Project Management All-in-One For Dummies

Stanley E. Portny, PMP Mark C. Layton, MBA2, CST, PMP, SAFe SPC Steven J. Ostermiller, CSP, PMP Nick Graham Cynthia Snyder Dionisio David Morrow, CSP, ICP-ACC Doug Rose, CSP-SM, PMI-ACP, PMP, SAFe SPC

• Introduction 1About This Book 1Foolish Assumptions 2Icons Used in This Book 2Beyond the Book 3Where to Go from Here 3Book 1: In the Beginning: Project Management Basics 5Chapter 1: Achieving Results with Project Management 7Determining What Makes a Project a Project 7Understanding the three main components that define a project 8Recognizing the diversity of projects 10Describing the four phases of a project life cycle 10Defining Project Management 12Starting with the initiating processes 13Outlining the planning processes 14Examining the executing processes 15Surveying the monitoring and controlling processes 16Ending with the closing processes 17Knowing the Project Manager’s Role 17Looking at the project manager’s tasks 18Staving off excuses for not following a structured project-management approach 18Avoiding shortcuts 19Staying aware of other potential challenges 20Chapter 2: Involving the Right People 23Understanding Your Project’s Stakeholders 24Developing a Stakeholder Register 24Starting your stakeholder register 25Ensuring your stakeholder register is complete and up to date 28Using a stakeholder register template 30Determining Whether Stakeholders Are Drivers, Supporters, or Observers 31Distinguishing the different groups 32Deciding when to involve your stakeholders 33Using different methods to involve your stakeholders 36Making the most of your stakeholders’ involvement 37Displaying Your Stakeholder Register 38Confirming Your Stakeholders’ Authority 39Assessing Your Stakeholders’ Power and Interest 40Chapter 3: Developing Your Game Plan 43Divide and Conquer: Breaking Your Project into Manageable Chunks 43Thinking in detail 44Identifying necessary project work with a work breakdown structure 45Dealing with special situations 53Creating and Displaying Your Work Breakdown Structure 57Considering different schemes to create your WBS hierarchy 57Using one of two approaches to develop your WBS 58Categorizing your project’s work 60Labeling your WBS entries 61Displaying your WBS in different formats 62Improving the quality of your WBS 66Using templates 66Identifying Risks While Detailing Your Work 68Documenting What You Need to Know about Your Planned Project Work 70Book 2: Steering the Ship: Planning and Managing a Project 71Chapter 1: You Want This Project Done When? 73Picture This: Illustrating a Work Plan with a Network Diagram 74Defining a network diagram’s elements 74Drawing a network diagram 76Analyzing a Network Diagram 77Reading a network diagram 77Interpreting a network diagram 79Working with Your Project’s Network Diagram 84Determining precedence 84Using a network diagram to analyze a simple example 87Developing Your Project’s Schedule 92Taking the first steps 92Avoiding the pitfall of backing in to your schedule 93Meeting an established time constraint 94Applying different strategies to arrive at your destination in less time 95Estimating Activity Duration 102Determining the underlying factors 103Considering resource characteristics 103Finding sources of supporting information 104Improving activity duration estimates 104Displaying Your Project’s Schedule 106Chapter 2: Starting Your Project Team Off on the Right Foot 111Finalizing Your Project’s Participants 112Are you in? Confirming your team members’ participation 112Assuring that others are on board 114Filling in the blanks 115Developing Your Team 116Reviewing the approved project plan 117Developing team and individual goals 118Specifying team-member roles 118Defining your team’s operating processes 119Supporting the development of team-member relationships 120Resolving conflicts 120All together now: Helping your team become a smooth-functioning unit 123Laying the Groundwork for Controlling Your Project 125Selecting and preparing your tracking systems 125Establishing schedules for reports and meetings 126Setting your project’s baseline 127Hear Ye, Hear Ye! Announcing Your Project 127Setting the Stage for Your Post-Project Evaluation 128Chapter 3: