Introduction to Project Management

0:00Thank you for joining me on this journey into the realm of project management.

0:04I am Bob Mailer.

0:05I'm going to be your hostess with the mostest for this introduction to project

0:10management.

0:10So strap in, grab a helmet.

0:12Here we go.

0:13Let's imagine we're both walking down the street of any given awesome city.

0:18And we both stop in front of this building and look at it.

0:20You might be thinking, how long did this take to build?

0:23How much did it cost?

0:25And how many people were involved?

0:26Why are there so many windows?

0:28Maybe thinking a range of things.

0:30You're a tourist and you're overseas and you see the tower bridge in London.

0:33You might be thinking, when did they build this and why does it look so great?

0:37And could they've built something a little more simple?

0:39The answer is no, because it's awesome.

0:42You may have again a range of questions like, how has it stood the test of time

0:46?

0:46If you're like me, you like to go to amusement parks and you get on the neck

0:50breaker roller coaster.

0:51And as you're winging around it, hitting those curves at 10 G's, trying not to

0:55pass out and throw up,

0:57you may have some questions like, this thing is amazing.

1:00But why am I still strapped in this chair going 200 miles an hour?

1:04Why aren't people being flung in every direction?

1:08How long did this take to build?

1:09How much engineering is used to build this?

1:13And is it even safe?

1:14You're dancing at the edge of project management.

1:17Those are all good questions.

1:18If you were to ask PMI, the project management Institute, they might say that

1:25project

1:26management is the application of knowledge skills, tools and techniques to

1:31activities to meet project requirements.

1:34But that's a lot.

1:35So let's break it down.

1:37The application of knowledge and skills.

1:40Well, who's knowledge and skills?

1:42Well, that would be yours and the project team, engineers, code writers, etc.

1:49Well, what tools and techniques are they applying meetings, expert judgment,

1:54brainstorming, alternatives analysis, and the list goes on and on.

1:58Now, when you say activities, what are you really talking about?

2:03You're talking about work, people doing stuff.

2:06And then finally, to meet project requirements, what project requirements?

2:11Well, projects are undertaken to produce a product, a service or a result.

2:17Your product might be drone delivered pizza.

2:20It's coming.

2:21And I definitely want some or a service.

2:24People coming to your house to fill up your vehicle just because you don't want

2:28to go to the gas station.

2:29That's a real service, by the way.

2:31And finally, a result.

2:33How about a 15% increase in customer satisfaction or a 5% increase in stock

2:39price?

2:40Projects produce products, services and results, sometimes all three.

2:47So let's clear this and drive on.

2:49If you can't wrap your head around that, take a look at your phone because you

2:53probably have one.

2:54You may even be watching this video on it right now.

2:57How many apps do you have on your phone?

3:00You probably have one that gives you access to your money in a bank or a

3:04savings

3:04account or your stock market.

3:06And how about projects that clean up natural disasters like tornadoes or

3:11hurricanes?

3:12And what about good old social media?

3:15You know what it is and we all have it.

3:18So really, what is project management?

3:20And the answer is it depends.

3:23It depends on who you ask.

3:25If you ask me, I think it's nothing more than a framework, a framework that's

3:30going to take you from point A to point B.

3:34Because right now you have the present state or the status quo and you're

3:38trying

3:39to go to the future state, some sort of gain, perhaps.

3:43The future state is over here.

3:45Project management is going to take you there.

3:48And there's more than one kind and we're going to talk about it until you know

3:51way

3:52more than you think you should know.

3:53So if you're feeling confused up to this point, you're not alone.

3:57Let's take a pause for cause.

3:59Let's take a break for a shake because we're in for a minute to win it.

4:02And yes, I rhymed all of those on purpose.

0:00And welcome back to training. If you stuck with me this long, well, it's only

0:04been a few minutes. So hopefully I've dropped some knowledge bombs on you and

0:08you are excited to learn more.

0:09So let's get to it. Previously, we talked about what project management is. And

0:14for the next few minutes, I want to talk about how it might be used. So think

0:18about the construction industry very mature. In this example, we have the Burj

0:23Khalifa in Dubai. It is the world's tallest building.

0:27That by itself is notable, but here's the really crazy part. 12,000 workers

0:32worked on it. 12,000. That is amazing to me. Also notable. More than 100,000

0:40pounds of concrete.

0:41Now, take a moment, consider how many miles of electrical line there might be.

0:47How much plumbing, how many rooms, how many elevators, how long did it take to

0:53build.

0:54It is an engineering marvel hands down. And if you ever need an example of how

0:58the construction industry can really leverage project management, the Burj Khal

1:02ifa is it.

1:03Let's move on to AI. Raise your hand. Well, wherever you're sitting, if you're

1:09using some form of chat, GPT or deep-seak or grok, you can't touch any piece of

1:14software these days without having some form of AI integration. It is amazing.

1:19The processing power, the speed, the results. And obviously, there are some

1:25problems with it. Sometimes it'll make things up. Sometimes it'll give you too

1:29much, but it doesn't at a speed unheard of before.

1:33I cannot imagine what AI is going to look like in five years, but I'm excited

1:37to see it. The healthcare industry, very mature space for project management.

