Herding Cats

Schedule Margin

I can't tell you number of times I've looked at an IT schedule that had zero (0) margin. In the space and defense this is simply not allowed. Margin and the management of margin is mandated by several guidance documents.

Why it is difficult in the commercial IT world is a mystery to me.

Here's paper that provides a nice overview of how to show this margin and manage it during the execution of a project.

Depicting Schedule Margin in Integrated Master Schedule, National Defense Industry Association, Program Management Systems Committee, Schedule Working Group

I used the full name of the paper for a couple of reasons:

• The National Defense Industry Association (NDIA) is a professional organization of both government and industry providers to the government.
• The Program Management Systems Committee is a collection of leaders from both sides - government and industry - that address issues in Program Management
• The Scheduling Working Group provides guidance on successful creation and use of the Integrated Master Schedule.

There are similar organizations in construction. Software development seems to be missing this concept.

Elements of Project Successful

From, June 2006 Capital Programming Guide Supplement A-11, Part 7

OMB Focus on Risk:

• Without the knowledge of the risks involved managers at all levels—...— cannot make the best decisions for the allocation of resources among the competing investments.
• Project managers when developing the cost, schedule and performance goals on developmental projects with significant risk must, therefore, provide ... risk adjusted, most likely cost, schedule and performance goals.

So why on God's Green Earth do enterprise class projects not perform these functions? Why to the proponents of agile software development fail to connect the dots with project management in the enterprise class domain.

When I hear words like "we're doing PM 2.0 or we're doing Agile PM, and don't need all that formality from the past," it makes me wince.

And then we read (no matter the credibility of the numbers) reports like Standish of dismal success rates and wonder "hey want happened to our project?"

Richard Patrick's blog says it all about a disturbing trend for abandoning the fundamentals of project management for the siren song of gadgets, tools, and 2.0 anything.

Quote of the Day

For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong – H. L. Mencken

For all those seeking to simplify complex and possibly intractable problems, ask first if there is sufficient understanding of the problem and its sources of complexity.  It may well be that the approach to simplification are themselves simple, context free and domain free - an illusion.

The very notion that there are simple solutions to complex problems, without first establishing the boundaries of the solutions, the impacts of these simple solutions, and the assessment of the drivers of the problem in the first place is simply nonsense.

Quote of the Day

“The place where optimism most flourishes is the lunatic asylum.”

— Henry Havelock Ellis, British psychologist

The Old Shall Become New Again

Patrick Richard's blog has become one my favorites for several reasons, not the least of which he states simply and clearly truths about managing projects. he uses words I'd like to. As a former Canadian Forces NCO, he speaks the same language I do, as a former 101^st Airborne, Vietnam Veteran. It's the NCOs (Non-Commissioned Officers) who are the heart and soul of any fighting unit. Members of those units, be they Squad, Platoon, or Company level literally live or die by the decisions made - many times collectively - by the NCOs. Combat veterans and NCO's in particular make spectacular Project Mangers for the very same reasons they made good NCOs. We have Marine, Army, Air Force, and Navy veterans on our teams, so I can attest to their superior PM skills. We speak a common language when it comes to communicating - the language of actionable outcomes.

Pat's blog triggered a memory about a leadership briefing I put together years ago.

Leading on the edge

View more presentations from Glen Alleman.

Leading with the Socratic Method

The method which Socrates employed in his philosophical analysis had five distinct characteristics.

• Skeptical
• Conversational
• Conceptual or definitional
• Empirical or inductive
• Deductive

Each of these can be applied to managing teams performing project work. They can be used to elicit self understanding of the "state" of the project in a wide variety of units of measure.

The Project Management can take on attributes in which she is ...

Skeptical

• Real or professed ignorance of the truth of the matter under discussion.
• This is the Socratic irony which seemed to some of his listeners an insincere pretense, but which was undoubtedly an expression of Socrates' genuine intellectual humility.
• Socrates skepticism is shared with the Sophists and, in his adoption of it, he may very well have been influenced by them.
• Sophistic skepticism was definitive and final, but the Socratic is tentative and provisional.
• Socrates' doubt and assumed ignorance is an indispensable first step in the pursuit of knowledge.

Conversational

• Dialogue not only as a didactic device, but is a technique for the actual discovery of opinions amongst men, there are truths upon which all men can agree, Socrates proceeds to unfold such truths by discussion or by question and answer.
• Beginning with a popular or hastily formed conception proposed by one of the members of the company or taken from the poets or some other traditional source, Socrates subjects this notion to severe criticism, as a result of which a more adequate conception emerges.
• His method, in this aspect, is often described as the maieutic method. It is the art of intellectual midwifery, which brings other men's ideas to birth. It is also known as the dialectical method or the method of elenchus.

