Project Management All-in-One For Dummies

Introduction 1 About This Book 1 Foolish Assumptions 2 Icons Used in This Book 2 Beyond the Book 3 Where to Go from Here 3 Book 1: In the Beginning: Project Management Basics 5 Chapter 1: Achieving Results with Project Management 7 Determining What Makes a Project a Project 7 Understanding the three main components that define a project 8 Recognizing the diversity of projects 10 Describing the four phases of a project life cycle 10 Defining Project Management 12 Starting with the initiating processes 13 Outlining the planning processes 14 Examining the executing processes 15 Surveying the monitoring and controlling processes 16 Ending with the closing processes 17 Knowing the Project Manager’s Role 17 Looking at the project manager’s tasks 18 Staving off excuses for not following a structured project-management approach 18 Avoiding shortcuts 19 Staying aware of other potential challenges 20 Chapter 2: Involving the Right People 23 Understanding Your Project’s Stakeholders 24 Developing a Stakeholder Register 24 Starting your stakeholder register 25 Ensuring your stakeholder register is complete and up to date 28 Using a stakeholder register template 30 Determining Whether Stakeholders Are Drivers, Supporters, or Observers 31 Distinguishing the different groups 32 Deciding when to involve your stakeholders 33 Using different methods to involve your stakeholders 36 Making the most of your stakeholders’ involvement 37 Displaying Your Stakeholder Register 38 Confirming Your Stakeholders’ Authority 39 Assessing Your Stakeholders’ Power and Interest 40 Chapter 3: Developing Your Game Plan 43 Divide and Conquer: Breaking Your Project into Manageable Chunks 43 Thinking in detail 44 Identifying necessary project work with a work breakdown structure 45 Dealing with special situations 53 Creating and Displaying Your Work Breakdown Structure 57 Considering different schemes to create your WBS hierarchy 57 Using one of two approaches to develop your WBS 58 Categorizing your project’s work 60 Labeling your WBS entries 61 Displaying your WBS in different formats 62 Improving the quality of your WBS 66 Using templates 66 Identifying Risks While Detailing Your Work 68 Documenting What You Need to Know about Your Planned Project Work 70 Book 2: Steering the Ship: Planning and Managing a Project 71 Chapter 1: You Want This Project Done When? 73 Picture This: Illustrating a Work Plan with a Network Diagram 74 Defining a network diagram’s elements 74 Drawing a network diagram 76 Analyzing a Network Diagram 77 Reading a network diagram 77 Interpreting a network diagram 79 Working with Your Project’s Network Diagram 84 Determining precedence 84 Using a network diagram to analyze a simple example 87 Developing Your Project’s Schedule 92 Taking the first steps 92 Avoiding the pitfall of backing in to your schedule 93 Meeting an established time constraint 94 Applying different strategies to arrive at your destination in less time 95 Estimating Activity Duration 102 Determining the underlying factors 103 Considering resource characteristics 103 Finding sources of supporting information 104 Improving activity duration estimates 104 Displaying Your Project’s Schedule 106 Chapter 2: Starting Your Project Team Off on the Right Foot 111 Finalizing Your Project’s Participants 112 Are you in? Confirming your team members’ participation 112 Assuring that others are on board 114 Filling in the blanks 115 Developing Your Team 116 Reviewing the approved project plan 117 Developing team and individual goals 118 Specifying team-member roles 118 Defining your team’s operating processes 119 Supporting the development of team-member relationships 120 Resolving conflicts 120 All together now: Helping your team become a smooth-functioning unit 123 Laying the Groundwork for Controlling Your Project 125 Selecting and preparing your tracking systems 125 Establishing schedules for reports and meetings 126 Setting your project’s baseline 127 Hear Ye, Hear Ye! Announcing Your Project 127 Setting the Stage for Your Post-Project Evaluation 128 Chapter 3: Monitoring Progress and Maintaining Control 129 Holding the Reins: Project Control 130 Establishing Project Management Information Systems 131 The clock’s ticking: Monitoring