From past experience the best way to control scope creep is to identify all of the stake holders early in the project and get their agreement to the requirements before the start of the project. From that point forward, good communication, good stakeholder management, and a good process for adding requirements to the “next version” of the product can do wonders for controlling the scope and the rest of the constraints.

For the PMP exam, remember the constraints and that one cannot be changed without affecting the other. For a more in-depth discussion about the triple constraints, look at

The Triple Constraints in Project Management by Michael S. Dobson

The Triple Constraints in Project Management (Project Management Essential Library) (Paperback)

Share this:

Posted in Uncategorized - Tagged PMP Exam Prep, project management exam, triple constraints

Stakeholder Management On Projects

Mar26
2010 1 Comment Written by elroyking

Get Ready For The PMP Exam

Who are the stakeholders on your project? Let’s name the obvious ones–the customers, the sponsors, the project manager, and the project team. All of these people have influence on the project and are affected by the progress and the outcome of the project. But this is not the complete list of stakeholders. It also includes the management team, the project management office, the portfolio managers, the program managers, functional managers, operations managers, support personnel, resellers, stockholders, investors, and partners! Think about this second list. What kind of influence do these interested, but not usually directly engaged in the project, people have on your project? I have seen many projects fail, because project team members did not identify all of the stakeholders early in the project, and then found that in order to please all of the stakeholders the scope of the project would have to be increased dramatically. Realize that stakeholders are those people who can influence your project, or who will be affected by it. It is best to think of stake holders as semi-team members. As a project manager, you may not have any formal reporting to all stakeholders, but they are central to its success. You need to keep these people and groups informed about project progress, solicit input from them, and perform to meet their needs and expectations. Much of the stakeholder management will be performed during the communications process of your project. Identifying stakeholders early and understanding their needs will be the most effective method for controlling the project scope and preventing the expansion of project requirements. Stakeholders will be your best proponents if you understand them, communicate to them, and perform to their needs. Identify your stakeholders and include them in the project early.

For more stakeholder management education in preparation for the PMP exam see PMP Exam Prep, Sixth Edition: Rita’s Course in a Book for Passing the PMP Exam Rita covers stakeholder management and really preps the reader for passing the PMP exam. You won’t find a better PMP prep course out there.

For a more in depth study of stakeholder management try this book by R. Andrew Davison Project Pre-Check: The Stakeholder Practice for Successful Business and Technology Change The book explains how to identify stakeholders and how to involve them in the critical decisions that will make or break your project.

Share this:

Tagged PMP Exam Prep, project management exam, Stakeholder Management

Posts tagged Project Management

Project Management Earned Value Terms

Project Basics

Project Management Checklist

The Project Charter

Project Life Cycle

Earn PDUs From a Podcast

The Project Management Process

Get Ready For The PMP Exam

Company Organizational Structure

Get Ready For The PMP Exam

Project Constraints

Get Ready For The PMP Exam

Stakeholder Management On Projects

Get Ready For The PMP Exam

Subscribe

Recent Posts

Project Management Topics

PMP Study Helps

Sitemap

Saved Posts