Monitoring Progress and Maintaining Control 129Holding the Reins: Project Control 130Establishing Project Management Information Systems 131The clock’s ticking: Monitoring schedule performance 132All in a day’s work: Monitoring work effort 138Follow the money: Monitoring expenditures 143Putting Your Control Process into Action 147Heading off problems before they occur 147Formalizing your control process 148Identifying possible causes of delays and variances 149Identifying possible corrective actions 150Getting back on track: Rebaselining 151Reacting Responsibly When Changes Are Requested 151Responding to change requests 152Creeping away from scope creep 153Chapter 4: Bringing Your Project to Closure 155Staying the Course to Completion 156Planning ahead for your project’s closure 156Updating your initial closure plans when you’re ready to wind down the project 157Charging up your team for the sprint to the finish line 158Handling Administrative Issues 158Providing a Smooth Transition for Team Members 159Surveying the Results: The Post-Project Evaluation 160Preparing for the evaluation throughout the project 161Setting the stage for the evaluation meeting 162Conducting the evaluation meeting 163Following up on the evaluation 165Book 3: Helping Out: Using Tools on a Project 167Chapter 1: Considering Checklists and Templates 169Using Checklists Properly 170Understanding Checklist Types 171Trying Templates 172Reviewing Project Structure 173Kicking off the project 173Doing the planning 175Delivering project products 175Closing the project 176Evaluating the project 176Chapter 2: The Key Documents for Managing a Project 179Kicking Off 180Project Planning 180The major planning documents 180The logs 181Control checklists 182Controlling a Project 183Thinking About What You Need 184Chapter 3: Working with Microsoft Project 2019 185Connecting Project 2019 to Project Management 186Defining “project manager” 187Identifying what a project manager does 187Introducing Project 2019 188Getting to Know You 189Opening Project 2019 189Navigating Ribbon tabs and the Ribbon 191Displaying more tools 194An Updated Feature: Tell Me What You Want to Do 196Chapter 4: Surveying Cool Shortcuts in Project 2019 197Task Information 197Resource Information 198Frequently Used Functions 199Subtasks 200Quick Selections 200Fill Down 200Navigation 200Hours to Years 201Timeline Shortcuts 201Quick Undo and Repeat 202Book 4: A New Method: Agile Project Management 203Chapter 1: Applying the Agile Manifesto and Principles 205Understanding the Agile Manifesto 205Outlining the Four Values of the Agile Manifesto 208Value 1: Individuals and interactions over processes and tools 209Value 2: Working software over comprehensive documentation 210Value 3: Customer collaboration over contract negotiation 212Value 4: Responding to change over following a plan 213Defining the 12 Agile Principles 214Agile principles of customer satisfaction 216Agile principles of quality 218Agile principles of teamwork 220Agile principles of product development 222Adding the Platinum Principles 226Resisting formality 226Thinking and acting as a team 227Visualizing rather than writing 228Seeing Changes as a Result of Agile Values 229Taking the Agile Litmus Test 230Chapter 2: Defining the Product Vision and Product Roadmap 233Agile Planning 234Progressive elaboration 236Inspect and adapt 237Defining the Product Vision 237Step 1: Developing the product objective 239Step 2: Creating a draft vision statement 239Step 3: Validating and revising the vision statement 241Step 4: Finalizing the vision statement 242Creating a Product Roadmap 243Step 1: Identifying product stakeholders 244Step 2: Establishing product requirements 245Step 3: Arranging product features 245Step 4: Estimating efforts and ordering requirements 247Step 5: Determining high-level time frames 250Saving your work 250Completing the Product Backlog 251Chapter 3: Planning Releases and Sprints 253Refining Requirements and Estimates 253What is a user story? 254Steps to create a user story 256Breaking down requirements 260Estimation poker 262Affinity estimating 265Release Planning 267Preparing for Release 271Preparing the product for deployment 271Prepare for operational support 272Preparing the organization 273Preparing the marketplace 274Sprint Planning 275The sprint backlog 276The sprint planning meeting 277Chapter 4: Working throughout the Day 285Planning Your Day: The Daily Scrum 285Covering important topics 286Ensuring an effective meeting 287Tracking Progress 289The sprint backlog 289The task board 292Understanding Agile Roles in the Sprint 294Keys for daily product owner success 295Keys for daily development team member success 296Keys for daily scrum master success 297Keys for daily stakeholder success 298Keys for daily agile mentor success 298Creating Shippable Functionality 299Elaborating 300Developing 300Verifying 301Identifying roadblocks 304Implementing Information Radiators 305Wrapping Up at the End of the Day 307Chapter 5: Showcasing Work, Inspecting, and Adapting 309The Sprint Review 309Preparing to demonstrate 310The sprint review meeting 311Collecting feedback in the sprint review meeting 314The Sprint Retrospective 315Planning for retrospectives 317The retrospective meeting 317Inspecting and adapting 319Book 5: A Popular Agile Approach: Running a Scrum Project 321Chapter 1: The First Steps of Scrum 323Getting Your Scrum On 323Show me the money 324I want it now 325I’m not sure what I want 326Is that bug a problem? 327Your company’s culture 327The Power in the Product Owner 327Why Product Owners Love Scrum 329The Company Goal and Strategy: Stage 1 331Structuring your vision 332Finding the crosshair 333The Scrum Master 333Scrum master traits 334Scrum master as servant leader 335Why scrum masters love scrum 335Common Roles Outside Scrum 336Stakeholders 336Scrum mentors 337Chapter 2: Planning Your Project 339The Product Roadmap: Stage 2 339Take the long view 340Use simple tools 341Create your product roadmap 342Set your time frame 343Breaking Down Requirements 345Prioritization of requirements 345Levels of decomposition 346Seven steps of requirement building 346Your Product Backlog 347The dynamic to-do list 349Product backlog refinement 349Other possible backlog items 353Product Backlog Common Practices 354User stories 354Further refinement 357Chapter 3: The Talent and the Timing 359The Development Team 360The uniqueness of scrum development teams 360Dedicated teams and cross-functionality 361Self-organizing and self-managing 362Co-locating or the nearest thing 364Getting the Edge on Backlog Estimation 365Your Definition of Done 365Common Practices for Estimating 367Fibonacci numbers and story points 368Velocity 374Chapter 4: Release and Sprint Planning 377Release Plan Basics: Stage 3 378Prioritize, prioritize, prioritize 380Release goals 382Release sprints 383Release plan in practice 384Sprinting to Your Goals 386Defining sprints 386Planning sprint length 387Following the sprint life cycle 388Planning Your Sprints: Stage 4 389Sprint goals 389Phase I 390Phase II 391Your Sprint Backlog 392The burndown chart benefit 392Setting backlog capacity 394Working the sprint backlog 395Prioritizing sprints 397Chapter 5: Getting the Most Out of Sprints 399The Daily Scrum: Stage 5 400Defining the daily scrum 400Scheduling a daily scrum 402Conducting a daily scrum 402Making daily scrums more effective 403The Team Task Board 404Swarming 406Dealing with rejection 407Handling unfinished requirements 408The Sprint Review: Stage 6 409The sprint review process 410Stakeholder feedback 411Product increments 412The Sprint Retrospective: Stage 7 412The sprint retrospective process 413The Derby and Larsen process 414Inspection and adaptation 416Chapter 6: Inspect and Adapt: How to Correct Your Course 417The Need for Certainty 417The Feedback Loop 418Transparency 419Antipatterns 421External Forces 421In-Flight Course Correction 422Testing in the Feedback Loop 423A Culture of Innovation 423Book 6: The Next Level: Enterprise Agility 425Chapter 1: Taking It All In: The Big Picture 427Defining Agile and Enterprise Agility 427Understanding agile product delivery 428Defining “enterprise agility” 431Checking out popular enterprise agile frameworks 432Practicing as much agile as your organization can tolerate 434Achieving Enterprise Agility in Three Not-So-Easy Steps 435Step 1: Review the top enterprise agile frameworks 435Step 2: Identify your organization’s