In 1963, a serious problem developed when the users of a mainframe computer were promised new systems software by the manufacturer. The software included a new multi-processing operating system, new compilers for COBOL and Fortran and supporting utilities including sorts. The promised delivery date for the software had already slipped by almost a year and appeared to be slipping steadily. As a result, the company faced cancellations by their existing customer base, as well as the loss of sales to new customers. Something had to be done quickly since the project seemed to be wallowing with no foreseeable end in sight. It should also be pointed out the company and project participants had not worked on any assignment of this magnitude previously. The company's director of product planning correctly concluded they were faced with a management problem, not a technical problem. He made a phone call to his home office and directed two of his managers to immediately relocate themselves and their families to the project site, which happened to be across the country, for an assignment of unknown duration. One of the managers was responsible for all administration and the other for systems programming. The call came on Friday and the managers were to start work the next Monday. On the day they arrived, the two managers met with the product planning director and location management. They all agreed some course of action had to be taken to change the environment in order to gain control over the project and deliver the software. The systems and programming manager was assigned the task of evaluating the technical status of the software. The other manager was assigned the responsibility of setting up a system to monitor and control the project. The managers walked into an environment of complete disorganization. There were over sixty systems programmers working on the project who were loosely divided into groups assigned to the various parts of the software. Some were working on the operating systems, others were assigned to compilers, etc. Each group had a leader giving out rough assignments. The systems programmers seemed to lack any coordination or motivation to get the job done. No schedules or estimates existed. One of the managers observed the programming staff spending considerable time in the coffee shop across the street whenever they pleased. All project meetings were held on an ad hoc basis. All the ingredients for a successful project were missing: Leadership, commitment and accountability. The managers quickly developed a course of action to correct these deficiencies. In terms of leadership, the systems programming manager's assignment was to review each part of the project and assign a leader. The project was divided into units of work consistent with the logical design of the software. Precedent relationships were established between the various units. When this was developed, each work unit was divided into the tasks to be performed such as coding, testing, etc. When this was completed, the units were assigned to individual programmers. Each programmer then made an estimate and schedule for completion for his assignment. Estimates were reviewed by everyone for reasonableness until they arrived at consensus and commitment. It was clear to each individual that they were personally responsible for their own estimates and schedules. While this was going on, the administrative systems manager established a control room equipped with a magnetic Gantt chart running across the length of the room. The room had a large conference table with chairs. Also, file cabinets were obtained. The administrative manager designed a file folder which looked like a large envelope. Printed on one side was a calendar showing actual and planned dates for the tasks for each unit. On the other side, was space for a description of the work unit and the name of the person responsible for execution. It also contained space to write comments about project status and changes. The Gantt chart and envelopes were posted with the data developed by the systems programming manager. A time reporting system was designed for collecting time data by work unit with summaries showing activity by the various parts of the project. The data from the time reporting system was posted weekly to the Gantt chart and file folder. Weekly meetings were held with each team and its members. At these meetings, progress was discussed, problems resolved and any changes to schedules or estimates were made. This new environment was in effect for three months during which time the project was successfully completed and the computer company was able to deliver the software to its customers. What the managers had been able to do was create a work environment where the professionals had commitment and accountability and were provided with effective leadership.
CONCEPTS & PHILOSOPHIES
If we lived in a perfect world, there would not be a need
for managers. Everyone would know precisely what their
assignments were and would successfully accomplish them on time
and within budget. However, the reality is we live in an
imperfect world. We as human beings make mistakes; we work on
multiple assignments concurrently, and require guidance. It
must be recognized from the outset that project management
does not come free. Nor does it come naturally to people.
Traditionally, the typical approach to project management
has most often been to find a project manager, provide
resources, and then give them an assignment with no direction as
to how the project will be conducted or controlled. With this
approach, the success or failure of the project is dependent on
the abilities and experience of the project manager and how well
the manager can organize and train the project team, plan the
project, estimate, etc. Consequently, there is significant
trial and error in the process. This approach usually results
in a unique method for the particular project because it
reflects the thinking of the project manager. Different
managers use different techniques and ideas.
Another common approach used was the "brute-force
approach." Simply stated, "I don't care how you get the job
done; just have it completed by (date)." This approach shows
a lack of sensitivity to the complexity of project management.
