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TRAVIS LIKES SE REGIONAL MANAGER PM BEST PRACTICES TRAVIS LIKES SE REGIONAL MANAGER

AGENDA Process flow (Planning) - Project Plan (high level task discussion and scheduling theory) (Planning, every week) - Action Item report (Action, owner, who entered it, what’s affected, status and severity) (Planning / support SOW) - RACI matrix (Planning / every week) - Project Status reports (Planning) - Risk Mitigation Plan

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Project Plan – During planning 2,3,5,6,8,10 Scope, Schedule, Budget = Project Each item managed within the project plan. Normal to begin project with Schedule in yellow (late), budget in red (over), and Scope in green (understood). Scope and Schedule swap toward the end of the project with Scope creep. Overall goal of the project plan Identify all the tasks required to drive project to completion Break these tasks into ‘sub tasks’. 4/40 or 8/80 rule of thumb Identify an owner, start date and end date of each task. Identify the interdependencies between tasks and ensure those are scheduled appropriately. Theory of baselining, reasoning behind and usefulness of..

RACI matrix - (Planning / support SOW) 4,5,6,10 Best expectations setting tool you have as a PM with numerous external dependencies. Tool to I.D. roles and responsibilities within a project. Responsible (who does the work), Accountable (who makes sure it gets done), Consulted (who needs to be engaged in order to complete the task) and Informed (who is told task status). How to create a RACI matrix: Export all the tasks identified in your schedule / WBS. Create a table with the tasks running down the left side, and columns for each party (RACI). Identify ONE party per task. Socialize the Matrix, get agreement on ownership from everyone involved and publish.

Project Status reports - (Planning / every week) 9 There are two distinct needs / requirements when reporting status. Management level reporting Project level reporting Management reporting Overall status, milestone status, issues. Be succinct, avoid adverbs (really, very, much) and adjectives (good, bad, ugly). Include key data like project ID, scope statement, overall health, start / completion date. For issues, tell a story. Issue – Missing 50 reads from route 1. Plan – Investigate 50 reads in next 3 days, report on findings. Management should be able to passively absorb your status without having to reach out to you to find out where things are at. The pace at which you send it, the audience you select, and the content of your communications should be available to them easily and quickly

Project Status reports - (Planning / every week) 9 There are two distinct needs / requirements when reporting status. Management level reporting Project level reporting Includes all mgmt. data (as an attachment, or intro to rest of reports). This is so entire team understands what’s being communicated upwards. Includes Action item level specifics, with owners, status and next steps. Includes Percentage complete toward project plan. Includes pending Change orders, contract issues. Includes recent accomplishments, upcoming activities. Your job as a project manager is to create clarity from confusion for the project team and for management. In all of the project management training and certification systems available today, almost none teach how to report the current state and next steps of a project. Learn to status your projects effectively and you have a competitive edge that goes beyond the standard project management toolkit.

Action Item report - (Planning, every week) 4,5,6,8,9 The best tool to create forward movement on a week by week basis. Should be the basis of every project call. Needs to include A.I., A.I. number, Date Opened, Days open, Severity level, Opened by, owner, expected close date and status / notes. Every week each AI should be addressed, updated and severity changed if needed. Agreed upon escalation process (i.e., if AI with Sev 1 reaches 4 days old it is escalated to next mgmt. level) AI spreadsheet should include a separate tab for closed AI’s, a tab for escalation process, a tab with project team and a tab with contact information. Anyone picking up the AI can start moving the project forward.

Risk Mitigation Plan - (Planning) 1,2,3,4,5,6,8,10 Risk Mitigation Plan - (Planning) Assume/Accept: Acknowledge the existence of a particular risk, and make a deliberate decision to accept it without engaging in special efforts to control it. Approval of project or program leaders is required. Avoid: Adjust program requirements or constraints to eliminate or reduce the risk. This adjustment could be accommodated by a change in funding, schedule, or technical requirements. Control: Implement actions to minimize the impact or likelihood of the risk. Transfer: Reassign organizational accountability, responsibility, and authority to another stakeholder willing to accept the risk. Watch/Monitor: Monitor the environment for changes that affect the nature and/or the impact of the risk.

Thoughts to live by… 11 – Life of a PM If you’re 6 months late on a milestone due next week but really believe you can make it, you’re a project manager. A badly planned project will take three times longer than expected – a well planned project only twice as long as expected. What is not on paper has not been said. You can con a sucker into committing to an impossible deadline, but you cannot con him into meeting it. Some projects finish on time in spite of project management best practices. Activity is not achievement. There’s never enough time to do it right first time but there’s always enough time to go back and do it again.