Happy New Year 2009

When times are hard, good project planning always helps saves the day. Proper control of resources (Manpower, Machinery, Materials) will help save Money.

No solution is hard, everything has its simplicity and Microsoft Project 200X via my method of approach is the best there is (10,486 participants as of ending 2008) can't be wrong.

So in ending the year of 2008, here's wishing all my followers and fellow planners ...

HAPPY NEW YEAR and may all your Project Plans be planned to perfection!

Charts and Reports (Part 1)

I had a discussion with Brother Alex of Petronas, Malaysia and the topic we dwelled on was the difference in the types of charts that will/can be derived from project data.

Different data will produce different charts and of course, with different data type, the chart pattern will differ. The simple explanation here is the data and its scale.

In some cases, the pattern might be almost similar to each other (see chart above) but with different scales of reference, the values might not be similar.

In some other cases, the chart can produce different pattern, say an s-curve versus an X=Y curve.

The good thing about using Microsoft Project is, the software's ability to plot many different types of chart from one project plan, like - Resource Loaded Progress Curve, Cumulative Financial Curves, Targeted Percentage Curves and many more.

Wait for my next input

How to track Progress (VIDEO)

How to track progress. This is one of the many other videos available on my SWPM module

Stay tuned for more or call/e-mail me

Microsoft Project 2007

I am still getting questions from my PM Blog followers on Microsoft's Project 2007 and whether it is a good buy or not?

Actually I have put in an article on the issue some time back (see Archive) and frankly, I am not for the use of Project 2007 at all.

My main grouse is Project 2007 can't plot charts when compared with ALL Microsoft Project since Project 199x (even before the Y2K)

Secondly, it is full of calculation errors

and thirdly, it uses up too much memory.

Yes, Project 2007 does have its good points, which says it can do multiple UNDO .... I guess that is its only good point

Microsoft ends VISTA

Microsoft Corp finally decided to stop production of its very problematic VISTA and will be replacing it with WINDOWS 7.

So far I can vouch that Microsoft Project 2003 Professional is still compatible with Windows 7 but I will be doing more beta testing on the compatibility and most important, its stability.

Stay tuned

Read more on www.microsoft.com

Microsoft Project Basics (Getting Started)

Open Microsoft Project 200X (Double Click the program icon or click at START and go to PROGRAM and scroll to MICROSOFT PROJECT and let go of the mouse.

Click inside a cell in the TASK NAME column, Type in START, Click in the next cell (DURATION) and type in 0 (zero), press enter.

You should by now see the change of the blue box into a black diamond, indication the presence of a milestone.

Click the cell below START and type in Activity 1, repeat again for Activity 2.3 and 4. Type in after that FINISH with a duration value of zero. For Activity 1 type in 3 days duration. Activity 2, Duration of 4 days and Activity 3 , duration 3 days and Activity 4, Duration of 5 days.


Linking the ACTIVITIES
Click the START milestone (don’t let go of the mouse) drag the arrow to ACTIVITY 1, release the mouse button.
You will see a black line joining START to ACTIVITY 1.
Repeat the following:

Link ACTIVITY 1 to ACTIVITY 2

Link ACTIVITY 2 to FINISH

Link START to ACTIVITY 3

Link ACTIVITY 3 to ACTIVITY 4

Link ACTIVITY 5 to FINISH

You should get the chart o your left.

If you do, then congratulations, it’s your first work flow diagram. If you don’t, Close the screen and repeat step 1 all over again.

Click the WIZARD icon (it’s is a picture of a Magician’s wand against a bar chart diagram)
The following message box will appear, click NEXT

Select CRITICAL PATH
Click FINISH click FORMAT IT and click EXIT WIZARD. The program will display your work program with blue and red bars.
Blue bars are activities that are not critical, i.e. will not contribute to any delay against your project should it not be complete within the duration set (but if you really delay it seriously bad, it can become red). A red bar is indicating a critical activity namely so if you don’t finish the work within it’s stated duration, then the whole project gets delayed big time.


* Still not sure how to do it?

Call me at
+60122312037

NEW 2008 Streetwise Project Management Syllanus

Streetwise Project Management

Intermediate level module

Course Content

Introduction to Project Management principals

Setting realistic timelines, objectives, and expectations

Walkthrough to features in Project Management tools

Understanding Work Breakdown Structures (WBS)

Hands on sessions to GANTT, PERT and CPM

Determining the best approach for accomplishing project goals

Time line management

Human Resource and Equipments management

Progress Tracking

Progress reporting including Target or Scheduled Progress versus Actual Progress

S-Curves and Resource driven Charts

Automating your software for reports

8 hours of Hands-On training included in this training module

Course Peripherals

Legal Microsoft Project Professional Training Software

Compact Disk containing Real-Life working programs

Leatherette Organizer

Certificate awarded upon completion

Streetwise Project Management

Advance level module

Note – Entry to the Advanced Level is only upon completion of the Streetwise Project Management Intermediate Level program or from an equivalent course conducted from an approved project management program such as PMI. Candidate must furnish proof of such attendance.

