Rohit Prabhakar : Leadership and Management Blog » Project Management

Creating Project Plan in MS Project

Rohit Prabhakar — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 20:39:57 +0000

Every time I create a new MPP, I ask this question to myself “How and where to start?”. I very well remember the first time I created a Microsoft project plan and I was struggling on strategy to put a plan in place. There was nobody to mentor me. It is very essential that we start right. Here is what I found very useful for me:

Identify tasks and Create task list
Create a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
Group the tasks based on functional or criteria in WBS
Estimate every task in the WBS
Then move all this information to Microsoft Project Plan or any other project management tool or you can even do step 1-4 inside the tool. I personally love to do with paper and pencil and then move it to software.

There is a very good tutorial on creating Microsoft Project Plan with the similar approach at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/project-help/create-a-project-plan-in-5-easy-steps-HA001136153.aspx

Thanks

Rohit Prabhakar, PMP

Journey to be a PMP was 10 days long!

Rohit Prabhakar — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 18:04:04 +0000

I have been reading various forums for a long time and finally decided to get PMP done few weeks ago. Here is my schedule of action with exact dates:

August 19 2010:::: Enrolled for the PMStudy class in Milwaukee, WI, USA

August 20 2010:::: Not yet started the online study material

August 21 2010:::: Started with the online study material. The only thing I did that day was to memorize the process chart and the formulas provided by PMStudy. (Excellent chart from PMStudy)

August 22, 2010:::: Practiced the process chart only once

August 23, 2010: PMStudy class 8 AM to 6 PM (I had an excellent coach, Mr.Mike Tomaszewski , PMP. Learning was fun!), followed by 3 hrs of study at home (same as taught in class and few practice tests provided in the course)

August 24, 2010:::: PMStudy class 8 AM to 6 PM, followed by 3 hrs of study at home (same as taught in class and few practice tests provided in the course)

August 25, 2010:::: PMStudy class 8 AM to 6 PM

August 26, 2010:::: PMStudy class 8 AM to 3 PM, followed by 5 hrs of study at home (all processes and few practice tests provided in the course)

August 27, 2010:::: Reread all the important as marked as instructed by Mike in the PMStudy book. Took 2 practice test ( 200 question, provided by PMStudy). Practiced the Process Chart and formulas 2 times. Checked ITTOs for Risk, Procurement and Quality. Watched a movie.

August 28, 2010:::: Took 1 practice test ( 200 question, provided by PMStudy). Practiced the Process Chart and formulas 1 time. Checked ITTOs for Risk, Procurement and Quality once again. Watched a 2 movies (1 in noon and 1 evening!@home). Got to bed at 10 (As advised by Mike and PMStudy, 12 hrs rest and no study before the exam)

August 29, 2010: Reached the Prometric testing center @ 8:45 AM. Test started at 9:30, completed 1st round with 75 marked for review in 2:15. Then took 1:15 to review all 75 and finally the rest of the time to re-review the marked ones that I was super confused about. System had to force time out for me ) and then the blank screen came………It was the worst thing that could have happened to me..I was shivering…and then instead of the result come a survey….I start shivering more…Once I was done with the survey……it published….Congratulations! Passed…blah….blah…blah…

Lessons Learnt:

12 hrs of no-study and good rest before the exam is highly important.
Positive thinking is must.. All these days I was saying to myself that I am getting it done ( I have read all the LL and everyone suggested 2-4 months of disciplined preparation. I knew I was not going that route and I was going to pass. I have been practicing Project Management for such a long and I was confident I could do it in 10 days)
Forget about what you do or have done in Project Management in your job. Think the PMI way only. Majority of the processes that we follow in our jobs are not what PMI teaches. Remember PMI teaches the best project management principles as per their standards and not yours.
Memorize process chart
Memorize ITTO (at least Risk, Quality and procurement)
Memorize formulas
Read and understand the “Professional Conduct and Ethics” chapter.
Take breaks to cool off your brain during the exam. (Take some energy drinks. I took 1 at the start and 1 in the break)
Don’t spend more than 60 seconds on every question. If very long/confusing/unknown mark it for review and come later BUT choose one of the options that seems to be close to right (so that if u have no time to review at least you have 25% probability of getting it right. 25% is better than 0%)
Take the ear plugs given by the center and plug your ears.
Used PMBOK for reference only in case of confusion (I only and only read the material provided by PMStudy)
Hang loose and take the test…the worst that can happen is you can fail but u can reappear too (in my case I had a money back guarantee ;o)

My humble opinion about the test: “Questions were very easy but options for answer were extremely confusing! If you don’t know the processes for sure you cannot guess the right one.”

