New Semester
Started
Get
50% OFF
Study Help!
--h --m --s
Claim Now
Question Answers
Textbooks
Find textbooks, questions and answers
Oops, something went wrong!
Change your search query and then try again
S
Books
FREE
Study Help
Expert Questions
Accounting
General Management
Mathematics
Finance
Organizational Behaviour
Law
Physics
Operating System
Management Leadership
Sociology
Programming
Marketing
Database
Computer Network
Economics
Textbooks Solutions
Accounting
Managerial Accounting
Management Leadership
Cost Accounting
Statistics
Business Law
Corporate Finance
Finance
Economics
Auditing
Tutors
Online Tutors
Find a Tutor
Hire a Tutor
Become a Tutor
AI Tutor
AI Study Planner
NEW
Sell Books
Search
Search
Sign In
Register
study help
business
project management
An Introduction To Project Management. 5th Edition Kathy Schwalbe - Solutions
Use more than one approach for creating cost estimates.
Document meeting with minutes, focusing on key decisions and action items, and send them out quickly.
Document action items at meetings, and set the next meeting time.
Provide mentoring and training for project managers and other stakeholders.
Form a steering committee with key managers from various departments for projects that will cause major organizational change.
Assign a project manager from operations to lead projects that affect operations
Designate a project champion to provide high-level support and participate in key meetings.
Separate projects by phases when it makes sense to do so.
Lay the groundwork for projects before they officially start.
Develop and follow a formal project selection process to ensure projects support business needs.
Involve key stakeholders—including shareholders, customers, and employees—in making major decisions.
Determine how project, program, and portfolio management will work best in your own organization.
5. Communicate successes and lessons learned throughout the organization
4. Manage as a program
3. Establish a vision
2. Ensure top-level sponsorship
1. Define the scope
The extent to which project management software is used is correlated to maturity levels. The lower the maturity level, the more difficulties the organization will have in implementing software. Processes must be established for the software to provide benefits
Staffing projects with a majority of internal resources as opposed to external resources is a better guarantee of success. External resources add value when employed in moderation. The highest performance was achieved by using 25% external resources and 75% internal resources.
A systematic approach to change management is fundamental for superior project performance. The majority of the best performing and most mature organizations always or frequently apply change management to their projects.
Staff development and professional certification enhance overall project performance. However, more than 60% of the companies surveyed do not regularly offer a development program to their project managers. Investments in project management certification do pay off, and the organizational benefits
Organizational structure has a big impact on overall project performance. The higher the alignment between structure and business requirements, the higher the overall project performance.• The optimal structure should be based on industry, location, and business objectives. The highest performing
Project failures are often a consequence of organizational aspects over which project managers have little influence. The top reasons cited for project failure included bad estimates, missed deadlines, scope changes, change in environment, insufficient resources, and change in strategy. Poor
Most organizations are not satisfied with their current maturity level. The total average for survey participants was 2.5 on a 5.0 scale, meaning the organizations use informal processes that are not yet institutionalized. This low maturity level contributes to the high project failure rate.
A higher maturity level for an organization enhances overall project performance, not in just one project, but in the overall portfolio of projects. It makes sense for organizations to develop policies and processes that apply for all types of projects, programs, and project portfolios.
High project management maturity results in lower direct costs of project management. Companies with a high maturity level spend 6–7 percent of total project costs on project management.Companies with low maturity spent about 11 percent
Project management maturity is strongly correlated with more predictable project schedule and cost performance. More mature companies have a schedule performance index (SPI) variation of 0.08 and a cost performance index (CPI) variation of 0.11. Less mature companies have indexes of 0.16 for SPI
Companies with more mature project management practices have better project performance. They deliver projects on time and on budget more often. Less mature companies often miss their schedule targets by 40 percent and their cost targets by 20 percent.
Firms have steadily and consistently moved up in levels of project management maturity between 2001 and 2014.
Most organizations (76%) have improved in PM maturity over the past five years with 33% moving from Level 1 to Level 2.
Organizations have seen considerable value by increasing the level of their project management maturity
There is a correlation between the length of time project management has been in place in a firm and its project management maturity and overall performance.
