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1. Introduction

This series of posts assumes that you have already memorized the names of the 47 project management processes, and you are ready to go on to the task of memorizing the tools & techniques.    This post covers chapter 8 of the 5th Edition PMBOK® Guide, the Quality Knowledge Area.

2.  Quality Knowledge Area Processes

Here’s a description of the three processes that are included in the Quality Knowledge Area, together with a listing of the Tools & Techniques used in those processes.

3.   Quality Management Tools & techniques

Let’s take a look at the tools & techniques for the 3 processes 8.1 through 8.3 in the Quality Knowledge Area.

a.   Cost-benefit analysis, Cost of quality (8.1 Plan Quality Management)

The cost-benefit analysis related to planning quality is a comparison for each quality activity of the costs of quality with the benefits of quality.    The cost of improving quality come in the form of a) prevention costs, such as improvement of the design or of the production process, or b) appraisal costs, such as the assessing or measurement of quality through testing and/or inspections.   These costs are collectively referred to as the cost of conformance.

However, an increase in these costs should be offset by the cost benefits of quality, which come from the decrease in what are collectively referred to as the cost of nonconformance.   These include a) costs of reworking or scrapping products that do not meet the company’s quality standards, and b) the costs associated with allowing poor quality products to get into the marketplace (warranty costs, product liability costs, and reduced customer satisfaction).

b.   Seven Basic Quality Tools (8.1 Plan Quality Management, 8.3 Perform Quality Control)

These are

1. Cause-and-effect diagrams, also known as fishbone or Ishikawa diagrams–used to link the undesirable effects of the such as special variation to an assignable cause, upon which should correction actions should be taken by the project team to get rid of the special variation
2. Flowcharts–used in understanding and estimating the cost of quality in a process
3. Check sheets, also known as tally sheets–used in gathering attributes data while performing inspections to identify defects
4. Pareto diagrams–used to identify the vital few sources that are responsible for causing most of a problem’s effects
5. Histograms–used to describe the central tendency, dispersion, and shape of a statistical distribution
6. Control charts–used to determine whether a process it stable or has predictable performance
7. Scatter diagrams–used to explain a change in the dependent variable Y in relationship to a change observed in the corresponding independent variable X

In 8.1 Plan Quality Management, the quality tools that are used in the 8.3 Perform Quality Control process are detailed, and 8.3 Perform Quality Control process implements the tools according to the Quality Management Plan.

c.  Benchmarking (8.1 Plan Quality Management)

If the new project you are working on is similar to projects your company or other companies have done in the past, you can utilize the best practices regarding quality from those projects and apply them to your new project, and provide a basis for measuring performance.

d.  Design of experiments (8.1 Plan Quality Management)

This is a statistical method for identifying which factors may influence specific variables of a product or process under development.   It is used to determine the number and type of tests and their impact on the cost of quality.

e. Statistical sampling (8.1 Plan Quality Management, 8.3 Perform Quality Control)

This is planning for the inspection of the product as part of quality control.   It involves choosing part of a population at interest for inspection, with sample frequency and size determined so that the cost of quality will include the number of tests, expected scrap generated by the inspection process, etc.

f.  Additional quality planning tools (8.1 Plan Quality Management)

These are

1. Brainstorming–used to generate ideas
2. Force field analysis–used to analyze the forces for and against a given change
3. Nominal group technique–used to allow ideas to be brainstormed in small groups and then reviewed by a larger group

g.  Meetings (8.1 Plan Quality Management)

Any time you are creating a management plan, meetings are an essential tool to make sure that all team members are involved in exploring the issues involved in the plan.    This makes sure that all of the bases get covered as thoroughly as possible, but also so that team members buy into the plan because of their participation in its creation in the first place.

h.  Quality management and control tools (8.2 Perform Quality Assurance)

Some of the tools that may be used include:

1. Affinity diagrams–used to generate ideas that can be linked to form organized patterns of thought about a problem
2. Process decision program charts (PDPC)–used to understand a goal in relation to the steps for getting to the goal; it aids teams in anticipating intermediate steps which could detail achievement of that goal
3. Interrelationship digraphs–developed from data generated by other tools such as the affinity diagram, the tree diagram, and the fishbone (cause-and-effect) diagram, they provide a process for creative problem solving in moderately complex scenarios that possess intertwined logical relationships
4. Tree diagrams, also known as systematic diagrams–represent decomposition hierarchies such as WBS (work breakdown structure), and are used for establishing an expected value for a number of dependent relationships
5. Prioritization matrices–identifies the key issues and suitable alternatives to be prioritized according to specified criteria
6. Activity network diagrams, also known as arrow diagrams–used with project scheduling methodologies
7. Matrix diagrams–used to perform data analysis within the structure of the matrix, showing relationships between factors, causes and objectives that are listed in the rows and columns of the matrix

i.   Quality Audit, Process Analysis (8.2 Perform Quality Assurance)

You should think of the term quality assurance as synonymous with the words quality audit, because that is the main technique of assuring that the best quality practices are being implemented.    It focuses on quality of the processes themselves, rather than the quality of the results as is the case in 8.3 Perform Quality Control.    A quality audit is a structured, independent process and can identify whether there needs to be improvements made in the existing processes.  Through process analysis, changes are suggested and if they are approved, the quality audit can, the next time around, confirm that those approved changes have been implemented.

j.  Inspection (8.3 Perform Quality Control)

The statistical sampling that was planned in the 8.1 Plan Quality Management process is now used to perform the inspections that show whether the deliverables being produced as part of the project conform to the quality standards also set forth in that 8.1 Plan Quality Management process.

k.   Approved change request review

If quality control shows that there is a problem, this is solved through the various quality tools mentioned in previous questions, and a change is then suggested to alleviate that problem.    Once the change is approved, it is then implemented, and the quality control process is used to verify that the change did indeed alleviate the problem.

These tools & techniques are easier to memorize that the ones for time or cost, because in this edition of the PMBOK® Guide, as opposed to earlier editions, the various quality tools are not listed individually but in groups (“Seven basic quality tools”).   The tools & techniques for quality assurance are different than those for quality control, and if you understand the difference between these two, then the tools & techniques appropriate to each of them should be pretty clear.

Next Monday will start a review of the tools & techniques for the remaining 5 knowledge areas in the PMBOK® Guide, covering chapters 9 through 13.

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1. Introduction

This series of posts assumes that you have already memorized the names of the 47 project management processes, and you are ready to go on to the task of memorizing the tools & techniques.    This post covers chapter 7 of the 5th Edition PMBOK® Guide, the Cost Knowledge Area.

2.   Cost Management Processes

Here’s a description of the four processes that are included in the Time Knowledge Area, together with a listing of the Tools & Techniques used in those processes.

3.   Cost Management Tools & Techniques

a.   Expert judgment (7.1 Plan Cost Management, 7.2 Estimate Costs, 7.3 Determine Budget)

This tool is used on a lot of planning processes in each knowledge area not just for this particular knowledge area.   Remember that for project management, an expert is either someone who is considered a subject matter expert or SME (a consultant) OR someone who is considered an expert on a specific part of the project (a team member).    The subject matter expert has generalized knowledge about a subject, and the team member expert has specialized knowledge about a specific aspect of the project.   You use this expert judgment technique to consult:

• team members who worked on Cost Management, estimating techniques, and determining the budget on previous projects
• subject matter experts with information on Cost Management and estimating techniques relevant to the industry and application area

b.  Analytical Techniques, Meetings (7.1 Plan Cost Management)

Analytical techniques are usually used when there is some sort of strategic decision to be considered, and in the planning phase, you may have to decide whether the project will be self-funded (out of revenue), or funded through equity or debt.   Also, the funding for the project may come incrementally throughout the project rather than all at the beginning of the project.

Meetings are needed because of the tremendous number of stakeholders involved in the project’s finances, even if they are not directly involved in the project itself, such as the program and/or portfolio manager, upper management and some departmental heads (especially Finance, but also Human Resources).    Meetings are needed to gather input from as many of those stakeholders as possible, and to obtain buy-in from those stakeholders at the earliest stage of planning in order to prevent as much as possible any changes to the cost baseline from occurring farther down the line.

c.  Analogous Estimating, Parametric Estimating, Three-Point Estimating, Group Decision-Making Techniques, Reserve Analysis (7.2  Estimate Costs)

The keyword that links all of these tools & techniques together is the word estimating.    These are exactly the same techniques used in the Time Management processes 6.5 Estimate Activity Durations, except they are applied to estimating costs of doing activities or completing work packages, rather than estimating time durations.

