Project Management (PM) Can Save Time and Improve Quality

Summary of Key Points

Chapter 2

·  Project management (PM) can save time and improve quality

·  Be clear on your project goals

·  Form the team for necessary skills, not just from friendship

·  Remember that you will need other resources: people, money and machines.

·  Develop and continually assess your teamwork skills

·  Detailed scheduling is extremely helpful for a project as complex as senior design.

·  Scheduling can be considered at multiple levels from napkin lists to full-time job.

·  The greatest benefits come from the least complex level – but don’t neglect considering the more complex levels

·  The essence of effective scheduling consists of defining tasks, their logical relationship, the “resource” necessary, and the time required to complete the task.

·  Keep the number of tasks to a reasonable level, a maximum of about one hundred

·  The computer is highly beneficial in dealing with scheduling because of the number of elements involved.

Chapter 2

Project Management

And Scheduling

James E. Mitchell

Project Management

What It Is & Why You Want It

Why not start designing right away? You’ve got an idea, some friends and a year-long assignment. Let’s get it done quickly and take the winter off, or get the patent application approved before we graduate. How complex can it be?

Some groups may be lucky. They may have worked together in first-year design. They may have a strong, experienced leader who has run projects on Co-op and will “intuitively” follow the right process for Senior Design.

Most Senior Design groups, however, aren’t as lucky. They spend considerable time making false starts and working far from their possible potential. The result is often a design that either isn’t as fully developed as possible or takes more time than necessary.

Project Management (PM), a fully developed profession[1], focuses on achieving the best result through the most effective use of all resources. Learning the project process knowledge and using tools of PM can save you considerable time and improve what you create.

You do it already

Of course you are already engaged in Project Management. Going to the store for food or undertaking a homework assignment are both projects – each is a “temporary endeavor undertaken to achieve a particular aim. ” You don’t consciously plan for them or engage in “resource management” or any of five “process” groups and nine knowledge areas defined by the Project Management Institute[2]. Nonetheless by remembering to take your wallet or deciding on the grade you want for the homework you are in fact undertaking Project Management.

What distinguishes the need for formal project management is the scope or critical nature of a project. In industry the money involved, a crucial delivery date, or scarce, heavily scheduled equipment can all require project management even for a brief period. In school the two usual justifications are the length of time involved or the necessity to work in teams. Throughout this chapter we’ll focus on those two issues while recognizing that other issues may become important in special circumstances.

Goals

The first step in managing a project is defining the aim or goal of the project. From a senior’s point of view it is often as unformed as achieving another grade or fulfilling the last graduation requirement (the advisor is usually focused on something different - what you learn). The first term of senior design is devoted to converting these goals to a more specific set of goals related to the desired characteristics of the completed design. The sooner the team is clear on these goals the more effective they will usually be in making progress through the endless range of distracting possibilities towards a successful result. In Chapter 1 you’ll find advice on the techniques and metrics for achieving useful specific goals.

Time Frame

For a Senior Design group the time frame is established by the senior year course requirements so little specific effort is needed to establish the overall deadlines. Each year, however, a number of groups start early to expand the time available.

Within these overall limits, however, the group has great leeway in how to achieve their goals. The “scheduling” section of this chapter is devoted to an exploration of how defining the necessary tasks, their logical sequence and the people responsible for them can assist you in meeting the deadlines.

The Resources

People

As in almost all projects, people are your most important resources. Those important in Senior Design are addressed in Chapter 1, so there is no elaboration here.

Money

The following chapter addresses the subject of money in detail. Remember that planning for “real money’s” acquisition (sponsors, your own pockets) and when it will be needed will save you grief during the year – big copying bills can be a very unpleasant surprise. Chapters 1 and 3 discuss the need for contingency plans, you will also need to schedule time for these emergency situations.

Machines & Software

For certain projects you must use a particular machine or piece of software– usually an expensive, fully scheduled piece like an electron microscope, a chip fabricator or a testing machine. Planning the process and talking to the individual responsible so that the machine will be available when you need it can make a big difference. Once that commitment is made you may need to shape much of your design process around that need. In that case the importance of scheduling increases dramatically.

Teamwork

Eight months is a long time, the period you’ll be working with your Senior Design team. No matter how strong your initial friendship, it’s almost certain to stress your friendship with your teammates during the dark months of the winter or when that last report is due in the spring. Both for the sake of friendships and to maximize the efficiency of the process (less time and higher quality) it is beneficial to address the question of effective teamwork in some detail at the beginning and repeatedly during the project.

Talk About it

In many ways the most important thing you can do is make teamwork an explicit agenda topic during your meetings. At initial meetings discuss each of the suggestions of this section. Elicit each teammate’s opinion on each topic and come to a consensus (a vote is less desirable) on the team’s attitude towards each. Discuss the team’s decisions about teamwork with your advisor too. They may have their own preferences or suggestions that you need to incorporate into your way of working together.

Repeat the conversation once or twice more each term, probably in an abbreviated form. You’ll probably find that the realities don’t quite agree with what you projected initially. If everyone’s happy and the project is progressing smoothly accept the change. If not, the conversation can be a way to address difficulties and find a way to resolve them.

