Project Management 

It seems that these are good times for projects. Never before have we faced such fast, radical change in our jobs, our lives, and even our very beliefs. Change is shocking. Change is bothersome, but it is also unavoidable. Any project means change, and the success of the project depends largely on our ability to manage the change.

The purpose of this paper is to present the challenges involved, and review a simple, structured approach to the process of project management, with emphasis on the implementation of computer­ized manufacturing systems, like Manufacturing Resources Plan­ning (MRPII).

When we talk about projects, we may think about the Apollo Space Project or the Manhattan Project, and imagine lots of people working with sophisticated equipment in an almost magical environment where everything converges to the clear purpose of the project. However, sometimes we face another reality: people working very hard in different, and sometimes opposing tasks, hoping to achieve some not very clear result, while complying with an impossible deadline. Sound familiar?

Here is the story of a typical project: First, we fall in love with a new, bold, fix-it-fast methodology or concept (if it has an acronym, even better!). Second, we find it has a place in our organization. Third, we buy or develop state-of-the-art software and hardware. Fourth, we install the hardware and the software. Fifth, we wait for big, breakthrough improvements in the orga­nization. Sixth, we wonder what happened (or didn't happen). Seventh, we blame it on the (choose any) software vendor, hardware vendor, MIS, management, environment, recession, inflation, education, weather, etc. Eighth, we go back to step one!

We chose the best hardware and software, we invested heavily in training, so, what went wrong? Did we set realistic objectives? Did we know how to achieve them? How good was our estimation of the time and effort involved? Did everyone know that there was a project going on? I have seen more projects die from a slow and quiet death than from catastrophic failures.

Then, what is the recipe for perfect estimation of duration and cost? How can we guarantee that we'll meet the deadlines? Well, I'm afraid that there is no magic recipe, no precise equation. Project Management is still much of an art, and you will master this art by doing two things: First, know the fundamentals; second, practice, practice and practice.

An orderly approach is a must for successful Project Manage­ment. Even if every project is different, we follow the same steps time and time again. The objective of a project may be different, but the process is the same.

There are four steps in the process of planning and management of a project (see Figure 1). If we follow these steps sequentially, we'll have many fewer surprises later on in the project. Now let's look at each step in detail.

Probably the main reason of failure of a project is the lack of an adequate definition of what we want to achieve. We must establish the justification of the project and its objectives. The objectives should be measurable and everybody should know how those measures are calculated. Let's say that we want to increase turnover by a factor of two. Fine, but are we talking about finished goods or raw materials? Over what period of time? What formula will we use? Who has that information? How can we guarantee the repeatability of the measurements? Some of these questions might be too simple, but we need to define them very clearly from the beginning.

To achieve our now clearly defined objectives, we must now establish deliverables. A deliverable is an action, document or any other tangible that is necessary to get to the objective. It's a common mistake to think that the project will be achieved with a single make-or-break task that will lead us from zero advance to full completion. If we understand the many little achievements that will take us to the final result, we are halfway finished. We will not worry at this time about who will do what or how long it will take. The purpose of this step is to figure out what are the main results that we must deliver to achieve the objective of the project.

Now we can begin to integrate our project team. It should be comprised of core team members, who will have responsibility for project tasks and will make commitments for their portion of the work. Try to keep this core team as small as possible to facilitate communication. There will be other team members that will be involved for specific tasks or phases in the project.

A good point to remember is that any project is a tradeoff between scope, schedule and resources. If you modify any of them, the other two will be affected. For example, if you decide that your project will be done in half the time previously estimated, it's possible that you will have to reduce the scope or increase the resources.

To be Continued

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