1:42Here's a great example. The Mayo Clinic is one of the most prestigious

1:45institutions in the world. Now, sometime back, they undertook a $1.5 billion

1:51project to standardize their EHR, their electronic health records across all

1:56their locations.

1:57They have 90 different hospitals and clinics. Imagine walking into one clinic

2:02here, let's call this clinic A, having an exam, and then you go to a different

2:08clinic over here, perhaps later that day.

2:11And then you go see a specialist over here, maybe next week, and then you have

2:15to get blood work over here. Maybe the same day, maybe next week. It doesn't

2:19really matter.

2:20But all of your information is seamlessly moving around from point A to point B

2:24all the way through point D, which may not seem like a whole lot, but what

2:29about data quality? What about data integrity? What about data security?

2:34It really starts to add up and oh, by the way, what about data storage? It gets

2:40out of control very, very fast. Wildly cool project management. If that's not

2:45working for you, think about marketing.

2:48Do you know in the most recent Super Bowl, it cost a staggering $8 million for

2:54a 30 second slot? $8 million. Can you imagine how much time and energy they put

3:00into making sure that every single second they put out there for the most?

3:04Watched sports contest in the United States every year? How much ROI they're

3:10trying to get on that? There was no thoughts wasted. Well, that's not

3:14necessarily true, but there's definitely no time wasted for those 30 second

3:18slots.

3:18If you ponied up $8 million, you definitely wanted your money back. Here's

3:23another crazy marketing idea. Back in 2011, Coca-Cola was trying to do a re

3:28brand too.

3:29Remember when they came out with all the bottles with everyone's name on them,

3:33Bob, Shelley, Steve, Frank, George? They had to come up with 250 common names

3:39across the world that they could use in this marketing campaign. 250. You may

3:43not know that, you may not care. You may not still care, but now you know. Let

3:48's move on.

3:49The space exploration industry right now. Has anyone paying attention to SpaceX

3:54? Not long ago, they launched a payload into space and then they caught the

3:59heavy booster rocket. It came all the way back down.

4:03They coddled on what looked like chopsticks on this 24 story gurney. It is one

4:07of the most amazing feats of engineering and project management that I have

4:12ever seen. If you haven't seen that video, you should definitely Google it. It

4:16will blow your mind.

4:17And we're going to go to Mars, not me, but someone's going. And what about the

4:21cruise line industry? Here's one for you. I don't know if you like cruises, but

4:26the oasis of the seas is the largest cruise ship ever built and it took how

4:30long? Six years. Six years to build a boat. Well, it doesn't sound like a whole

4:36lot until you figure out that it took more than 10,000 people to do it and wait

4:42for it.

4:43It can hold up to 7,600 passengers and crew. Huge. Can you imagine what it

4:49would take? How much propulsion? How much wastewater recycling? How much to

4:55cook for that many people? How much to make sure they're safety if they have to

5:00evacuate? It just blows my mind.

5:03And yeah, I might be a project management nerd, but you have to admit, these

5:08are some wild stats. Project management is used almost anywhere and everywhere.

5:14And if someone's telling you they're not using it, they're probably not really

5:17thinking about it. You use it at home when you paint a room or when you plan a

5:22vacation, plan a wedding. We use project management all the time in almost

5:27every industry that I can think of and it's only going to get cooler as we go.

5:32If your mind's full, let's do what I like to do. Let's take a break. When we

5:36come back, we're going to talk about the timeline and the history of project

5:40management.

0:00Well, welcome to part three of the course.

0:02I'm glad you came back.

0:03I'm super excited.

0:04You've probably picked up on that by now.

0:06I'm a little bit of a nerd in the project management field,

0:10but I love it.

0:11Hopefully, you're going to love it too.

0:13Now, part one, we talked a little bit

0:15about what project management is,

0:17and we just got done talking about how it might be used.

0:20Now, we're going to talk about some notable dates.

0:23As soon as I figure out how to do it.

0:24Now, project management is not an immature field.

0:29It's been around a long time, and there's

0:31some very formal dates where some transformative things have

0:34happened in the project management industry

0:36to move it along.

0:37Let's start with 1917.

0:401917 is the Gantt chart.

0:42Henry Gantt developed the Gantt chart,

0:44which is really just a visual scheduling tool used

0:49for tracking project activities.

0:51And it might look like this.

0:52Imagine you have January, February, March.

0:56Well, the Gantt chart, sometimes called the bar chart,

0:58might look like this.

1:00This activity takes this long across that many weeks.

1:03And then the next one is here.

1:04And then the next one is here.

1:06Then maybe you have a bunch of little activities running

1:08as well at the same time.

1:10And it's a really interesting way

1:11to see how project activities are sequenced

1:15through your network diagram.

1:16And we're going to see much more of this

1:18when we get to the scheduling portion of this course.

1:21Now, 1956-- let me grab my cursor here--

1:241956, the AA CE is formed.

1:28The American Association of Cost Engineers.

1:31Now, a moment ago, we had something

1:33that significantly impacted the schedule.

1:36Now we have something significantly impacting

1:39the budget or the cost.

1:41The American Association of Cost Engineers

1:44is all about focusing on cost controls.

1:47Cost controls dictate how you spend money,

1:50how you track money, and when you need to be really concerned

1:53about how much money you're spending.

