Category Archives: Project Management Picture Concepts

How The Cost of Quality Increases On Your Project

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The cost to fix a defect increases as it gets closer to the Customer.

🤝 During Requirements: It costs very little to check, prototype and review requirements before we program them.

🤝 During Solution and Design: It costs relatively little to review and change a design.

🤝 During Development: It costs a bit more in time and effort to redo an item if it gets this far and there’s a defect. We may need to re-look at the requirements and design too, and re-code the solution.

🤝 During Testing: If we catch a defect during Testing, we may have to redo it in Development, or even go through the process from requirements again.

❌ But once a defect gets to a customer, we have the added cost of bad customer reviews, impacts to our brand or reputation, PLUS the time taken to review the customer complaints and address them, PLUS the waste of something we created that may have to be completely redone.

➡️ What else would you add to the Cost of Quality?

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How to Measure Business Value for Your Project (NPV, ROI and more!)

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Measuring Business Value

There are many ways to measure the business value you deliver as part of your project. Some of these ways are tangible (money, shareholder value, market share) and some are intangible (Brand recognition, goodwill, strategic alignment etc).

Ultimately the best value comes down to an improvement in some financial measure for your company, and these are measured in the following ways:

Cost-Benefit Ratio:

The cost-benefit ratio = the Total benefit of the project / Total cost of the project.

Choose the highest.

Return on Investment (ROI)

Return on Investment = the Project Return – Project Cost / Project Cost x 100.

Choose the highest.

Internal Rate of Return (IRR)

IRR is the return on your investment in a given time period.

Choose the highest.

Net Present Value (NPV)

Net Present Value = Today’s value of our expected return – Initial investment.

Choose the highest.

Payback Period (PBP):

The Payback period = The Cost of the project / Average Annual Return.

Shorter is better.

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Scrum Roles & Responsibilities

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There are Three Main “Roles” in a Scrum Team

Scrum is one of the main frameworks that make up Agile as we know it today – but it is not the only framework.

Agile has also expanded in use outside of development teams, and into general knowledge work, design, research, or anywhere else an iterative and incremental approach to delivering value is needed.

The heart of a Scrum Team is the Team.

The Team

The team are traditionally Developers, but today they can be anyone involved in creating the increment of value that the team are delivering. Team members are often “T-shaped”, where they have a broad range of skills and one deep specialty, like a capital letter “T”.

The Product Owner

The Product Owner is responsible for the value the team delivers. This is called the Product Goal. They do this by creating a backlog of usable, customer-valued features or “increments” that the team can deliver, and prioritizing this from highest value to lowest value (sometimes adjusting for effort also). This is called the Product Backlog.

They ensure the Product Backlog is transparent to all and well understood by anyone who needs it.

The Scrum Master

Is the “Servant Leader” – they serve the team by removing blockers (escalating to their network or helping the team problem solve as a neutral third-party facilitator). They also facilitate many of the team ceremonies such as the Daily Stand-up, Sprint Planning and Retrospectives – but they don’t have to if the team is mature enough to do this on their own. They focus on the team’s growth, looking for ways to help them improve in their chosen field (e.g. development, analysis, business value etc.) and in their Agile way of work.

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The Change Control Process in Project Management

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Change Happens When Delivering a Project

There are many competing factors when delivering change with a Project. Not only do you have many competing stakeholders with their different needs, biases, history in the organization and more, but you have competing constraints too.

The triple constraint of Scope, Schedule and Cost is impacted frequently on a project. If scope changes a little, it might impact how long it takes to deliver it. And that might cost more. Balancing these is an essential part of being a good Project Manager.

Use Change Requests to Keep Change under Control

If you’re studying or working in Project Management this year, know the broad Change Control process.

So, so many project managers never even outline their Change Control approach – or worse – they confuse it with modern Organizational Change Management (transitioning a product to operations or BAU).

The good part is, you get to decide (with your stakeholders) your project’s Change Control approach and you outline this in your Change Management Plan.

YES this works for Agile too, but it’s usually just a single line as the Product Owner decides on Scope Changes with the Product Backlog, and they understand and absorb the impact to their Schedule (Cost is often fixed).

Make sure you know it. Make sure you write it down.

Then deliver value and win. The typical Change approach might be:

  1. A Stakeholder raises a change to the Scope, Schedule, Cost, Resources (or any other baselined part of the project).
  2. We note that proposed change in the Change Log.
  3. We analyze the impact of the change to our project Cost, Schedule, Scope, and any other necessary impact.
  4. We take this information to the Change Control Board, or the approver. This might be multiple people or just one person (i.e. a Project Sponsor or Product Owner).
  5. We communicate the outcome of the change to the necessary stakeholders (Approved, Deferred, Rejected).
  6. We update the Change Log with the outcome and take the necessary change action.

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Prototypes in a Waterfall or Agile Project

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Prototype First, Then Build With Less Risk

If you’re working in or studying Project Management, it is essential to know about Prototyping and the different types of prototypes you might use.

A Prototype is a small, low cost version of the real thing, so we can see if it works and whether we really want it.

The idea of Prototyping works in any form of project. We might build a house or a bridge using a sequential, step-by-step approach (such as Waterfall). The prototypes we’ll use on these projects might include architectural designs, blueprints, or 3D models created by a draftsman or engineer to help us see if the design will work.

In a software environment, it is common to create a storyboard or wireframe of the new system, so we can see if it flows well when we “use” it, and we can see if the design works for any customers that trial it.

These are the most popular Prototypes you’ll come across:

  • ✅ Mock-ups or Wireframes: A simple drawing or design of the new idea.
  • ✅ Process Maps: Connecting process steps with boxes so you can see how a new process will flow.
  • ✅ Storyboards: Connect your designs together to link as they would in the real item, as you navigate a new design.
  • ✅ Computer generated models (2D or 3D): Using Blender or CAD, or cardboard and glue, you can see it in more depth and make corrections early.