Analogous Estimating and Parametric Estimating are BOTH based on historical data from previous projects, but analogous estimating is based on the production of the whole project whereas parametric estimating is based on a unit cost of doing the project.    For example, let’s say you want to estimate the cost of building a new house in a subdivision.    There are two ways of going about it:   one is to get an estimate of how much it cost to build an entire house in that subdivision in the past.   If the model of your new house is similar to that of the previously existing one, then you can create an analogous estimate.  However, you can also, figure out how much it cost to build that previous  existing house per square foot of space.    Then you can use that unit cost to estimate how much it will cost to build your new house.

Three-Point Estimating is where the world of risk management starts entering into cost management.    Each estimate of an activity should have three components, the most likely estimate t(M), the pessimistic estimate (tP), and the optimistic estimate (tO).   The pessimistic and optimistic estimate will be based on an analysis of risk assumptions that are either opportunities (+) or threats (-) to the schedule.   How these three estimates are combined into a final estimate (tE) depends on what distribution you are using:

• Triangular:  tE = (tO + tM + tP/3)
• Beta:  tE = (tO + 4tM + tP)/6

Group Decision-Making Techniques are used to brainstorm with all of your team members as a group in order to improve estimate accuracy.

Reserve Analysis is another way in which risk management enters into cost management.   Based on analysis of possible risks that may affect the schedule, it use Contingency Reserves in the form of cost reserves called contingency reserves to account for those risk responses which may need to be done for risks that are the “known-unknowns” that have been listed on the risk register.   For the “unknown-unknowns” risks that are not listed on the risk register, there is another set of reserves called management reserves to fund the “ad-hoc ” risk responses called “workarounds” which may have to be developed on the fly if such risks do end up occurring.

The three “total” amounts you have to be concerned with in cost management are

• project estimate = sum of the estimated costs for all work packages in the project
• cost baseline = project estimate + contingency reserves
• cost budget = cost baseline + management reserves

The performance of the project is measured against the cost baseline, NOT the cost budget.

As the name implies, management reserves, as opposed to the contingency reserves, are NOT under control by the project manager and the project manager will have to get approval for them.   If risks that are anticipated at certain points in the project do not materialize, then those contingency reserves can be absorbed into the cost budget as a result.

NOTE:   Reserve analysis can also be used during the 7.4 Control Costs process for this reason.   Let’s say the anticipated risks for which contingency reserves are set aside end up not occurring after all.   Whew!   Well, you dodged a bullet there.   But that is why that portion of the contingency reserves is no longer needed and may be returned, with management approval, to the cost budget, which is not under control of the project manager, or perhaps even returned to the finances of the entire organization, or in other words, taken out of the cost budget altogether, for use on other projects.

d.  Cost of Quality (7.2 Estimate Cost)

Another knowledge area which impinges upon Cost Management is the area of Quality Management.    There are costs of conformity, which are the costs of making sure that the quality of the actual deliverables is that which has been planned for in the Quality Management Plan.   These include costs such as prevention (training, equipment, documentation) and appraisal (inspection, destructive testing).    There are costs of nonconformity, which are the costs which your organization will incur if the quality of the actual deliverables is NOT that which has been planned for in the Quality Management Plan.  These include costs such as internal costs (reworking, scrapping defective deliverables), and external costs (warranty, product liability, lost business).   The costs of conformity should be less than the costs of nonconformity.   If they are, then the costs of conformity may need to be figured into the cost baseline.    Those for training about quality in general may not be attributable to the project itself, but costs of inspection may be.

e.  Vendor Bid Analysis (7.2 Estimate Costs)

Yet another knowledge area that impinges upon Cost Management is the area of Procurement Management.   In addition to the cost of the organization producing the deliverables in the work packages, the costs of the deliverables attained from suppliers also needs to be accounted for in the project costs.

f.  Project Management Software (7.2 Estimate Costs)

This is a tool, not a technique, and is helpful in keeping track of cost estimates, just as it was helpful in keeping track of estimates of activity resources and activity durations in the Time Management knowledge area.

g.  Cost Aggregation, Historical Relationships, Funding Limit Reconciliation (7.3 Determine Budget)

Cost Aggregation is simply taking the costs of individual activities or the work packages they produce and summing them up for the entire project.

First you take the costs for each activity and summing them to get the costs for each work package.    Control accounts are basically placeholders in the work breakdown structure where you calculate all of the work packages below that level.   They are put there in the Planning Process so you can see when the project is actually running and you are in the Monitoring & Controlling Process, you can take a snapshot of where you are, and see whether you are coming in under or overbudget. The next step is to sum up the work packages estimates in each control account to get the control account estimates.  Finally, you sum up the control account estimates, and you get the project estimate.

In reserve analysis, you add contingency reserves to the project estimate to get the cost baseline, which is what the performance of the project is measured against.    You add the management reserves to that, and you get the final cost budget.

h.  Historical Relationships (7.3 Determine Budget)

Previous projects can be used to develop analogous or parametric estimates, which are discussed above in paragraph c.

i.  Funding Limit Reconciliation (7.3 Determine Budget)

As mentioned above in paragraph b under Analytical Techniques, the funding for a project may come all at once at the beginning of the project, or it may come in increments at various times in the project.

The expenditure of funds for a project over the course of the project has to be reconciled with the periodic funding for a project.   It’s not a matter of just the total amount of funds; it is a cash-flow issue of how much money is available during each month of the project.   The variance between the funding limit and the cost budget for the project during each time period (month, quarter, or whatever) needs to be reconciled. If the cost budget exceeds the funding limit for a particular period, work may have to be rescheduled in order to level out the rate of expenditures.   This is similar to the resource leveling technique.

j.  Earned Value Management (7.4 Control Costs)

The three key pieces of work performance data regarding the performance of the work on the project come from Earned Value Management or EVM.    Earned value management can answer the question “where are we now in relationship to the budget?”.

• Planned value asks “how much of the budget has been assigned to do the work that was supposed to be done by this point?”
• Earned value asks “how much of the budget has been assigned to do the work that was ACTUALLY DONE by this point?”
• Actual costs asks “how much did the work that was actually done by this point ACTUALLY COST?

This is work performance data, which is used to derive work performance information in the form of the following:

• Cost Variance (CV) = Earned Value (EV) – Actual Costs (AC)
• Cost Performance Index (CPI) = EV/AC

Similar values are used for time management, in particular:

• Schedule Variance (SV) = Earned Value (EV) – Planned Value (PV)
• Schedule Performance Index (SPI) = EV/AC

If the CV or SV are negative, that is a bad thing, meaning that the project is either overbudget or behind schedule.

If the CV or SV are positive, that is a good thing, meaning that the project is either under budget or ahead of schedule.

Similarly, if CPI or SPI are < 1, that is a bad thing, meaning that the project is either overbudget or behind schedule, and

if CPI or SPI are > 1, that is a good thing, meaning that the project is either under budget or ahead of schedule.

k.  Forecasting (7.4 Control Costs)

Forecasting can answer the question “given where we are now (which was determined with the EVM), where will we be by the end of the project in relationship to the budget?”

To do forecasting, you need to know the Budget at Completion or BAC, the Estimate at Completion (EAC), the Estimate to Complete or (ETC), and the Variance at Completion or (VAC). Here are the definitions of these terms.

BAC or the Budget at Completion is where the budget is planned to be at the end of the budget, i.e., the total cost budget. The EAC is the estimate of where the budget will be IF the costs keep going as they have up until now, as given by the AC or Actual Costs. The additional amount of money it is estimated to take you from now until the end of the project is the ETC or Estimate to Complete. You can see by the relationships below that by definition, ETC = EAC – AC. Another term is the difference between what the project was supposed to cost (BAC) and what is now expected to cost (EAC), and this is the VAC or Variance at Completion, and by definition, VAC = BAC – EAC.

How do you calculate EAC? Here’s the trick: there are 4 ways to calculate it depending on why your actual costs (AC) are at variance from the budget.