1:55We're going to talk more about the budget in future nuggets.

1:58These are two very important events.

2:00Let's go to 1957-- the critical path method.

2:04The critical path method is a method

2:06of determining which of the network paths through a diagram

2:11are the critical path.

2:13Let's imagine this is January.

2:16And then you have December over year for one project.

2:19Typically, in a one-year project, you

2:21might have multiple network paths through it.

2:25Now, this is a real simple expression of that.

2:29But one of them is going to be called the critical path.

2:32And the critical path is critical because it

2:34is the path that dictates when this project is going to start

2:39and when all of the project activities are going to be done

2:43or should be done.

2:45And it's called the critical path

2:46because it dictates when the project should end.

2:50Any deviation from that usually means the project is going

2:53to be late.

2:54Now, let's fast forward to 1958.

2:56PERT, or Program Evaluation and Review

2:59Technique, is introduced.

3:02The Navy figured out that when they ask someone how long

3:06it was going to take to do something,

3:07they were overly optimistic or pessimistic

3:10so they developed PERT as an estimating technique.

3:14And it is a formula.

3:16And it looks like this.

3:18P plus 4R plus O divided by 6.

3:21I know that looks terrible, but it's P plus 4R plus O divided

3:25by 6.

3:26P is pessimistic, R is realistic, or most likely,

3:31and O is optimistic.

3:32I know this sounds a little wonky,

3:34but this really helped them determine

3:37how long activities we're going to take, particularly

3:39those that had never been done before.

3:41We'll talk more about this in estimation.

3:43Moving on.

3:441969, PMI is born.

3:46PMI is the Project Management Institute.

3:49They are in Pennsylvania.

3:51And right now, and probably for the foreseeable future,

3:55they are the de facto standard in project management.

3:58If you've ever heard of the PMP, the Project Management

4:02Professional, they are the overseers of that certification

4:06and quite a few others, actually.

4:07Let's drive on.

4:08This brings us up to 1986, and the Scrum framework

4:12is introduced.

4:13Scrum, which I may have mentioned before,

4:16is a methodology of framework, if you will,

4:21that's normally used for software development.

4:23Predictive is usually used for infrastructure development.

4:28One is good for one, one is good for the other,

4:31and they are rarely interchangeable.

4:33However, they may be used together

4:37for various kinds of projects.

4:39When we get to the comparison of Scrum and Predictive,

4:41so you can visually see it, it'll make more sense.

4:44Now, PMI was formed in 1969, and you may have heard of the Project

4:50Management's correction, the Project Management

4:54Body of Knowledge.

4:55The Pembok, the Pembok Guide, is a framework of inputs, tools,

5:01outputs, and various items you might

5:04use to make your projects better.

5:06It started as a pamphlet, and now it's

5:08morphed into a pretty thick book.

5:10We'll talk more about this later on,

5:12but this is when Pembok 1 came out.

5:14We are currently on Pembok 7, so a lot has changed.

5:18Now, in 1994, the Chaos Report is published.

5:22Really talks about the high failure rate of IT projects,

5:26information technology, and if memory serves at the time,

5:29they pointed out that something like 90% of all IT projects

5:33were suffering problems.

5:35They were out of scope or not delivering all of the scope.

5:38They were way over budget.

5:40They were way behind schedule.

5:42It was a train wreck.

5:43Not surprising, not long after that.

5:46In 1995, we had the official introduction of Scrum,

5:50officially introduced as an agile framework.

5:53And then, tied to that, in 2001, the agile manifesto

5:58is released.

5:59Now, the agile manifesto is the, oh, a very pivotal foundational

6:06document that dictates how software should be developed.

6:09And it is wildly different from predictive.

6:13We're going to talk more about this, but make no mistake,

6:16the agile manifesto changed the game for how software would

6:20be developed, and it is in practice now.

6:22All right, this is going to bring us up to 2009.

6:25Now, because the agile manifesto was released

6:28and how it changed the game for software development,

6:31PMI, which had previously released the PMP,

6:35is now releasing the professional certification

6:38for agile practitioners.

6:40And it exploded.

6:412017, we came out.

6:43Again, PMI came out with the sixth edition.

6:46We previously talked about the first edition.

6:48And now, we are on the seventh edition of the PIMBOC,

6:52the Project Management Body of Knowledge, which is now

6:56principal-based approach.

6:58No, do not go out and start buying old versions

7:02of the PIMBOC guide so you can read up and catch up,

7:05because you'll just fall asleep.

7:06That's the only thing that's going to happen.

7:07The whole point of this entire nugget is just to show you

7:11that the evolution of the project management industry

7:15has really been accelerating since the release of the Gantt

7:19chart all the way through cost controls

7:23and the introduction of the Scrum Guide, the Agile

7:25Manifesto, and the Project Management Guide, the PIMBOC guide.

7:29Here's where we are.

7:30I hope you've enjoyed this.

7:32And if you're super excited about learning more,

7:35raise your hands.

7:37Well, they must be excited, so you know what time it is.

7:40It's time for a break.

0:00And thanks for coming back to training. I really do appreciate it. I hope some

0:04of this is making sense.

0:05Heck, I hope I'm making sense. So far we've talked about what project

0:09management is at a very high level.