Course Content

Material Management

Project Budget versus Actual Expenses

Facilitating communication among project participants, including outside vendors

Monitoring production, quality, and costs

Multiple Project Management

Document and data management within your project Plan

Resource sharing and advanced level resource management

Addressing Extension of Time and Litigation issues

10 hours of Hands-On training included in this training module

Risk analyzing your project plan

Auditing Submitted Work Plans

Financial Charts, Cash Flow Charts and Resources Costing by use

Course Peripherals

Legal Microsoft Project Professional Training Software

Compact Disk containing Real-Life working programs

2 Gigabytes Memory Stick with Built-in Firewall and Licensed Anti Virus Software

Leatherette Organizer

Certificate awarded upon completion

Streetwise Project Management

Comprehensive Intermediate to Advance level module

* Most Popular module for those seeking Fast Track and low turn around time in understanding real life hands on Project Management

Course Content

Introduction to Project Management principals

Setting realistic timelines, objectives, and expectations

Walkthrough to features in Project Management tools

Understanding Work Breakdown Structures (WBS)

Hands on sessions to GANTT, PERT and CPM

Determining the best approach for accomplishing project goals

Time line management

Human Resource and Equipments management

Progress Tracking

Progress reporting including Target or Scheduled Progress versus Actual Progress

S-Curves and Resource driven Charts

Automating your software for reports

Material Management

Project Budget versus Actual Expenses

Facilitating communication among project participants, including outside vendors

Monitoring production, quality, and costs

Multiple Project Management

Financial Charts, Cash Flow Charts and Resources Costing by use

Document and data management within your project Plan

Resource sharing and advanced level resource management

Addressing Extension of Time and Litigation issues

16 hours of Hands-On training included in this training module

Risk analyzing your project plan

Auditing Submitted Work Plans

Course Peripherals

Legal Microsoft Project Professional Training Software

Compact Disk containing Real-Life working programs and Video on using your Project Management tools

4 Gigabytes Memory Stick with Built-in Firewall, legal software and Licensed Anti Virus Software

Leatherette Organizer

Certificate awarded upon completion

*Please note, in order to ensure participants comfort and optimum knowledge transfer quality, we will not conduct a class beyond 15 persons per session.

All participants will have unlimited access to questions and answers to the facilitator for 3 months after the training. They may do so via phone calls and on-line Blogs and e-mails.

Project Management and Your Career

Project Management and Your Career
Success is the reward of anyone who goes looking for trouble.
—Walter Winchell
“I think our manager is burning out,” one project team member told another.
The second one answered, “I’ve noticed that he’s been a bit short-tempered lately.”
“That’s not what I mean,” the first one said. “Yesterday, he sent me down to the lunchroom to
get him a cup of coffee.”
“What’s wrong with that?”
“Instead of just giving me a list, he drew out the instructions on a network diagram.”
Who gets promoted in your company? Is it the person who is merely capable, who doesn’t make waves, and
who survives without upsetting the delicate balance of the corporate culture? Or is it the person who excels?
Because the “survivor” is not a risk taker, in the long term, it is the exceptional manager who receives the
promotions and creates a permanent career. Whether your performance as a department manager is
exceptional, or only average, if you also manage projects, you have the opportunity to exceed the “average”
category.
In many departments, budgets, staff, tasks, and other factors will limit your freedom to demonstrate leadership
abilities. You may have to struggle just to maintain the minimum requirements of the job. There may be few
opportunities to demonstrate your skill, or even to put it to the test. When a project comes along, it’s your
opportunity to manage in a more creative way, and it allows you to develop a greater skills level than you’d
ever need as a department manager.
AN ORGANIZATIONAL SCIENCE
A large part of your success as a project manager will depend on your ability to organize and define. In
comparison, the actual work is not difficult. In fact, the better you do the job of organization, the easier it will
be to execute the task of the project.
Organizing the project requires several leadership actions, including:
• Defining the purpose and goals of the project. Getting to the point of understanding between you and
the person giving you a project assignment may require a great deal of effort on your part. Many
people, including executives, have difficulty defining exactly what they want. Thus, you may be
assigned a project, but with no clearly defined purpose or goal.
Your first organizational challenge is to ask the right questions at the point of assignment. You need to
know exactly what the assignment is meant to achieve.
• Organizing a schedule. Once a schedule is completed, it might look like a fairly simple document:
each phrase has been broken down and defined; deadlines have been made clear; and tasks have been
assigned to each team member. But a complex and lengthy project will demand a high level of
organizational skill in the beginning. You need to be aware of the time demands for each phase, as well
as the time restrictions for your team members. You also need to look far ahead to make sure that your
deadlines do not conflict with other deadlines.
• Developing a team approach. Your ability to lead a project team effectively depends on how well
your team works together. This does not happen without focused, motivated leadership. Simply
creating a team does not ensure that it will function as you want it to. The better able you are to
organize all aspects of the project, the easier it will be to develop your team.
• Resolving conflicts. Invariably, the time demands of your project, the schedule, and the use of
resources will create conflicts at some point. Many of these relate to time priority for team members.
You may need to act in the capacity of a corporate diplomat to resolve these conflicts, while at the same
time avoiding power confrontations or ill feelings.
• Keeping the lines of communication open. As a project manager, you will need to continually define,
redefine, and modify. You must also reassure other people: team members, other department managers,
outside resources, and top management. Your project team does not operate in isolation, so you must
function as organizer and operator of a network of conflicting interests and priorities.
• Meeting budgets and deadlines. An organized project manager needs to review status day by day by
tracking the budget, looking for signs of emerging variances, and then taking action to control them.
You will monitor each phase as it proceeds, with an eye on immediate and final deadlines. You will use
many tools to organize your monitoring, such as PERT/CPM and network diagrams.
• Training and supervising. While the project is underway, you may need to supervise team members
directly. Some of them may not know how to execute a task, and will require training while working on
the project.
ATTRIBUTES OF PROJECT LEADERSHIP
Achieving the many organizational goals while you work as a project manager places many demands on
you—and your leadership skills. In some departments, “participative” management is not always possible nor
practical; but in project management, it’s essential.
Example: A manager of a processing department must ensure that transactions are executed, errors are caught
and corrected, and deadlines are met. Her task is specific. There is little opportunity for employee
involvement in her relatively mechanical supervisory job. However, when she’s given a project with a team of
expert employees, her leadership style changes: In this situation she coordinates efforts and encourages people
to become involved in the process of developing the schedule, determining the sequence of phases, and
overcoming problems of scheduling and budgeting.