EAC = AC + (ETC)

If the original budget is considered totally flawed, or you have no idea why there is such a large variance, then one way to estimate the amount it will now take to do the project is to take the amount spent on the project so far (AC) and then do a more accurate bottom-up estimate of the amount it will take to complete the project (ETC). That’s essentially saying that you have to refigure the budget from scratch starting from now until the end of the project.

Formulas 2-4. The rest of the formulas are similar in that they all start with AC, the actual cost up to now, and then they add an amount called the remaining costs or BAC – EV, modified by some other factor.

Formula 2.

EAC = AC + (BAC – EV)

If the reason for the variance is a one-time occurrence, we don’t expect that it will happen again. Then you just take the remaining costs or (BAC – EV) and add them to what the project has already cost to get the estimate at completion of EAC. Picture the budget as a straight road going from one town to another. The variance is a one-time thing that causes the budget to suddenly vary by a small amount, as if you were driving a car and a sudden gust of wind caused your car to be blown a few feet into another lane, but then your car continues along a straight line to the other side.

Formula 3.

EAC = AC + (BAC – EV) / CPI = BAC/CPI

If the reason for the cost variance is a continuing occurrence, then you take your actual costs and add it to the remaining costs or (BAC – EV) divided by the current cost performance index (CPI). The algebra allows this expression to be simplified to the planned budget amount or BAC divided by the current cost performance index or CPI.

In the analogy of driving a car, let’s say you take a wrong turn onto a road which is going at a certain angle to the road you are driving on. This formula assumes that you are continuing on that same wrong road until you get to the destination.

Formula 4. S

EAC = AC + (BAC – EV)/(CPI * SPI)

If the reason for the cost variance is a continuing occurrence which also effects the schedule variance, you take your actual costs and add it to the remaining costs or (BAC – EV) divided by BOTH the current cost performance index (CPI) and the schedule performance index (SPI).

In the analogy of driving a car, let’s say you take a wrong turn onto a road which is not going at a certain specified angle to the road you are driving on, but is actually curving away from that road. This formula assumes that you are continuing on that same wrong that is curving away from the first road (budget) until you get to the destination.

l.  To-Complete Performance index (TCPI) (7.4 Control Costs)

The To-Complete performance Index or TCPI can answer the question “given where we are now, how fast to we have to go to be within budget by the end of the project?”

Okay, here’s an analogy to tell you how this works. Let’s say you are driving from city A to city B which takes 6 hours normally. You have calculated that you can drive there if you go at the speed limit of 65 mph for the entire trip. You get halfway there and you do a quick calculation which tells you that you have actually only gone an average of 55 mph. How fast will you have to go to make it to your destination on the second half of your trip in the same time frame of 6 hours? Well, the answer is 75 mph. This will increase the risk of getting a speeding ticket, of course.

In a similar way, if your CPI is below 1, then the TCPI will end up giving you an index that is greater than 1, because if you are over budget so far, you will have to be UNDER budget for the rest of the project to make up for the overage you have had so far.

Here is the formula for TCPI:

TCPI = (BAC – EV)/(EAC – AC).

Memorizing this formula is not as crucial as memorizing the other formulas related to earned value management; however, it is important to understand the CONCEPT behind it.

m.  Performance reviews, Variance Analysis (7.4 Control Costs)

This measures the performance of the project compared to the cost baseline.    Let’s say the performance on the project is varying from the cost baseline, and that the project is now overbudget.    In order to suggest a change to the project which will bring it back in line with the cost baseline, you need to do variance analysis to get at the root cause for what is bringing the project overbudget.    In this case, something is costing more than it was expected to cost.

There is a second possibility that might emerge out of variance analysis, and that is that certain costs were not included in the cost baseline.   In this case, you need to change the cost baseline to account for them, so it is a case of bringing the cost baseline in line with the actual project performance, rather than the other way around like in the previous paragraph.

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1. Introduction

This series of posts assumes that you have already memorized the names of the 47 project management processes, and you are ready to go on to the task of memorizing the tools & techniques.    This post covers chapter 6 of the 5th Edition PMBOK® Guide, the Time Knowledge Area.

2.   Time Management Area Processes

Here’s a description of the seven processes that are included in the Time Knowledge Area, together with a listing of the Tools & Techniques used in those processes.

3.   Time Management Area Tools & Techniques

Since the time management area has the most processes of all the knowledge areas, 7 in total, and some of these have up 7 or 8 tools & techniques each, this is probably one the more complicated areas to memorize tools & techniques.    Rather than going through each one individually, I will pick up some individual tools & techniques, plus some tools & techniques which are best memorized in groups because they are thematically related and often used as part of the same process.

a.  Expert judgment (6.1 Plan Schedule Management, 6.2 Define Activities, 6.4 Estimate Activity Resources, 6.5 Estimate Activity Durations)

This tool is used on a lot of planning processes in each knowledge area not just for this particular knowledge area.   Remember that for project management, an expert is either someone who is considered a subject matter expert or SME (a consultant) OR someone who is considered an expert on a specific part of the project (a team member).    The subject matter expert has generalized knowledge about a subject, and the team member expert has specialized knowledge about a specific aspect of the project.   You use expert judgment to consult:

• those who worked on previous projects to see how the schedule was managed on those projects (6.1 Plan Schedule Management), what resources were required on those projects (6.4 Estimate Activity Resources), and how long activities took on those projects (6.5 Estimate Activity Durations)
• those with specialized knowledge of the project scope statement and the work breakdown structure (WBS), in order to take each work package and define the activities required to complete them

b.  Analytical techniques, Meetings (6.1 Plan Schedule Management)

Analytical techniques are usually used when there is some sort of strategic decision to be considered, and in the planning phase, you may have to decide which estimating technique to use, whether to use a schedule compression technique such as fast tracking or crashing, and how project risks may affect the schedule.

Because so many stakeholders are affected by the project schedule, meetings are needed to gather input from as many of those stakeholders as possible, and to obtain buy-in from those stakeholders at the earliest stage of planning in order to prevent as many changes from occurring farther down the line.

c.  Decomposition, Rolling Wave Planning (6.2 Define Activities)

It should be pretty clear that decomposition is a tool of 6.2 Define Activities, because it is going from the WBS (the work breakdown structure), which has work packages as the smallest unit of scope to be completed, and translating that into activities which are required to create those work packages.   It is the first step in translating units of scope into units of time.   Another way to think of it is that you are taking work packages which are nouns, and translating them into activities, which are verbs.

Rolling Wave Planning is a technique of progressive elaboration, where the initial activities are planned in greater detail, and the activities which come later in the future are planned in less detail.    A visual analogy is that of a train coming down the tracks, when not all of the tracks have been laid down yet for the entire route.   You need to place priority in having the tracks directly in front of the train already in place, while others who are scouting ahead are looking at the terrain and placing the tracks in the areas that the train will get to later on.

d.  Precedence Diagramming Method (PDM), Dependency Determination (6.3 Sequence Activities)

Dependency Determination is used to figure out whether activities have mandatory vs. discretionary dependency, and internal vs. external dependency.   Mandatory dependencies are a) legal or contractual, or b) inherent in the nature of the work (i.e., concrete must be allowed to harden before load is placed on it).   Discretionary dependencies are based on best practices, but can be altered if required for fast tracking or crashing, whereas mandatory dependencies have no such flexibility.

External dependencies are outside of the project team’s control and internal dependencies are within the project team’s control.   Thus fast tracking or crashing must choose those dependencies which are internal, and not external, to work on.

Precedence Diagramming Method constructs a schedule model by representing each activity by a node (graphically represented by a box) that is connected in one of four possible ways to its successor activity:  finish-to-start (most common), start-to-start, finish-to-finish, and start-to-finish (least common).    For example, with finish-to-start, the successor activity cannot start until a predecessor activity has finished.

e.  Alternative Analysis, Published Estimating Data, Bottom-Up Estimating (6.4 Estimate Activity Resources)

The keyword that links all of these tools & techniques together is the word resources.    Logically speaking, you cannot figure out how long an activity is going to take until you first know the quantity of resources available to work on that activity.    That is why 6.4 Estimate Activity Resources comes before 6.5 Estimate Activity Durations.

Alternative Analysis gives the different alternative resources that can be used to achieve the same activity.

Published Estimating Data gives data on the unit costs of various resources that can be used on the project.