There is more to project management than maintaining costs
and time schedules. It is the process of applying resources to
a defined goal and attaining this goal within time and cost
objectives. Fundamentally, it is a people oriented function as
opposed to an administrative or clerical function. Project
management, therefore, is not a tool or technique, but rather a
philosophy of management.
To put it into proper perspective, project management is
analogous to the production control function in manufacturing,
which is concerned with controlling the orderly assembly of
products. This involves monitoring the assembly lines and
assuring that materials management delivers the necessary parts
to the assembly lines on time and within reasonable cost.
Project management is to a methodology, what production control
is to an assembly line. Without the assembly line, production
control is a useless exercise. Conversely, without a
methodology, project management is useless.
The ultimate test of a methodology is if it can operate
independent of project management. The two are not synonymous.
Although they work in concert, there are distinct differences.
Whereas a methodology dictates what work is required, project
management controls the application of work. Just as an
assembly line can produce a product without production control,
a methodology can produce a product without project management.
Therefore, a methodology is independent of project management,
but project management is totally dependent upon a methodology.
A PROJECT REQUIRES A METHODOLOGY
BUT A METHODOLOGY DOES NOT REQUIRE A PROJECT
PRODUCTION CONTROL ANALOGY
A project is an application of effort towards prescribed
objectives through the execution of a defined sequence of
events. All projects have a life cycle; a beginning for
planning, a middle for execution, and an end for review. Each
project has a unique scope, set of objectives and defined
sequence of events. These events are defined by a methodology,
whether it is to develop enterprise resources (as in EEM),
system resources (as in ISEM), or data resources (DBEM). The
methodology thereby is the "roadmap" for a project. It provides
organization and direction for the project.
Project managers must recognize that they are in the
business of solving problems, not creating problems. They do
not wait for things to happen, they make things happen. This
"active" versus "reactive" management philosophy distinguishes
management from supervision. Whereas management assigns and
reviews work to assure that goals are met, supervision is
responsible for implementing the assigned work and directing the
daily activities of others. Problems arise when there is more
time spent on supervision than on managing and actually
performing the work. This phenomenon occurs when people are
improperly trained and/or when they are not held accountable for
their actions.
MINI-PROJECT MANAGER CONCEPT
At the root of the problem is the issue of accountability
and commitment. Historically, companies have taken a
unidirectional approach to management. Assignments, estimates
and schedules are dictated by management with little concern for
the opinion of the people who have to perform the work. This
typically results in unrealistic estimates and schedules that
are seldom achieved. Why? Because the individual human
resources were not consulted and made accountable for achieving
the goals. Workers may even go so far as to undermine project
plans simply because they were not consulted.
Instead, companies must learn to manage from the bottom-up,
not just top-down. We refer to this approach as the "Mini-Project
Manager" concept. Under this approach, people are treated like
professionals and are expected to act as such in return. It
emphasizes less supervision and more personal management by the
individual worker. Employees must learn to supervise themselves.
Although, management still provides leadership and direction over
assignments, employees participate in the estimating, scheduling
and control process. This produces far more realistic results
which can be more effectively managed. It also creates greater
personal commitment to project activities since the individual
worker's voice is heard.
MINI-PROJECT MANAGER CONCEPT
"Manage from the bottom-up, not just top-down.
TIME DEFINITIONS
The "Mini-Project Manager" concept begins with a different
perspective of time. Fundamentally, there are two types of
time, available and unavailable. Available time is time used
for productive work as in a normal work day. Unavailable time
is time that is not available to perform productive work, such
as holidays, vacations, shutdowns, etc. Although both available
and unavailable are schedulable, we are primarily concerned with
the utilization of available time.
Available time is divided into two categories: direct and
indirect time. Direct time is that amount of time expended on
productive work, such as following the assigned phases/activities/steps
of a methodology. Indirect time is time that does not contribute to
productive work, such as non-project related meetings, training,
breaks, etc.
Under the "Mini-Project Manager" concept, direct time is
the responsibility of the individual employee to manage. In
other words, they are personally responsible for managing their
work effort. Conversely, indirect time is the responsibility
of management to control the work environment.
WHAT IS TIME? EFFECTIVENESS RATE = DIRECT ÷ (DIRECT + INDIRECT)
EFFECTIVENESS RATE
This view of time highlights the fact there are
interferences, whether planned or unplanned, that prevent
workers from expending 100% of the available time on
assignments. The relationship of direct to indirect time is
called "effectiveness rate" and is expressed as the percent of
time spent on direct work. If someone has a low effectiveness
rate, this may highlight to the manager that an employee is
experiencing too many interferences, such as meetings or breaks.
