The Little Black Book of Project Management

Michael Thomsett

• Publisher: AMACOM
• Year: 2009
• ISBN:
  9780814415306
• Edition: 3
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Project Management
• Index: Business

The revised and updated third edition of this book reflects the newest techniques, the latest project management software, as well as the most recent changes to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK™).

For nearly twenty years, The Little Black Book of Project Management has provided businesspeople everywhere with a quick and effective introduction to project management tools and methodology. You will find invaluable strategies for:

• organizing any project;
• implementing the Six Sigma approach;
• choosing the project team;
• preparing a budget and sticking to it;
• scheduling, flowcharting, and controlling a project;
• preparing project documentation;
• managing communications;
• and much more.

Project management has increasingly become about getting more and better results with fewer resources. In this fast-read solution for both seasoned and first-time project managers, author Michael C. Thomsett shares his not-so-little secrets to achieving the results professionals want, increasing their organizational ability, generating consistent profit, and gaining a reputation for both quality and dependability.

1

Organizing for the Long Term

Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity.

—GEORGE S. PATTON—

The new clerk in the mailroom noticed an elderly gentleman sitting in a corner, slowly sorting through a mountain of mail.

“Who’s that?” he asked the supervisor.

“That’s old Charlie. He’s been with the company more than forty years.”

The new clerk asked, “Are you saying he never made it out of the mailroom?”

“He did, but then he asked to be transferred here—after spending a few years as a project manager.”

Dread. That is a common reaction most managers have to being given a project assignment. Few managers will seek out the project, and most will avoid it if possible. Why?

First, a distinction has to be made between projects and routines. The routines associated with operation of your department are repetitive in nature. Put another way, they are predictable. That means that the recurring operations you execute can be planned as a matter of course. Once you have gone through your normal cycle a few times, you know what to expect. Because they are predictable, recurring operational routines that are easier to manage than projects.

The project itself is temporary and nonrecurring in nature. It has a beginning and an end rather than a repetitive cycle. Thus, projects are by nature chaotic. Making projects even more daunting is that few companies have specialized project teams or departments. The project is assigned to a manager who seems to be a logical choice for the job. If the project is related to marketing, it will probably be assigned within the marketing area of the company. If financial in nature, the accounting or internal auditing department will be likely candidates.

Project scope and duration are impossible to define because projects arise at every level within the organization. This characteristic presents special problems for every manager because merely receiving a project assignment does not necessarily mean that you know what will be involved in the task. This makes scheduling and budgeting difficult, to say the least. A project has to be planned out, defined, and organized before you can know what you are up against in terms of actual management. Thus, you may be given an assignment, budget, and deadline before the project itself has been defined well enough to proceed. It will then be necessary to revise not only the schedule and budget, but perhaps the very definition of the project itself.

The secret to the skilled execution of a project is not found in the development of new skills, but in applying existing skills in a new environment. Projects are exceptional, out of the ordinary, and by definition, temporary in nature. So the problems, restrictions, deadlines, and budget are all outside the normal course of your operations. Some professions deal in projects continuously; for example, engineers, contractors, and architects operate in a project environment for every job they undertake. However, they have the experience to manage any problem that arises because it is part of their “skills package” to operate in ever-changing circumstances where similar problems arise.

You manage a series of problems in your department as an operational fact of life. Your department may be defined in terms of the kinds of problems you face each month and overcome. The controls you apply, budgets you meet, and reports you generate as a result of confronting problems within your operational cycle are the outcomes you know and expect. Assignments are made in the same or similar time sequence from month to month, and routines are performed in the same order, usually by the same employees. Even many of the problems that arise are predictable. However, when you are faced with the temporary and exceptional project, it raises several questions, all of which are related to questions of organization, planning, and control. These include:

How do I get started?

Exactly what is the project meant to achieve or discover?

Who is responsible for what, and how is the effort to be coordinated?

Beyond these are the equally important questions related to budgets, schedules, and assignments to a project team. The project presents a set of new demands that, although temporary in nature, require commitment from limited resources. Your department will be expected to continue meeting its recurring work schedule. Thus, a project places an additional burden on you and the others in your department. If the project also involves working with people in other departments, it will create even more potential problems. The point at which responsibility and work processes occur between departments often is also the point at which the smooth processing of the project routine is likely to be disrupted.

