ProjTeams: Tools and Knowledge for Project Teams

Starting a new business

2009-03-29T23:09:00.002-04:00

I am starting a new business for the PM community... PlanFurther.com

More details to follow...

Mentoring PMs

2008-08-25T22:23:00.002-04:00

I found a great post on Linked In from Erika Flora dealing with local PMI chapters and their desire to setup a mentorship program for PMs...
http://www.linkedin.com/in/eflora

Excerpted from her public posting on Linked In:
"When we designed the mentoring program for the PMI Phoenix, we did a lot of research on what other chapters and SIGs were doing. Here is a listing of links to those programs. You should be able to find some good information here. You may also want to contact the chapters/SIGs directly to get information on lessons they learned, etc. Best of luck to you! :) Erika

Southern Alberta Canada http://www.pmisac.com/index.php?id=290

Northern Alberta Canada http://www.pminac.com/

Birmingham, Alabama http://capmichapter.tripod.com/id17.html

Southern New England http://www.snec-pmi.org/mem-is.php

Chicagoland http://www.pmi-chicagoland.org/mentoring/index.php

Central Illinois http://www.pmi-cic.org/education/mentoringprogram.htm

Kansas City Mid-America http://kcpmichapter.org/mentor.html

Nebraska Heartland http://www.pmiheartland.org/profdev/mentor.aspx

South Nevada http://www.pmi-snc.org/MentoringPMISNC.html

New York City http://www.pminyc.org/

Westchester, New York http://www.pmiwestchester.org/

Eastern North Carolina and Research Triangle Park http://www.ncpmi.org/index.phtml?menu=side_button&menu2=8&data=&data2=&sessionid=t1156548671m67471500&username=&password=&userhelp=off&cart=

Central Ohio http://www.pmicentralohio.com/User/Mentoring.aspx

Portland, Oregon http://www.pmi-portland.org/outreach/mentoring_outreach.htm

Memphis, Tennessee http://www.pmimemphis.org/mentor.shtml

Milwaukee, Southwest Wisconsin http://www.pmi-milwaukee.org/mentoring.asp

Links:
http://wipmsig.org/mentor.htm
http://www.phx-pmi.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=43
http://blog.erikaflora.com

Project Server Reporting DB and Custom Fields

2008-05-09T10:49:00.004-04:00

If you look inside your project server reporting DB, you will notice there are several prebuilt views which show relationships between the standard project server objects (projects, resources, etc...) and the custom fields you have defined.

What you may not realize is that the custom fields are disjointed. They only relate at the point in time when you look at them.

for instance...
I use this DB extensively for compiling data and sending it to my company's accounting process. For this to work, I need to track the time sheet charges to the budget code they apply to. This works well and I am able to map this out (after navigating a few additional Unique IDs in the time sheet tables). Works fine in the cube too.

However, let's say we change the budget code so that from today forward, all charges go to a different department. No problem. Right? Next week I send over the same report with updated data. But If I am asked to go back and check my historical charges to either of these budget codes, I can no longer differentiate where the charges went or should have gone.

This is because the link between custom fields and the raw data in project server is not saved with the time sheets or projects as a "point in time" record. Most other time sheet systems do this to keep an accurate, accounting friendly, record of charges.

So, what to do? My approach has been to write a stored procedure that inserts the current changes and their related dates in a new table in the reporting DB. I do this nightly and have a query (i use it as a subquery as needed) that searches this and pulls back the correct value based on the desired timestamp. It's a suitable workaround, but I shouldn't have had to experience the root problem in the first place.

Perhaps MS will change this to match the way EPK and other vendors save time sheet data in the future.

I.P.E.C. in reality

2008-05-08T16:34:00.007-04:00

So, you are likely familiar with the way in which most projects are broken down: Initiation, Planning, Executing and Closing (monitoring and controlling would be happening simultaneously to these). When I first started project management, most everyone approached these phases as gates. Hard stops for readjustment on your way to the end.

