Practical Project Management Elizabeth Gray-King Identify Purpose - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Practical Project Management

Elizabeth Gray-King

Identify Purpose

Before Project After

Goal

The statement of anticipated change

Outcome

The statement of change which occurred

Target

The proposed work areas or products

Output

The actual work areas

• r products

Frame the Context

Stakeholders - Who is interested? Resources – What is available? (are there gaps which create needs?) Who is available? (are there gaps which create needs?) Funders – Who is providing finance? Output statements– What are the core project activities?

Outcome

Turn Outputs to tasks

• Go to output

statements

• Change to task

language

Use clear task language THEN Create sub-tasks for each output task

Verb Obj ect do t his arrange meet ing agree plan

• bt ain

finance plan event

Outputs to Tasks - 2

• Use Context sheet for tasks

associated with stakeholders, finance and resources

• Push down – what else?

Analysing Tasks

• Milestones
• Dependencies
• Constraints

Analyse Tasks Activity

• Go to your project tasks:

– Mark tasks which are milestones – Add new milestones (dates, events)

• Mark dependencies to milestones
• Mark tasks which are also constraints

– Add new constraints

• Look to Context sheet for other milestones and constraints

Note: Milestones in BLF and other funder language is more like outputs

Task Reflection

GANTT Charts

• Industry core to project

management

Gantt Activity

• Mark up Gantt columns

– Decide time increments

• Add Project Management with tasks like:

– Review tasks, review risks, run comms, review budget

• Fill in Outputs as headline tasks

– Enter the detailed tasks for each output

• Fill in & allocate timings

– Make milestones, dependencies, & constraints clear

– NOTE – a working day is 5 on-task hours, not 7.5

Gantt Visits

• Wander around to see others’

Gantts

• Ask what you need to ask
• Pick out one shock/learning point

and explain to group

And finally…

• Questions?
• Some tools:

– Microsoft Project (and similar freeware) – PRINCE (Projects In Controlled Environments)

Tomorrow

• Transferring your Gantt to Excel or

to Quadrille paper

• Risk Management & Planning
• Monitoring, Evaluation & Reporting
• Delegation & People Management
• Practical tools and tips
• Mop up of expectations

PPM Day 2

Questions from Day 1?

Gantt Electric

• Plain Gantt
• Overview Gantt

Activity: Create/copy your Gantt and fill it, adding drop down menus and http links

Risk

Moving from theory to strategy

Risk Activity 1

• Open your risk plan in the project workbook
• Work through each task and ask – “could there be a risk

associated with this?”

• Copy/paste the task with risk to the risk plan
• Change the task language to risk description
• Explain the why of the risk in the Notes column
• Rank Risks in the Priority column, Type Risks in Type column
• Agree risk response and actions for H and med H only

Risk Activity 2

• Go to Context sheet, add overall project risks

(associated with Stakeholders, Resources, Finance)

• Go back to Gantt to revise – and italicise the

task with a risk

Risk Reminders

• Project risks are project, not organisational, though they

could lead to organisational issues

• As much as possible, do risk before the final Gantt, as risk

actions could lead to new tasks

• If you are not aware of the full range of risks, confer with

those who work with the same sort of people, the same sort

• f activity or in the same geographical area
• RM demonstrates preparedness and good management;

helps in case of complaints

• If you are the sole project manager, check risk register with

Trustees, Line Manager, Stakeholders – Get Approval

• Remember to do Risk Monitoring in Gantt

Monitoring

moving from strategic planning to management

Electronic Project Management

• Project Overview Book
• Be disciplined about updating your

Gantt and linking information

Reporting

managing & negotiating

• At START of project

– Who needs to receive reports and Why? – Recognise that different audiences need different formats and timing – Create all templates at the beginning

• During project

– Pull information from your Gantt and associated files; copy/paste/edit to report format

Reporting Activity

• Go to Context sheet and indicate which

groups will need reports and note what level of reports may be needed when

Evaluation

from management to negotiation to strategy

• Purpose

– For you – For your organisation’s future development – For funding/budget allocation evidence – For information for reporting/news

• At START

– Agree outcome statements – Gather baseline – Design information collection tools – [Participation and classic methods] – www.communityplanning.net

• At intervals

– Collect evidence – Analyse – Record

Evaluation Activity

• Go to Context sheet
• Look at your Outcomes and Outputs
• Add a few success measures (qualitative and

quantitative)

Outcome: reduced isolation

• Measure: single parents reporting feeling more involved
• Measure: more groups of single parents seen meeting

together

Delegation

where PM actually happens

• Moving from task management to people

management

• Telling the truth – up, down and sideways
• Getting clear on information
• Getting clear on expectations

Delegation Activity

• Go to Gantt, select one task to

delegate

• Look at Individual Task Delegation

page and frame a request

• Try it out on someone at your table

Practical Tools and Tips

• Whatever works for you!
• Whatever makes sense to others who will

share the information

• Electronic where appropriate (most often)

Moving On

• Gantt personal ToDo
• Gantt an easy win
• Gantt the most frustrating project
• Gantt from NOW, not history

(have fun!)