Course Three Readings Flashcards
What is the point of milestones?
Milestones serve as check-in points along your project to make sure that you are headed in the right direction toward the end goal. Milestones also make projects more manageable;
pinpoint where in your project you will achieve major goals and make those points your milestones.
- Don’t set too many milestones.
- Don’t mistake tasks for milestones.
- Don’t list your milestones and tasks separately
p79 What is the purpose of the WBS?
It’s a tool that sorts the milestones and tasks of a project into a hierarchy, in the order they need to be completed.
three main steps to follow when creating a WBS:
- Start with the high-level, overarching project picture. Brainstorm with your team to list the major deliverables and milestones
- Identify the tasks that need to be performed in order to meet those milestones.
- Examine those tasks and break them down further into sub-tasks.
Six Rules to create a work breakdown structure:
- Include 100% of the work necessary to complete the goal.
- Don’t account for any amount of work twice.
- Focus on outcomes, not actions.
- A work package should take no less than 8 hours and no more than 80 hours of effort.
- Include about three levels of detail.
- Assign each work package to a specific team or individual.
7 Reasons to use a WBS?
- Estimate the cost of a project.
- Establish dependencies.
- Determine a project timeline and develop a schedule.
- Write a statement of work (or SOW, one of your other acronyms).
- Assign responsibilities and clarify roles (use our roles and responsibilities template to outline duties).
- Track the progress of a project.
- Identify risk
Best rules to follow when making a WBS:
- The 100% rule
- Mutually exclusive
- Outcomes, not actions. (ex: , a deliverable might be “the braking system” while actions would include “calibrate the brake pads.”)
- The 8/80 rule. (a work package should take no less than eight hours of effort, but no more than 80)
- Three levels. Generally speaking, a WBS should include about three levels of detail.
- Make assignments. Every work package should be assigned to a specific team or individual
WBS Structure formats can be…(3)
1.Outline Structure
2. Hierarchical Structure (Table)
3. Tabular View-more intuitive way to show heirarchy using a table
WBS Dictionary Purpose
formatted like the hierarchical structure, but it includes a brief description of each work package. When documenting a project, a WBS dictionary is often included in addition to a visualization of the WBS. It helps to clarify the scope of each task so that all team members understand their responsibilities..
Pieces of a Project Plan:
tasks
milestones,
people,
documentation,
time
* Scope and goals
* Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
* Budget
* Management plans
At the center of the project plan is:
the project schedule, which helps you estimate the amount of time it will take to complete the project and provides the team with a way to track the project’s progress against your goals.
Where are project scope and goals captured initially?
Scope and goals - initially in charter. You can link to it in your project plan.
What is the key to your project plan?
The WBS is key to your project plan since it breaks the work down into more manageable pieces.
How should tasks be listed in the project plan?
Visible in one place with clear descriptions, owners, and due dates.
What else should the plan contain related to these tasks?
Your project plan should also contain detailed milestones and statuses related to these tasks, which will help you and your team members visualize project progress.
Other project plan documentation is helpful?
further documentation—such as a RACI chart—will help define roles and responsibilities and would be useful to add to your project plan. Keeping this documentation stored or linked in one place is a best practice for transparency and effective communication.
Role of the budget in the project plan?
Throughout the life cycle of your project, the budget will need to be managed and monitored. The project budget is often linked to the project plan because it is heavily dependent on key elements of the project.
If someone in another department is managing the budget, make sure to have regular check-ins
What specific management plans should be linked in the project plan?
Management plans—such as the change management plan, risk management plan, and communication plan—are all integral to keeping a project organized and on track and should be linked in your project plan
Common time estimation mistakes and remedies?
- Elimination of tasks. It is possible that all of the tasks initially listed didn’t need to be completed. There may have been unnecessary work added in, and the team could have completed the project without it.
- Increased team size. Kendra could have addressed the potential schedule risk by requesting more resources early on in the project rather than trying to execute without the necessary resources.
- Streamlining of activities. There may have been some tasks that could have been done in parallel, or at least not in sequential order.
How can optimism be a detriment in PM?
Be realistic when estimating time and effort for a project.
Take the time to carefully evaluate potential risks and the impact on the work, and talk to your team members about these challenges. Don’t be afraid to escalate potential concerns to management.
Optimism is a trait of a great project manager and leader, but it can adversely affect your projects when it comes to time estimation.
What is the Planning Fallacy?
The planning fallacy describes our tendency to underestimate the amount of time it will take to complete a task, as well as the costs and risks associated with that task, due to optimism bias. Optimism bias is when a person believes that they are less likely to experience a negative event.
Who can fall victim to the Planning Fallacy?
The planning fallacy can happen to anyone, regardless of whether or not they have experience completing similar tasks.
What is the best “optimistic” attitude to have in time estimation?
Remember to be “optimistically realistic” and push for the best outcome while still planning for the proper time to accomplish each task
Critical Path
the list of required project milestones you must reach to complete the project schedule, as well as the mandatory tasks that contribute to the completion of each milestone.
Why the Critical Path is Critical?
It provides a quick reference for critical tasks.
Reveals which tasks will impact your project completion date negatively if their scheduled finish dates are late or missed.
Helps you define the resources you need, your project baselines, and any flexibility you have in the schedule.
Steps in creating a Critical Path
- Capture all tasks (ref. WBS)-focus on NEED to do. not nice to do.
- arrange those tasks in order of completion by identifying dependencies.
- Create a Network Diagram
- Make time estimates.
- Find the critical path.
What is One common way to visualize the critical path?
By creating a network diagram; these sequence tasks in the order in which they need to be completed, based on their dependencies. These
Network Diagrams help visualize:
- The path of the work from the start of the project (excavation) to the end of the project (flooring)
- Which tasks can be performed in parallel (e.g., HVAC and plumbing) and in sequence (e.g., plumbing then insulation)
- Which non-essential tasks are NOT on the critical path
What you add up to determine your Critical Path?
Add up the durations for all of your “essential” tasks and calculate the longest possible path,
Two common ways to calculate the critical path:
Forward Pass and Backward Pass
what are three ways to use
soft skills and gather
accurate estimates from your teammates?
asking the right questions (open ended), then folllow-up questions).
negotiating effectively, (partials)
practice empathy (ask re concurrent projects or scheduled vacation, etc)
What is bare minimum for a project plan?
Task ID # or name
Task Duration
Start and finish dates
Who is responsible for what
*add WBS numbers
Kanban boards are used to:
- Give a quick visual understanding of work details and provide critical task information.
- Facilitate handoffs between stakeholders, such as between development and testing resources or between team members who work on related tasks.
- Help with capturing metrics and improving workflows.
What is on the front of a physical Kanban card?
- Title and unique identifier: Make sure you have a quick reference for tasks and ID numbers.
- Description of work: Briefly describe the task to be accomplished. Remember that this is intended to be captured on something no larger than an index card.
- Estimation of effort: Estimate the amount of work it will take to complete the task. For example, you can write “small,” “medium,” or “large” to indicate the level of effort you think that task will involve.
- Who is assigned to the task: Indicate who is responsible for completing the task; ideally, one person per card.
What is on the back of a physical Kanban card?
- Start date: Include the start date of the task for use in metrics, tracking, and ensuring that your time estimate is accurate.
- Blocked days: Indicate which days your task may be halted. A task can become blocked if it can’t continue to be worked on. For example, if you were supposed to receive a deliverable and it hasn’t been delivered yet, then your day may be blocked for this particular task.
- Finish date: As with any plan, it is important to track when the task is supposed to be finished. This allows you to ensure that your project is still on track to reach the end goal.
p.112 When are budgets generally created?
Budgets are typically created in the initiation and planning phases of your project.
How do budgets help control cost?
Budgets also help control your costs and act as the baseline for the financial portion of the project.