I used to have a form to fill out, where each stakeholder would sign off that this phase was complete. In practice, although we got the signatures, we rarely discussed the true meaning of this.

When I began working to integrate the WBS and the CPA sessions (see my earlier 3 part posts on this) we realized that we could still be as effective, in fact more so, by letting go of these "phases" and adopting a true shared understanding of the deliverables and their time lines.

We also began to realize that the I.P.E.C. phases were not really ever gates. We were always crossing the boundary. For instance: One task that fits squarely in Initiation, would need to occur after a task that fits squarely in planning. This rang true for all projects in our portfolio and all phases...
We came to see the I.P.E.C. phases in a new way. We draw them this way to explain to our customers what our "phases" look like. Then we explain where we are with our deliverables and this leads to a clearer understanding of the project and it's success. In fact, all status reports are deliverable based (again, see my WBS and CPA posts).

Softgrid and Project Server

2008-05-08T14:35:00.007-04:00

This post comes from first hand experience. Our environment does not allow for much software personalization and no custom software installation. In order to ease the desk side visits, we opted for Softgrid as our means of rolling out the PWA active X controls and the Project Pro client. Softgrid functions as a virtual software utility. It installs a copy of the windows client (package) locally on your machine, and runs it in an isolated fashion when you launch it.

First the upsides:

We only had to roll out the softgrid package and not the individual software.
I, as a sole administrator, am able to add users to the software packages through editing an Exchange DL. Very rapid and pretty slick.
Offline/laptop works very well under normal conditions.

Now the downsides:
While it has met our core requirement of ease of administration and transportability between systems, we have had some downsides.

If a program changes, there can be a confusing user experience with the removal of the old package. the workaround is easy, eliminate the packages and resynch. However, this can be extremely slow when travelling based on the package size.
A package is isolated. This means that should you require interoperability with other apps, this is unavailable. For example, try creating a new calendar for your project server. In this scenario, the client will try to spawn a browser and could fail if it is not included in context of the package.
Multiple packages may need to be updated simultaneously. For example... You may wish to update the Project Pro client software at the same time as the End user active X controls. Coordinating the timing of this can be important.
Resetting your app pool, resets any local preferences (such as the project server connection data in the Project Pro 2007 client)

Overall Softgrid has eased the pain of administration, but be aware of these current limitations when selecting your roll out strategy.

The problems with risk avoidance and process "improvement"

2008-04-29T12:31:00.008-04:00

Lately, I have begun to notice the lack of risk management that is pervasive in IT in general. Many people in IT, in life in general as well, think risk management means finding a way to eliminate all risks.

This is a less than ideal take on risk. No one can eliminate all risks.

A real world example: Lets say that you have a recent fault with a process you are responsible for. You get upset, maybe chastised and you go back to your desk and think... "well, I am never letting that happen again!". So, you get your team together and amidst all of the resentment, you make a permanent change to your process. You introduce steps to insure that one instance NEVER happens to you again. Now fast forward 2 years. You have been promoted or moved on and virtually no one knows WHY this process change was implemented. In fact, it's disguised as "that's just how we do it" to the new comer.

But the lack of documentation is just the symptom of a larger problem. What you did was risk avoidance, not risk management. A policy of Risk avoidance as the only response to risks such as these follows the basic belief that all risk can be eliminated by "fixing" the process. In fact, this is impossible. You cannot ever truly eliminate all risk.

But it gets worse than just a behavioral problem. In the case above, you most likely increased the effort, money or time it takes to perform that one process. Multiply that times all the processes you run into and then you see the plight. Things grow too lengthy and too costly all too quickly.

Now imagine your the CIO. You say... "We have to reduce our time to market!"... You are really saying: "We have to re-accept some of those undocumented risks we previously avoided!". Yeah, right. This is why re-orgs become the de-facto "improvement" idea. They institute the mentality to rethink it all and start over "fixing" the process. It just delays the inevitable downsides to the above approach.