Conceptual

• Sets as the goal of knowledge the acquisition of concepts, such as the ethical concepts of justice, piety, wisdom, courage and the like.
• Socrates tacitly assumes that truth is embodied in correct definition. Precise definition of terms is held to be the first step in the problem solving process.

Empirical

• The proposed definitions are criticized by reference to particular instances.
• Socrates always tested definitions by recourse to common experience and to general usages.

Deductive

• A given definition is tested by drawing out its implications, by deducing its consequences.
• The definitional method of Socrates is a real contribution to the logic of philosophical inquiry.
• It inspired the dialectical method of Plato and exerted a not inconsiderable influence on the logic Aristotle.

Actual EV and Lean PM Integrated

This seems to be the week for me reposting other peoples work. On the LinkedIn EVMS group, which has lively discussions about the application of EV - Kym Henderson answered a question about success stories for EV.

The title is EVM 2.0: Lessons Learned from the LHC Project Collaborative EVM System

I know the 2.0 moniker is a shock, but in this case 2.0 is truly the next step from 1.0. This presentation has great background on the LHC as well as introducing a concept close to my heart - Deliverables Based Planning^® is our phrase for what is described as Deliverables-Oriented EVMS.

The core concepts from the EV perspective are:

• The Integrated Master Plan (IMP) describes the increasing maturity of the products or services of the project.
• The Integrated Master Schedule (IMS) describes the sequence of the Work Packages containing tasks that produce the deliverables. These may be incremental deliverables of final form deliverables.
• Each Work Package contains tasks, whose EV method is 0/100 for the vast majority of cases.
• The computation of Physical Percent Complete for the Work Package is done by summing the weighted tasks to get the Percent Complete for the Work Package.
• The measure of 0/100 comes from tangible evidence. Never the passage of time or consumption of resources.

Here's the familiar diagram of the IMP/IMS

The Work Package sequence defines the horizontal schedule. The Work Package, Criteria, Accomplishment, Program Event defines the vertical integration of the description of the increasing maturity.

Nine Project Management Fallacies

I've rediscovered Rick Brenner's site Chaco Canyon Consulting. He article on the 9 fallacies of project management struck a cord.

We Have Met the Enemy and He is Us

From the Project on Government Oversight, a POGO moment.

It just gets worse every day.

Communities of Practice

At one time there was talk in the Project Management domain of "Communities of Practice." It didn't have legs.

Here one that has served me well over the years.

Acquisition Community Connection. This site, like all .mil extension sites, will complain about the certificate not being right. Ignore the warning and proceed.

Quote of the Day

The myth of a risk free project is just that - a myth

- paraphrased from Alec Baldwin's commencement speech at New York University, May 12, 2010

Why do projects start with a plan, requirements, resources, and all the soft skills stuff? Why don't projects start with a list of risks and mitigation or retirement plans?

If we want to look for sources of failure in projects, look to how they start.

Risk Management is how Adults manage projects - Tim Lister

The management of projects of course includes what ever list of activities you choose. A pretty good list can be found in PMBOK of course. There are likely better ones focused on specific domains. Since PMBOK is not a method, the order of the list does not reflect the priority of the activities toward the success of the project.

Risk Management is down in the list in PMBOK. Moving it to the top and performing "Continuous Risk Management," in the manner described by the Software Engineering Institute's method of the same name, increases the probability of success for your project.

Our Energy Crisis

Before starting any discussion around alternative energy, nuclear energy, any kind of energy, you need to watch Dan Nocera's talk. Not so much for the solution but for a description of the problem.

Just the facts ma'am

When someone starts talking about this fact or that fact about somewhere in the world. And you're wondering where can you find a source of pretty much everything. Look to The World Fact Book. The CIA. produces this "book" annually.

It's a starting point for most things factual regarding the economy, technology, politics, maps, transportation, military, and communications.

Quote of the Day

Pardon him, Theodotus: he is a barbarian and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature - George Bernard Shaw, Caesar and Cleopatra

Task Dependencies

Project Management Tips has a contributor, Dana Larson, who posted about features needed in Project Management Software. These include:

• Collaboration
• Task Scheduling
• Multiple-Level Organization
• File Storage and Sharing
• Time Tracking and Reporting

Collaboration

There are numerous ways to collaborate, many are built into some project management software systems. Most all work in some way to keep people "connected." IM, WebEx, email, VOIP, etc.

Task Scheduling

Dana talks about individuals managing their own tasks. Tasks assigned to the team members, who can create their own schedules based on their availability and due dates for their tasks.

This is NOT a project schedule. It may be a "to do" list. But this list and the tasks on it, can't have any dependencies, or any critical dependencies.

This violates the fundamental of all project scheduling processes - there is no baselined control over the planned work. Imagine you and I have a dependency. I decide to make a change in the due date, because I'm not available next week to work on this task. So I'll push it to the right by a week.