Bottom-Up Estimating takes the individual estimate for the quantity of resources that is used to do each activity required to produce a work package, and these individual estimates are summed up to get the total amount of resources required to produce that work package.

f.  Analogous Estimating, Parametric Estimating, Three-Point Estimating, Group Decision-Making Techniques, Reserve Analysis (6.5 Estimate Activity Durations)

The keyword that links all of these tools & techniques together is the word durations.

Analogous Estimating and Parametric Estimating are BOTH based on historical data from previous projects, but analogous estimating is based on the production of the whole project whereas parametric estimating is based on a unit cost of doing the project.    For example, let’s say you want to estimate the cost of building a new house in a subdivision.    There are two ways of going about it:   one is to get an estimate of how much it cost to build an entire house in that subdivision in the past.   If the model of your new house is similar to that of the previously existing one, then you can create an analogous estimate.  However, you can also, figure out how much it cost to build that previous  existing house per square foot of space.    Then you can use that unit cost to estimate how much it will cost to build your new house.

Three-Point Estimating is where the world of risk management starts entering into time management.    Each estimate of an activity should have three components, the most likely estimate t(M), the pessimistic estimate (tP), and the optimistic estimate (tO).   The pessimistic and optimistic estimate will be based on an analysis of risk assumptions that are either opportunities (+) or threats (-) to the schedule.   How these three estimates are combined into a final estimate (tE) depends on what distribution you are using:

• Triangular:  tE = (tO + tM + tP/3)
• Beta:  tE = (tO + 4tM + tP)/6

Group Decision-Making Techniques are used to brainstorm with all of your team members as a group in order to improve estimate accuracy.

Reserve Analysis is another way in which risk management enters into time management.   Based on analysis of possible risks that may affect the schedule, it use Contingency Reserves in the form of time reserves or buffers to account for schedule uncertainty.    If risks that are anticipated at certain points in the project do not materialize, then those buffers can be absorbed and the schedule possibly shortened as a result.

g.  Schedule Network Analysis, Critical Path Method, Critical Chain Method, Resource Optimization Techniques, Modeling Techniques, Leads and Lags (6.6 Develop Schedule, 6.7 Control Schedule)

Once you know what the activities are (6.2), you have the sequence in which you are to do them (6.3), you know the resources you have to do them (6.4), and you know how long it will take to do them (6.5), you can then fit all of this together into the schedule model, which is the key phrase that links all of the above tools & techniques together.

Schedule Network Analysis is an all encompassing term for techniques used to build the schedule model, and this includes the next three techniques of the Critical Path Method, the Critical Chain Method, and Resource Optimization Techniques.

The Critical Path Method determines which activities are on the critical path of the project, which means that any delay in these activities will delay the entire project.    Those activities that are not on the critical path are said to be on a non-critical path, and have a certain amount of float.   An activity that has three days float will not cause any delay to the critical path unless it is delayed for more than three days.

The Critical Chain Method adds buffers to prevent any delays along the critical path or non-critical path which would impact the finishing date of the project.

Resource Optimization Techniques takes into account the fact that, although it may take a certain amount of work periods to complete an activity if the theoretical maximum of 100% of the resources are available, since resources must be shared among projects, there may be some activities that can only use a smaller portion of those resources, which will mean that the activity will take longer.

Finally, Leads & Lags are those activities which must start earlier (leads) or later than (lags) their predecessor activities finish.   Although these are analyzed in 6.3 Sequence Activities, they must be inserted in the schedule model (6.6) to make sure that activities flow smoothly from one to the next.

h.  Schedule Compression (6.6 Develop Schedule, 6.7 Control Schedule)

Once the schedule model is created using the techniques mentioned in paragraph g), what if it says the project will take longer than the basic time constraint you have to work with?   Here is where you need to investigate the techniques of fast-tracking (doing activities in parallel which were earlier planned to be done in sequence) and crashing (adding more resources to get the job done in less time).    Crashing is, in effect, the opposite of resource optimization techniques like resource leveling, described in the previous paragraph.   When your resources are limited, you may have to take more time than you had planned (that is what resource optimization is about).   Conversely, if your time is limited, however, you may have to spend more resources than you had planned in order to get that activity done in that limited time (that is what crashing an activity is about).   Fast-tracking reduces the time, but the offset is that increases the risk that the work done may be of lower quality and may have to be redone.   So schedule compression techniques generally require a trade-off of some kind.

j.   Project Management Software, Scheduling Tool (6.4 Estimate Activity Resources, 6.6 Develop Schedule, 6.7 Control Schedule)

These are tools that are used to take the resources and apply them to activities (6.4), and then to build the schedule model (6.6).    Microsoft Project and Primavera are examples of such tools.

k.  Performance Reviews (6.7 Control Schedule)

This does not mean performance reviews of team members, but reviews of how the project is performing in actuality as opposed to how it is supposed to be going according to plan.    If is not going according to plan, this will necessitate changes to the schedule.    This is why some of the techniques in the last paragraphs can be used not just in developing the schedule (6.6), but making changes to that schedule as well (6.7).

This is quite a long list of tools & techniques, but if you analyze what the process does, the tool & technique used to accomplish that process should make sense.

The next post covers the next chapter of the PMBOK® Guide, chapter 7 which covers the knowledge area of cost management.

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1.  Introduction

This series of posts assumes that you have already memorized the names of the 47 project management processes, and you are ready to go on to the task of memorizing the tools & techniques.    This post covers chapter 5 of the 5th Edition PMBOK® Guide, the Scope Knowledge Area.

2.   Scope Knowledge Area Processes

Here is a chart summarizing the six processes of the Scope Management Area, the first four of which are in the Planning Process Group, and the last two of which are in the Monitoring & Controlling Process Group.

3.   Integration Knowledge Area Tools & Techniques

Okay, let’s take 5.1, and 5.2-5.6 first, and discuss the most complicated process as far as tools & techniques are concerned, 5.2, last.

a.  Expert Judgment (5.1 Plan Scope Management and 5.4 Create WBS)

When planning scope management, or breaking down the scope to more manageable components, it is very helpful to get people who have done this before.    If your project is similar to ones done in the past, either by someone in your own organization or by someone in the industry, you can consider that person a Subject Matter Expert or SME for the purpose of planning your project’s scope or breaking it down to smaller, more manageable components.   That’s why this tool & technique is used for these two processes.

b.  Meetings (5.1 Plan Scope Management)

When you are doing planning, especially when it deals with one of the triple constraints of time, cost and scope (as in this case), having the entire project team working together on the task is important.   It is important not just to make sure that nothing essentially is left out, but also for reasons of group cohesion:   by having everybody involved, it is easier to get “buy-in” from all team members because they were all involved from the very beginning of the formal planning process.

c.  Inspection (5.5 Validate Scope)

This should be an obvious tool of “validate scope” because how else are the customers (or sponsors) going to figure out whether the deliverable meets their requirements and expectations?

d.  Variance Analysis (5.6 Control Scope)

The fact that variance analysis is used to figure out the difference between the planned scope and the actual scope should give you the clue that this is used when monitoring the scope.

e,  Decomposition (5.4 Create WBS)

The word “breakdown” in Work Breakdown Structure should be a clue as to the “Decomposition” technique.

f.  Group decision-making techniques (5.2 Collect Requirements and 5,5 Validate Scope)

The need for a group to make a decision on the requirements comes from the fact that after gathering all of the requirements (which is done with a lot of the other tools & techniques used for process 5.2 Collect Requirements), some of them will have higher priorities among certain stakeholders and some of them may even conflict.    In short, you may be able to please everybody, so a decision has to be made, and that is where the group decision-making comes into play.