0:11Some of the industries that use it, and we've given quite a few examples along

0:16with some key dates in the timeline.

0:17So from this point, we're going to have to dig a little bit deeper and get into

0:21the benefits and reasons behind why a company might use project management.

0:26So let's talk about the reasons. What are some of the reasons that a company

0:30might undertake a new project?

0:33And believe it or not, there are quite a few. The easiest one is market demand.

0:39Not long ago, there was just chat GPT, and everyone went bonkers.

0:44And now, like I previously pointed out earlier, you have Grock and DeepSeek and

0:49almost every software application has some kind of AI integration in it.

0:54We are hungry for whatever will make our lives easy, and so far, AI is going to

0:59meet that need.

1:01And this isn't a new concept. Think about Alexa. Or, okay Google, tell me about

1:06it's been around a while. So market demand makes sense.

1:10But what about the business needs? There are plenty of business reasons to

1:14undertake a project.

1:16Let's say two companies merge. They're integrating two different kinds of

1:19software and they need one platform.

1:21That's a business need to initiate a project. Easy peasy lemon squeezy. Or,

1:27they've grown so much because of data storage, they have to perhaps build

1:32another data center.

1:33That's a business need. One of my favorite reasons is a customer request. Here

1:38's $20 million and I want you to build something for me.

1:41Okay, I'd like that in small unmarked bills please. Another reason, they're not

1:47going to do it, but it is kind of funny to think about.

1:50Another reason to initiate a project is for legal reasons. There are plenty of

1:55reporting reasons into say financial institutions about how you're managing

2:01your money or where it's going or where your customers money has gone.

2:05There are plenty of health reasons, particularly with data privacy for

2:10customers and patients. There are lots of legal reasons to initiate a project.

2:15Another good one, and you'll know this one, technological advancements. Didn't

2:20I just see that Microsoft just introduced a quantum computing chip on the heels

2:26of AI, which is recently exploded as well? I've been talking about it.

2:30It's only a matter of time before your dinner is going to cook itself. If you

2:34've ever watched some of the old episodes of Star Trek, Jean-Luc Picard's will

2:39walk over to what looks like a microwave to me and says tea, Earl Grey, hot,

2:44and it just materializes.

2:45I don't think we're far from that, and that would be a cool tech advancement.

2:50Another good reason, environmental considerations, perhaps to restrict flooding

2:55somewhere you want to build a dam, or because of forest fires you're trying to

3:00plant a bunch of new trees, tens of thousands.

3:02Who knows? The environment is important. There are plenty of reasons to

3:07undertake some of those projects. What about competitive pressure?

3:11Well, our client just came out with a 2x AI model. We need to come out with a 3

3:16x AI model. You know what I mean. If you're client, correction. If you're

3:21competitive, or is suddenly doing something better than you, or offering

3:24something better than you do, you better figure something out pretty quick.

3:28Another good reason to initiate a project? Crisis response. Well, that's not

3:34right. I better figure that one out. One second while I do the eraser, because

3:39apparently, I don't know how to spell cry.

3:40Well, let's try this again. Perhaps you have a data breach, and you need to

3:45institute some sort of new data protection or security measures to make sure it

3:50doesn't happen again.

3:51So, there are plenty of reasons to initiate a project. It may not be at your

3:58level, but someone somewhere is taking a look at this.

4:01Even easier is the age-old reason. This is the present state. This is the

4:07future state. This is where we are right now. Perhaps a company somewhere says,

4:12"Alright, last year we made $200 billion by providing X, Y, and Z."

4:17And next year, I want to make $300 million by providing a better version of X,

4:22Y, and Z. So you're going to initiate projects to go from the present state to

4:26the future state. And it happens all the time.

4:30This has been beneficial. I want you to chew on the reasons why you might

4:35initiate a project, and we'll be right back.

0:00In a previous section, I happened to mention some of the reasons why a company

0:04might undertake a project,

0:06and I need you to understand that list is not all inclusive. There are plenty

0:10of other reasons

0:11why a company might start some projects or expand or even stop a project. Those

0:16are just some teasers

0:17as we go further into this training. But now I want to talk about some

0:20definitions,

0:21because to really understand project management, there are a ton of vocabulary

0:26words that need to

0:27make sense. Hopefully this will help. And trust me, this list is not all

0:31inclusive either.

0:32So let's get to it. The first one right out of the gate is scoped. The scope is

0:39what's included in

0:39your project. The deliverables, the product, the service, the result. And here

0:45's an easy example.

0:46Let's say you go to the store with a grocery list, and you need sugar and flour

0:52and oil and a pan

0:54and a bunch of other stuff. So you get it all and you take it home, you mix it

0:58all up, you bake it,

0:59you put some icing on it because you're deliverable is a birthday cake. That is

1:06what this project was

1:07all about. Scope equals deliverables. And once you clearly understand what you

1:12're deliverable is,

1:13you can figure out what the scope is. And I know this sounds very elementary,

1:18it can be

1:19very complicated and very technical, very fast. The next definition are

1:24stakeholders.

1:26Stakeholders are people. People that believe your project has a positive or

1:31negative impact

1:32on them. People who can have a positive or negative impact on them. And let me

1:38give you a couple of

1:39examples. Your customer is definitely a stakeholder. And users are a stake

1:44holder. The public can be

1:46stakeholders. The government might have a stake in your project. Stakeholders.