How do find this out? How do you acknowledge I'm making that change? How do I know my decision doesn't impact your dependency?

This is the reason for the PREDECESSOR and SUCCESSOR fields in MSFT Project.

A really bad idea to allow individual to make changes to due dates and durations.

Multiple-Level Organization

The project management software described here sure sounds like a list making tool.

"Tasks in folders?" How are the PRED/SUCC relationships defined?

File Storage and Sharing

This is missing in many PM tools. MSFT Project Server does a pretty good job. Share Point with Project add-ons does this better. 

But the suggestion that files are of a higher quality with this sharing has not been our experience. Unless there is an editor, the files (documents, spread sheets, PPT presentations, Visio and the like) start to look like "cooks soup," and degrade to the lowest common denominator of content and style.

This is a Document Management and Document Control problem, addressed by Document Management systems. Sharepoint can do this. There are others, but leaving this up to individuals ends like like the Greeks say in Ovid

Pile a little on a little and get a big pile

Time Tracking and Reporting

I'm amazed how little this is understood. If you don't know how much time you've spent on something you don't know what it costs. If you don't know what it costs, you can't know what it's worth.

If you working on projects, you need time cards. Period.

Another Version of "What Does DONE Look Like" - This Time Video

The Pad Abort 1 Program Event for Orion has video now.

The structure of the Plan and the Schedule to implement the plan follows the standard IMP/IMS topology has been discussed many times here.

The Event here is the Pad Abort 1 flight test. The Accomplishments are the "entry criteria" for the Event. This describes what has to be done - 100% done - in order to conduct the Pad Abort 1 Flight Test. This Event is named Pad Abort 1 Flight Test Complete. This "past tense" statement reinforces the notion of "done."

The work needed to fulfill these Accomplishments is done in Work Packages. The "exit criteria" for each Work Package is defined in the Criteria. These are tangible evidence measures of "Done," for the tasks in the Work Package.

The sequence of Work Packages, and therefore the sequence of Tasks in the Work Packages is the Integrated Master Schedule (IMS).

This paradigm provides several significant advantages over the typical "horizontal" schedule. The usual "shop floor" schedule - a sequence of all the tasks, hooked up into some network.

• The description of the increasing maturity of the deliverables for the Program Event is defined in the percent complete of the Criteria and rolled up to the Accomplishments.
• The "map" of how this increasing maturity flows is defined in the relationships between the Accomplishments.
• The vertical integration is the starting point of defining what "Done" looks like, not the horizontal execution of the task activities.
• This inverts the conversation by measuring progress as the accomplishment of work in units of physical percent complete. Not the passage of time or consumption of resources.

For Scrum like IT projects, this is an architecture for larger projects that states how the iterations move the maturity final end product, which is missing in the traditional Scrum project process.

Quote of the Day

It is possible to measure virtually any activity in the program, but if the measurement does not support a key objective, it is not worth the cost of data collection and analysis.

- A caution in The Integrated Project Management Handbook, Dayton Aerospace Inc.

Quote of the Day

“It’s no good being on the right track if the train behind you is moving faster than you are.” – Will Rogers

A Picture of What DONE Looks Like

The Integrated Master Plan / Integrated Master Schedule for the Orion manned spaceflight program has a Program Event (PE) titled Pad Abort I. The Significant Accomplishments (SA) and Accomplishment Criteria (AC) for this PE define how to get to DONE. The Work Packages (WP) that performance the work to get to DONE, are in the IMS.

Here's the Aviation Week and Space Technology pictures for the PA1 Event.

So when you're planning your project or program, focus of the description of DONE - this includes all the intermediate "dones" - and provide a description of DONE in terms of tangible evidence, the accomplishments needed to produce this tangible evidence, and the criteria to measure the "doneness" of these accomplishments.

This is why agile metods that have intermediate deliverables along the path to the final DONE are a near perfect fit for the Integrated Master Plan / Integrated Master Schedule paradigm.

This paradigm is the real Agile Project Management - as practiced by NASA, DoD, DOE, and all others subject to the IMP/IMS CDRL mandates.

Quote of the Day

… the basic tenets of the process are the need for seamless management tools, that support an integrated approach … and “proactive identification and management of risk” for critical cost, schedule, and technical performance parameters. ― Secretary of Defense, Perry memo, May 1995.

When we talk about "managing" programs Secretary Perry's advice is a starting point. But what exactly are these processes, and measures. Earned Value is certainly one, but the Measures of Effectiveness (MoE) and Measures of Performance (MoP) and the related Technical Performance Measures (TPM) are needed as well. Here's how Measures are connected, starting with the connections between the Earned Value variables...

With the EV variables, the Technical Performance Measures can then be assigned cost and schedule measures.