The 5.5 Validate Scope process needs a group decision for this reason.   Let’s say the deliverable has been inspected, and the results of the inspection are known.   Does the deliverable meet the requirements and/or needs of the customer?    The customer needs to validate the deliverable if it does meet those needs, and then the customer needs to formally accept the deliverable and transmit this acceptance to the organization doing the project.    This acceptance is crucial for the project to succeed, so it is important that it be done carefully, ideally with representatives from the organization and the customer’s organization present.    That is why group decision-making is a technique for this process.

g.  Product Analysis (5.3 Define Scope)

h.  Facilitated Workshops (5.2 Identify Requirements, 5.3 Define Scope)

In both of these areas, you need a cross-functional and common understanding–in the first case of 5.2 Identify Requirements of the product requirements, and in the second case of 5.3 Define Scope of the project scope.   What is the product that is going to be built, and what will it require to make that product?    This is the reason to use a facilitated workshop, because they involve key players with a variety of fields of expertise.

i.   Interviews, focus groups, group creativity techniques, questionnaires and surveys, observations, prototypes, benchmarking, context diagrams, document analysis (5.2 Identify Requirements)

All of these techniques are for coming up with the various requirements, either from individuals (questionnaires and surveys, interviews), from groups (focus groups, group creativity techniques).   Observations show how the product is normally used so that the new product will be “user-friendly” rather than just “what the engineers want to put in the product”.    Past products are also referred to in the “benchmarking” technique to see what is already out there in the market.   This analysis is also helped by document analysis of things like owner’s manuals, or marketing literature connected with current products.   A “context diagram” shows how the product fits into the business in general, and shows how various parts of the business interact with it.    These techniques help identify the requirements, and help identify which stakeholders “own” which requirements.    Once you understand what the identify requirements process is, you should be able to name a couple of these techniques.

So, the most complicated process you can see is 5.2 Identify Requirements, which has the most unique tools & techniques.   Some tools & techniques such as expert judgment and group decision-making techniques are used for two different processes.   The rest of the processes are unique to a single process, and it should be obvious from the tool and/or technique which process it is associated with.

The tools & techniques for analyzing scope are more abstract than the ones for analyzing the schedule or budget, and thus take a little mental work to get straight in one’s head.   But once you do, memorizing the tools & techniques for the scope management knowledge area should not prove to be too difficult.

The next post will go onto the next of the so-called “triple constraints”, that of Time Management, covered in chapter 6 of the PMBOK® Guide.

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The Chicagoland chapter of the Professional Management Institute is sponsoring a continuing educational extravaganza in the form of a Professional Development Day Event to be held on November 1st, a little over two and a half weeks from now.

It is going to take place at the Meridian Banquets event center which is located at 1701 W. Algonquin Rd., Rolling Meadows, IL  60008 for those in the Chicagoland area who are thinking of going.    You must register for the event beforehand, and here is the link to the registration page at the PMI-Chicagoland website:

https://m360.pmi-chicagoland.org/event.aspx?eventID=84437&instance=0

This post is designed to give some basic information, but also to give my personal view of the event, since I am on the committee that is helping organize the event.   My role is to organize one of the tracks of educational programming.

1.   Educational Programming

There are four tracks of educational programming:

• Track 1:  Program and Portfolio Management
• Track 2:  Agile, Collaboration & Emerging Trends
• Track 3:  Stakeholder Management/Procurement/Risk Management
• Track 4:  Leadership Lessons from the C Suite

2.  Track 3–Stakeholder Management/Procurement Management/Risk Management

I am organizing Track 3, and the seven presentations we have scheduled so far are:

• 8:00-9:00 AM   Multisourcing:  Moving Beyond Outsourcing, George Wang from Stericycle
• 9:15-10:15 AM   The UL Approach to Risk & Stakeholder Management, Rafael Matuk from Underwriters Laboratories
• 10:30-11:30 AM   Skills for Success:  The Dale Carnegie Approach to Stakeholder Management, Mark Wilson from Dale Carnegi
• 1:15-2:15 PM  Stakeholder Management on the Illinois Tollway Project, Robert Skidmore from Illinois Tollway
• 2:30-3:30 PM  Lean vs. Six Sigma:  Two Sides of the Same Coin?, Brent Tadsen from Adaptive Solutions
• 3:45-4:45 PM  Logical Framework Approach (LFA) to Risk and Stakeholder Management, Terry Schmidt from Management Pro
• 5:00-6:00 PM  High Performing Teams Building the Trump Tower, by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (speaker to be determined)

3.  Volunteering

When I was in the Orange County, CA chapter of the Project Management Institute, the President of our Project Manager Toastmasters Club, Lori Shapiro, put together SoTeC, the Southland Technology Conference.    It was lot of work, but she was always so enthusiastic about the project that I frankly envied her involvement in it and wished I could get involved n such an event.   I am in the manufacturing sector, not IT like she is, so I felt that this was not likely to occur.

However, when I came to Chicago at the beginning of this summer, I looked around for opportunities with the Chicagoland chapter of the Project Management Institute.   I talked with the project manager Marcia White at a Toastmasters Training Leadership Institute event, and she put me in touch with Srinivas Saineni who was putting on the Professional Development or PD Day Event this fall.    I told him I wanted to get involved, but that I was new to Chicago and didn’t have very many contacts at all.   Fine, he said, come on board the organizing committee and you’ll make some contacts.    So I was going to gain contacts AND be a part of a great event–definitely a win-win situation!

He took the bold step of making me one of the leads for putting together the tracks of educational programming.   I am involved in this blog in documenting the changeover from the 4th to the 5th edition of the PMBOK Guide, and I wanted to do something with the track that was involved with Stakeholder Management, because that is the new knowledge area PMI has developed in the 5th Edition.

Just imagine it–I thought of the questions that I personally wanted answered that I had been wondering about, and through contacts in the Chicagoland PM community was able to secure speakers from various application areas to give 7 presentations on these very subjects.    It was a daunting task, but I figured if I am wondering about these questions, then I am sure that at least SOME project managers are wondering about the very same questions, and would therefore probably like to hear a presentation on the subject.

To that end, I put together a program and hope that it resonates with those that attend the PD Day Event.    We have over 200 registrants so far, with more registering every day, and I hope that this will bring benefit to the PMI-Chicagoland community, and will be an entry point for me to get to know the local PM community even better!

I’m so glad I volunteered to be on the committee, and will definitely do this next year as well!

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This series of posts take the Ken Wilber’s introduction to Integral Theory called A Brief History of Everything and discusses the 12 main tenets concerning the concept of a holon and how they can be applied to the field of project management.  I have been posting one tenet a week on Sundays; this post covers tenet #10.

1.  Recap–definition of a holon, and tenets #1-9

A holon is an entity which consists of components, and yet is itself a component of a larger whole.

Tenet #1. Reality as a whole is not composed of things or processes, but of holons.

Holons must be considered from the standpoint of interacting with other holons on the same level, and with holons at higher levels (of which the holon is just a part) and lower levels (which comprise the parts of the holon).

Tenet #2 Holons display four fundamental capacities: The horizontal capacities of self-preservation, self-adaptation, and the vertical capacities of self-transcendence and self-dissolution.

Holons follow the dual rules of evolution when it comes to holons at the same level:    survival of the fittest (self-preservation) and survival of the fitting (self-adaptation).    Holons have the property of being able to evolve to the next highest level (self-transcendence), and they can also “devolve” into their component parts (self-dissolution).

Tenet #3 Holons emerge

As mentioned in Tenet #2, holons have the property of self-transcendence or evolution to the next highest level.    This is not just a higher degree of organization, but also involves emergent properties or differences in kind from the level below.

Tenet #4 Holons emerge holarchically

Holons, as seen above, are units that are both wholes containing parts and parts of larger wholes.   This kind of nested or concentric linking of holons reminiscent of the Russian matroshka dolls is considered a holarchy.    In contrast, we see in an organizational chart the traditional notion where parts are linked vertically to the levels above them (the notion of hierarchy), and horizontally to the units at the same level (the notion of a heterarchy).

Tenet #5  Each emergent holon transcends but includes its predecessor(s)

When a higher level of holons emerges, it incorporates the holons from a lower level but adds emergent properties.  A cell contains molecules, but is an entity which is capable of reproduction, where a property that goes above and beyond what a mere collection of molecules could do on its own.

Tenet #6  The lower sets the possibilities of the higher; the higher sets the probabilities of the lower.

Tenet #5  tells us that the higher level of holon has emergent properties which go above and beyond the lower level.  However, tenet #6 says that the higher level cannot ignore the lower level, and it there is bound to a certain extent by the possibilities set by the holons of the lower level.  However, the higher level also affects the lower level in that, the order imposed by the higher level of holons will influence the patterns in which the lower levels interact.

Tenet #7–The number of levels which a hierarchy comprises determines whether it is “shallow” or “deep”; and the number of holons on any given level we shall call its “span.”