1:52The project manager

1:53definitely a stakeholder. The project team definitely stakeholders. Stake

1:58holders is a very broad list.

2:00Another important definition is a milestone. A milestone is a key date in the

2:06timeline of your

2:07project. Think about your annual key dates wherever you live, perhaps a

2:12national holiday.

2:13Here in the United States, some of those key dates are the 4th of July,

2:17Christmas, Halloween,

2:19Labor Day, Memorial Day, Tree Day and Flag Day. Okay, I'm not so sure about

2:24Tree Day,

2:25but some of those others are pretty important. Perhaps your milestone can be

2:29the completion of a

2:30key component of your deliverable milestones. Another very important, probably

2:37too important.

2:39Definition is a risk. A risk is an uncertain event or condition. It's uncertain

2:46. And if it happens,

2:47it may or may not have a positive or negative impact on your project. If it

2:52actually happens,

2:53it becomes an issue. And an issue is a problem. This becomes that. Another

3:00phrase you might hear me

3:01use throughout this training. Another upcoming training is WBS or Work Break

3:06down Structure.

3:08The work breakdown structure is a structure that breaks down the work. Think of

3:14your deliverable.

3:15How many, it's where you decompose something large into some things that are

3:21much smaller.

3:22Think about a car in this easy example. So we want to build a new car. So our

3:27project deliverable

3:30is a car. But how many different ways can we break that car down into smaller

3:34pieces?

3:35Well, perhaps there's the frame. And then there's the engine. And then there's

3:39electrical. And then

3:40there's the transmission. Well, let's think about that frame for a second. You

3:43might have internal

3:45and then external. We break it down into smaller and smaller, more digestible,

3:50easily understandable

3:52pieces. That is your work breakdown structure. And oh, by the way, there's work

3:57that's broken

3:58down as well. Things like inspections and audits and meetings. How many

4:02meetings do we have on the

4:04project? Now let's talk briefly about waterfall project management, sometimes

4:09called predictive

4:10versus agile. They are not the same. A waterfall project may have a life cycle

4:17that looks like this.

4:19Perhaps you have concept and then planning and then design and then build and

4:25then roll out

4:27and then retirement. I don't know. I just made that up. But notice how it falls

4:31this very

4:33waterfall-esque downhill looking slope. This can take a long time. Some

4:38projects last for decades.

4:40Some, just a couple of months. It's called predictive because there's so much

4:45planning that goes into

4:46it, you can predict or have a pretty good understanding of predicting what

4:50might happen next.

4:52Agile is very different. Agile is very flexible. It's very fast and it's

4:59largely associated with

5:00software development. In agile, scrum to be more specific, a scrum sprint is

5:07only one month long.

5:09So in this example, let's say you have 5,000 lines of code. Well in the one

5:13month sprint,

5:14they decide they're only going to write 500 lines. So they write the first 500

5:20lines

5:21and then they get ready for the next sprint. Well they're also reviewing that

5:25first 500 lines.

5:26And so they take what they don't like and they may roll it into the next sprint

5:31and they do it

5:32again and then they do it again and then they do it again. And I know you folks

5:36are familiar with

5:37this because you all have phones and if you have phone apps, you've probably

5:41seen a new download

5:43is available. Do it now. That's because they fixed something in the previous

5:47code version

5:48or they've enhanced it. They've added something to it. Waterfall is most

5:52associated with

5:53infrastructure type projects or heavy engineering where a lot of planning is

5:58necessary while agile

6:00is considered very fast and very flexible. They normally do not work well when

6:06you exchange them

6:08one for the other straight across the board. They do work well together for

6:12some projects and

6:13there's a huge debate on LinkedIn and the project management world about which

6:17is better. And the

6:18answer is it depends. It really depends on the kind of project you're dealing

6:23with, what kind of

6:24timeline and the list goes on and on and on. The next definition is dependency

6:30or dependencies

6:32in this case. This means something is dependent upon something else and in the

6:37schedule it usually

6:38means something must happen before or after something else. In one example,

6:44Monday, Tuesday,

6:46Thursday, Thursday, Friday. Monday must end before Tuesday can begin. Tuesday

6:54must end before Wednesday

6:56can begin. Another way of saying it is Tuesday is dependent upon Monday. Monday

7:02must happen

7:03before Tuesday. This is the finish to start relationship. Something must finish

7:10before something else

7:12can start. And thinking of your work week is the easiest way to do that. I

7:16think that's a lot for

7:17right now. Let's take a pause for cause and we'll get back to it in part two of

7:23definitions.

0:00Welcome back to definitions and right out of the gate I want to talk about one

0:04of

0:05the most important definitions in any project and that is the project plan.

0:10Let's just call it the plan. The plan is what we're going to do on this project

0:16and how we're going to do it. It is our methodology and it sounds simple enough

0:21but that is a mistake. It is not simple at all because there are a bunch of sub

0:27plans that make up the plan. So let's get into it. First you have strategic

0:33plans.

0:33Let's just call them strategic. Well that's not right but I think you know what

0:38I mean.

0:39Strategic plans affect the entire project. Plans like the change plan. How are

0:45we

0:45going to change things on the project? If you can't track changes you can't

0:50track what happened and if you can't track what happened you can't fix anything

0:54.