So what do you do? Educate your IT peers on the following:

Risk Assessment:

Identification
Quantification (probability, Impact, expected monetary value)
Prioritization

and

Risk Responses:

Acceptance (accept the consequences against the likelihood)
Avoidance (eliminate the cause, not the symptom of the risk)
Transfer (pass the risk on to a vendor/other team better suited to manage it)
Mitigation (reduce the probability or the impact of the risk)
Contingency (plan what to do if the risk does happen, a fallback plan, an exception plan)

Always consider the costs in effort time and money for any and all risk responses. Consider this for all stakeholders & customers, not just your own team and your own needs. By informing IT managers on the merits of risk management and encouraging them to take a Risk Management class, you encourage EDUCATED, and less frequent, process change.

Using CPM with project 2007: Part 3

2007-10-26T11:31:00.001-04:00

Ahhhh the mystery that is a good WBS...

So you think that you know what a WBS is. It 's a breakdown of all your tasks, right? NO!!!!!!!!
It's an assignment matrix for who does what, right? NO!!!!!!!!!
It has duration estimates for the project, right? NO!!!!!!!!!

A GOOD WBS is deceptively easy. Try this: JUST USE NOUNS...

"What??" you say... "Nouns???? Are You sure???" you say...

Yes. Nouns. Only. Well, pronouns are fine too.

Now lets agree on what a WBS is. It is your scope. Your physical scope for the project. It is everything you will deliver, physically, for the project. You can create it as an outline, or diagram it like an org chart, no matter... it's still JUST 100% of your SCOPE.

"Well, why do I care? I already have a scope statement. That's my scope, right?" you say...

NO!!!!!!!!!!!!

You have a vague description of scope. What you have there may even be product scope instead of project scope! Get with the program. We are talking project management, not product management.

How should you discuss which DELIVERABLES are on track? WBS
How should you discuss what is in scope and out of scope? WBS
How do you know your MS Project schedule hasn't missed anything? AhAH! WBS!

So you will build your WBS in much the same way. Get the SMEs for the scope together and sticky note it, but instead of a precedence diagram, do an outline or an ORG chart type format...

The top item on the WBS is the project name. Each sub level should represent 100% of the level above it. Go as far as you need to, but remember, no tasks! Only nouns.

Fast forward: lets assume you did that, and eventually did a critical path analysis with your team. Now take those nouns and make them summary lines in MS Project and all the stickys from your CPA get placed underneath each one...

This is the proper way to do a project schedule!

Using CPM with project 2007: Part 2

2007-10-26T11:21:00.001-04:00

Wow, it's been far too long since my last post. I have been extremely busy and have some incredible stories to tell on why this took so long, but alas, it was longer than it should be.

So on to it...
The process to apply your critical path analysis to MS project is somewhat automatic, IF you place the tasks in the tool after performing the CPA manually.

One popular method of doing so is as follows: Grab your SMEs and your WBS. Get in a conference room with some sticky notes and a whiteboard and then work backwards from "end" to identify all the tasks and draw their relationships on the whiteboard. This is called a precedence diagram.

After this is done, you can then ask for DURATION estimates (not work estimates) and write them under each task. Now you can determine, through simple math, what the critical path(s) tasks are and estimate a completion date.

Some of the side benefits of this particular process:
- Buy in from all team members
- Commitment to dates and durations from all team members
- Expected end date
- Early opportunity to gauge success
- Early opportunity to crash the critical path.

So after this is done, you are ready to take your tasks from those stickys and place them into your MS project schedule, right?

Not so fast... you need your WBS, and part 3 of this article.

Using CPM with project 2007: Part 1

2007-07-24T10:40:00.001-04:00

In this post, we'll cover what CPM, CPA, Critical Path, Float, Slack, Early/Late Start/Finish, Crashing are. The input to this exercise is a list of tasks, or work packages. I'll cover that in another post later...