➡️ What are some other Prototyping methods you use in your projects?

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Agile Estimating Techniques – Planning Poker and More

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Agile Estimating Techniques

Agile Projects Need Estimates Too

Even though you might hear people say we need to “move fast and breaks things” in Agile, the opposite is actually true. It might look like we’re moving fast, because we’re delivering small, usable increments of value on a regular basis.

We still need to estimate the effort of items on an Agile Project too. We can use the normal estimating approaches such as Analogous Estimating (using a similar item or project), Parametric Estimating (using a Parameter such as dollars per hour), 3 Point estimating (using an average of the Pessimistic, Most Likely and Optimistic estimates).

In Agile we can also use techniques such as Wide-Band Delphi estimating, Planning Poker, and Relative estimating.

Wide Band Delphi Estimating

The team members doing the work estimate the effort on a User Story, anonymously. High and Low estimates discuss their reasons then re-estimate until a consensus is reached.

Planning Poker

Team members estimate anonymously with numbered cards face-down on a table, and reveal their estimates all at once.

Relative Estimating

The smallest User Story has “1” story point, then other User Stories are estimated relative to that size, often in the Fibonacci Number Sequence: 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21.

 

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Good versus Bad Project Management

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What Does Good Project Management Look Like?

People often ask what the value of a project manager is. When Project Management is done well:

  • We meet business objectives
  • We can resolve problems and issues
  • We can satisfy stakeholder expectations
  • We manage the project constraints (Cost, Schedule, Resources, Scope)
  • We can identify, recover or terminate failing projects.

However, when Project Management is done badly, it soon becomes very obvious. Have you ever been on a project where it is not being run effectively? You might see:

  • Cost Overruns
  • Missed deadlines
  • Poor Quality and rework
  • Unsatisfied stakeholders
  • Uncontrolled expansion of the project scope
  • Failure to achieve the project objectives
Use the Project Manager Competency Triangle to Win:

There are three major areas of competency that a Project Manager needs to ensure they stay on the “Good project management” side of the equation. They are:

  1. The Project Management Process
  2. The Business Environment
  3. People Skills

We need the Project Management Process (from the PMBOK Guide, 6th Ed or the Process Groups Practice Guide) so we know all the steps to effectively delivering value and change.

We need knowledge of the Business Environment because we need to understand the value that we are delivering, and be able to help the team solve problems as they arise.

Lastly we need People Skills in order to build and grow an effective team, manage stakeholders and their expectations, lead as well as manage, shield the team from external politics, and ensure everyone is doing their part.

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Benchmarking: How To Do It

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Benchmarking is a Great Way to Find Product Ideas

If you’re a business owner, manager, or a Product Owner or Product Manager you’ll often be on the lookout for new product ideas or ways to improve your business.

One of the best ways to do this is with Benchmarking.

Benchmarking is comparing your current product or process to a similar product or process in another team or organization. It doesn’t have to be in the same industry – some of the best ideas can come from similar things but in completely different fields.

The steps to Benchmarking are:

  1. Select the process you want to improve,
  2. Select the organization or team you want to compare to,
  3. Document your current process,
  4. Collect data and compare your process to other organizations,
  5. Plan and implement the changes,
  6. Review the results, and repeat.

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Project Management Office (PMO) Types

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There are three types of PMOs.

Here’s what a good PMO will do for you:

  • ⭐ Manage shared resources across projects,
  • ⭐ Develop a project management methodology or best practice,
  • ⭐ Coaching, mentoring, training,
  • ⭐ Monitoring compliance with project standards (using project audits),
  • ⭐ Develop and manage project templates,
  • ⭐ Coordinate communication across projects.

In the PMBOK Guide you’ll find Supportive, Controlling and Directive PMOs.

Supportive PMO

A Supportive PMO is the least “hands on” type of PMO. They provide a consultative role to projects. They might supply templates or general best practices (like a Prince2 framework or a PMI-PMP certification). The have a low degree of control over the projects in the organization.

Controlling PMO

A Controlling PMO has a medium level of control over the projects in the organization. It usually focuses on compliance, to particular frameworks or methods. It might provide specific templates and tools that it requires Project Managers to use.

Directive PMO

A Directive PMO takes control of the projects by directly managing the projects. Project managers are assigned by and report to the PMO. The degree of control is high.

➡️ How does your PMO compare to this list? ➡️ Would you add anything?

Here’s a snippet of a great comment from the LinkedIn thread:

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Project Benefit Types – Tangible and Intangible

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What Type Of Benefits Does Your Project Have?

Projects are temporary, and they deliver something new – a change and business value. Many executives forget about the “business value” part though, and instead focus on:

  • Doing business with a company because their friend / partner / spouse owns it,
  • Adding the latest system just because it is currently trending,
  • Doing a project because you need to spend the budget you have before the end of the year.

Those things don’t inherently add business value. Instead, there are two types of business value we can be aware of when delivering a change or a project.

Tangible Value

This is something physical that we can see making a difference directly. It usually comes down to money. It could be:

  • Increased monetary assets
  • Increased market share
  • Increased stockholder equity
  • Increased revenue or profit

It might be directly more customers, or figuring out how to increase customer value, or reducing the customer acquisition cost.

It is something we can measure directly.

Intangible Value

Intangible value is harder to measure. We know we are adding value, we know something is increasing, but it is hard to see how it directly affects the bottom line of our department or company. It might include:

  • Brand recognition
  • Goodwill
  • Reputation
  • Strategic alignment

We might see how many people have seen and can recognize our brand, but we won’t know the real difference it has made until we can see an improvement to our bottom line.

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