0:54Then you have a life cycle description. What process, water fall,

1:01hybrid is this project going to take? I don't know but we need to figure it out

1:06.

1:06Those are just a couple of your strategic plans. Well then you have what I call

1:11tactical plans. Tactical plans affect just one or two areas.

1:16How do I deal with the scope? Well there's a scope plan. Along with the scope

1:21plan

1:21there's a requirements plan. How are we going to capture and deal with the

1:25requirements? These two are tied together. Well what about the budget?

1:29Oh I know let's check the cost plan. Well what about the timeline?

1:34I bet we can find something in the schedule plan. These three look familiar?

1:39They should because these are your triple constraints and if you remember

1:44what I said what I done did said it when I said it. I actually said it.

1:48Your triple constraints mean you cannot change one of these without

1:52affecting at least one of the others and in my humble opinion

1:55you can't change any of them without affecting the other two.

1:59We're going to talk more about that further in training. Well how do I deal

2:02with the risk? I bet there's a risk plan and you would

2:06win that bet. What about my vendors? There's probably a procurement plan.

2:11Well what about my resources? My people? My stuff? My heavy equipment?

2:15My wood? There's a resource plan. Do you see where all of this is going?

2:19There's a plan for everything or there should be a plan for the things you

2:24need. Don't have too many, don't have too few, have just

2:28enough to keep this project under control. How do I do with my stakeholders?

2:32Well there's a stakeholder plan. You probably saw that one coming.

2:36That is a big overview of the plan and all the stuff that goes into it

2:42and make no mistake. There are other plans so

2:46don't be surprised later on when I say the plan and then this piece

2:51if it's the first time you've heard it and don't even forget

2:54that we still have agile out there because in the world of agile you may have

2:59a release plan and an iteration plan. Well what's the difference?

3:04Well you may have three or four iterations for your sprints

3:08and decide to release all of that stuff that you did in the first release.

3:13I have no idea. Every project, every industry, every project is different.

3:18The point is you must have a plan. But why do I really care about the plan

3:24if I know what I'm going to do and I know how I'm going to do it?

3:27Well what happens if you do something different than what you said you were

3:32going to do? The plan is what you said you were going to do.

3:35The actual is what you actually did. That's why it's called the actual.

3:39Well what's the difference? The difference is the variance.

3:43The variance is the result and the variance is what will get you into

3:48trouble. If you can't tell the difference between what you said you were going

3:52to

3:52do and what you actually did if something goes

3:55wrong you can't fix it. The variance tells you what happened

4:00and from the variance you can figure out what to do next.

4:04Again I know I'm dropping a lot of knowledge on you right now.

4:07We're going to talk more about this in future nuggets in future skills.

4:11So that's the plan. Now let's talk about documents.

4:15The plan tells you how to do stuff but documents are the information you

4:19capture

4:20from actually doing the stuff. There are plenty of logs like

4:23assumptions log. Well what is an assumption? An assumption is a belief you

4:27hold to be true or false in the absence of proof

4:31and if it turns out to be different than what you thought it becomes a risk.

4:36A risk becomes an issue. An issue is a problem and it goes in the issue log.

4:43What do we do with problems? We solve them and there are tons of other

4:48documents. Scheduled data, risk reports, risk

4:52registers, resource calendars, quality reports, quality metrics.

4:57The milestone list, the lessons learned, registered, documents and plans, plans

5:02and documents, lines and tigers and bears. Oh my!

5:05You see where this is going and this is an area where many project managers

5:10fall apart because they don't keep up with their plans and their documents

5:15and because of that they can't figure out the variance

5:19and they can't properly report to leadership about what's happened and

5:23what they're going to do next. So make no mistake in all of the definitions

5:27we're going to talk about through this nugget and future trainings

5:31plans and documents are super duper important.

0:00So far we've talked about what project management is, why a project may be

0:05initiated, lots of plans, lots of documents, but that still begs the question,

0:10where does it fit?

0:12Why do it at all? And that really is a good question. So let's talk about it

0:16for just a moment.

0:17Where does it fit? Well, every organization usually has a C-suite. These folks,

0:22the CEO, the CFO, the CIO, and the list goes on and on.

0:28And every year they take a look at the present state, what they've currently

0:32done. And in this example only, excuse me, let's say they've only made $100

0:39million.

0:40Well, they'd like to make more. So they have a future state. And in the future

0:44state, they'd like to double that. And that's where project management fits.

0:49There's a gap. How to go from here to then. Projects do that. So they have a

0:54product, a service, or a result that's going to do that.

0:59So what do they do? They start handing down instructions to their VPs. This is

1:05what we're going to do. Figure out how to get us there.

1:09Well, along the way, there's a very important organization that may or may not

1:13exist. The project management office.

1:16They are the office that manages projects in this particular company. Let's say

1:22it exists. So what do they do? They appoint a project manager for this

1:28particular product, service, or result.

1:30And they ask for people from each of these verticals. So sales sends someone,

1:36engineering, customer support, and operations.

1:39They all send someone. And now you have a project team. Project team focuses on

1:44the product, the service, or the result that's going to move the company from

1:49the present state to the future state.