existing culture 436Step 3: Create a strategy for making big changes 437Chapter 2: Sizing Up Your Organization 443Committing to Radical Change 444Understanding What Culture is and Why It’s So Difficult to Change 445Figuring out why culture is so entrenched 445Avoiding the common mistake of trying to make agile fit your organization 447Identifying Your Organization’s Culture Type 447Running with the wolf pack in a control culture 450Rising with your ability in a competence culture 452Nurturing your interns in a cultivation culture 454Working it out together in a collaboration culture 456Laying the Groundwork for a Successful Transformation 458Appreciating the value of an agile organization 459Clarifying your vision 460Planning for your transformation 461Chapter 3: Driving Organizational Change 463Choosing an Approach: Top-Down or Bottom-Up 464Driving Change from Top to Bottom with the Kotter Approach 465Step 1: Create a sense of urgency around a Big Opportunity 466Step 2: Build and evolve a guiding coalition 467Step 3: Form a change vision and strategic initiatives 468Step 4: Enlist a volunteer army 469Step 5: Enable action by removing barriers 470Step 6: Generate (and celebrate) short-term wins 471Step 7: Sustain acceleration 471Step 8: Institute change 472Improving your odds of success 472Driving a Grassroots Change: A Fearless Approach 473Recruiting a change evangelist 474Changing without top-down authority 474Making change a self-fulfilling prophecy 476Looking for change patterns 476Recruiting innovators and early adopters 477Tailoring your message 477Steering clear of change myths 478Overcoming Obstacles Related to Your Organization’s Culture 480Seeing how culture can sink agile 480Acknowledging the challenge 481Prioritizing the challenge 482Gaining insight into motivation 482Chapter 4: Putting It All Together: Taking Steps toward an Agile Enterprise 485Step 1: Identifying Your Organization’s Culture 486Step 2: Listing the Strengths and Challenges with Changing Your Culture 488Step 3: Selecting the Best Approach to Organizational Change Management 491Step 4: Training Managers on Lean Thinking 491Step 5: Starting a Lean-Agile Center of Excellence (LACE) 493Step 6: Choosing a High-Level Value Stream 494Step 7: Assigning a Budget to the Value Stream 496Step 8: Selecting an Enterprise Agile Framework 497Step 9: Shifting from Detailed Plans to Epics 499Step 10: Respecting and Trusting Your People 500Book 7: Making It Official: PMP Certification 503Chapter 1: Introducing the PMP Exam 505Going Over the PMP Exam Blueprint 506Knowledge and skills 506Code of ethics and professional conduct 506Exam scoring 507Digging into the Exam Domains 507Initiating the project 507Planning the project 508Executing the project 509Monitoring and controlling the project 509Closing the project 509Applying for and Scheduling the Exam 510Surveying the application process 510Scheduling your exam 512Taking the Exam 512Arriving on exam day 513Looking at types of questions 514Trying some exam-taking tips 516Getting your results 516Preparing for the Exam 516Chapter 2: It’s All about the Process 519Managing Your Project is a Process 519Understanding Project Management Process Groups 521Before the Project Begins 523Initiating processes 523Planning processes 525Executing processes 529Monitoring and Controlling processes 531Closing processes 532The Ten Knowledge Areas 534Project Integration Management 534Project Scope Management 535Project Schedule Management 535Project Cost Management 536Project Quality Management 536Project Resource Management 536Project Communications Management 537Project Risk Management 537Project Procurement Management 538Project Stakeholder Management 538Mapping the Processes 539Chapter 3: Reviewing the PMI Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct 541Beginning with the Basics of the Code 542Responsibility 543Responsibility aspirational standards 543Responsibility mandatory standards 544Respect 545Respect aspirational standards 545Respect mandatory standards 546Fairness 547Fairness aspirational standards 547Fairness mandatory standards 548Honesty 549Honesty aspirational standards 549Honesty mandatory standards 550Keeping Key Terms in Mind 551Index 553