Many projects today (and virtually all IT projects) are resource-constrained, which means that who performs a task is as important to success as what the tasks are.  For instance, in IT it’s widely recognized that a few superstars routinely accomplish 10-20 times as much as the typical worker.  Traditional project management techniques, such as resource leveling, inadequately address critical resource variables.  These projects commonly also have rampant scope creep and dependence upon seat-of-the-pants techniques, all of which together cause up to 84 percent of projects to fail.  In turn, project managers often lack credibility, which they seldom recognize and which further impacts their effectiveness.  This course shows project managers how to earn credibility by defining scope that doesn’t creep and estimating/scheduling appropriate resources that can deliver required quality on time and in budget.  Using an IT example, case study exercises provide practice applying the techniques to a resource-constrained project.

Participants will learn:

• How lack of credibility affects Project Manager success and fact-based ways to earn credibility.

• Recognizing and avoiding common, often overlooked pitfalls to on-time, in-budget, quality projects.

• Using project management and development life cycles to jumpstart projects confidently and quickly.

• Defining scope so it doesn’t creep and building essential transitions to the workplan for achieving it.

• Methods for reliably estimating the time, effort, and costs in light of resource uniqueness.

• Controlling risks and balancing conflicts in the real world of both task and resource constraints.

• Tools and techniques to catch and correct problems early so project promises are kept.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND: 

This course has been designed for systems and business managers, project managers, project leaders, analysts and other professionals who may manage software projects.

OUTLINE:

CRITICAL PROJECT SUCCESS FACTORS

Importance of credibility to project success

Characteristics of successful projects

Single resource that most affects outcomes

Factors that really cause projects to fail

Superworker to supervisor to superfluous

Establishing credibility, managing by facts

Overcoming Parkinson’s Law

Projects succeed/fail in the first 15 minutes

JUMPSTARTING PROJECT SUCCESS

Mapping project management/development

Why we get impossible deadlines/budgets

Waterfall, IE, and iterative spiral models

Project Manager’s deliverables

System development deliverables

Proactive TestingÔ developer’s advantage

ANALYST/DESIGNER ROLE

Establishing achievable project scope

Internal & external customers/stakeholders

Strategic and management alignment

Identifying project risks

Requirements, design, and re-engineering

Make vs. buy

High-level conceptual design roadmap

Focused iterative scope negotiation

ESTIMATING TIME, EFFORT, RESOURCES

Understanding causes of poor estimates

Applying multiple estimating strategies

Work breakdown structure, controlling risk

Addressing divergent resource productivity

Measuring deliverables size and complexity

PERT and weighted averages risk reduction

Cost/benefit analysis and communication

SCHEDULING TO MEET DEADLINES

Productive time scheduling practicalities

Time management techniques

Dependency networking and CPM

Graphical representations to aid planning

Coordinating multiple projects/resources

“Plan B” fallback alternatives

Managing resource-constrained projects

Working within Brooks’ Law

Negotiating commitments and resources

CONTROLLING PROJECT COMPLETIONS

Monitoring against budget and schedule

Earned value measure of completion

Assuring quality and preventing errors

Automated tools, strengths and limits

Reporting to management

Key to advancement

Avoid Real-world project management pitfalls

Speaker’s Bio:

Robin F. Goldsmith, JD is an internationally recognized authority on software development and acquisition methodology and management.  He has more than 30 years of experience in requirements definition, quality and testing, development, project management, and process improvement.  A frequent featured speaker at leading professional conferences and author of the recent Artech House book, Discovering REAL Business Requirements for Software Project Success, he regularly works with and trains business and systems professionals.

Decision (Run/Cancel) Date for  this Courses is Monday, May 14, 2007

Course Fee Schedule:

On-line Registration and Payment

This course has been cancelled.  If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the IEEE Boston Section Office at 781-245-5405.

Copyright © 2008 IEEE Boston Section. All rights reserved.
Maintained by R M Stelting

Updated Thursday August 16, 2007