Project management is the art and science of achieving goals within defined constraints, namely cost, performance, and time. It describes useful techniques for thinking about and securing the plan. However a too detailed or overworked schedule may be of little value (this is a lesson from Agile), and should be flexible enough to adapt to reality. It is simple and should be a trusted system. In software, tasks are visible on screen and changed easily, moved around, and ‘played with’. Kepner Tregoe is my preferred method to define, monitor and control projects because it seems so relevant. ## Component Stages The five stages of project management are definition, establish a work breakdown structure, sequencing, allocating resources, risk analysis (protecting the plan), monitoring and closeout. The questions to ask are - What is my project? - What are the objectives? - What tasks need doing? - What resources do I have and need? ## Cost Performance Time A project is about achieving something specific, in a defined space of time, with limited, finite resources. ![[golden-triangle.png]] Increasing the performance (do more) will take more time if the cost (resources) remains the same. Reducing the time taken by adding resources, such as manpower, increases the cost. ## Formulating a project statement The project statement is, in one sentence, an expression of what you are trying to achieve, and ideally in terms of three factors: performance time and cost: > [!Example] Example Project statement > I would like to build a house in the next year for £300k. ## Project Definition We can define a project from a collection of issues recorded in [[Issues Database as part of the Quality Process]]. In this bottom-up analysis, we build issues logically into a project to solve together as a group. If you’re recording ideas in your capture system, some may be good, some not so good. The principle is to sort these ideas and build your project out of this collective experience. A project may also start from a collection of observations: how to improve something, observations of operational failings, or quality. The challenge is to make the aggregate project elegantly represent the sum of its parts. You might know intuitively that some issues could be solved together in one project. We leave some things aside until we can resolve them as a group in project mode. Store ideas in [[The Trusted System in Getting Things Done|the trusted system]] for later when you can implement them. You may find that disparate items can be grouped together to form a project. ![[business-owner-environement.png]] An [[Issues Database as part of the Quality Process]] helps to define actions based on observations, potential causes and solutions. Business issues drive change, and structured issues provide material to build projects. For each issue, try to determine a possible cause and potential resolution. When constituting a project, look for similar problems or issues that have the same solution. However, you cannot always execute that solution straight away. You may lack time, need specific resources, or just because it’s more efficient to group issues together. ![[issue-database-form.png]] In [[Issues Database as part of the Quality Process]], we record issues, solutions and also ideas. This is about what to do with all those ideas recorded over time. The kanbanote dashboard below is an example of items built up (into a dashboard) from a cumulation of issues stored in Evernote. ![[kanbanote-dashboard.png]] Notion can easily store issues: ![[Issues can be stored in Notion.png]] So if you’re recording ideas that may initially seem to be unrelated: ideas and suggestions, you can go review them and see how they are related, and whether you can build related actions into a coherent and identifiable project. ## Work Breakdown Structure Determine in organization chart form, what things need to be achieved? Think END GAME. ![[work-breakdown.png]] A work breakdown structure developed using an Ayoa task grid. ![[ayoa planner now next soon tasks.png]] Now identify your resource requirements. ## Identifying Resource Requirements Look at resource requirements along several axes: - Physical resources, such as rooms, whiteboards, pens, and space to work - Technical resources such as IT support - Financial resources. The cost of the project is always a question. - Human resources: the type of people needed (to do the work) - Special Resources | Person | Skills | | ------ | ------------------- | | Fred | Knows about finance | | | | ## Sequencing deliverables Ayoa provides this in the canvas view, which allows you to establish dependencies between tasks, visually. You get a nice little arrow between circles and in the Gantt view and in the Workflow View. ![[project-sequence.png]] ## Assign Responsibilities Once you’ve determined the type of resources that you need and the people that you need on your project, you assign the responsibilities. This is probably a bit old school now, at least in agile circles. In agile projects, it depends on the level of autonomy of each person in the team. Although, when constituting a project team, you will be looking for people with complementary skills. ## Schedule Resources > [!NOTE] Schedule ressources > Determine resource constraints and whether resources will be available as required | Task | People | Facilities needed | Financial resources | | ---- | ------ | ----------------- | ------------------- | | | | | | ## Protect the Plan Protecting the plan means that if you get so far as to plan your project on a Gantt, in such a way that is realizable. You will have a ‘true’ plan. This means that you have a series of objectives and tasks which aim to fulfil those objectives, and you have scheduled them with people, you have something to protect. So you protect the plan. > [!NOTE] Protect the plan > Identify Potential Issues and Pre-establish Mitigating Actions Think about constraints such as holidays and absence. Will facilities and locations be available? Financial or business plan, bank? It means primarily that the people that you have associated with the plans and the commitment that they have made to the project will be respected. This means that those people can make themselves available at the scheduled time. And that the physical, special resources will be available at the required time. Specialists in project planning quite clearly manage to do this. Look at finely timed engineering projects. The project only requires the expensive crane resource only for a minimal time, which means that it turns up when required and leaves when finished. No time wasted idling. A shared planning tool is helpful if it’s collaborative and shared by everyone, and if everyone can see the changes made and understand them, then responsibilities to the project become a part of everyone’s daily work. ## Project Execution - Monitor the project - Update the plan - Close and evaluate Certainly, once you have your plan established, you would want to monitor it. You want to be checking whether people are doing the tasks, whether they can do the tasks (whether they have the resources necessary) and whether organized centrally through a project manager or horizontally. Someone needs to order the coffee. You will be updating the plan. With ‘modern’ tools such as Ayoa, you can update the plan frequently. It is easily accessible from your desktop, or from your mobile. Team members likewise. ## Close and Evaluate a Project I don’t know whether all projects go through this formal close and evaluate. The more formal projects do. The principal is in a no-stress environment when the project has finished. Look back, see what we could have done better, where our successes were (SWOT). But this suggestion does not preclude or exclude continuous project assessment: continuous improvement applied to projects. #Ayoa Perhaps a tool like Ayoa can help. Team members can comment on tasks, make suggestions, cry for help, and suggest something for the next task based on the experience of this one. These comments are not just centralized through a project manager, but are available to the whole team. So the project is auto adjusting itself through proper feedback from each team member. The old model would probably have centralized everything through the project manager.