Recently, I have been training some folks on CPM. CPM stands for "Critical Path Method" (aka Critical Path Analysis).
It is a method for diagramming (beginning at "finish" and working backwards to "start") the project tasks and then assigning durations to each. Once this is complete you calculate the early Start/Early Finish and Late Start Late finish for each task. This gives you the Float (aka Slack) on each path and, consequently, the Critical Path to your project.
What is Critical Path? Well, it's the path with zero slack. One day slip on the critical path is a day slipped on the end of the project date. This slippage usually costs the project additional Time, Money and resources.
The inverse is true as well. To compress the duration of your project, you must shrink (or "Crash") the duration of the Critical Path. Crashing, also, usually costs the project more Money/Resources.
It is possible that the critical path will change over the duration of the project. Therefore, some deeper analysis of the Critical path is truly important to successful project management. There are methods for examining the money to be spent on managing critical path.
What does CPM have to do with MS Project?
Microsoft Project 2007 (and all earlier versions) use the CPM to schedule tasks. Or, said another way... (you are now about to truly understand this tool... ) Project bases all it's calculations on a rules based path. It calculates the path, based on any exceptions you define like resource availability, specified start or end dates, etc...

For more information on Project and CPM visit this article
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/project/HP012260691033.aspx

-------------------------- More Info on CPM -------------------------
Wikipedia says:

"The Critical Path Method, abbreviated CPM, or critical path analysis, is a mathematically based algorithm for scheduling a set of project activities. It is a very important tool for effective project management.
It was developed in the 1950s in a joint venture between DuPont Corporation and Remington Rand Corporation for managing plant maintenance projects. Today, it is commonly used with all forms of projects, including construction, software development, research projects, product development, engineering, and plant maintenance, among others. Any project with interdependent activities can apply this method of scheduling.

The essential technique for using CPM is to construct a model of the project that includes the following:

A list of all activities required to complete the project (also known as

Work breakdown structure),

The time (duration) that each activity will take to completion, and

The dependencies between the activities.

Using these values, CPM calculates the starting and ending times for each activity, determines which activities are critical to the completion of a project (called the critical path), and reveals those activities with "float time" (are less critical). In project management, a critical path is the sequence of project network activities with the longest overall duration, determining the shortest time possible to complete the project. Any delay of an activity on the critical path directly impacts the planned project completion date (i.e. there is no float on the critical path). A project can have several, parallel near critical paths. An additional parallel path through the network with the total durations shorter than the critical path is called a sub-critical or non-critical path.

These results allow managers to prioritize activities for the effective management of project completion. Originally, the critical path method considered only logical dependencies between terminal elements. Since then, it has been expanded to allow for the inclusion of resources related to each activity. This capability allows for the exploration of a related concept called the critical chain, which determines the project duration from both time and resource dependencies.

Since project schedules change on a regular basis, CPM allows continuous monitoring of the schedule, allows the project manager to track the critical activities, and ensures that non-critical activities do not interfere with the critical ones. In addition, the method can easily incorporate the concepts of stochastic predictions, using the Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) and event chain methodology.

Currently, there are several software solutions available in industry that use the CPM method of scheduling, see list of project management software. However, the method was developed and used (for decades) without the aid of computers (with pencil and paper).
There are drawbacks of this technique, as estimations are used to calculate times: if one mistake is made, the whole analysis could be flawed, causing major upset in the organisation of a project."

PWA and Sharepoint Designer

2007-06-29T13:26:00.000-04:00

"This web site has been configured to disallow editing with Sharepoint Designer"...

If you have seen this "error", then you, like me, were interested in modifying the homepage of PWA to meet your needs. However, in this version of the tool, it isn't supported to use Sharepoint Designer (or likely Visual Studio for that matter) to customize the PWA site as there is a risk of accidentally changing code. Remember the old FrontPage days, when it thought it was smarter than you? Apparently, those days are not completely gone.

That said, you can customize all other sites on the server (even the root site, or a project workspace) with Sharepoint Designer.

There are supported ways to modify the user experience. Some suggestions are below...

Manage the base look and feel through the web interface.
This site, as with all WSS sites, allows for themes, general look and feel settings and the creation of new lists. In addition, you can edit PWA webparts like the auto included Reminders web part to show or hide each type of Project Server reminder. Be careful not to modify/delete the permissions or the "Proposal proxy list", "Proposal Workflow History" or the "Proposal Workflow Tasks".

