ADVANCE

SYSTEM
MANAGEMENT
 PROJECT MANAGEMENT
TIPS
TRICKS
TRAPS

Team
members Project
manager

Saravanan
Team
Saravana pandian
leader
Santhosh kabilan
sidarth
 OVERVIEW
DEFINITION

TIPS

PROJECT
MANAGEMENT TRICKS

TRAPS

01
Project:
Defined start PM
and end, specific DEFINITION
scope, cost and
duration

A set of techniques used for

-Planning
-Organising
-Controlling
work activities
To reach desire result
-On time
-Within budget
-According to specification

Scope, Resources, Schedule & Customers 02

 Flow of information in PM

Into Projects

Within Projects

Out of Projects
Make sure everyone involved gets the information they need 03
Real World Project Management

04
 PROJECT MANAGEMENT
SUCCESS
TIPS

budget Client
acceptance

success

schedule performance
 20 SUCCESS
PROJECT MANAGEMENT TIPS

• 4 tips for laying the foundation

• 6 tips for planning the project
• 6 tips for estimating the work
• 3 tips for tracking your progress
• 1tip for learning for the future

06
Laying the
1. Define project
foundation
success
criteria

Agree on how stake holders will determine

success
Meeting schedule or budget
Customer satisfaction
Team member satisfaction

Set priorities that leads to success

Not every thing can be top priority !

07
Laying the
foundation 2. Identify projects constraints,
drivers, and degrees of freedom

08
Laying the
foundation 3. Define product release criteria

ØHow do you know when you’re done?

ØShould be objective & measurable
ØDecide early progress and don’t abandon them
ØSome possibilities
§number of opened high priority defects
§Performance measurements
§Customer acceptances satisfied
§Reliability goals satisfied

09
Laying the
foundation 4. NEGOTIATE COMMITMENTS

• Negotiate in good faith with

customers, managers, and team
members
• Base plan on what is really
achievable
• Use data to support your case

10
 Planning
the project 1. WRITE A PLAN

• A plan is more than a schedule

• The hard part isn’t writing. It’s thinking, asking,
listening and thinking some more
• Record assumptions ,constraints ,dependencies
• Adapt a standard project plan template to each
project

11
Planning
the project 2. DECOMPOSE TASKS TO
INCH PEBBLE-GRANULARITY

• Inch –pebbles are miniature milestones

• Inch pebbles are typically 1-3 days in
duration
• Track progress by completion of inch
pebbles

12
 Planning
the project 3. PLAN FOR REWORK AFTER A
QUALITY CONTROL TASK

• Test and reviews almost always lead to

rework
• Put “ Rework” tasks in our work
breakdown structure and schedule
• Base rework estimates on previous
experience

13
Planning
the project 3. MANAGE PROJECT RISKS

• During project planning

Ø brain storm project risks
Ø analyze and prioritize
Ø Mitigate, prevent or avoid greatest risks
• During project tracking
Ø Monitor mitigation effectiveness
Ø Monitor mitigation action implementation
Ø Look for new risks

14
Planning 4. PLAN TIME FOR PROCESS
the project IMPROVEMENT

• Process improvement is part of project

overhead
• Process improvement is a strategic
investment
• Decide how much time and $$ want to
invest

15
Planning
the project
4. RESPECT THE LEARNING CURVE

16
Estimating 1.ESTIMATE BASED ON EFFORT, NOT
the work CALENDAR TIME

• Estimate effort for uninterrupted work by 1 person

• Allow for vacation, sickness, training, other
planned activities
• Translate effort estimates into
calendar time

17
 Estimating 2. DON’T OVER SCHEDULE MULTI
the work TASKING PEOPLE

• Task-switching overhead reduces efficiency

• Some people task-switch better than others
• More human interfaces consume more
communication effort
• Only schedule 70-80% of available
time if multitasking

18
 Estimating
the work
3. BUILD TRAINING TIME INTO THE
SCHEDULE

• Training the team is part of project

overhead
• Try for just in time training
• Subtract training time from available
resources

19
Estimating 4. RECORD ESTIMATES AND HOW
the work DERIVED THEM

üAdopt estimation procedures and heuristics

üTrain the team in estimation
üDocument estimating method
üCompare estimates from more than one method
üRecord assumptions
üGet reality check from other team members

20
Estimating 5. USE ESTIMATION TOOLS
the work

• Tools relate product size, effort, team

size, schedule
• Models are based on data from
completed projects
• Cost drivers permit project-
specific adjustments

21
Estimating
the work 6.PLAN CONTINGENCY BUFFERS

• Life never goes exactly as

planned
• Build contingency time into each
phase
• Managers might scrap those
buffers
• Try critical chain project
management

22
Tracking
progress 1. RECORD ESTIMATES AND ACTUAL

• Data lets improve estimation accuracy

• Record estimated and actual and schedule
– Individual tasks
– Project major milestones
• Improve estimates with experiences, not faith
• Estimates that aren’t based on data are guesses

23
Tracking 2. COUNT TASKS AS COMPLETE ONLY
progress WHEN THEY’RE 100% COMPLETE

• It’s hard to accurately assess percent

completion
• Large tasks are 90% complete for a long
time
• Inch- pebbles support accurate completion
tracking
• Use objective completion criteria

24
Tracking 3. TRACK PROJECT STATUS
progress OPENLY AND HONESTLY

• Commit to accurate status at all

times
• Create a safe environment for being
honest
• Blame the process, not the people
• Learn about problems as soon as
possible

• Base status changes on exit criteria

25
 Learning 1. CONDUCT PROJECT
for the RETRO SPECTIVES
future

• Could also hold post- phase reviews

• Look for
– What went well(repeat it!)
– What didn’t go so well(change it!)
– What happened that surprised you (manage risks!)
– What do we still not understand(learn!)

