Project Management Quarter

Project Management Quarter (hereinafter, the Quarter) is the last of four lectures of Project Quadrivium (hereinafter, the Quadrivium):

• The Quarter is designed to introduce its learners to enterprise implementation, or, in other words, to concepts related to implementing enterprise design; and
• The Quadrivium examines concepts of administering various types of enterprises known as enterprise administration as a whole.

The Quadrivium is the first of seven modules of Septem Artes Administrativi, which is a course designed to introduce its learners to general concepts in business administration, management, and organizational behavior.

Lecture outline

The predecessor lecture is Product Design Quarter.

Concepts

1. Project management. The task of getting a project's activities done on time, within budget, and according to specifications.
   • Project management. Practice and a set of concepts, based on that practice, that define culture of managing of projects from the moment when the project manager is identified to the project closing.
   • Project scope. The work that must be performed to deliver a product, service, or result with the specified features and functions. See also scope.
2. Project. A temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service or result.
   • Project. An activity having goals, objectives, a beginning and an end.
   • Project. One or more enterprise efforts undertaken in order to create a unique deliverable, most features of which can be identified before the development starts.
   • Project charter. A document issued by the project initiator or sponsor that formally authorizes the existence of a project, and provides the project manager with the authority to apply organizational resources to project activities.
   • Project kick-off. The formally recognized start of a project.
3. Planning. Management function that involves setting goals, establishing strategies for achieving those goals, and developing plans to integrate and coordinate activities.
   • Planning. A process that includes defining goals, establishing strategy, and developing plans to coordinate activities.
   • Sprint plan. The tangible outcome of a Sprint planning meeting. The Sprint plan is a written document assembled by the development team and includes 1) the goal for the sprint—a brief description of the product or deliverable to be completed by the end of the sprint, and 2) a detailed list of the Product Backlog Items (PBIs) or user stories the team has committed to completing by the end of the sprint, based on the team’s availability and velocity. Each PBI or user story is broken down into tasks according to the priority set by the product owner and assigned to a team member.
   • Specific plan. A plan that is clearly defined and leaves no room for interpretation.
   • Standing plan. An ongoing plan that provides guidance for activities performed repeatedly.
   • Short-term plan. A plan covering one year or less.
   • Single-use plan. A one-time plan specifically designed to meet the needs of a unique situation.
   • Directional plan. A plan that is flexible and sets out general guidelines.
   • Formal planning department. A group of planning specialists whose sole responsibility is helping to write organizational plans.
   • Long-term plan. A plan with a time frame beyond three years.
   • Release plan. The plan that outlines the features to be included in an upcoming release and provides an estimated date for the release. The plan should include responsibilities, resources, and activities required to complete the release.
4. Estimation. The process of assigning a quantifiable measure to the amount of workload needed to complete a project or task, in order to determine the duration, effort, or cost required to complete the project or task.
   • Relative estimation. One of several types of estimations Agile teams use to determine the amount of effort needed to complete project tasks. Tasks or user stories are compared against equivalent, previously completed tasks or group of tasks of similar difficulty.
   • Planning poker. A team building exercise or game used to arrive at a group consensus for estimating workload based on the Delphi method.
5. Scheduling. Detailing what activities have to be done, the order in which they are to be completed, who is to do each, and when they are to be completed.
   • Timebox. A fixed period of time to accomplish a desired outcome.
   • Timebox. An assigned period of time during which an individual or team works toward an established goal. The team stops work when the time period concludes, rather than when work is completed. The team then assesses how much work was accomplished toward the specified goal.
   • Timeboxing. Setting a duration for every activity and having it last exactly that (i.e. neither meetings nor sprint are ever lengthened - ever).
   • Milestone. A scheduled event to mark the completion of a major element of a product. Milestones are flags to signify that some amount of work has been completed.
6. Velocity. A metric that specifies how much work a team is able to complete within a single, fixed-length iteration or sprint.
   • Work capacity. The amount of work that can be completed within a certain time frame and is based on the number of hours that an individual or team will be available to complete the work.
   • Sustainable pace. The pace that an Agile team can work at indefinitely without resulting in developer burnout (ideally 40 hours per week).
   • Technical debt. refers to the obligation a development team incurs when they use a short-term, expedient approach to developing a software package without considering the long-term consequences. Technical debt increases project cost and complexity due to inefficiencies, inaccuracies, and other issues introduced into the software package. Poor management, incompetency, timeline pressure, or inadvertent mistakes can all contribute to technical debt.
7. Sprint. A fixed-length iteration during which one user story or product backlog item (PBI) is transformed into a potentially shippable deliverable. Each sprint is assigned a set amount of time to be accomplished (sometimes referred to as Timeboxing), which could be anywhere from one week to one month, but typically lasts two weeks.
   • Sprint. A set time period during which milestones must be reached and work must be completed and ready for review.
   • Sprint goal (aka Sprint theme). The key focus of the work for a single sprint.
8. Budgeting. The process of allocating resources to pay for designated future costs.
   • Budget. A numerical plan for allocating resources to specific activities.
   • Zero-balance budgeting. Process starting with an established point of zero rather than using the current budget as the basis for adding, modifying, or subtracting resources.
9. Procurement plan.
   • Commercial-off-the-shelf software (COTS). Software developed and sold for a particular market.