1:52But that's not the end of the story. There are some quirks here, depending on

1:56the company. Now, the project manager really wants to be large and in charge,

2:03so he or she can move this project along.

2:06And that's going to take a lot of cooperation and coordination from the VPs.

2:11That might sound like it happens, but it doesn't happen like that. Very often.

2:16It depends on the organizational structure. It really comes down to power. And

2:21this is the easiest way to see it.

2:24In the functional organization, the project manager's power is very limited. So

2:29I'm going to call that 5%, meaning the project manager has to ask everyone for

2:33everything with this hat in his hand or her hand.

2:37And it can be very uncomfortable. You see this in very traditional type

2:40companies that have very rigid departments, like sales, engineering, customer

2:45support, operations, and the list goes on and on.

2:48On the other side of the spectrum, you have projectized. And this is where

2:52project manager's power is near absolute. Let's call that 99%.

2:59The project manager can move seamlessly from group to group, has a ton of power

3:03, and normally was given that power by someone in the C suite. You don't see

3:08this very often, but it does happen.

3:11What you normally see is something called the matrix organization, a blend of

3:18traditional and projectized.

3:21This is where you see a lot of companies moving to as they call it a

3:24transformation as they try to get project management better within their

3:28organization.

3:30I like to call this the 50% power project manager. It works very well in some

3:36organizations, but again, the key factor in every project manager's success,

3:43not all of the keys, but one of them is having executive.

3:47Someone says, this is what I want. This is the person that's going to do it,

3:51and this is how you're going to support it. In almost every instance where that

3:56happens, you have a more successful project.

4:00But there's another wrinkle here. There may not be a project management office.

4:05And so now the C suite may just appoint a project manager or that looks like a

4:11mountain.

4:13So the project mountain, I think you know what I'm trying to say, or the C

4:17suite may decide that this particular VP is going to handle it.

4:22So now this VP appoints a project manager, and these VP's all have to get on

4:27board with this project, which means now they all have to provide people maybe

4:33to this project manager.

4:36What do you think happens if they don't agree with this particular project, or

4:39they don't have the staffing resources to support it? This project manager gets

4:44beat up, and it happens all the time.

4:47That's not the only issue. Other issues, processes. You might have every one of

4:54these VPs on the same page as the executive sponsor, who whichever C-level

5:00officer is pushing this, and the company's processes aren't agile enough for

5:05you.

5:05They're agile enough or quick enough to let this happen. It may take two weeks

5:09to get anything approved. What do you think that's going to do to the schedule,

5:14or the budget, or the scope?

5:16Or they may have preferred vendors that they have to use. What do you think

5:22might happen to the budget if they limit competition?

5:26Other factors involve too, like shipping. If you're ordering quite a bit of

5:30material from overseas, how long might that take? Take, excuse me. What about

5:35competition? Not every project that started is born, because the competition

5:40beats you to market first.

5:42What about regulations? There are a ton of factors involved in where project

5:46management fits within an organization, moving from the present state to the

5:50future state.

5:52So just when you think it was going to be easy, I know all the plans, I know

5:55all the documents, you have a whole bunch of other variables dropped on you,

6:00and it happens all the time.

6:02When we come back, we're going to talk about the differences between project

6:06management and other companies' functions, specifically operations.

0:00So what happens at the end of a project?

0:02The answer is, it depends.

0:05It depends on the type of product, service, and results.

0:08And more importantly, it depends on who the customer was.

0:12Was the customer internal or external?

0:15If the customer was external, they take their widget and they leave.

0:20But that's after extensive testing and confirmation that they got exactly what

0:26they paid for.

0:26But what happens if it's internal?

0:29That's very different.

0:30Now let me give you an example here.

0:31Let's say it's internal.

0:33In this example, let's assume that the company stores data for everybody else.

0:39So this particular project was a big data center.

0:42And the project manager and the project management team built it.

0:46So what do they do then?

0:48Well, operations gets involved.

0:50There's a lot of testing.

0:52They confirm it meets the standard that they were looking for.

0:56It's compliant in all the ways it needs to be.

0:59They turn it on and it does what it's supposed to do.

1:02And maybe that project manager is now done.

1:05He or she goes back to wherever he or she came from, whichever one of these

1:09verticals.

1:10And that's the end of it.

1:11But that may not be the end of it.

1:13Because let's not forget, you've built something.

1:15And that something has to be maintained.

1:19Operations and maintenance is going to maintain it.

1:21They're going to check on it every day, every week, every month, whatever it is

1:25.

1:25Cleaning upon the kind of product, if it's a piece of heavy machinery, they're

1:29going

1:29to put lubrication on it, they're going to rent it out, they're going to bring

1:33it back,

1:33they're going to clean it, they're going to do all of these things.

1:36But let's go back to that data center example.

1:39Let's say operations and maintenance has it and it's working as expected.

1:44But customers support these folks get a complaint.

1:48It's not working as expected.

1:51They find out it doesn't work well the way it's supposed to.

1:54Or there's some sort of bug in it or some sort of missing hardware and it doesn

1:58't act

1:59the way it's supposed to in case there's a power outage.

2:02That may initiate a brand new project.

2:06Which means there's a project manager that has to do it.

2:09Which means the project manager is going to go back to operations to find out

2:14exactly

2:14what's going on.