Add web parts through the web interface.
This is supported and clicking the Site Actions - Edit Page link will allow you to add/remove/modify several web parts, for example, an image part for branding purposes. At the bottom of this page is an Advanced link which will take you to a full listing of all web parts available to this site. Of special note here is the XML web part which allows for inclusion of external XML and XSL. You could link this to an external SQL data feed for instance...

Publish the WSS server root homepage to your users instead of PWA.
This will allow additional user experience development (but reduces the web part choices you have related to PWA considerably). Once here, users can then navigate over to PWA as well seamlessly. You can even use "old" tricks such as iframes to host additional webparts or functionality that you want to share. On a side note, this site or a subsite of this path should be where you develop the template you will want to use for your Project Workspace sites.

Technet Plus (Direct)

2007-06-20T18:53:00.000-04:00

I recently signed up for the TechNet Plus Direct subscription from Microsoft TechNet. This $349 package is a 1 year subscription to just about all retail products including the full MS Project product line. It is licensed for evaluation only and, in my case, for an individual to use for said evaluations. Additional licensing options are available on their website (link below).

This subscription will allow you to download, install and evaluate several components running concurrently. It also gives you access to knowledge bases, beta software and private newsgroups. It includes two complimentary Professional Support incidents, which alone are worth more than the price of the subscription. Although different in scope, it's product listing is much more impressive than the similarly priced MS Partner program's Action Pack (which shares many of the same benefits such as the support incidents mentioned above).

The licensing is also unique to the evaluation audience. Per the MSTP subscription site:

"We understand that TechNet subscribers have unique needs, so we have included special activation privileges for TechNet subscribers.

TechNet Subscription product keys can be used to activate up to 10 machines.
Although you must go through the activation process each time you reinstall on the same PC, your total number of activations will not be decremented.
For Windows, TechNet subscribers have a 60-day grace period before the product must be activated. If you will be reinstalling the software in less than 60 days, you do not need to activate it. Please note that Windows Update and Windows Genuine Advantage require that the installation be activated.
For Office 2003, TechNet subscribers have 50 launches before the product must be activated.
Software may be reinstalled on the same machine as many times as needed without reactivating it. However, if the hard disk is reformatted prior to re-installation, reactivation may be required however the total number of activations will not be decremented."

This makes this a great way to prepare yourself for MCP exams, expose yourself to the latest beta software and increase your knowledge of a product prior to an engagement with a customer. I will be using these resources (including MS VirtualServer & MSVirtualPC) to create sandboxes for WSS, MOSS, Project Professional, Project Server, Project Portfolio Server, SQL Server, Office 2007, Sharepoint Designer, SQL Reporting Services and other pertinent MS products. This will allow me the ease of use and flexibility to create and destroy images in a safe, pre-production environment.

-T

(I leave you now with some more Microsoft PR on this subscription:)

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions/default.aspx

"Below are the great features available with a TechNet Plus subscription:

Microsoft software licensed for evaluation purposes: Evaluate full-version commercial products--without time limits or feature limits, including Windows Vista™ Microsoft Office System and Exchange Server 2007. With full-version software, IT Professionals can make informed decisions about new technologies and deployments at their own pace.
Beta software: Automatically receive pre-release versions of Microsoft operating systems, servers and business applications.
Exclusive tools: Get access to exclusive tools not available to the general public such as System Center Capacity Planner. System Center Capacity Planner helps size and plan deployments of Microsoft Exchange Server and Microsoft Operations Manager. It provides you with the tools and guidance to deploy efficiently, while planning for the future by allowing for "what-if" analyses.
Professional Support incidents: For the toughest technical questions, a TechNet Plus subscription also comes with two complimentary Professional Support incidents**. Subscribers can talk to a Microsoft Support Professional to quickly resolve their mission-critical technical issues fast.
Unlimited Managed Newsgroup support: TechNet Plus provides access to over 100 Managed Newsgroups. Subscribers can exchange ideas with other IT Professionals and get expert answers to their technical questions within the next business day — guaranteed.
Technical resources for Microsoft products: Subscribers also get the TechNet Library containing the Microsoft Knowledge Base, security updates, service packs, resource kits, utilities, technical training, and product documentation to keep their systems and IT skills up to date.
Microsoft E-Learning courses: To prepare them for certification or simply to help them build their technical skills, TechNet Plus includes a selection of Microsoft E-Learning courses for free each quarter.
Online Concierge Chat: Subscribers can chat with a Microsoft Search Assistant online for help finding the technical resources they need or for assistance with non-technical questions.
Free subscription to TechNet Magazine:†† Subscribers also receive a free subscription to TechNet Magazine. TechNet Magazine provides hands-on information to help IT Professionals maximize their system’s security, reliability, scalability and interoperability"