• Record lessons learned for future reference

26
PROJECT
MANAGEMENT
TRICKS

PM TRICKS

27
 Ten Tricks
1. Spend time with customers
2. Ask “dumb” questions
3. Let go of your past
4. Surround yourself with experts
5. Gather data
6. Focus
7. Concentrate on what, not how
8. Communicate, communicate, communicate

10. Sell your product internally

11. Do whatever it takes
28
 1 Spend time with customers Tricks

• The single most important

thing a product manager can
do is to understand the
market

• The best way to understand

the market is to spend time
with customers Customer: Uploaded to flickr by David Kozlowski
flickr.com/photos/traveller2020/539548225/

29
 2 Ask “dumb” questions Tricks

• “Dumb” questions are really

more about when they get
asked than about what you
are asking
• New product managers have the
luxury of asking naïve questions
• Ask as many questions as possible as
soon as possible
sign - ? question mark: Uploaded to flickr by Leo
• Who to ask? Customers, colleagues, Reynolds flickr.com/photos/lwr/12364944/

stakeholders, superiors, partners,

competitors… 30
 3 Let go of your past Tricks

141 Thursday - letting go: Uploaded to flickr by roujo flickr.com/photos/tekmagika/474086212/

• What were you in your “past” life? Whatever it was, you’re a

product manager now
• There is a natural instinct for product managers to gravitate
towards the function of the business from which they came –
resist it
31
 Surround yourself with experts
4 Tricks

• Product managers can not and should not

do it all alone
• Your success depends on others
• Do not try to be an expert in everything
• Leverage the expertise of others in
certain areas
• Look for “formal” and “informal” advisors
• Experts do not just have to be within

32
 5
Gather data Tricks

• “In a truly consumer-driven company, decisions are

based on data… so the person with the best data wins.”
– Scott Cook; Founder, Intuit

• Lots of different
types of data…
– Internal data
– External data
– Market data
– Product data
Data: Uploaded to flickr by kokeshi
flickr.com/photos/kokeshi/119345900/
33
 6 Focus Tricks

• It will be overwhelming

• You will not know where

to start

• It is better to do one thing

well than to do a lot of
things poorly

irony; Uploaded to flickr by mrpattersonsir

flickr.com/photos/mrpattersonsir/30325860/

34
 7 Concentrate on what, not how Tricks

• It will be tempting to control “how” things get done with

your product

• Resist the temptation

• Product managers should define “what” needs

to happen…

• … and others should define “how” those things happen

35
 Communicate, communicate…
8 Tricks

• Do not underestimate the

importance of
communication in all forms
– Informal, formal, written, verbal,
unspoken, method, timeliness,
frequency, tone

Calling_all_Flickrs; Uploaded to flickr by carf

flickr.com/photos/beija-flor/5011611/

36
 8 Communication Tricks

Executives Customers

Other PMs Manager

Partners
Sales
Finance

Legal Product Marketing Investors

Manager
Customer
Industry
Service
Project Management Analysts

37
Engineering Design
 9 Sell your product internally Tricks

• Be the champion for your product

• “Sell” your product to executives,

team members, other departments

• Will help gain resources, funding, support

for issues and new initiatives

38
 10 Do whatever it takes Tricks

“Be willing to do whatever it takes.

 …
In Many cases where the product manager needed
to help out with deliverables for customer support,
sales training, technical writing, QA, engineering,
and marketing.  We need to just do it.”

Source: Thriving in Large Companies; Silicon Valley Product Group

www.svproduct.com/blog/files/thriving_in_large_companies.html
39
Trap:
some thing that
catch you unaware PROJECT
or place of confining
or embarrassing MANAGEMENT
situation TRAPS

41
 PROJECT
MANAGEMENT
TRAPS
1.“We’ll know when we get there”
2. “Bright shiny thing syndrome”
3.“Trust me – I’ve been here
15 years”
4.“We are different – you can’t
compare us to them”
5.The benefits are intangible”

42
 PROJECT
MANAGEMENT
TRAPS
6.“We already did the business case”
7.“We can do this ourselves, it’s nothing
new”
8.“Training was done once, done one way,
and in advance”
9.We have an ERP system that does all our
automated processes”
10.“We only implement Best Practices

43
conclusion

“Improving the performance of

organizations through assisting
them to define, realize, measure
and sustain the benefits of

Start Right, Finish Right

44
 Source of information
• www.pmi.org
• www.processimpact.com
•www.goodproductmanager.com
• Project Management, Harold Kerzner, 5th Edition
• PMBOK, PMI 2000
•Jesse’s Project Management Tips

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Thank you