10. Impediment. Any obstacle that prevents an individual or team from completing a task or project. Unscheduled meetings, technical issues, lack of knowledge or expertise, a distracting workplace, and office conflict are all examples of impediments.
    • Impediment backlog. A visible or nonvisible list of impediments in a priority order according to how seriously they are blocking the team from productivity.
    • Feature creep. The tendency to add additional requirements or features to a project after development is already underway. Feature creep can occur on either a project or sprint level.
11. Risk management. A process of identifying what can go wrong and making plans that will enable a system to achieve its goals.
    • Risk event. A discrete occurrence that may affect the project for better or worse.
    • Trigger. Triggers, sometimes called risk symptoms or warning signs, are indications that a risk has occurred or is about to occur. Triggers may be discovered in the risk identification process and watched in the risk monitoring and control process.
    • Workaround. A response to a negative risk event. Distinguished from contingency plan in that a workaround is not planned in advance of the occurrence of the risk event.
12. Risk. An uncertain event or condition that, if it occurs, has a positive or negative effect on an enterprise effort.
    • Secondary risk. A risk that arises as a direct result of implementing a risk response.
    • Residual risk. A risk that remains after risk responses have been implemented.
    • Simulation. A simulation uses a project model that translates the uncertainties specified at a detailed level into their potential impact on objectives that are expressed at the level of the total project. Project simulations use computer models and estimates of risk at a detailed level, and are typically performed using the Monte Carlo technique.
    • Probability and Impact Matrix. A common way to determine whether a risk is considered low, moderate, or high by combining the two dimensions of a risk, its probability of occurrence, and its impact on objectives if it occurs.
    • Qualitative risk analysis. Performing a qualitative analysis of risks and conditions to prioritize their effects on project objectives. It involves assessing the probability and impact of project risk(s) and using methods such as the probability and impact matrix to classify risks into categories of high, moderate, and low for prioritized risk response planning.
    • Quantitative risk analysis. Measuring the probability and consequences of risks and estimating their implications for project objectives. Risks are characterized by probability distributions of possible outcomes. This process uses quantitative techniques such as simulation and decision tree analysis.
    • Risk category. A source of potential risk reflecting technical, project management, organizational, or external sources.
    • Risk database. A repository that provides for collection, maintenance, and analysis of data gathered and used in the risk management processes. A lessons-learned program uses a risk database. This is an output of the risk monitoring and control process.
    • Risk identification. Determining which risks might affect the project and documenting their characteristics. Tools used include brainstorming and checklists.
    • Risk management plan. Documents how the risk processes will be carried out during the project. This is the output of risk management planning.
    • Risk management planning. Deciding how to approach and plan risk management activities for a project.
    • Risk monitoring and control. Monitoring residual risks, identifying new risks, executing risk reduction plans, and evaluating their effectiveness throughout the project life cycle.
    • Risk response plan. A document detailing all identified risks, including description, cause, probability of occurring, impact(s) on objectives, proposed responses, owners, and current status. Also known as risk register.
    • Risk response planning. Developing procedures and techniques to enhance opportunities and reduce threats to the project's objectives. The tools include avoidance, mitigation, transference, and acceptance.
    • Contingency planning. The development of a management plan that identifies alternative strategies to be used to ensure project success if specified risk events occur.
13. Deliverable. Any unique and verifiable work product or service that a party has agreed to deliver.
    • Deliverable. Any tangible or intangible thing that is a product of any enterprise effort and is able to be provided to the process beneficiary.
    • Deliverable. A tangible outcome produced by a project. Internal deliverables are created by a project and are used by the company itself. External deliverables are created for clients, stakeholders, or customers. A single project can create many sets of deliverables.
    • Release. A functional product sent to customers.
    • Release. The transition of an increment of potentially shippable product or deliverable from the development team into routine use by customers. Releases typically happen when one or more sprints has resulted in the product having enough value to outweigh the cost to deploy it. A release can be either the initial build of a product or the addition of one or more features to an existing product. A release should take less than a year to complete, and in some cases, may only take three months.
    • Beta launch. The limited launch of a software product with the goal of finding bugs before final launch.
    • Incremental delivery. Creating working software in multiple releases so the entire product is delivered in portions over time.
    • Done done. A product increment that is considered potentially releasable; it means that all design, coding, testing and documentation have been completed and the increment is fully integrated into the system.
14. Configuration management.
    • Version control. The task of organizing a system or product containing many versions.
    • Continuous integration (CI). A software engineering practice that involves continual integration of new development code into the existing codebase.
15. Continuous improvement. A process of improving quality and efficiency by making small, incremental changes over time. In Kanban, continuous improvement refers specifically to the process of optimizing workflow and reducing cycle time, resulting in increased productivity.
    • Requirements management. The activities that control requirements development, including requirements change control, requirements attributes definition, and requirements traceability.
    • Requirements management plan. A description of the requirements management process.
    • Requirements risk mitigation strategy. An analysis of requirements-related risks that ranks risks and identifies actions to avoid or minimize those risks.