The price hasn't changed in 21 years

2007-06-18T23:04:00.001-04:00

Here is a great retro look at Microsoft Project running in MS DOS (circa 1986). Most of the features we use today are in there back in 1986. The show also reviews several contemporary competitors.

Grab your parachute pants and your Huey Lewis albums and set the wayback machine for the pre-windows project management world...

http://www.archive.org/details/ProjectM1986

15 PDUs from listening to a podcast

2007-06-18T10:22:00.001-04:00

While certainly not the only podcast on Project Management, I have been very pleased with the PM Podcast (http://www.thepmpodcast.com/). The quality of the audio is professional and does not induce any ear fatigue. The quality and relevance of the subject matter has been great so far.

So, can you earn 15 PDUs just by listening to a podcast? Seems you certainly can. According to the PM Podcast website: "We have worked with Tom Bates, who is the PMI's Certifications Standards Supervisor, and on October 13, 2006 he gave all PMPs the "thumbs up", that listening to project management related podcasts is a qualifying activity for Category 2-SDL PDUs (SDL stands for Self Directed Learning and please refer to the PMI's official list of Professional Development Unit (PDU) Qualifying Activities for all the details about PDUs.)"

Here are instruction on how to claim these PDUs:

Go to the http://www.pmi.org/ website.
Log in with your username and password.
Select "claim / view" PDUs online (you may be required to log in again)
Select "PMI PDU Self Report Form"
Select "Category 2 SDL..." and click continue
Enter the information about the 15 category 2 SDL PDUs you want to claim and submit the page.

MS Project showing at Tech-Ed 2007

2007-06-14T19:20:00.001-04:00

I like going to Tech-Ed. It isn't by any means the only MS conference to attend, but it's just so big and covers a bit of everything. But this year, there was a stand out. Or maybe a "stand aside"? MS Project Server.

Now we all know this isn't the darling product line that exchange or commerce server is. It's fairly obscure in context of the rest of the product line, but it had at best a weak showing this year. It wasn't the fault of the presenters, who were very good. Or the men who wore the shirts and manned the meager 2.5 foot booth (the very same presenters mostly). It was really just a lack of presence and content. Perhaps this is a reflection of the focus for the upcoming project conference.

There were about 3 sessions (in the 50-60 seat "breakout theaters"), and a self paced lab. Meh. That said, I did get a lot out of these sessions and the related SharePoint sessions were great. So…

Microsoft, please have a bigger Project Server showing next time!

MS Project Conference 2007 info

2007-06-14T18:48:00.001-04:00

Not that every other MS Project blog hasn't already posted this info, but the Seattle, WA; Oct 28-31 MS Project Conference 2007 agenda has been posted. What you may not know, is that there is a discount entry fee of just under $700 for the first 1000 folks to sign up. That means you…

You'll hear Steve Ballmer, Howard Putnam and Mike Angiulo along with over 60 sessions ranging from pure techie to full on PM strategies (sans tools). Here is the current session agenda (across 3 main tracks). I believe this is the second conference exclusively for this product line and should include some important members of the project team as well as key 3^rd party vendors like EPK (who held their first user conference earlier this year).