Tenet #8  Each successive level of evolution produces GREATER depth and LESS span

This tenet follows from tenet #7 if you think about the definition of “depth” and “span” of a concentrically organized system of a holarchy.   Ken Wilber makes this point because if you look at the concentric diagrams of any holarchy, the circle containing the highest level of organization is going to be on the outside, and the visual impact is that it has greater “span” in terms of area.    He is simply emphasizing the fact that span refers to the number of holons at the same level; the reason why the circle is so large is so that it can encompass the lower levels inside of it.    The fact that the largest circle, representing the holon at the highest level, has several circles within it actually means that it has the greatest depth because it includes the most levels or holons (represented by the nested series of circles inside of it).

Tenet #9  Destroy any type of holon, and you will destroy all of the holons above it and none of the holons below it.

The lower level of holon, while having less depth than the higher level (based on tenets #7 and #8), is nonetheless more fundamental for precisely the reason mentioned in the tenet.   If you get rid of the lower level of holon, you are in fact getting rid of the very components of the higher level.

Thus the higher level is more significant, in terms of adding coordination and direction to the lower level of holons, but the lower level of holons are more fundamental to the enterprise, because without them, there would BE no higher level of holons.   In terms of project management It is very important to remember as a project manager, that despite the significance of all that you do as a manager of the project, and despite the fact that the project charter and your authority has to be sponsored by management, without the team members you would not have a project at all.   They are truly fundamental to the project’s success; that is why you must take care of the members of your team.

This tenet is, therefore, a lesson in humility and a warning against humiliation of any the members of your team for having made mistakes.    Failure is to be seen as an opportunity to learn, not to be cast in terms of blame or moral failing.    By understanding that the team member is more fundamental to the project than you are as the project manager, the more likely you will treat that team member with the respect that he or she deserves.     Once you do so, you will be surprised at how much more engaged that team member will be in the success of the project.

2.  Tenet #10–Holarchies coevolve

Recall that a holon is an entity which is both a whole and a part of a larger whole, and a holarchy is that concentric nesting of holons at higher levels.    What does “coevolve” mean?    An individual holon exists in an environment, and it evolves to fit into the environment.   When the environment changes, the holon must also change in order to maintain its fitness.  

One of the statements people usually associate with the idea of evolution is “survival of the fittest.”   This phrase was not coined by Charles Darwin, but by Herbert Spencer, a British economist who acted as a sort of publicist of his day about the ideas of evolution.    However, I have always disliked this phrase for the following reason.    What does “fittest” mean?   It implies that an organism that is fittest is somehow strongest, that there is some sort of innate quality which makes it fit and therefore deserving of survival.    A phrase which comes close to the actual process of evolution is “survival of the fitting“.   An organism best survives which best fits into the environment in which it exists.

What happens if the environment changes, or “evolves”?   The organism must also evolve or change with the environment, that is, it must “co-evolve” with the environment in order for it to survive.

What does tenet #10 mean in the context of project management?    Every project manager exists in a system of best practice regarding project management which is codified by the Project Management Institute into the Project Management Body of Knowledge or PMBOK®.   What people sometimes refer to as “the PMBOK®”, the book from which people study to take the Project Management Professional exam, is actually more technically called the “PMBOK® Guide”.    You are supposed to be aware of best practices in the field of project management even if they do not appear in the Guide.   How do you do this?    Well, if you quality for the PMP exam, take the exam and pass it, that doesn’t mean you are a PMP for life.   You must also fulfill a continuing education requirement by earning Professional Development Units, which you can fulfill in a number of ways, such as

• E-learning
• PMI Community Events–monthly dinners, webinars, educational sessions
• Registered Education Provider (R.E.P.) courses
• Volunteer service

In this way, the project manager can learn about the evolving body of knowledge in the field of project management.    In order to survive in the fast-changing world of project management, therefore, the project manager must evolve as well through training, which is the whole point of the PDU system of continuing education.

Another example of the principle espoused in tenet #10 that “holarchies co-evolve (with their environments)” is the fact that companies in a certain application area need to evolve as the industry in that application area evolves.    The rapid growth of agile methodology in products involving IT development is a great example of this.    The recognition of the growing importance in the IT industry of agile methodology has meant that PMI is developing a new, separate category of certification called PMI-ACP or PMI-Agile Certified Practitioner to meet this demand for agile methodology.

One of the reasons why I took on this project of going through the entire 5th Edition of the PMBOK® Guide on my blog was not only to assist those who were studying for the PMP exam based on that new edition, but also to enrich my own  understanding of how the project management field had evolved, as seen through the eyes of the PMI.   I figured that the new processes, new definitions, and other features of the 5th Edition would give me clues into the new emphasis that the PMI was putting on certain concepts.

An example:   the definition of a project is one of the most fundamental things in understanding project management.   The definition used to be a “temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result.”    However, in the 5th Edition, PMI now says that it can also be “an improvement in an existing product or service”.    Why was this fundamental definition changed?   To include Six Sigma projects, which have as their object the improvement of processes to reduce defects in already existing products or services.    As the importance of Six Sigma projects increased, PMI had its definition of a product evolve to reflect that increased importance.   

This shows the importance of constantly learning no matter at what stage of your project management career you find yourself.    The pre-Socratic philosopher Heraclitus once said of the universe that “nothing endures but change.”   To endure, you must therefore also be willing to change.

The next post the following Sunday will cover Tenet #11.

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After the District Executive Committee meeting this morning in District 30 of Toastmasters, which covers the entire Chicagoland area, there was an hour presentation by Dietmar M. Wagenknecht, who is not only a Distinguished Toastmaster, but a Past International Director and the Region Advisor last year for Region 5 (Midwest United States), on the differences and similarities between being a club sponsor, a club mentor, and a club coach.    The presentation lasted an hour, but the Q&A session afterwards lasted half an hour, which shows you how much the audience of District, Division and Area officers was interested in what he had to say on the topic.  

This is a summary of his talk.   

The basic difference, according to Dietmar, between the club sponsor, mentor, and coach is as follows:

A club sponsor is the “midwife” of the club, the one who helps get a club going up to the point where the club charters.   This happens when there are 20 members who sign up for the club:   at that time, the club mentor takes over and guides the newborn club for at least the first six months of its “infancy.”    If a club falls back down below 12 members, it is a club coach
goes in like a club doctor:   he or she observes the “patient”, recommends measures for to improve the club’s health, but it is the patient who must take the medicine and regain health, the doctor cannot take the medicine for the patient.

Let’s take a look at these three roles in a little more detail.

1.   Club Sponsor

The relevant documents at the Toastmasters International website that give guidance for a club sponsor are:

• #12
• #1139
• #319A
• #218H

The sponsor is the one who takes the prospect of a new club, sets up what are called “demonstration meetings” to show prospective members what a real Toastmasters meeting looks like, and then guides the meetings until 20 members join and the club is officially chartered.

A sponsor of a corporate club is going to have to engage upper management in supporting the club.    Dietmar says that sometimes this is done by approaching a single person such as the HR manager, but sometimes a presentation is done in front of a group of managers.    Something he recommends when doing this is to start the conversation by asking the group of managers how many of them have ever been in Toastmasters.    You may be surprised how many hands go up–this will give you an automatic indication of how many managers are essentially already “pre-sold” on the idea of how much Toastmasters can benefit the company.

When there is only one person who is the gatekeeper, it sometimes happens that the person is not receptive.   In those cases, keep up the contact with that company, and many times when the management changes, the position of the company towards Toastmasters will also change.

The sponsor may become one of the 20 charter members of the club, but the sponsor must leave the club officer roles to others after the series of demonstration meetings are completed.

The measure of success for a club sponsor is if the club gets 20 members to sign up and have the club chartered.

2.  Club Mentor

The relevant document at the Toastmasters International website that gives guidance for a club mentor is:

• #218G

Normally, a sponsor will choose a mentor to take over once the club charters, but Dietmar recommends that there are 2 or more mentors.   The reason is that it is important that a mentor attend every meeting to the greatest extent possible.   This goal is easier to achieve when there are 2 or more mentors.   He recommends that the mentor get to the club 30 minutes before the meeting starts.    That way the mentor can observe to see how the Sergeant-At-Arms (SAA) sets up the club meeting place, and how the club officers coordinate their roles before the meeting officially starts.   The club mentor should ask the club president to have 5 minutes at the end of the agenda so that the mentor can act as kind of a “General Evaluator”, giving specific advice on what went well, and what could be improved at the next meeting.