schedule performance 132 All in a day’s work: Monitoring work effort 138 Follow the money: Monitoring expenditures 143 Putting Your Control Process into Action 147 Heading off problems before they occur 147 Formalizing your control process 148 Identifying possible causes of delays and variances 149 Identifying possible corrective actions 150 Getting back on track: Rebaselining 151 Reacting Responsibly When Changes Are Requested 151 Responding to change requests 152 Creeping away from scope creep 153 Chapter 4: Bringing Your Project to Closure 155 Staying the Course to Completion 156 Planning ahead for your project’s closure 156 Updating your initial closure plans when you’re ready to wind down the project 157 Charging up your team for the sprint to the finish line 158 Handling Administrative Issues 158 Providing a Smooth Transition for Team Members 159 Surveying the Results: The Post-Project Evaluation 160 Preparing for the evaluation throughout the project 161 Setting the stage for the evaluation meeting 162 Conducting the evaluation meeting 163 Following up on the evaluation 165 Book 3: Helping Out: Using Tools on a Project 167 Chapter 1: Considering Checklists and Templates 169 Using Checklists Properly 170 Understanding Checklist Types 171 Trying Templates 172 Reviewing Project Structure 173 Kicking off the project 173 Doing the planning 175 Delivering project products 175 Closing the project 176 Evaluating the project 176 Chapter 2: The Key Documents for Managing a Project 179 Kicking Off 180 Project Planning 180 The major planning documents 180 The logs 181 Control checklists 182 Controlling a Project 183 Thinking About What You Need 184 Chapter 3: Working with Microsoft Project 2019 185 Connecting Project 2019 to Project Management 186 Defining “project manager” 187 Identifying what a project manager does 187 Introducing Project 2019 188 Getting to Know You 189 Opening Project 2019 189 Navigating Ribbon tabs and the Ribbon 191 Displaying more tools 194 An Updated Feature: Tell Me What You Want to Do 196 Chapter 4: Surveying Cool Shortcuts in Project 2019 197 Task Information 197 Resource Information 198 Frequently Used Functions 199 Subtasks 200 Quick Selections 200 Fill Down 200 Navigation 200 Hours to Years 201 Timeline Shortcuts 201 Quick Undo and Repeat 202 Book 4: A New Method: Agile Project Management 203 Chapter 1: Applying the Agile Manifesto and Principles 205 Understanding the Agile Manifesto 205 Outlining the Four Values of the Agile Manifesto 208 Value 1: Individuals and interactions over processes and tools 209 Value 2: Working software over comprehensive documentation 210 Value 3: Customer collaboration over contract negotiation 212 Value 4: Responding to change over following a plan 213 Defining the 12 Agile Principles 214 Agile principles of customer satisfaction 216 Agile principles of quality 218 Agile principles of teamwork 220 Agile principles of product development 222 Adding the Platinum Principles 226 Resisting formality 226 Thinking and acting as a team 227 Visualizing rather than writing 228 Seeing Changes as a Result of Agile Values 229 Taking the Agile Litmus Test 230 Chapter 2: Defining the Product Vision and Product Roadmap 233 Agile Planning 234 Progressive elaboration 236 Inspect and adapt 237 Defining the Product Vision 237 Step 1: Developing the product objective 239 Step 2: Creating a draft vision statement 239 Step 3: Validating and revising the vision statement 241 Step 4: Finalizing the vision statement 242 Creating a Product Roadmap 243 Step 1: Identifying product stakeholders 244 Step 2: Establishing product requirements 245 Step 3: Arranging product features 245 Step 4: Estimating efforts and ordering requirements 247 Step 5: Determining high-level time frames 250 Saving your work 250 Completing the Product Backlog 251 Chapter 3: Planning Releases and Sprints 253 Refining Requirements and Estimates 253 What is a user story? 