Please feel free to reach me using the comments for any queries. I will be glad if I could be of any help in your journey to be a PMP.

Wish you the best of luck!

Rohit Prabhakar, PMP, Certified Six Sigma Green Belt

NOTE: Please use comments section to reach me out for any questions regarding PMP. I receive many emails daily asking almost similar questions. If you can leave a comment, I will surely reply and this will help many others who have a similar questions. Thanks for your interest!

If you are looking for PMP Providers’ review please go to

http://www.rohitprabhakar.com/2010/02/14/pmp-provider-review/

Disclosure: I don’t have any personal or financial relation with PMStudy.

SCRUM: Scalability by SCRUM OF SCRUMS

Rohit Prabhakar — Thu, 20 May 2010 14:01:19 +0000

Scrum has been successfully used for projects with 500+ team members lots of time. As SCRUM can only last for 15 minutes and some other similar rules hence in order to scale the SCRUM for bigger team we can use SCRUM OF SCRUMS. Based on the type of work the scrum team is constituted for every 7 to 10 team members having a Scrum master and the Product Owner. After the first lever team SCRUMS we have SCRUM of SCRUMS and there could also be more level of SCRUM OF SCRUMS. Please read an excellent article on Scaling Scrums at Scrum Alliance

The scrum of scrums meetings can be scaled indefinitely through multiple layers.

SCRUM:Some facts and resources

Rohit Prabhakar — Mon, 17 May 2010 17:23:05 +0000

Other facts about Scrum

The scrum methodology originated in 1993 at Easel Corp by Jeff Sutherland
Ken Schwaber presented Scrum at OOPSLA 96 with Sutherland
Ken Schwaber and Mike Cohn Co-founded Scrum Alliance in 2002
Used by all major companies like Microsoft, Yahoo, IBM, Siemens, John Deere, Time Warner, Turner Broadcasting, BBC and many more..
Used for software projects, life critical system, mobile phones, websites, Satellite controlled soft wares, support projects…..

For More Information

SCRUM: Artifacts

Rohit Prabhakar — Thu, 13 May 2010 19:43:34 +0000

Product Backlog

The product backlog is a document that contains the list of all desired work on the project. All these entries have an overall description, priority based on business value and rough estimates specified. This document is owned by the Product Owner and he/she sets the business value for each item. While the team is responsible for updating the development estimates in the document. This document is re-prioritized at the start of each and every sprint.

Sprint Backlog

Sprint Backlog is a team document that is used to plan how the features will be implemented. In this document the team breaks the features into tasks. Normally these tasks are four to sixteen hours of work. If the task has an associated effort of more than 16 hrs it is broken down into a small task. The tasks are never assigned, the team member voluntarily choose the tasks as per the priority and their skills. The Sprint Backlog is owned by the team. The overall outcome of this document can be visualized as a TO DO arranged according to the business value.

Sample Sprint Backlog

Burn down

The Burn Down chart is used to display the pending work in the sprint backlog. The burn down chart provides the visual representation of the overall progress of the Sprint. This is updated daily and is visible to the world.

SCRUM: All the different Meetings

Rohit Prabhakar — Wed, 12 May 2010 19:40:27 +0000

: Image by alandd via Flickr

Sprint Planning Meeting

Planning must be done at the beginning of every sprint cycle.
Team selects items from the product backlog they can commit to completing
Sprint backlog is created by the entire team.
Tasks are identified and each is estimated (1-16 hours)
Collaboratively, not done alone by the ScrumMaster
An Eight hour limit applies to this meeting. During the 1st 4 hrs The Product owner and team prioritizes the product backlog and later only team plans the sprint and creates the Sprint Backlog.
Time limit: 8 hrs

Daily Scrum (Daily Standup) Meeting

Daily Scrum is more like a daily project status meeting which is very short and nothing other than the status can be discussed. The following are the key characteristics of Scrum.

Daily and starts precisely on time.
Daily Scrum must happen at same location and every working day at same time
Only Scrum Master and Team members can speak (anyone can join)
Not for problem solving (no discussions on reasons/approach etc.)
Everyone answers 3 questions and the Scrum Master documents this:
- What have you done since yesterday?
- What are you planning to do today?
- Anything in the way (issues/concerns). The resolution cannot be discussed in the Scrum. It should be discussed after.
Time limit: 15-minutes

The Sprint Review Meeting

Outcome of the sprint is reviewed. What is completed and what is left.
A demo is provided of the completed work only.
Team and anyone from outside can participate (Open House)
Time limit: 4 hours.