Any specific advice to individual club officers rather than to the club in general should be given privately to those club officers, and not in front of the entire club.

One other recommendation from Dietmar for the club mentor was that rather than having the sponsor hand off the club to the mentor at the time of chartering the club, the mentor should actually be involved BEFORE the club charters.    And again, it’s preferable to have a mentoring TEAM or 2 or more mentors rather than just one mentor.    Can the mentor BE a member of the club that is being mentored?    Yes, the mentor can be a member and do speeches, take on roles, etc., as an example to others, but the mentor should not be a club officer.    The club officers are the ones that will have to run the meetings, even after the mentorship is done.

The measure of success of a club mentor is following the club for six months or, even better, an entire year, with the club remaining at the same 20-member strength is started out as, or better.    If you stay with the club an entire year, you’ll start to see educational awards such as the Competent Communicator or Competent Leadership award.   That will be gratifying repayment indeed for all of your efforts.

3.   Club Coach

The relevant documents at the Toastmasters International website that give guidance for a club mentor are:

• #1152
• #218F
• Club Coach troubleshooting guide (Dietmar doesn’t know the number, but it can be found on the website)

Although the rules say that a club coach is for a club that has less than 12 members, in Dietmar’s experience, this is waiting until the patient is almost moribund.   Action should be taken when the club has between 12-16 members, because it is easier to turn around a club at that stage than it is if there are less than 12 members.

As a club coach, your first function is to go in and observe.   Remember, just as a doctor cannot diagnose the patient without doing a medical examination and taking a medical history, you cannot as a club coach go in and prescribe any solutions without first making close observations of how the club is run and what the interactions are between club officers, between club officers and members, and between members and guests.

A healthy club needs to attract guests and take care of its members.    An unhealthy club needs to first prioritize bringing in guests and making them feel welcome.    One of the problems about a club that has less than 12 members is that most people feel more comfortable in a larger club.   Dietmar couldn’t say whether it’s the fact that a larger club has more “energy”, or what, but having fewer members can make attracting guests and having them return more difficult, which makes the whole thing a vicious cycle, or self-fulfilling prophecy.    You need to counter the lack of members with more enthusiasm from the members that already exist.    Have special themes to the meeting, especially around the holidays.    Have open house events, with speakers brought in by the Area Governor from outside the club.   Make table topics more fun.    There are a lot of ways to make the experience more memorable for guests, and this is the kind of thing that will have them coming back and signing up as a member.

One thing that helps attract guests is having a good website presence, with photos and even videos of club members doing speeches.    Once the guests comes to the club, he or she should receive a guest visitor pack, which should have the following items:

• 2  copies of the Toastmaster magazine (one current, one older)
• standard promotional literature (on the values and benefits that Toastmasters brings)
• membership form (partially filled out with club name, number, etc., so all the guest has to do is fill in personal information, and club dues must be clearly indicated)
• business card (to VP Membership or other club officers)

4.  Similarities between Club Sponsor, Mentor, or Coach

In all three cases, here’s the elements you bring to the club:

a)  Strategic planning

b)  Coaching (advice, suggestions for improvement)

c)  Organization

d)  Recognition of achievements by club members, officers, and club as a whole

These are valuable assets you bring to clubs, and by giving of your time, you are helping to foster the growth of new clubs (in the case of a sponsor or mentor) or the retention of existing clubs (in the case of a coach).   In either case, you are contributing in a vital way to the Toastmasters International organization!

The measure of success of a club coach is whether the club goes from having less than 12 members to having 20 or more members and becoming a Distinguished Club, which means capturing 5 out of the 10 goals in the Distinguished Club Program.    A question was asked in the Q&A session about what happens if the club never improves to that point:   does that mean that you don’t get credit towards the Advanced Leadership Silver (ALS) award?    The answer said Dietmar is “yes and no”.    No, you can’t get credit under the “club sponsor, mentor, or coach” requirement of the ALS award.   However, if you try to be a club coach and the club does not achieve these milestones, you can document your efforts as a club coach in a High Performance Leadership project, which is another requirement for the ALS award.    You will still have to be a club sponsor, mentor, or coach, but you will at least get something for your efforts.

One month ago, I had a vague idea that I wanted to be a club sponsor, mentor or coach at some point in the future.   After Dietmar’s talk, I was excited enough about the program that I am going to look for an opportunity NOW to make this a reality.    Thanks, Dietmar!

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1. Introduction

In this next series of posts, we move onto step 5, which is memorizing the TOOLS & TECHNIQUES associated with each process.   In order to breakdown the memorizing into more bite-size chunks, I am going to break down this topic into at least 10 posts, one for each knowledge area.   (There may be some knowledge areas that require more than one post.)

This post covers chapter 4 of the 5th Edition of the PMBOK® Guide, which covers the Integration Knowledge Area. This knowledge area contains 6 processes, with at least one process in each of the 5 process groups, with Monitoring & Controlling Process having two processes from this area.

2.  Integration Knowledge Area Processes

Here are the six processes in the Integration Knowledge Area, followed by a brief process description, and a list of the tools & techniques used in each process.

3.  Tools & Techniques of the Integration Knowledge Area

If you look at the above chart, you will see that many of the tools & techniques are used in several of the processes.  Let’s take a look at each in turn.

a.  Expert judgment (all processes 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, 4.5, and 4.6)

Integration is the most complicated knowledge area since it integrates all the other processes from the other 9 knowledge areas.  For this reason, expert judgment is used for ALL processes in this knowledge area

b.  Facilitation Techniques (4.1 Develop Project Charter and 4.2 Develop Project Management Plan)

Facilitation Techniques are used for the two processes which “Develop” a major project document, such as the Project Charter and Project Management Plan.  Facilitation can be used as synonymous with “brainstorming”, when you want to get everybody’s input not just to get the best ideas from the team, but to make sure that the entire team “buys into” the results.

c.  Analytical Techniques (4.4 Monitor & Control Project Work, 4.6 Close Project or Phase)

You use “analysis” after you have managed to gather together project information (which is project data that has been prepared in a relevant and useful form for the project team).  This is most needed when you monitor project work (which is where you get the project information from), and at the end of the project, when you need to analyze the success of the project and put those elements of the project that were not successful into a “lessons learned” document.

d.  Meetings (process 4.3 Direct and Manage Project Work, 4.5 Perform Integrated Change Control)

Meetings are required by the entire project team when there is a need to bring up any problems that occur during the course of the project (during Direct and Manage Project Work).  Any solutions to those problems that are presented are “change requests” which then must get analyzed before recommendations for acceptance or rejection in the Perform Integrated Change Control process.

e.  Project management information system (4.3 Direct and Manage Project Work, 4.4 Monitor & Control Project Work)

This is used in conjunction with both processes that have to with implementing project work (Direct and Manage Project Work), and monitoring to see whether that work has been done or not (Monitor & Control Project Work)

f.  Change Control

This is useful only for the 1 process that deals with this topic, namely Perform Integrated Change Control.

If you take a moment to reflect on what the essence of each of these six processes is, you can figure out what tools & techniques belong to them.

4.  Test Yourself!

To test yourself on these tools & techniques, take the same index cards you used to memorize the names of the processes back in steps 3 and 4.  Remember that you have the name of the process on one side, and the name and process number of the process on the other.  On the side that contains the name and process number, put “Tools & Techniques” underneath and list the tools & techniques you find in the above chart under each list.

You then need to take the six index cards and shuffle them with the name of the process showing face up.  Then take the first card in the pile and see if you can name the tools & techniques for that process.  You get no points for guessing “Expert Techniques” because that is one of the tools & techniques for every process in Integration!   Pretty soon, you’ll be getting more and more of them, and when you can do this successfully 5 times in a row, that is 1 out of 10 knowledge areas under your belt as far as tools & techniques is concerned.  Congratulations!

Integration is one of the easiest knowledge areas for which to memorize Tools & Techniques because a) each process has only 2 or 3 tools & techniques at most and b) the tools & techniques are similar across the six processes, occurring in easily recognizable patterns based on what the gist of each process is.