2:16Which means sales might be involved to let existing customers know, hey, we

2:21need to do

2:22something else.

2:23Which also means engineering may get involved so they can help do it.

2:27If you've picked up on it, there's the project lifecycle to produce the widget

2:34that went

2:35over to operations.

2:37That's the project lifecycle on the being very specific here.

2:43Specific here.

2:44Then there's the product lifecycle.

2:47The product may last for a very long time and go through several iterations of

2:53projects.

2:54And don't think for a second that just because you produce this product,

3:00service or result,

3:02that it's out there all by itself.

3:04Let's go back to that data center for just a second.

3:07I want you to envision a big building.

3:09Lots of servers in it.

3:11Lots of data coming in.

3:12In this example only, data center, how is that data touching the outside world?

3:19That could be a project all by itself separate from the data center

3:23independently.

3:24And what about how is it touching the infrastructure around it?

3:28And what about backup power?

3:30And what about batteries?

3:32I have no idea.

3:34And what about spill containment?

3:36All of these things are factors that play a role in the product lifecycle.

3:41All the way to retirement.

3:47At some point, the data center is going to be outdated.

3:50It will out data itself.

3:51New technology will arrive, quantum computing, data packets.

3:56There are a host of things that might happen to make that data center obsolete.

4:01Then they may actually have to tear it down.

4:04Who knows?

4:05The point of this is make no mistake.

4:07Even if the project manager is no longer involved in that particular product,

4:13operations is

4:13paying attention to it and doing something.

4:16Customer support is fielding calls from happier, dissatisfied customers.

4:22Sales may be looking for updated materials so they can actually go out there

4:25and sell

4:26it.

4:27And engineering may be playing a role as well with upgrades or problem

4:31correction and such.

4:33That's because a project ends and a product, service or result is actually

4:37delivered doesn't

4:39mean that's the end of it.

4:40This may go on for decades.

4:42And here's an easy example.

4:44Remember this?

4:45Windows.

4:46How many iterations of the Windows operating software have we seen?

4:51I remember Windows 3-1-1.

4:53I think it was.

4:55And then there's Windows 95.

4:57And then there's Windows 98.

4:58Then there's Windows XT.

5:00Then there-or XT.

5:02You know what I mean.

5:03It's P. Let's get rid of that one.

5:04And then there's Windows 7.

5:06I think there's Windows 8.

5:07I think I'm on Windows 10 right now.

5:10I'm not even sure.

5:11This is the product lifecycle.

5:13How long will it be there?

5:14I have no idea.

5:16If that's not working for you, look at the iPhone.

5:18I don't even remember the iPhone 1 or 2 or 3.

5:22And I think we're up to the iPhone 11-teen right now.

5:25So again, just because a project ends doesn't mean the product ends.

5:31And these are very clear distinctions.

5:33Thank you if you made it this far.

5:35Let's get ready for the next skill.

5:37Let's clear the screen.

5:38And give me a thumbs up if some of this made sense.

5:41Alright, it looks like it made sense to those folks.

5:44Let's drive on to the next skill.

0:00Okay, it is time to test your knowledge.

0:04I know we've gone through an introduction to Project Management at a very high

0:08level,

0:09so I promise you, this little test will not be overly difficult, and I want it

0:13to hurt just a little bit.

0:15So it's not going to be easy, but it's not going to be too tough,

0:18and I have a feeling if you've been paying attention, you're going to figure it

0:20out.

0:21So let's check it out.

0:22You've just been appointed as a new Project Manager for an IT project.

0:26You have three years of experience, which may be relevant,

0:30and this is going to be the biggest project you've led the date.

0:33Now your company is not mature with Project Management Processes, but they're

0:37working on it, which means they're trying.

0:39Which of the following is going to provide the most support for delivering a

0:43successful project?

0:45Well, let's look at your choices.

0:47You've got plenty of plans and document templates, which means you're not rec

0:51reating the wheel every time you do something,

0:54so that's good.

0:55Everyone clearly understands their roles and responsibilities on the team, so

0:59that's good.

1:00There's an executive sponsor for your project who provides a high level of

1:04authority.

1:05That sounds like a winner, and a very reasonable project timeline and budget.

1:10So these all sound pretty good.

1:13The question you have to figure out is, which one of them will provide the most

1:17support?

1:18So take a minute and think about it, and when we come back, I'll explain to you

1:22the answer,

1:23answer and why.

0:00So how did we do? Well, let's find out. All of the choices were good.

0:04Plenty of project plans and templates is going to make it easy to get this off

0:09the ground,

0:09at least for information's sake. Clearly understood roles and responsibilities

0:14sounds like you have

0:15a pretty experienced team. Reasonable timeline and budget sounds fantastic, but

0:20the one key word

0:21you should have caught was authority. More authority means more power, more

0:26power to get work done.

0:28And if you've ever tried to work on something with people that don't report to

0:32you,

0:32you know exactly the kind of authority I'm talking about. It's not a good or a

0:37bad thing.

0:38It's just necessary, particularly on a project. If you didn't pick up on it,

0:42that's okay. We're

0:43very early in this set of skills and you're going to learn a ton more as we go.

0:48Once again,

0:49thanks for training with me and I'll see you with the next skill.