Sprint Retrospective Meeting

This meeting is for identifying and implementing continuous process improvements
Two questions are asked:
- What went well in the Sprint?
- What could be improved in next Sprint?
The outcome is what to Start / Stop / Continue.
This is attended by team, ScrumMaster and Product Owner.
Time limit: 3 hrs

SCRUM: What are the different Roles?

Rohit Prabhakar — Mon, 10 May 2010 21:39:58 +0000

Scrum has 3 type of roles

Product Owner

A Product Owner compiles all the changes planned for the product and prioritizes the possible functionalities. - “Scrum in five minutes” by SOFTHOUSE

Product Owner defines the features of the product and also sets the priority
Product Owner decides the release date and content of the product
Product Owner is responsible for the profitability of the product
Product Owner can adjust features and priority every iteration as and when required
Product Owner accept or reject work results of the sprint

ScrumMaster

The Scrum Master coaches the development team, removes any possible impediments and constantly works to ensure that the team has the best possible circumstances for realizing the goals fixed for the Sprint. - “Scrum in five minutes” by SOFTHOUSE

ScrumMaster represents management to the project
ScrumMaster is responsible for enacting Scrum values and practices
ScrumMaster can remove noise (unwanted interference)
ScrumMaster has to ensure that the team is fully functional and productive
ScrumMaster enables close cooperation across all roles and functions
ScrumMaster shields the team from external interferences

The Team

Together with a user, the project members form a Scrum Team consisting of 5–9 people. During discussions with the Product Owner, the goal of the Sprint is determined and the prioritized functionality is broken down into detailed tasks. The team is self-organized and the members have a joint responsibility for the results. - “Scrum in five minutes” by SOFTHOUSE

The team comprises typically 5-9 people
The team is full-time and Cross-functional as it may include manager, programmer, tester, designer, Usability Expert, database programmer, database administrator
Teams are self-organizing
Membership should change only between sprints

Scrum: Characteristics and what is sprint?

Rohit Prabhakar — Sun, 09 May 2010 19:36:47 +0000

Characteristics of Scrum

Scrum is one of the “agile processes”
Teams are self organizing in Scrum
Scrum teams do a little of everything all the time rather than doing all of one thing at a time.
Scrum are a series of two- to four-week “sprints”
“Product backlog” is used to capture the requirements in Scrum
No changes during the sprint are allowed

What is a “Sprint“?

Scrum is a series of “sprints”
Every sprint lasts for 30 days or at least 2-3 weeks
Sprint is more like an iteration not in characteristics but from the timing perspective
All sprints in a scrum always have a constant duration
During the sprint a little of everything is done all the time rather than doing all of one thing at a time. The phases like planning, design, code, and testing are all done at a same time.

Scrum: An Introduction to this simple-powerful agile methodology

Rohit Prabhakar — Fri, 07 May 2010 22:03:59 +0000

Scrum is a simple agile development methodology through which we can manage complex projects. Scrum allows rapidly and repeated inspection of actual working product (at least once a month or twice) hence provides ability for the project to adapt to rapidly changing market and other complex external factors. The focus of the scrum methodology is to deliver the highest business value of the project in the shortest possible time.

The best part of Scrum for product development is the requirement to demonstrate a real working product every two weeks or once a month helps the management and team to take a calculated decision for the project and product’s future at a regular and a shorter interval. Hence scrum gives the ability to adjust with the competitive market and also to take go-or-no-go decision well in time hence saving lots of resources.

source: Mountain Goat Software

Scrum is based on “Sprint” which is defined as a focused effort for a 30-day period towards fixed goal.

to be continued…

Leaders, expect the best from team!

Rohit Prabhakar — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 00:29:38 +0000

Expect the Best!

Good leaders don’t waste time on the weakness of the team members as they concentrate only on the strengths of others. They don’t waste too much of time on doing the postmortem of the failures of their team members. Instead they look for the strengths of the individual team members. They understand that more than anything else their attitude determines the outcome of the efforts of the entire team as it will determine the orientation of the entire team. If the leader expects good things from the team and shows the confidence on the entire team, the team members will go extra mile to live up to the expectations or to exceed it.

Remember the age old golden rule:

To be a good leader we need to learn the art of finding the good side of everyone and building on that.

That is how the brotherhood strengthens and a team is built! That is what I have successfully practiced all these years.

Some nice links

How to See the Good in Others and Be Positive With Everyone By Scott Wells
How to see good in others at wikihow.com
Wonderful post “How to always see the good in others” by Ryan