Project management made simpler

Project Management…
…Made Easier
Ricardo F. Garcia
President, Success Systems Global

Hosted by

PROJECT MANAGEMENT MADE SIMPLER

Today’s Agenda

The Basics – What is a Project?, What is Project Management?
& What are its Phases?

Initiation – What to know and do before starting a project.

Planning – How to plan your project for ultimate success.

Design – How to structure your project for maximum
productivity.

Execution – How to achieve maximum desired results by
executing your plan

Closing – What to do once your project is complete.

Q&A – Questions
Thank You Bonus!

Ricardo F. Garcia | ricardo@successsystemsglobal.com


About Me
Ricardo is founder and president of Success Systems Global,
an entity dedicated to bring tools, technology and
processes used by big players in industry and make them
available for the use of entrepreneurs & small businesses.
He has degrees in computer & system’s engineering;
certifications in Project Management (PMP) & Quality (Lean
Sigma – CSSGB) among others.

As a program manager Ricardo has delivered multi-million dollar technology
projects for corporations and government organizations that have
transformed business operations, reduced operating costs and increased
customer satisfaction.

Ricardo has intricate knowledge on software, systems and technology and the
personal skills that enable him to understand customer’s challenges and
inspire people to build solutions to address them.



“First, we had to get the basics in place.”
Dave Swartz

THE BASICS



The Basics

What is a Project?
1) From a business perspective, a project is a collaborative enterprise,
carefully planned to achieve a particular aim.

2) From a project management perspective, a project is a temporary
endeavor (with a defined beginning and end) undertaken to create a
unique product, service or result. [MED]

3) From a Getting Things Done® perspective, a project is any commitment
that takes more than one step to complete. [SMALL]

Simply said, a project…
- Achieves an aim.
- Is temporary.
- Takes several steps to complete.



The Basics

What is Project Management?

• Project Management is the discipline of planning, organizing,
motivating, and controlling resources to achieve specific goals.

Simply said, project management…
• Is a methodology to define, execute and control the
actions required to produce the results of a project.



The Basics

What are the phases of a project?
1) Projects go through different phases:
1) Beginning: Initiation and Planning
2) Middle: Execution, Monitoring and Controlling
3) End: Closing



"Where there is no vision, the people perish"
Proverbs 29:18 (KJV)

INITIATION


What you need to know
before starting a project.
1) What are you trying to accomplish?
a) What is the problem you are trying to solve?
b) What are the result(s) that this project will deliver?

2) Why are you trying to accomplishing it?
a) Is it for profit, for personal satisfaction, for others’ benefit?

3) Who will benefit from the result(s)
delivered by this project?
a) Is it me, my team, my company, or my customers?

4) How will you accomplish it?
a) Who is going to deliver this project: me or internal resources, external
resources, combination of the previous?
b) Who will be your project team?
c) How much is this going to cost?


Answering the question:

What are you Trying to Accomplish?
There are at least three ways to go about this…

Brainstorming It!
a) Brain “dumping” – write about it
b) Mind mapping – expand your idea thinking in parallel

Prototyping It!
a) Build a model (Lego?)

Describing It!
a) Visual: Draw it.
b) Auditory: Talk about it. Make a story about it.
c) Kinetic: Act it. Feel it. Sense it.


What you need to do
before starting a project…

1) Get Clear…
Define the ultimate outcome for your project.
Use the SMART model:
a) Specific (Absolute clarity)
b) Measurable (progress, completion)
c) Achievable (possible)
d) Realistic (given reasonable constraints)
e) Time-Bound (has a beginning and an end-date)

2) Plan It…
Lay down the foundation for your project success…



“Proper planning and preparation prevent a particularly poor
performance…”
US Army

PLANNING


How to plan your project
for ultimate success…

1) Document It!
Create a project charter and a project management plan.
a) The project charter should contain information about what you are trying
to accomplish… in essence, the answers to these questions:
a) What are the result(s) that this project will deliver?
b) Who will benefit from the result(s) delivered by this project?
c) By when am I looking to accomplish it?
d) How are you going to do it?
b) The project plan should contain information about how you are going to
carry out execute the project. In should contain:
a) The resources needed (people & tools).
b) A schedule containing: a list of tasks (including duration, owner and
dependencies).
c) The major milestones: intermediate goals to be accomplished in the
project.
d) A budget: how much is this going to cost



2) Plan It!

There at least three ways to plan a project:
- Left to right
- Right to left
- Top Down



1) Left to Right Planning:
1. Start at the left (from the project’s start date) and plan to the right over a
time horizon. i.e. first do this, then do that, … keep going all the way until
you get to the last task that will deliver the result.
2. This approach will help you answer the questions “what do I need to do
and in what order to get it done?”



2) Right to Left Planning:
a) Start at the right with the end in mind (goal, deadline, or finished
product; from the project’s end date) and work your way backwards until
project’s start date.
b) This approach will help you answer the questions “what do I need to do, in
what order, to finish by this date?”



3) Top-Down Planning:
a) Start at the top with the top key areas that make up your end-goal result
and break them down until you end up with the actions needed to
accomplish them.
b) This approach will help you answer the questions “what needs to be done
to complete this project?, and which parts (activities) do I need to
eliminate or delegate in order to be successful?”

Delicious
Cake

Baking Baking
Ingredients
Equipment Process

Flour Sugar Oven Pans Mixing Baking



“[There are] unseen objects that await us, if we as architects
begin to think about designing not the object, but a process to
generate objects.”
Michael Hansmeyer

DESIGN


How to structure your project
for maximum productivity
The structure for your project will depend on its scope and the
type of delivery organization.
A. If you are contracting out your project (using an external
delivery organization), then it’s a lot simpler… all you need to
do is
• Define a contract (or statement of work) defining the expected
results (what and when).
• Hire (or become) a project manager who will ensure
results are delivered as expected and communicate
progress regularly.


How to structure your project
for maximum productivity

B. If you are doing your project internally (or
subcontracting parts of it) then you need to do a few
more things…
1. Define your project team:
a) Sponsor(s): the guy(s) or gal(s) paying for the project
b) Project Manager(s): the guys that make stuff happen.
c) Project Team: the guys delivering the project.
a) Technical leads: know their stuff
b) Technicians: do the stuff
2. State the team members’ roles and responsibilities – using a
RACI chart.



“A really great talent finds its happiness in execution.”
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

EXECUTION


How to achieve maximum desired
results by executing your project plan.
• Your (or your project manager) should conduct frequent status
reviews with the project team to ensure that things are according to
the project plan and that progress is being made.
• How frequent? (depends on the size and urgency of the project…
• Guiding questions:
• How are we doing?
• What are we doing next?

• The truth is that in projects, things not always go according to plan,
that’s why project management is important!
• When things don’t go according to plan, identify contingencies and execute them to
bring the project back on track.
• Guiding questions:
• What is the problem?
• What are we going to do next to resolve it
• When can you provide an update?
• The project schedule will need to be updated to reflect the impact of any delay(s)
and any deviations should be communicated to the people affected.



“A project is complete when it starts working for you, rather than
you working for it.”
Scott Allen

CLOSING


What to do
once your project is complete

• If everything goes according to plan (and obstacles are overcome) your
project will have a happy ending 

• The main thing to do after completing a project is to review the
lessons learned and document them.

• This will help keep you from making the same mistakes again.



“A project is complete when it starts working for you, rather than
you working for it.”
Scott Allen

Q&A



YOUR THANK YOU BONUS!!!

Contact me at ricardo@successsystemsglobal.com for a
complementary project evaluation.


Project management made simpler

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