The manager can then exercise authority and minimize or
eliminate the indirect activities if it is deemed unproductive
or incorrect. In this way, the manager is controlling the work
environment. On the other hand, a low effectiveness rate is not
always considered undesirable. For example, a manager may send
employees to a training class to sharpen their skills and
become more productive. The employee's effectiveness rate for
this period would be very low.
As should be apparent, "effectiveness rate" is noticeably
different than an efficiency rate. It is simply an expression
of the availability of an individual to do the "right" work.
A worker can have a high effectiveness rate, yet may be
inefficient at their assignments. Conversely, someone with a
low effectiveness rate may be the most efficient worker in the
company.
To calculate an individual's effectiveness rate, divide the
total direct hours in a day by the total available hours in a
day. For example, in an eight hour business day, if the
employee spends six hours on direct assignments and two on
indirect activities, this means the person is 75% effective for
that day. Although effectiveness rates will vary, 60% to 70% is
a typical rate. This ratio can apply to an individual, a
department, or for an entire organization. Ultimately, the
effectiveness rate provides a measure of how well time is being
used in the work environment.
As we will see, this definition of time will have other
beneficial uses, particularly in the areas of estimating,
scheduling and control. This view is more realistic than the
"man hour" concept which assumes a "one-to-one" relationship of
the work to elapsed time and is not concerned with the control
of indirects. According to the "man hour" approach, a person is
100% effective. When something should be completed is quite
different than how much work is involved. For example, it could
take three elapsed weeks to accomplish ten hours of direct work.
It all depends on how much time is available; what other
activities are involved; and what interferences exist.
The underlying philosophy behind all of this is that
time is a resource that must be managed like any other resource.
Before we can manage it, we must first understand it.
PROJECT MANAGEMENT ACTIVITIES
There are five basic activities associated with project
management; each directly affects the others:
PROJECT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
A Project Management system is an information system
used to support the basic activities of project management.
There are a variety of project management related software
packages attacking the subject piecemeal. Some are used to
develop project networks, others are used to calculate schedules
or estimates, or simply to perform project bookkeeping.
However, very few take an integrated approach to project
management. This is a serious problem since dependencies
exist between project management activities; to illustrate:
A superficial approach to project management will produce
shallow results. Since a project management system is used as a
communications vehicle for management, the more people involved
in the program, the greater the communications and coordinated
use of resources.
Can the philosophies of project management be adopted and
implemented by a single person? Yes. A group of people for a
single project? Yes. A department or division? Yes.
The entire company? Yes. In fact, as the scope grows,
communications improves and the philosophy is more consistently applied.
REQUIREMENTS FOR A PROJECT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
The scope of project management affects many people:
Obviously, project management should not be restricted to a handful of people or projects. Dozens of projects may be active at any one time, involving hundreds of workers, across departmental boundaries. Synchronization of the work effort is required to maximize effect and minimize confusion. Project management, therefore, should be viewed as a corporate philosophy as opposed to a technique used by various people. It must be remembered that a project management system is not a substitute for management. It does not make decisions; people do, based on information produced from the system. Once convinced of the action or decision to make, make it. There is little point to any information system if you do not take advantage of the information it provides. What this highlights is the fact that a project management system will only be as effective as the people who use it.
PROJECT ADMINISTRATION
This function should not be confused with Project Management.
The primary responsibility for Project Control rests with Project
Management. Project Administration is concerned with the collection,
recording and maintenance of Project data and, as such, is the
chief administrator of the Project Management system. At any one time,
many projects may be in progress within the systems department and
therefore, coordination is required for the processing of project
data. The Project Administrator can be viewed as the administrative aid
to both the Project Managers and Departmental Management.
The Project Administrator is concerned with the following
"PRIDE" forms:
TIME DISTRIBUTION WORKSHEET
A Time Distribution Worksheet is prepared weekly by each professional
involved with direct project activities including systems maintenance. Before
instituting the Weekly Time Distribution, all indirect
activities should be identified. Generally, any activity not
identified in the Phases of "PRIDE", or in Data and Project
Management, is an indirect activity. Indirect activities include
such things as: meetings, training, employee personal matters, travel,
review, etc. Scheduled holidays or vacations should not
be used when computing effectiveness since these days are
"unavailable" for scheduling and will be identified accordingly in the
Planning Charts. A list of the approved indirect activities should
be issued to all personnel to use when preparing time sheets.