254 Steps to create a user story 256 Breaking down requirements 260 Estimation poker 262 Affinity estimating 265 Release Planning 267 Preparing for Release 271 Preparing the product for deployment 271 Prepare for operational support 272 Preparing the organization 273 Preparing the marketplace 274 Sprint Planning 275 The sprint backlog 276 The sprint planning meeting 277 Chapter 4: Working throughout the Day 285 Planning Your Day: The Daily Scrum 285 Covering important topics 286 Ensuring an effective meeting 287 Tracking Progress 289 The sprint backlog 289 The task board 292 Understanding Agile Roles in the Sprint 294 Keys for daily product owner success 295 Keys for daily development team member success 296 Keys for daily scrum master success 297 Keys for daily stakeholder success 298 Keys for daily agile mentor success 298 Creating Shippable Functionality 299 Elaborating 300 Developing 300 Verifying 301 Identifying roadblocks 304 Implementing Information Radiators 305 Wrapping Up at the End of the Day 307 Chapter 5: Showcasing Work, Inspecting, and Adapting 309 The Sprint Review 309 Preparing to demonstrate 310 The sprint review meeting 311 Collecting feedback in the sprint review meeting 314 The Sprint Retrospective 315 Planning for retrospectives 317 The retrospective meeting 317 Inspecting and adapting 319 Book 5: A Popular Agile Approach: Running a Scrum Project 321 Chapter 1: The First Steps of Scrum 323 Getting Your Scrum On 323 Show me the money 324 I want it now 325 I’m not sure what I want 326 Is that bug a problem? 327 Your company’s culture 327 The Power in the Product Owner 327 Why Product Owners Love Scrum 329 The Company Goal and Strategy: Stage 1 331 Structuring your vision 332 Finding the crosshair 333 The Scrum Master 333 Scrum master traits 334 Scrum master as servant leader 335 Why scrum masters love scrum 335 Common Roles Outside Scrum 336 Stakeholders 336 Scrum mentors 337 Chapter 2: Planning Your Project 339 The Product Roadmap: Stage 2 339 Take the long view 340 Use simple tools 341 Create your product roadmap 342 Set your time frame 343 Breaking Down Requirements 345 Prioritization of requirements 345 Levels of decomposition 346 Seven steps of requirement building 346 Your Product Backlog 347 The dynamic to-do list 349 Product backlog refinement 349 Other possible backlog items 353 Product Backlog Common Practices 354 User stories 354 Further refinement 357 Chapter 3: The Talent and the Timing 359 The Development Team 360 The uniqueness of scrum development teams 360 Dedicated teams and cross-functionality 361 Self-organizing and self-managing 362 Co-locating or the nearest thing 364 Getting the Edge on Backlog Estimation 365 Your Definition of Done 365 Common Practices for Estimating 367 Fibonacci numbers and story points 368 Velocity 374 Chapter 4: Release and Sprint Planning 377 Release Plan Basics: Stage 3 378 Prioritize, prioritize, prioritize 380 Release goals 382 Release sprints 383 Release plan in practice 384 Sprinting to Your Goals 386 Defining sprints 386 Planning sprint length 387 Following the sprint life cycle 388 Planning Your Sprints: Stage 4 389 Sprint goals 389 Phase I 390 Phase II 391 Your Sprint Backlog 392 The burndown chart benefit 392 Setting backlog capacity 394 Working the sprint backlog 395 Prioritizing sprints 397 Chapter 5: Getting the Most Out of Sprints 399 The Daily Scrum: Stage 5 400 Defining the daily scrum 400 Scheduling a daily scrum 402 Conducting a daily scrum 402 Making daily scrums more effective 403 The Team Task Board 404 Swarming 406 Dealing with rejection 407 Handling unfinished requirements 408 The Sprint Review: Stage 6 409 The sprint review process 410 Stakeholder feedback 411 Product increments 412 The Sprint Retrospective: Stage 7 412 The sprint retrospective process 413 The Derby and Larsen process 414 Inspection and adaptation 416 Chapter 6: Inspect and Adapt: How to Correct Your Course 417 The Need for Certainty 417 The Feedback Loop 418 Transparency 419 Antipatterns 421 External Forces 421 In-Flight Course Correction 422 Testing in the Feedback Loop 423 A Culture of Innovation 423 Book 6: The Next Level: Enterprise Agility 425 Chapter 1: Taking It All In: The Big Picture 427 Defining Agile and Enterprise Agility 427 Understanding agile product delivery 428 Defining “enterprise agility” 431 Checking out popular enterprise agile frameworks 432 Practicing as much agile as your organization can tolerate 434 Achieving Enterprise Agility in Three Not-So-Easy Steps 435 Step 1: Review the top enterprise agile frameworks 435 Step 2: Identify your organization’s existing culture 436 Step 3: Create a strategy for making big changes 437 Chapter 2: Sizing Up Your Organization 443 Committing to Radical Change 444 Understanding What Culture is and Why It’s So Difficult to Change 445 Figuring out why culture is so entrenched 445 Avoiding the common mistake of trying to make agile fit your organization 447 Identifying Your Organization’s Culture Type 447 Running with the wolf pack in a control culture 450 Rising with your ability in a competence culture 452 Nurturing your interns in a cultivation culture 454 Working it out together in a collaboration culture 456 Laying the Groundwork for a Successful Transformation 458 Appreciating the value of an agile organization 459 Clarifying your vision 460 Planning for your transformation 461 Chapter 3: Driving Organizational Change 463 Choosing an Approach: Top-Down or Bottom-Up 464 Driving Change from Top to Bottom with the Kotter Approach 465 Step 1: Create a sense of urgency around a Big Opportunity 466 Step 2: Build and evolve a guiding coalition 467 Step 3: Form a change vision and strategic initiatives 468 Step 4: Enlist a volunteer army 469 Step 5: Enable action by removing barriers 470 Step 6: Generate (and celebrate) short-term wins 471 Step 7: Sustain acceleration 471 Step 8: Institute change 472 Improving your odds of success 472 Driving a Grassroots Change: A Fearless Approach 473 Recruiting a change evangelist 474 Changing without top-down authority 474 Making change a self-fulfilling prophecy 476 Looking for change patterns 476 Recruiting innovators and early adopters 477 Tailoring your message 477 Steering clear of change myths 478 Overcoming Obstacles Related to Your Organization’s Culture 480 Seeing how culture can sink agile 480 Acknowledging the challenge 481 Prioritizing the challenge 482 Gaining insight into motivation 482 Chapter 4: Putting It All Together: Taking Steps toward an Agile Enterprise 485 Step 1: Identifying Your Organization’s Culture 486 Step 2: Listing the Strengths and Challenges with Changing Your Culture 488 Step 3: Selecting the Best Approach to Organizational Change Management 491 Step 4: Training Managers on Lean Thinking 491 Step 5: Starting a Lean-Agile Center of Excellence (LACE) 493 Step 6: Choosing a High-Level Value Stream 494 Step 7: Assigning a Budget to the Value Stream 496 Step 8: Selecting an Enterprise Agile Framework 497 Step 9: Shifting from Detailed Plans to Epics 499 Step 10: Respecting and Trusting Your People 500 Book 7: Making It Official: PMP Certification 503 Chapter 1: Introducing the PMP Exam 505 Going Over the PMP Exam Blueprint 506 Knowledge and skills 506 Code of ethics and professional conduct 506 Exam scoring 507 Digging into the Exam Domains 507 Initiating the project 507 Planning the project 508 Executing the project 509 Monitoring and controlling the project 509 Closing the project 509 Applying for and Scheduling the Exam 510 Surveying the application process 510 Scheduling your exam 512 Taking the Exam 512 Arriving on exam day 513 Looking at types of questions 514 Trying some exam-taking tips 516 Getting your results 516 Preparing for the Exam 516 Chapter 2: It’s All about the Process 519 Managing Your Project is a Process 519 Understanding Project Management Process Groups 521 Before the Project Begins 523 Initiating processes 523 Planning processes 525 Executing processes 529 Monitoring and Controlling processes 531 Closing processes 532 The Ten Knowledge Areas 534 Project Integration Management 534 Project Scope Management 535 Project Schedule Management 535 Project Cost Management 536 Project Quality Management 536 Project Resource Management 536 Project Communications Management 537 Project Risk Management 537 Project Procurement Management 538 Project Stakeholder Management 538 Mapping the Processes 539 Chapter 3: Reviewing the PMI Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct 541 Beginning with the Basics of the Code 542 Responsibility 543 Responsibility aspirational standards 543 Responsibility mandatory standards 544 Respect 545 Respect aspirational standards 545 Respect mandatory standards 546 Fairness 547 Fairness aspirational standards 547 Fairness mandatory standards 548 Honesty 549 Honesty aspirational standards 549 Honesty mandatory standards 550 Keeping Key Terms in Mind 551 Index 553