Anyone who participates in the project is a stakeholder. It would be customers, decision makers, vendors, and employees. There are different roles among stakeholders.
For example, project managers define, plan, control, and lead the project. Function management contributes company policy and resources. Project team contributes skills and effort to perform tasks. Sponsor contributes authority, guidance, and maintains project priority. Customers contribute product requirements and funding.
Tips for project manager
-Project manager should ask questions like: What is my authority? Who do I report to? Does this mean I’ll be relieved of other responsibilities? What are my expectations?
-Project manager should keep team members with minor roles informed.
-Ask the right questions about managers like: Which managers will make decisions? Who has veto power? Who is indirectly affected by these decisions?
-In order to determine who fills the role of customer a manager must be guided by two basic questions: Who is authorized to make decisions about the project? And Who will pay for this project?
The project manager of my capstone project is I. So, I define, plan, control, and lead this project. As for project team, there will be no other project team members. So, I will contribute skills and effort to perform tasks. Sponsor would be school advisor because he will guide and maintain project priority. Customer will be Korean school at DLI. Function management will be the department chair Korean school at DLI.
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Sunday, May 27, 2007
Chapter 2 The project Environment
All projects have a beginning and an end, and produce a unique tangible or intangible product. But ongoing operations have the opposite characteristics of projects. Because of different characteristics from ongoing operations there are some challenges the project managers face.
First, every project has different personnel needs because of the temporary nature of projects.
Second, it is hard to make accurate budget because projects have never been built before.
Third, projects might have to shut down when the budget is underfunded during one budge year.
Fourth, it is not clear who has authority for many decisions when projects cross organizational boundaries.
Fifth, by the time quarterly accounting reports show a project over budget, it may be out of control as to be beyond recovery.
Sixth, communication breakdowns occur because communication channels tend to follow a firm’s operational structure.
One of the most important things as project manager is to balance variables to create the optimal cost-schedule-quality equilibrium.
How to do that? Set realistic expectations about the cost-schedule-quality equilibrium and if the equilibrium changes, make sure everybody knows and accepts the new equilibrium, and deliver the promised product, on time, within budget.
There are different types of companies that favor ongoing operations on the one end and projects on the other, for example, Function-driven firms, Matrix organizations, and Project-oriented organization/Program. In function-driven firms, project managers have no functional authority and must work through the functional managers to assign, monitor, and coordinate work. In Matrix organizations, this structure gives authority to both project managers and functional managers. In project-oriented organization, functional departments exist within the project. Program is another style of project-oriented organization. I think knowing the types of companies is important to project managers.
My capstone project does not need to recruit people and to worry about budget because the scale is small. However, I did have some problem in the beginning of my capstone project because DLI is the function-driven organization, all authority lies on school dean and project managers has almost no authority. For example, I had a problem with my laptop computer and asked if school can support a new computer for my capstone project. But, unfortunately, I got a refusal message from the school dean saying that it is a voluntary work, so they cannot support. Certainly, I did not have any authority on getting a budget for my project.
First, every project has different personnel needs because of the temporary nature of projects.
Second, it is hard to make accurate budget because projects have never been built before.
Third, projects might have to shut down when the budget is underfunded during one budge year.
Fourth, it is not clear who has authority for many decisions when projects cross organizational boundaries.
Fifth, by the time quarterly accounting reports show a project over budget, it may be out of control as to be beyond recovery.
Sixth, communication breakdowns occur because communication channels tend to follow a firm’s operational structure.
One of the most important things as project manager is to balance variables to create the optimal cost-schedule-quality equilibrium.
How to do that? Set realistic expectations about the cost-schedule-quality equilibrium and if the equilibrium changes, make sure everybody knows and accepts the new equilibrium, and deliver the promised product, on time, within budget.
There are different types of companies that favor ongoing operations on the one end and projects on the other, for example, Function-driven firms, Matrix organizations, and Project-oriented organization/Program. In function-driven firms, project managers have no functional authority and must work through the functional managers to assign, monitor, and coordinate work. In Matrix organizations, this structure gives authority to both project managers and functional managers. In project-oriented organization, functional departments exist within the project. Program is another style of project-oriented organization. I think knowing the types of companies is important to project managers.
My capstone project does not need to recruit people and to worry about budget because the scale is small. However, I did have some problem in the beginning of my capstone project because DLI is the function-driven organization, all authority lies on school dean and project managers has almost no authority. For example, I had a problem with my laptop computer and asked if school can support a new computer for my capstone project. But, unfortunately, I got a refusal message from the school dean saying that it is a voluntary work, so they cannot support. Certainly, I did not have any authority on getting a budget for my project.
Saturday, May 26, 2007
Chapter 1 Project Management in a Changing World
World is changing fast with the birth of new technology everyday. To live on the fast changing world we need new projects that can work with the newly created situation. The question here is that how can we make the projects successful? Verzuh mentioned that there are five essential factors to the success of a project.
-Agreement among the project team, customer, and management on the goals of the project.
-A plan that shows an overall path and clear responsibilities and will be used to measure progress during the project.
-Constant, effective communication among everyone involved in the project.
-A controlled scope.
-Management support
I think having all the five essential factors will definitely lead to the success of a project. At Defense Language Institute the work is performed as a team. The school provides clear goal and each team leader plans the action. However, many team leaders have communication problem and it caused disagreement between team members and fail to success the goal. So, I think having all the five essential factors are the key to success.
How does it apply to my project? My capstone project will be developed by myself alone but I have an advisor, so still I will need an effective communication skill for the success of a project. The basic thing is to have a clear goal and plan to get approval from my advisor and then communicate with him to make successful project. Also, management support is important in case I need more time to work overtime.
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Introduction to myself
This is my 5th blog. Most of the blogs that I have created were for Korean langague students at DLI.
The reason for attending MIST is to make good educational software because, personally, I think computers are helpful for self-studying rather then classroom teaching situation. Also, I want to help people who want to learn languages but cannot afford to go to langauge school.
The reason for taking MIST 595 & 696 is to learn how to manage projects. Working at DLI I find many ways to work more efficient but don't know how to develop my ideas. I expect to learn how to manage projects sucessfully so that I can contribute to my school.
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