After the weekend posts, on Monday I will do a series of posts for the Scope Knowledge Area, the 2^nd out of 10 knowledge areas that is covered by chapter 5 of the 5^th Edition of the PMBOK® Guide.

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2. Processes in the Closing Process Group

There are only two processes in the Closing Process Group, 4.6 Close Project or Phase and 12.4 Close Procurements.

Here’s a little more explanation of these processes.

4.6  Close Project or Phase

First of all notice the title “Close Project or Phase“.   A phase is when you subdivide a large project into several phases, each of which is treated as a project in and of itself.    Each phase therefore has to have a formal closure if it is to pass on to the next phase.   An example of this would be the development of a new automobile:  there is the design phase, the prototype and testing phase, and the manufacturing phase.

In any case, let us assume that all of the work of the project is completed and the final product or result of the project is done.   How do we close out the project?

The process of closure which is validation or acceptance of the final product by the customer and/or sponsor (this could be considered the “scope and/or quality closure”).   This typically involves payment by the customer and completion of the terms of the contract if it is an external project, or an official “sign off” of the results by the sponsor if it is an internal project.  This is the crucial step of closure, and is the “formal” closure, formal in the sense that it must be in writing.

The next phase is then financial closure, where all of the resources that went into the project are accounted for.  This is important to the organization because after financial closure, the unused resources can now be safely returned to the organization for use on other projects or operational work.

Finally if the project is closed with respect to the formal and financial closure, there is administrative closure which means archiving all of the project documents for use on future projects.

12.4  Close Procurements

This is closely tied to the only other process that is in the Closing Process Group, namely, 4.6 Close Project or Phase under the Integration Management knowledge area.   The work that the seller has done and the deliverables that the seller produces to help complete the project are validated as acceptable.  (You could think of this process as the  “quality and/or scope closure”.)  In return, the buyer pays the seller the agreed upon amount in compensation, which is the financial closure.

If the deliverables are validated by the buyer, and the seller is compensated by the agreed upon amount, this should fulfill the terms of the procurement contract, which then requires the buyer to sign off on the completion of the procurement by the buyer—this is the legal closure.

Alternatively, if there is a dispute, the dispute is taken care of through the dispute resolution process agreed upon and outlined in the Procurement Management Plan.  The final outcome of this process whether it be a claim, an arbitration, a mediation, or the judgment in a lawsuit, then becomes the legal closure for that procurement.

Finally, when the procurement is closed both financially and legally, there can be administrative closure which takes the various procurement-related documents (procurement contract, performance records, lessons learned, etc.) and puts them in the archive for reference on future projects.

In a way, a procurement is a kind of “sub-project” of the project itself from the standpoint of the buyer, and from the seller’s standpoint, it is a project in and of itself.  That is why the closure processes (formal, legal, financial, administrative) show such similarities.

This concludes a review of memorizing the processes by process group in addition to the memorization by knowledge area that we have discussed in previous posts.

Once you understand the names of the 47 processes and what their essential process description entails, you are ready to go for the major leagues in memorization of the processes:  memorization of the tools & techniques of each of the processes.  I find it easier to tackle this monumental task by reviewing the tools & techniques of the processes by knowledge area, starting with the Integration Knowledge Area, which is the subject of tomorrow’s post.

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2. Processes in the Monitoring & Controlling Process Group

Note that ALL of the process titles have the word “Control” EXCEPT for process 5.4 “Validate Scope.”    Also, you need to memorize the fact that the FIRST TWO knowledge groups, Integration and Scope, have TWO processes in the Monitoring & Controlling Process Group.   All of the other knowledge areas have exactly one process each in the Monitoring & Controlling Process Group, except for Human Resources, which is the only knowledge area that doesn’t have any processes at all in that process group.

Here’s a little detail on the processes listed above.

4.4  Monitor and Control Project Work

This is the CHECK part of the plan-do-check-act cycle.  What are you checking for?  To see if the project is progressing as planned in process 4.2.   What happens if the project is NOT progressing as planned and you want to get back on track, so to speak?   Then you go to the NEXT process, which is …

4.5 Perform Integrated Change Control

Here is where you evaluate requests for changes to get you “back on track” to complete the project according to the plan developed in 4.2.   The changes need to be reviewed by whatever process is specified in the Change Management Plan, one of the 4 subsidiary plans other than the 9 knowledge area management plans that make up the overall Project Management Plan.   Then those changes that are approved are then managed.    Now those changes may be to the deliverables, to the project, and possibly even the project management plan.    In all cases, the project documents will be changed to reflect all the changes reviewed, even if they are not approved.

5.5 Validate Scope

Validating the scope means taking a deliverable and asking the customer and/or sponsor to review to make sure it conforms to their expectations.

NOTE:    Verifying the scope is a process internal to the project where the project team verifies whether the deliverables conform to the technical requirements as set forth in the scope baseline.   That process is done is done within the next process 5.5 Control Scope.   Validating the scope is a process external to the project where the project team validates with the customer and/or sponsor to see if the deliverables conform to their expectations.

Confused?   To make it even worse, in the 4th Edition, these terms “validate” and “verify” were reversed.   To keep them straight for the 5th edition, think of when you go into an appointment at an office where you have to park in a parking garage.    When you get ready to go into the appointment, you should always write down the number of the parking spot and its location within the parking garage so that you can verify where your car is when the appointment is done.    But before you go back to your car, you ask the receptionist if he or she can validate your parking so that you don’t have to pay for the parking.    You verify to yourself (internal process) where your car is, but you validate your parking with someone else (external process) in order to get out of paying for it yourself.    That should help cement these two terms in your memory.

5.5 Control Scope

Control scope means to monitor the status of the project and product scope to verify whether the project is proceeding according to the scope baseline.     As mentioned in the previous paragraph, validate scope is an external process requiring communication with the customer and/or process, and verify scope is an internal process.    If when you verify the scope it turns out that there is a deviation of the deliverable from the scope baseline, then you must request a change to bring the project back in line with that baseline.

6.6 Control Schedule

Schedule tells you whether you are proceeding according to schedule, ahead of schedule or behind schedule. If there are changes to the project which require a change in schedule baseline, those changes are managed here.

7.3 Control Costs

Here you use the tools such as earned value to find out whether or not your project is proceeding according to the cost baseline.   If there are any changes to the project which require a change in the cost baseline, those changes are managed here.

8.3 Perform Quality Control

The question being answered here is: are the deliverables meeting the quality standards? The monitoring focuses on the quality of the deliverables. If they don’t meet the standards, then this becomes a basis for a recommendation for change.

10.2  Control Communications

The whole purpose of communications is to make sure that the information needs of the project stakeholders are being met.  This process monitors to see whether that is indeed the case and suggests changes if it is not.

11.6 Control Risks

This is where risks that were identified are tracked during the course of the project, and the planned risk responses implemented if those risks do occur.   The residual risks for which there are no planned responses are monitored, and if any new risks are identified, those are added to the risk register.    Finally, the effectiveness of the entire risk management process is reviewed.

12.3 Control Procurements

Once the seller has been selected, the terms of the contract are fulfilled by the seller and the project manager watches over the relationship with the seller, the performance of the seller with respect to the terms of the contract, and if there are any conflicts, these are resolved.

13.4 Control Stakeholder Management

The stakeholder relationships are monitored to see if the desired engagement level has been reached as set forth in the Stakeholder Management Plan, and if they have not been reached, plans and strategies are implemented for engaging stakeholders at that desired level.

As you can see, there are 11 processes (9 out of the 10 knowledge groups have processes EXCEPT for human resources, and 2 out of the 10 knowledge groups, Integration and Scope, have an additional process, for a total of 9 + 2 = 11 processes).   They all have to do with monitoring the progress of the project within that knowledge area, and comparing that progress with what’s in the management plan.   If it falls short of what is in the plan, then the “controlling” part of the process group kicks in, and a change is suggested which will either a) bring the project in line with the plan, or if the plan ended up being unrealistic after all, b) bring the plan in line with the project.    All efforts are made, of course, to do the former rather than the latter, with the latter of changing the plan as opposed to the project a “last resort”.

This is the Monitoring & Controlling Process Group in a nutshell.    Once you have memorized the names of the processes in this process group, the next process group, the Closing Process Group, is EASY because there are only two processes involved, just as in the case of the Initiating Process Group.   The review of that Closing Process Group is covered in the next post.

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