High-performing firms are much more mature in their project management practices than low performers.
There is a direct and strong correlation between the project management maturity of a firm and its overall performance.
A majority of firms (91%) have project management processes in place.
5. Sustained: Project management processes are continuously improved and are fully understood, and data is optimized and sustained
4. Integrated: Program management is used, and project management data and processes are integrated and quantitatively analyzed, measured, and stored
3. Managed: Formal project planning and control systems and data are managed
2. Planned: Project management processes, problem areas, and data are informally defined, identified, collected
1. Ad-hoc: No project management processes or practices are consistently available, and data is not consistently collected or analyzed
They are managing more strategic projects and understand strategic goals. When asked “Is your primary project considered highly strategic to your organization,” the average alpha response was 60% vs. 41%.
They can get consensus and handle conflicts. When senior managers and customers were asked “How would you rate this project manager’s ability to identify, understand, and satisfy your individual goals for the project,” the average alpha response was 92% vs. 64%. When asked a similar question
They think it is important for the project manager to be a handson manager and a domain expert. When asked to “Rank the importance of the project manager being a domain expert as a contributor to overall project success,” the average alpha response was 94% vs. 68% for the non-alphas.
Formally close the project: Every project should be closed to make sure that all work ceases, that lessons are learned, and that remaining resources are released for other purposes.
Manage the project control cycle. Monitoring should focus more on the future than on the past. Project managers must continuously check that the project plan is still fit for the purpose of the project and likely to deliver the business benefits on time.Project changes must be managed to ensure
Monitor against the plan. Everyone working on projects must have guidance, training, and support in creating plans and making project-related decisions. Organizations must develop and follow control techniques for managing risks, issues, scope changes, schedule, costs, and project reviews.
Ensure success by planning for it. To help projects succeed, the balance of power often needs to be tipped toward the project and away from line management.
Engage your stakeholders. Ignoring stakeholders often leads to project failure. Be sure to engage stakeholders at all stages of a project, and encourage teamwork and commitment at all times.
Use a staged approach. You can rarely plan a project in its entirety. Use progressive steps or stages to project planning, and use the same generic stages for all types of projects. Have gate reviews before starting each stage to revalidate a project and before committing more resources and funding
Look everywhere. Go far afield. Think of the whole world as your laboratory for learning
Help everyone in your organization become a professional.Empower people to manage themselves through benchmarks and standards based on best practice exchange.
Reach high. Stretch. Raise standards and aspirations. Find the best of the best and then use it as inspiration for reaching full potential.
Wikipedia (2015) had the same definition as it did in 2012, and it added that “a ‘best’ practice can evolve to become better as improvements are discovered. Best practice is considered by some as a business buzzword, used to describe the process of developing and following a standard way of
Wikipedia (2012) defines a best practice as “a method or technique that has consistently shown results superior to those achieved with other means, and that is used as a benchmark.
Wikipedia (2009) defines a best practice as “the most efficient(least amount of effort) and effective (best results) way of accomplishing a task, based on repeatable procedures that have proven themselves over time for large numbers of people…The idea is that with proper processes, checks, and
Webster’s Dictionary (2007) defines a best practice as “a practice which is most appropriate under the circumstances, especially as considered acceptable or regulated in business; a technique or methodology that, through experience and research, has reliably led to a desired or optimum
Read final advice about project management
Discuss best practices described in this text
Describe research on project management maturity
Explain how improving project management maturity can improve project and organizational performance
Summarize best practices in project management for individuals
Define best practices in general and best practices in project management for organizations
4. Perform the closing tasks for one of the case studies provided in Appendix C. If you are working on a real team project, create relevant closing documents, such as a final project report and lessons-learned report, using the templates and samples in this chapter as guides.Present your results to
3. Using the information you developed in Team Project 1 or 2, role-play the final project meeting, at which you present the final project presentation to key stakeholders. Determine who will play what role(project manager, team member from a certain department, senior managers, and so on). Be
2. You are part of a team in charge of a project to help people in your company (500 people) lose weight. This project is part of a competition, and the top “losers” will be featured in a popular television show. Assume that you had six months to complete the project and a budget of $10,000.
