1. Dilbert Scott Adams

2. Dilbert Scott Adams

3. Dilbert Scott Adams

4. Chapter 2: Planning the Project
Assuming you have a Project Charter!
Focus is on desired results.
Your plan is the first “cut”.
Keep the initial planning short
Don’t waste time planning without data
Plan a little, gather data, re-plan…
There is too much uncertainty & risk to plan everything in advance.
Timebox: Time needed for person or team to accomplish a task.
Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

5. Cone of Uncertainty No such thing as a single point estimate
Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

6. Project Plan Template Product purpose History Release criteria Goals
Project organization
Schedule overview
Project staffing (staffing curve)
Proposed schedule
Risk list
Technical Debt
What was not completed in the previous release:
Design debt
Code redesign (refactoring)
Testing debt
Writing debt
Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

7. Release Criteria & Goals
List Key product deliverables (think Features)
Key?
“If we don’t have that, do we still have a release?”
Goals:
Product goals
Project goals
Team goals
Organization goals
Automated Smoke Tests
let you know if anyone has broken the build.
Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

8. Project Organization & Schedule Overview
Depends on life cycle and structure of team.
Identify major milestones.
Schedule Overview
Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
Identify sequence of tasks
Show:
Dependencies
Durations (start and completion dates)
Owner
Tangible product required at completion
Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

9. Matrixed Team (Fig. 2.1) Matrix Team
PM = Person Month(s)
Matrix Team
Each team member has their own functional manager and the project manager.
Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

10. Risk List – the Top 10 Monitor and update list as you go.
Exposure: Multiply Probability by Severity
Trigger date: The date by which you need to act
Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

11. Define Release Criteria
Define what is important and monitor it.
Need to publish the release criteria.
Criteria statements should be SMART!
S Specific
M Measurable
A Attainable
R Relevant
T Trackable
Make sure there is buy-in by team and management!
Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

12. Define what is important…
Think about the problems you are solving for your customers!
The release date.
Combination of schedule, features, and few defects… depends on customer and their expectations.
The point:
You should not be deciding what is important on your own!
Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

13. Release Criteria How to get started… brainstorm. Rita’s draft:
All code compiles & build for all platforms
Zero high-priority bugs
For all open bugs, workarounds documented in release notes
All planned test run, at least 98% pass rate.
Number of open defects decreasing from last 3 weeks.
Feature X: unit tested, system tested, and verified by customers.
Ready to release by June 1.
All open defects evaluated by cross-functional team.
Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

14. Use the Release Criteria
They must be SMART!
Assess progress in satisfying Release Criteria.
Release Criteria define what is meant by done.
… and if you cannot satisfy all the Criteria?
Let “them” know ASAP
Agree on changes to Release Criteria (done-ness)
Make sure everyone is on board
Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman