General Flashcards
Types of PMOs
Supportive - low level of control over projects
Controlling - moderate level of control over projects
Directive - high level of control over projects
Supportive PMO
provides policies, methodologies, templates, and lessons learned for managing projects within the org (low level of control over projects)
Controlling PMO
provides support and guidance on how to manage projects, trains others in PM and PM software, assists with specific PM tools and ensures compliance with policies (moderate level of control over projects)
Directive PMO
provides project managers for different projects, and is responsible for results of those; all projects or projects of a certain size, type or influence are managed by the PMO (high level of control over projects)
Types of Organizational structures
Functional Matrix (weak) Matrix (balanced) Matrix (strong) Project-Orientied
Functional organization
- think “silo”
- grouped by functional areas such as accounting, marketing, sales, etc.
- projects generally occur within a single department
- if information or project work is needed from another department, employees transmit request to head of department who communicates request to other department head
- team members complete project work in addition to normal departmental work
- the project manager’s role might be a project coordinator or expediter
- low responsibility for project manager, resource availability and budget accountability
Matrix organization
- think “two managers”
- project team members report to project manager and functional manager
- team members complete project work in addition to normal departmental work
- in a strong matrix power rests with the project manager
- in a balanced matrix the power is shared between project and functional manager
- in a weak matrix the power rests with the functional manager and the power of the project manager is comparable to that of a project coordinator or expediter
Project-oriented/Projectized organization
- think “no home”
- entire company is organized by projects
- team members only complete project work and when the project is over they have no department to go back to
- communication primarily occurs within the project
- also called “hybrid” or “composite”
- very high or full responsibility for project manager, resource availability and budget accountability
Organizational Project Management (OPM)
provides a strategic framework to use and guide portfolio, program and project management to achieve the organization’s strategic goals
Project expediter
The project expediter acts primarily as a staff assistant and communication coordinator. The expeditor cannot personally make or enforce decisions.
Project coordinator
The project coordinator acts primarily as a staff assistant and communication coordinator. The coordinator has some authority and power to make decisions, and reports to a higher-level manager.
Organization Process Assets (OPAs)
Mainly two types:
- Processes, procedures and policies that apply to aspects like quality, procurement or compliance and are generally owned by the PMO or other departments.
- Organizational knowledge repositories include historical information such as WBSs, reports, baselines, risk response plans and lesson learned. Other knowledge repositories include configuration management (naming conventions, templates, etc.), financial data and issue logs.
Types of Internal Enterprise Environmental Factors (EEFs)
- Organizational culture, structure and governance (vision, mission, values, leadership style, ethics, CoC, etc.)
- Geographical distribution of facilities and resources (factory locations, virtual teams, shared systems, cloud computing)
- Infrastructure (existing facilities, equipment, organizational communication channels, IT hardware, capacity, etc.)
- IT software (scheduling software, configuration mgmt systems, web interfaces, work authorization systems, etc.)
- Resource availability (contracting and purchasing constraints, approved providers subcontractors, collaboration agreements)
- Employee capability (existing expertise, skills, competencies, etc.)
Assumption Log
- is a repository of assumptions and constraints
- frequent input to planning processes
- updates to the log are outputs of many planning and control processes
Constraints
- part of the assumption log
- usually clearly imposed by management or the sponsor
- limit options during planning and beyond
- areas: schedule, cost, risk, scope, quality, resources, customer satisfaction
- examples: project end date, maximum allowable risk, budget, etc.
Work Performance Data, Information and Reports
Work performance data: initial measurements and details about activities gathered during the ‘direct and manage project work’ process (executing phase).
Work performance information: the result of work performance data being analyzed to make sure it conforms to the project management plan and being assessed to determine what the data means for the project as a whole (monitoring and controlling phase)
Work performance reports: work performance information that has been organized into reports which are distributed to various stakeholders
Data Gathering Tools and Techniques
To collect input from stakeholders, e.g. benchmarking, brainstorming, prompt lists, checklists, interviews, market research, questionnaires and surveys
Data Analysis Tools and Techniques
- Alternatives analysis
- Assessment of other risk parameters
- Assumption and constraint analysis
- Cost-benefit analysis
- Cost of quality
- Decision tree analysis
- Document analysis
- Earned value analysis
- Influence diagrams
- Iteration burndown chart
- Make-or-buy analysis
- Performance reviews
- Process analysis
- Proposal evaluation
- Regression analysis
- Reserve analysis
- Risk data quality assessment
- Risk probability and impact assessment
- Root cause analysis
- Sensitivity analysis
- Simulation
- Stakeholder analysis
- SWOT analysis
- Technical performance analysis
- Trend analysis
- Variance analysis
- What-if scenario analysis
Data Representation Tools and Techniques
- affinity diagrams
- cause-and-effect-diagrams
- control charts
- flow charts
- hierarchical charts (WBS, OBS, ReBS)
- histograms
- logical data models
- matrix diagrams/charts
- mind mapping
- priorization/ranking
- probability and impact matrices
- responsibility assignment matrix
- scatter diagrams
- stakeholder engagement assessment matrix
- stakeholder mapping/representation
- text-oriented formats
Decision Making Tools and Techniques
- Voting
- Autocratic decision making
- Multicriteria decision analysis
Communication Skills
- communication competence
- feedback
- nonverbal
- presentations
Interpersonal and Team Skills
- Active listening
- Communication stles assessment
- Leadership
- Team building
- Motivation
- Influencing
- Emotional Intelligence
- Facilitation
- Decision making
- Observation/conversation
- Negotiation
- Networking
- Nominal Group Technique
- Meeting management
- Political awareness
- Cultural awareness
- Conflict management
Estimating Techniques
- Analogous estimating
- Bottom-up estimating
- Parametric estimating
- Three-point estimating
Project Management Information System (PMIS)
- part of enterprise environmental factors (EEFs)
- include automated software such as scheduling software, configuration management system, shared work spaces for file sharing and collaboration, work authorization software, time-tracking software, procurement management software as well as repositories for historical information.