1. Your organization is about to complete a project to raise money for an important charity. Assume that there are 1,000 people in your organization. Also, assume that you had six months to raise as much money as possible, with a goal of $100,000. With just one week to go, you have raised $92,000.
5. Watch the videos mentioned in the Video Highlights for this chapter about the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster and lessons learned from it. (See www.intropm.com for the direct links.) Research other articles and videos about the lessons learned from the Challenger and space travel since then.
4. Find an article or video that provides a good example of closing a project. See the What Went Right? passage for ideas, but find your own unique example. Document your findings in a one-page paper, citing your references.
3. Compare the lessons-learned template on the companion Web site and the one available from Microsoft as shown in Figure 8-6. Search for at least one other example of lessons-learned report or template.Summarize their similarities and differences in a one-page paper, citing your references.
2. Using the lessons-learned template on the companion Web site or the one available from Microsoft as shown in Figure 8-6, write a lessonslearned report for a project you worked on. If you cannot think of one, interview someone who recently completed a project and write a lessons-learned report on
1. Find an example of a large project that took more than a year to complete, such as a major construction project. You can ask people at your college, university, or work about a recent project, such as a major fundraising campaign, information systems installation, or building project. You can
6. What advice about project closing is most useful to you? What other advice would you add?
5. What are the main closing outputs created as part of procurement management?
4. What is a post-mortem?
3. What are the main topics included in a lessons-learned report?
2. What are the main closing outputs created as part of integration management? Why is it important to create a final project report, presentation, and lessons-learned report?
1. What is involved in closing projects? Why should all projects be formally closed?
On a smaller scale, Allegheny College put together a five minute video of their senior project celebration. Many colleges require senior projects, so why not have a formal celebration when the projects are completed and document the event in a video?
Many viewers got tears in their eyes watching the last few minutes of Extreme Home Makeover episodes. Ty Pennington and his team of designers, builders, volunteers, friends, family, and neighbors gathered to see the new home built quickly for a family in need.Everyone enjoyed the tradition of
Popular television shows likes American Idol and The Voice have great closing shows. For example, in 2015, several famous celebrities(John Fogerty, Kelly Clarkson, Sheryl Crow, etc.) performed with contestants before ending the eighth season of The Voice and announcing the new winner, Sawyer
Project managers should take time to thank their team and other project stakeholders and have some type of closing celebration.Just having a team lunch or informal gathering with refreshments might be appropriate. If it was a big, highly successful project, a more formal celebration and rewards
It will be much easier to close a project if the project team captures lessons learned and other important information required for closing as soon as possible. For example, the project team should have some type of log where everyone can document lessons learned as they occur. A simple blog would
It is important to plan for project closing. There should be deliverables in the WBS and resources allocated to perform project closing. For example, someone should be assigned the activity of reviewing lessons learned and creating one final lessons-learned report. Resources should be assigned to
9. Documentation/video/audio artifacts are the starting point for discovery and productive conversation; it is vital to put the people with the learning needs and the people who have the experience together to enable transfer.10. To facilitate discovery of best practices, leverage communities
8. Facilitation is critical to the process - both the role and the capability.
7. Uncover success stories, communicate the stories, and assist the learning and adaption processes.
6. Peer assistance is a critical tool to begin, and even conclude, the process.
5. Do something, see what works, then broaden the scope.
4. Focus on general, broadly applicable practices first, rather than choosing highly specialized practices.
3. The learner is important, and making learning easy is critical or people will recreate "good enough."
2. As Jack Welch said, "You don't have a better or best practice until someone else is using it."
1. "Best" or "better" practices are not adopted; they're adapted.
The main lessons learned on the project
Main changes that occurred during the project and how they were addressed
The success criteria and results in achieving them
The scope, time, and cost goals and outcomes
9. Complaining about your job
8. Posting while you’re supposed to be working
7. Making fun of your boss / team.
6. Making fun of clients or donors
Showing 1100 - 1200
of 5801
First
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
Last
Step by Step Answers
Get 50% OFF
Claim Now
