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MANAGING PROJECTS - Coggle Diagram
MANAGING PROJECTS
The Art of Lean Project Management
Short iterations
Clears misunderstandings earlier that cheaper to fix
Uncovers latent needs
Series of iterative sprints, 2-6 weeks apart
Less code
Every line of code explicitly justified with business objectives
Bakes in quality and curbs costs in two ways:
Software with more code is buggier
100-150 errors/KLOC + 50% best-case bug squashing during testing
Translation: A small (1 mil LOC) app with have 5,000+ bugs
Bug fixing is 100 times costlier after deployment
Lesser code lowers upfront development costs
Implemented using the 80/20 rule and short iterations
Active business participation
C-R-A-C-K Business Team Members
Authorized to decide
Committed to business value
Representative of biz users
Knowledgeable
Collaborative
Non-IT Managers: Where and How
Why IT Projects Become Business Failures
Causes of failure
Imprecise business intent
Unnecessary complexity
Lack of explicit tradeoffs
Antidotes to failure
Curbing scope
Explicit accountability for business benefits
Discovering latent business needs
Business penalties worsening because
Touch more parts of firms
Baked into ore products and services
Larger projects
Timeless lessons from projects with
Uncertainty
Bickering stakeholders
Massive scale
Railroads, the electric grid, highways, moon landings, and Hoover
Massive infrastructure project that promised to
Wipe out inefficiencies
Make a fortune for all investors and stakeholders
Mark the death of distance in global commerce
Speed the global flow of goods
Lessons for IT Projects
Clever technology does not guarantee success
A project must outdo its real competition
Electrobus: Not the automobile but the horse
Doomed without complements (then and now, charging stations)
Simultaneously counting on too many unproven technologies risky
3x Preventable Mistakes
Unnecessary Complexity
Cause: Ballooning scope one system tries to do too much
As a project gets large
Defects rise in proportion
Integration problems compound
Becomes incomprehensible to any one person
Non-IT Managers Silent on The Triple Constraint
Non-IT managers must pick one to give up
Driven by a project’s business objectives
f time and money are scarce, curb scope
Ambiguity of Purpose
Poor biz-IT communication = the wrong system
Latent needs
For example: the RAID story
Need that’s present but not yet visible
IT cannot build what you don’t ask for
Leads to feature-bloated, kitchen-sink over-engineering
Antidote comes solely from non-IT managers
Risks Beyond Non-IT Managers’ Control
Use of immature technology in a project
PM only tackles ambiguity but uncertainty requires real options thinking
Uncertainty is not same as ambiguity
Underestimation of time and money
Initial estimates define project success, yet often underestimated
Common because
Smaller commitments more likely to be approved
Often build insufficient slack in schedules
Overpromising leads to under-delivering
Estimation is more an art than science
Project interdependencies multiply
Heuristics don’t extrapolate across contexts and novel
Three Antidotes
Curbing scope creep
1 threat: Attempting too much, with too little or too fast
MoSCoW rule applied to requirements by non-IT managers:
Should-have
Could-have, but not critical
Wont-have this time, but maybe later
Must-have
Accountability without micromanagement
A project’s measurable organizational value (MOV) must come the business side
Must balance what’s ideal and realistic
Collaborative, involving all project stakeholders
Ensures IT folks are evaluated first as business people
Four elements:
Promise: Will it help do something better, faster, or cheaper?
Change metric: dollars, percentages, or time?
Intended impact: Operational, strategic, or financial
Time to impact after project completion (years/ months)
Non-IT managers must hold team accountable for delivering business benefits
Project PixieDust will
…create ubiquitous new channels to target mobile customers through real time analytics
strengthen our ability to deliver an industry leading experience to customers
lower distribution costs by 10%
lower IT costs by 10% by rationalizing our global platform
implement the Obamacare law
Discover a project’s true business purpose
Lean Discovery of Business Needs
Assumes:
Business users can’t articulate an IT project’s requirements
Success only in their eyes