It is important for estimating and scheduling purposes to establish
the Effectiveness Rate as quickly as possible. The Time Distribution
Worksheet provides the ability to separate and identify both direct
and indirect hours. As an aside, development organizations are
typically 60% - 70% effective.
Time Reporting data is collected on a weekly cycle. Two decisions
should be made in reference to this data collection:
The Project Administrator collects all Time Distributions at the
end of the weekly cycle. They are checked for arithmetic correctness
and completeness of hours in terms of the scheduled work week. Lack
of discipline concerning the submission and correctness of the time
distributions on the part of departmental personnel can create serious
delays in processing. The Project Managers are responsible for
ensuring this does not become a problem and resolving any problems
encountered by the administrator. An automated Project Management
system can materially help in validating project/time data.
After the Weekly Time Distributions have been audited by Project
Administration, they are recapped by the administrator by Project,
System Structure and Phase Activity numbers for Direct Hours and
by type activity for Indirect Hours on to a Time Distribution
Worksheet. Using the completed recap, the Effectiveness Rate is
computed and entered on the recap. This data should be plotted on
a spreadsheet for review and analysis.
After completing the Effectiveness Rate, the recap is forwarded to
departmental management review. Since this rate is used for project
planning, any variations can have significant effect on project schedules
such as schedule overruns or underruns. Management should investigate
the reasons for these variations and take corrective action where
necessary.
PROJECT CONTROL SHEET
The primary responsibility for the preparation and maintenance of
these sheets rests with the person assigned to the phase. A copy is
retained by the project manager and Project Administrator.
After the weekly time sheet has been prepared by the individual, he
posts the hours appropriate to each activity. The new hours are added
to those previously recorded. The actual fields on the control sheets
should be updated in pencil to permit the use of the same control sheet
each successive week.
The Project Manager reviews the control sheet with the analyst
involved. Jointly, they establish by review the completion status of
the activities being performed. They enter on the Control Sheet
the hours to complete and any start or end dates. This review is the
most critical in Project Management. At this point, it can be
established if the phase and activity are on schedule and within estimated
hours. If there are any significant changes required at this juncture,
the Project Manager and the individual prepare a new revised Control Sheet
outlining on the reverse side the reasons for the revision the new
course of action. The Project Manager also will review the effect of
this change on the overall project and submit and/or make any appropriate
changes. From the updated control sheets, the Project Manager updates
the various Project Planning Charts. A copy of the updated overall
project planning chart and completed control sheets are returned to the
Project Administrator who in turn revises original Control Sheets.
PLANNING CHART (GANTT CHART)
Based on the updated project data from the control sheet, the
Administrator updates the individual Resource Allocation Charts
(also using the Planning Chart form) both as to planned additions,
revisions and actual status.
Since the problem of resource allocation is an overall
department problem, it is recommended that the Administrator maintain
the individual resource allocations. This is an excellent check
on the various Project Managers' execution of Project Management
since these allocations cannot be updated without all steps being
accomplished.
GENERAL COMMENTS - PROJECT ADMINISTRATION
At first blush, it may appear that the Project Administration
function involves considerable clerical and Project Management
effort. Experience will show that this function saves considerable time
that was previously spent both by the Project Manager and others
in the establishment and dissemination of project status data. The
discipline once established provides an orderly and effective way of
managing projects. The important aspect of this control system is
that the individual is responsible for his own activities and reporting.
The foregoing general steps do not cover all the possibilities
or actions that should be taken as a result of processing project
data. Each week, Project Management and departmental management
should review the project data for any conflicts between projects
and take any additional steps necessary.
Again, an integrated and automated Project Management system can greatly
simplify the life of a Project Administrator, but it does not
eliminate the need for the function. Project Administration is
the "Traffic Cop" that monitors all projects in progress and
enforces policy in terms of time reporting and when to revise
estimates and schedules. In many organizations the Project Administrator
and the Technical Librarian are one and the same person.
BENEFIT$
The benefits of project management are numerous:
ADDITIONAL REFERENCES
See the Functional Description section for
narratives describing the following Project Management related functions:
For other subjects related to Project Management, consult:
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