Background for Project Management

The difficulties you face as a project manager can be made to conform with a logical system for planning and execution, even when you need to continue managing your department at the same time. Much thought has gone into the science of project management on many levels. If you work regularly in a project environment, you can find assistance and support from several sources, including the Project Management Institute (PMI).

This book adheres to the standards expressed by the Project Management Institute and attempts to present readers with a concise overview of the principles they’ll need to employ as project manager. To begin, it is important to define some of the basic principles and ideas underlying the work of project management.

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Spotlight on Project Management Institute (PMI)

The Project Management Institute has 265,000 members in 170 countries and was founded in 1969. PMI offers certificate programs for the credentials Project Management Professional (PMP), Certified Associate of Project Management (CAPM), Program Management Professional (PgMP), PMI Scheduling Professional (PMI-SP), and PMI Risk Management Professional (PMI-RM P).

PMI also publishes A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge. This useful guide, often referred to as the PMBOK, compiles information from many sources. It has incorporated many of the standards established by project management writers, including information from the first and second editions of The Little Black Book of Project Management (1990 and 2002). PMBOK was first published in 1996 with revised editions in 2000 and 2004. Contact PMI at:

14 Campus Boulevard

Newtown Square PA 19073–3299

Phone [phone]

E-mail: [email protected]

Website: www.pmi.org

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Other Resources

To find local PMI chapters, check the PMI website and link to “Community Membership” and then to “Chapter.” All local chapters are listed.

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Project Definitions

The project is best defined in two ways:

1. By comparing a project to a routine

2. By knowing the operational constraints associated with projects

A “project” has different meanings in each organization and may also vary from one department to another. For the purposes of proceeding with the preliminary steps in organizing your project, this book adheres to the two-part definition mentioned above: by comparison to routines and by the constraints under which projects are run.

The comparison between projects and routines can be divided into four parts as summarized in Figure 1-1 and outlined here:

1. A project is an exception. Unlike routines, projects involve investigation, compilation, arrangement, and reporting of findings in some way that provides value. The answers to the basic project questions cannot be found in the routines of your department, which is what makes it exceptional. The processes involved with the project fall outside your department’s “normal” range of activities and functions.

Figure 1-1. Comparing projects and routines.

2. Project activities are related, regardless of departmental routines. Projects are rarely so restricted in nature that they involve only one department. The characteristics of a department involve related routines, but projects are not so restricted. Thus, a project is likely to involve activities that extend beyond your immediate department, which also means that your project team may include employees from other departments.

3. Project goals and deadlines are specific. Recurring tasks invariably are developed with departmental goals in mind. Financial departments crunch numbers, marketing departments promote sales and develop new markets, and filing departments organize paperwork. The goals and related tasks tend to move forward primarily in terms of time deadlines. The same is true for departmental deadlines; they are recurring and dependable, tied to specific cyclical dates or events in other departments. Projects, though, have an isolated and finite number of goals that do not recur, plus identifiable starting and stopping points. Whereas departmental routines are general in nature, project activities are clearly specific.

4. The desired result is identified. A project is well defined only when a specific result is known. By comparison, departmental routines involve functions that may be called “process maintenance.” That means that rather than producing a specific outcome, a series of recurring routines are aimed at ensuring the flow of outcomes (e.g., reports) from one period to another. The department gets information from others, processes it, and passes it on in a refined form, and this series of steps takes ...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of Figures
• Introduction to the Third Edition
• 1 Organizing for the Long Term
• 2 The Six Sigma Approach
• 3 Creating the Plan
• 4 Choosing the Project Team
• 5 Preparing the Project Budget
• 6 Establishing a Schedule
• 7 Flowcharting for Project Control
• 8 Designing the Project Flowchart
• 9 Managing the Value Chain in the Project
• 10 Writing the Supporting Documentation
• 11 Conducting the Project Review
• 12 The Communication Challenge
• 13 Project Management and Your Career
• 14 Finding the Best Project Management Software
• Appendix: Work Project Answers
• Glossary
• Index