1.
Project Management
In the Real World

2.
About Me
Kate Daly
BA in English from Westminster College
Senior Project Manager at ONS
Graduate of LDI XVIII
bassist, knitter, ENFP
@tikikate

3.
About You
What are your goals?
What experiences (negative or positive) do
you have with projects?

4.
What is a project manager?

5.
“A project manager
is the person
responsible for
delivering a project
on time,
within budget,
and within scope.”
- Random Boss Guy

6.
A project manager
• Works with stakeholders/customers to
understand their needs and wants (and the
difference between the two)
• Translates requirements into words and
pictures that can be understood by team
members of all skills and interests
• Understands the status of the project and
can discuss it with the appropriate level of
detail with staff at all levels

7.
A project manager
• Discusses and presents solutions
• Motivates the team to do good work
• Understands the project management
process enough to see when things are
missing
• Sees and communicates the “big picture”
• Manages everyone’s expectations

8.
(To name just a few.)

9.
“Project managers were the only
ones who could talk about the
process, not just the product.
And, usually, [they] were the only
ones who had the
charm to do it.”
- Author and PM Frank Ryle, in a 2012 interview with Fast Company

10.
Well, What’s a Project?

11.
“A project is a temporary
group activity designed to
produce a unique product,
service, or result.”
- Project Management Institute (PMI)

12.
The Three Factors Common
to All Projects

13.
SCOPE
TIME COST

14.
GOOD
FAST CHEAP

15.
The Triple Constraint
aka “Golden Triangle”
aka “Scope Triangle”
aka “Something you can’t ignore”

16.
You can’t fix one without
affecting the other two
...and they rarely work in harmony.

17.
Find out which constraints
are most important
and work to help others
understand the impact.

18.
Want it fast and cheap?
You got it! And you understand that we can
only build one feature
-- are you cool with that?

19.
High quality awesomeness
for half the price?
No problem! I’ll have that to you two years
from now.

20.
Oh! Fast and awesome?
Great! Do you happen to have your
checkbook with you?

21.
Ignoring the triple
constraint can cause a
project to #fail.

22.
Why?
It’s all about expectations.

23.
Expectations
Everyone has their own mental picture
of what the end result is.

24.
The Analogy of the Swing
(as told with illustrations from
projectcartoon.com)

25.
How the customer
explained it.

26.
How the project manager
understood it.

27.
How the product was
designed.

28.
What the programmers
wrote.

29.
How marketing sold it.

30.
What the QA folks found.

31.
How it was documented.

32.
When it was finally
delivered.

33.
How much it cost.

34.
What the customer really
needed.

35.
So, how do I avoid that?
Start with a vision, apply a framework

36.
Project Vision
Purpose (why?)
Description (how?)
Desired Results (what then?)

37.
Share the Vision
Write it down.
Talk about it (a lot).
Use it to measure success.

38.
Two Popular Frameworks
Waterfall vs. Agile

39.
Diving Into the Waterfall
•Sequential process with defined phases
•Each phase is completed before the next
one starts
•Predictable and structured

40.
The Benefits of Waterfall
•It’s easier to uncover issues earlier in the
process
•People like predictability

41.
But I Might Drown!
•People rarely know what they want until
they see what they don’t want
•No one knows for certain that what
you’ve designed will work
•Ch-ch-ch changes happen constantly

42.
Get Agile!
•Individuals and interactions
over processes and tools
•Working products
over comprehensive documentation
•Customer collaboration
over contract negotiation
•Responding to change
over following a plan

43.
Agile 101
•Self-organizing teams commit to
delivering pieces of functionality
•Features are defined in “user stories,”
which represent bits of the final product
from the user’s perspective
•Work is organized into iterations, or
“sprints”

44.
You want me to be a what?
Agile, and particularly Scrum projects,
have structured roles and meetings.

45.
Product Owner
Decides what will be worked on next, and how
each user story will deliver business value
Scrum Master
Removes “impediments” from the team
and encourages following the process
Team
Self-organizes and self-assigns, then
demonstrates how their work delivers value

46.
Sprint Planning
Everyone meets to discuss the product backlog and
decide what they’ll commit to
Daily Scrum
A short, daily meeting where commitments
and impediments are discussed
Sprint Review
The team meets to show off their work
Sprint Retrospective
When the team discusses what worked
...and what didn’t

47.
The Benefits of Agile
•Allows for continuous feedback and
refinement
•Encourages group effort
•Embraces inevitable change
•Helps customers see something sooner
•Progress is defined by how well business
needs are met and real deliverables, not
speculation

48.
Not So Fast There...
• Requires continuous feedback from
engaged stakeholders
• Everyone has to be OK with less
predictability
• Sometimes it’s hard to define “done” (this
is where an MVP comes in)
• Failure is part of the job

49.
Processes and Frameworks
Are Nice
but...

50.
Never Favor a Process Over
People
(we’re only human)

51.
Leadership
and
Project Management

52.
Leadership
is the art of getting someone else to do
something because s/he wants to do it.
Dwight D. "Ike" Eisenhower
34th president, military general, and all-around nice guy

53.
No Matter the Goal,
No Matter the Framework
10 Ideas to Lead with Success

54.
1. Care About People
Embrace your emotional intelligence

55.
2. Care About Making
Good Stuff
Do what you can to ensure the best work
possible, because you want to

56.
3. Share the Vision
When the stars align, the vision will match
both your personal goals
and your company’s goals

57.
4. Be, Like, a Good
Communicator, OK?
Work to gain understanding, be a good
listener, and use spell check

58.
Seriously. Be a good
communicator.
Explain complex concepts in appropriate
terms and respect your audience.

59.
5. Challenge Yourself
and Others
Keep ‘em interested: no one wants to feel
like a widget-maker

60.
6. Be Engaged
Speak up, and recognize others who do

61.
7. Be Open
Ask questions, be honest,
admit your mistakes

62.
8. Learn the New “No”
“No” is never just “no;” always work to
present a solution

63.
9. Get Out There
Find a community, read blogs, talk to other
PMs, go to conferences

64.
10. Be Yourself
This above all, to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any
[employee, boss, co-worker, or friend].
Polonius, in Hamlet, Act I, Scene III (with a wink to the Bard)

65.
Questions and Thoughts?

66.
References and Sources
Books and Guides
Interactive Project Management: Pixels, People, and Process
N. Lyons and M. Wilker
Project Management: A Practical Approach
FranklinCovey
The Complete Signet Classic Shakespeare
S. Barnet, Ed.

67.
References and Sources
Interwebs
http://www.projectcartoon.com/
http://www.paragoninnovations.com/
http://agilemanifesto.org/
http://www.versionone.com/
http://www.allaboutagile.com/
http://www.scrumalliance.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/
http://www.fastcompany.com/1822525/what-hell-project-management-anyway
http://www.pmi.org/

68.
Thank you!
(go forth and do good!)