Clear Teamwork Roles

As part of that initial discussion you should decide how you as a group wish to handle the various roles that are almost always necessary in a team. It is not necessary that the roles be fixed for the entire length of the project – indeed rotating them will probably help everyone. Some roles, such as “decision maker” have enough prestige that they are overtly or covertly contested. It may well be that the group avoids a decision on these roles while rotating the less desirable but still necessary ones between members. If that’s the case you’ll probably be working in a “consensus mode” which requires that all significant decisions (you would be well to decide what “significant” means) be made by mutual agreement of all the members.

There isn’t anything like universal agreement on the roles necessary for a successful group. The following make sense in the context of senior design.

Note that these roles are usually separate from the “discipline” (e.g. electrical, structural, etc.) roles that team members perform in a group. Since this is an educational project most advisors will expect that each team member perform significant engineering work in addition to whatever teamwork role they fulfill.

Example 3.1: Sample roles for Senior Design.

Role

/

Meaning

/

Comment

/
Analyst / Performs analysis, primarily numeric / Often an individual good with math or a calculation program such as Excel or a particular simulation program appropriate to the discipline necessary for the project.
Decision Maker / Makes key decisions / The person(s) who resolve the inevitable lack of consensus. In some groups they may be explicitly chosen for that role. In others the role evolves as the group works together. In still others there may be a conscious decision to require consensus for all major decisions.
In many groups “major” decisions are made by consensus while “lesser” decisions may be delegated either to a “discipline expert” or to a chosen decision maker.
Facilitator / Helps the group work effectively / This member is understands the way groups work. They listen well and are willing to make the effort to understand divergent viewpoints. They attempt to find common ground, to resolve differences through compromise. In many groups this role isn’t explicitly chosen. Nonetheless, recognizing the importance of the role and rewarding those who fill it will greatly assist the team process.
Graphics / Models Maker / Develops drawings, models, simulations / The specific skills a person filling this role has will vary with the project. For those creating a physical object the traditional drawing skills (hand and computer drawings) will be important. For more abstract projects the skill may be more in using software to create process or logic models, or simulations.
Idea Generators / Contributes most significant ideas / In the ideal group the ideas for the project come from the entire group, often through a brainstorming process. In many other groups one or perhaps several members excel at generating “solutions” to problems.
Usually the generation of an idea doesn’t take very long although their contribution is critical. Idea-generating members therefore often simultaneously perform another role as well.
Organizer / Develops and Maintains Process Structure / For the group to work well through the length of the project they must stay aware of the necessary tasks and the deadlines, as well as the roles that must be filled. Initially the organizer helps the group formulate the tasks, their interdependence and the work necessary to complete them. As the project advances the organizer reviews progress and refocuses effort to achieve the deadlines.
The organizer is the natural person to take advantage of scheduling/Critical Path software.
Presenter / Presents group information to others / All group members are expected to contribute to any presentation. Nonetheless one or more members may have greater experience or “presence”. That member can often take a lead role in structuring presentations.
Recorder / Records the operations of the group / While related to “organizing”, the role of recorder doesn’t necessarily have to be taken by the same individual. Ideally all meetings should have a written record, emphasizing decisions made and assignments made. This record should be the basis of discussion with the advisor. It also serves to assist resolution of disagreements later in a project – particularly if a group member does not perform as expected.
Writer / Writes important elements of documents / If the group is lucky one member will either be skilled and/or enjoy writing. They can take the lead in structuring and writing the critical elements of the proposals and reports as well as any communications outside the group (letters, abstracts etc.).
This individual should not be expected to write everything for the group, but should help set the standards, perform editing for consistency and liveliness (yes “liveliness” is desirable even in a technical report).
Idler / Doesn’t do anything much – but a useful label for later discussions / Of course you won’t have one, but……

Assigning and Rotating Teamwork Roles

Each team will evolve a different method of addressing all the project roles – both “teamwork” and “discipline”. What’s most important is that each team recognizes the necessity of these roles being addressed in some way. Probably the best method is to hold an early meeting in which the primary agenda is the variety of roles and how they shall be covered.

Several useful methods of addressing the teamwork roles may help the discussion:

·  Assignment by volunteer – ask each member which role they wish to fill. You may be lucky and find that all the roles are covered without disagreement.

·  Rotating assignment – the team agrees that some or all of the roles will be rotated on a fixed time schedule between the members. This usually applies to the less desirable tasks.

·  Sharing roles – desirable roles may be shared, although there is always a danger of lack of responsibility clarity.

Clear Task Responsibilities And Schedule

If any issue rivals the importance of being clear about teamwork goals it is the worth of being clear about the tasks necessary to complete the project and who is responsible for each task. Senior Design is so large an undertaking that few if any teams have an initial understanding of all the tasks involved, the relationships between them and the impact of each on the schedule. The issue is so important and relatively complex that the last portion of this chapter is devoted to a detailed discussion of how to accomplish worthwhile scheduling within the bounds of a Senior Design project.