A Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), which is a deliverable-oriented hierarchy of the work to be done on a project, can be created through several methods. According to the Project Management Institute’s Practice Standard for Work Breakdown Structures, common methods include: Top-Down, Bottom-Up, WBS Standards, and WBS Templates. The Top-Down method begins with the final product… [Read more…]
January 28, 2010 by tapuniversity
Building on the last two days’ postings, we have more today on Work Breakdown Structures (WBS). As a reminder, a WBS is a deliverable-oriented hierarchy of the work to be done on a project. According to the Project Management Institute’s Practice Standard for Work Breakdown Structures, the WBS should have a coding scheme that makes… [Read more…]
January 27, 2010 by tapuniversity
I naturally want to use verbs in my Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), but it’s wrong! A WBS is a deliverable-oriented hierarchy of the work to be done on a project. The Project Management Institute’s Practice Standard for Work Breakdown Structures states that the WBS elements are to be defined using adjectives and nouns, but not… [Read more…]
January 26, 2010 by tapuniversity
A Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is a deliverable-oriented hierarchy of the work to be done on a project. So if your project is to write a paper on puffins, “Puffin Paper” would be the highest level of the hierarchy, and below it could be “Puffin Research,” “Paper Outline,” “Draft Paper,” and “Proofed Paper.” These activities… [Read more…]
January 25, 2010 by tapuniversity
A project schedule contains sequences of activities. Individual activities may be considered either splittable or non-splittable. A splittable activity may be easily interrupted and resumed later. However, a non-splittable activity needs to be finished once it has begun without any interruptions. For example, a teacher may have a stack of papers to grade. Part of… [Read more…]
January 25, 2010 by tapuniversity
The activities that Project Managers arrange in their project schedules have various durations, of course. If activities have durations of less than a day, the scheduling of them is called micro-scheduling. Some distinct activities may be small and simply take less than a day. If a project is exceptionally short, say several weeks, one may… [Read more…]
January 22, 2010 by tapuniversity
Project Managers are usually familiar with the Project Management Institute’s categorization of organizations as outlined in the PMBOK®. There are functional, strong matrix, balanced matrix, weak matrix, projectized, and composite organizations. Another organizational structure term is the Inverted Matrix. This is actually more of a projectized type of organization that has specialists permanently employed to support… [Read more…]
January 21, 2010 by tapuniversity
I first saw the term Horse Blanket in reference to project scheduling in the Project Management Institute’s Practice Standard for Scheduling. There in a flowchart for the Select Scheduling Method step, Horse Blanket is mentioned alongside Critical Path Method and Critical Chain. The term was undefined in the book’s glossary and a search on information… [Read more…]
January 20, 2010 by tapuniversity
Risk is an important topic for project managers. The Project Management Institute (PMI) awards a Risk Management Professional (PMI-RMP) certification and within PMI there is a Risk Management Special Interest Group (SIG). The Project Management Institute has released its official Practice Standard for Project Risk Management. It can be purchased at http://www.pmi.org/Marketplace/Pages/ProductDetail.aspx?GMProduct=00101169201 for $55.95 for… [Read more…]
January 19, 2010 by tapuniversity
The Project Management Institute has unveiled its new core values. According to the January 2010 edition of PMI Today, the Core Values Review Task Team obtained feedback from stakeholders which led to 45 candidate values. The definition of core values are “essential and enduring principles guiding PMI.” From these 45 candidates, the 5 values deemed… [Read more…]
January 18, 2010 by tapuniversity
Recent headlines have portrayed the absolute devastation in Haiti due to Tuesday’s 7.0-magnitude earthquake. Countries and aid groups are scrambling to get aid and supplies to the victims. Most people killed in an earthquake die within 72 hours of the quake, so time is of the essence. A project to provide aid as quickly as… [Read more…]
January 15, 2010 by tapuniversity
Project Managers employing this style of management spend time walking around where their team members are working. They see firsthand how things are going and engage in informal communication with their team. When workers have better access to their boss and feel comfortable talking to him or her, they can share perspectives, problems, and suggestions… [Read more…]
January 14, 2010 by tapuniversity
A hard project may be easy! A hard project is one whose outcome is a clearly defined physical product, whereas a soft project’s outcome is not. If Sam’s project is to make his father a batch of brownies, it is a hard project since it has a clearly defined physical deliverable. However if Sam’s project… [Read more…]
January 13, 2010 by tapuniversity
A buyer may be interested in a certain product or service, but wants to know the general capabilities of the seller. In this case, the buyer may prepare a set of questions known as a Capability Survey in order to better understand the seller. For example, Ben is questioning several potential babysitters on their past… [Read more…]
January 12, 2010 by tapuniversity
Here’s a scheduling term that’s not heard everyday—Burst Node. In a network diagram, which illustrates the sequence of a project’s activities, a Burst Node is a node where two or more activities start after it has been completed. So once a certain activity is complete, it initiates a “burst” of new activities. Here’s an example.… [Read more…]
January 11, 2010 by tapuniversity
A Skunk Works team is an everyday business term that describes a team who has quite a bit of free rein as they are outside of the normal organizational hierarchy. This can be advantageous if there is a highly-skilled set of people who are being slowed down or burdened by traditional bureaucracy in the organization.… [Read more…]
January 8, 2010 by tapuniversity
Cost estimating is a project management task that can involve an especially high number of “unknowns.” Although as more is known and the scope is refined, the cost estimates can be more accurately reported. The “Neandertals Guide to Cost Estimating,” which is a Naval Air booklet that can be accessed at http://www.navair.navy.mil/toc/initiative/NeandertalsGuide.pdf, contains a listing… [Read more…]
January 7, 2010 by tapuniversity
Contract categorization has changed from the Project Management Institute’s third edition PMBOK to the fourth edition. The formerly simple Fixed Price has been split into three types. The old Cost Plus Fee and Cost Plus Fixed Fee are now both considered Cost Plus Fixed Fee. Cost Plus Incentive Fee has remained the same, except that… [Read more…]
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January 29, 2010 by tapuniversity
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