Project Management and the CONSULTANT Project Team

Project Management is a word too often used so much so that it is deemed an ordinary skill and therefore neglected.

Project Management in its most general meaning (forget those fanciful description those Academicians uses) is the management of manpower, machineries, materials and money within a set timeframe. 4M in short.

So we now know what Project Management stands for, so now how can it really help us?

Let’s start the whole understanding game with a scary bedtime story.

Project Failed to deliver on time!

This news clipping is a local and recent happening right here in fast developing Malaysia.

The news got into the lime light right after the elections, even though the delay started long before the elections.

What was the reason given for the delay?

• Design Delays

• Land Acquisition delays

• Cost increase contributing to delays

The real reason for the delay is PROJECT MANAGEMENT failure at its best.

A Point by point dissection to the problem will be done.

Let’s just look at DESIGN DELAYS since the team here is in the same area of interest.

Design segment caused the delay

How did the design segment contribute to the delay? Was the Design team unable to churn out the design and drawings in time? Was the design changed numerous times due to clients’ interference?

When a project is of a massive scale in size, logically it will generate a massive amount of documentation requirement. Documents here are in the form of plans, technical detail drawings, engineering drawings and whatever specification data that is necessary to carry out the project.

Where then is the delay?

Fact

1. Almost all consultants never Project Manage their team to achieve a full submission of designs, drawings and specifications so as to submit them at a set milestone

2. All consultants never have a benchmark on how long can a set of plans for a particular work or area needs in order to complete

3. Most consultants have little or no logging procedure to identify when a 3^rd party inference caused a delay in regenerating a new set of designs in order to adapt to these “requests”. Most of them can’t argue with the clients that the delay is not theirs but a 3^rd party or even the client themselves

Not happy with these facts?

Try answering these questions.

a) Do you know how long will it take your designers to come out with a certain specification?

b) How long does it take your draftsperson to churn out an A0 sized drawing?

c) The client has asked to add in some new features, in doing so, you need to redesign out an entire section of designs. Can you tell there and then how much of time will be required to put in these new changes?

If you answer “Not sure” to even one of the above, then you better tune up your Project Management skills, FAST!

Solution

The TEAM here is required here is to create a progress monitoring control to manage your 4M

Manpower (your design team)

Machineries (PC, Plotter)

Materials (Print outs, Construction drawings)

Money (I don’t have to explain this one)

And set a time frame for all of these items

Let’s begin putting the 4M into reality

Start by understanding your Team’s productivity index. Know each person’s ability to churn out a certain document.

Tabulate this data into your own Manpower Production Sheet

Next, set out the quantum of drawings (or documents) to be produced.

DELIGATE to each person doing the design his or her quantum. This individual quantum divided with each person’s ability will give you the duration needed to create the needed designs or documents

Put each person’s time frame needed into a Gantt chart and you can now show how long it will take to do all those design works.

Get a good Project Management software, punch in all these data and now you are ready to do the following

a) Track who is doing what designs and when that work is to be completed

b) If a new client’s request comes in the middle of the job and the need to redesign, thus additional time (and cost) is needed, just add in the new work to your Gantt chart and the new date is calculated and if you want to claim for additional money from the client, this program can also show you that value.

This demonstration should show you a clearer insight into how simple Project Management is and how it will really help you get your Project done, on time, on cost and document your potential claims and variation works

Syed Naguib Syed Abu Bakar