Roles

1. Project manager. The stakeholder assigned by the performing organization to manage the work required to achieve the project objectives.
2. Developer. Developers are responsible for the construction of software applications. Areas of expertise include development languages, development practices and application components.

Methods

1. UX project process.
   • UX strategy stage. The stage during which the brand, guiding principles, and long-term vision of an organization are articulated. The strategy underpinning a UX project will shape the goals of the project—what the organisation is hoping to achieve with the project, how its success should be measured, and what priority it should have in the grand scheme of things.
   • UX research stage. Often referred to as the Discovery stage. Complex projects will comprise significant user and competitor research activities, while small projects may require nothing more than some informal interviews and a survey.
   • UX analysis stage. The stage of the UX process where insights are drawn from data collecting during the earlier Research stage. Capturing, organising and making inferences from The What can help UX designers begin to understand The Why.
   • Design stage. The stage in a user-centred design process where ideas for potential solutions are captured and refined visually, based on the analysis and research performed in earlier stages.
   • Production stage. The stage at which the high-fidelity design is fleshed out, content and digital assets are created, and a high-fidelity version of the product is validated with stakeholders and end-users through user testing sessions. The role of the UX Designer shifts from creating and validating ideas to collaborating with developers to guide and champion the vision.
2. Why-What-How logic.
   • The Why. The statement for need or "why" the customer(s) want/think/need The What, possibly, in The How way.
   • The What. The statement for strategy or "what" is the best solution to satisfy The Why.
   • The How. The statement for tactic or "how" to accomplish The What.

Instruments

1. Sprint retrospective. A meeting held following the completion of a sprint to discuss whether the sprint was successful and to identify improvements to be incorporated into the next sprint.
   • Sprint retrospective. A session where the Team and Scrum Master reflect on the process and make commitments to improve.
2. Project management software.
3. PMBOK Guide.

Results

1. Project management plan.

Practices

This lecture concludes the Quadrivium. Since the next, third module of the Course is Operations Quadrivium; thus, the successor lecture is Monitoring Quarter.