Software Project Management Team management and project closeout INFO 638 Glenn Booker INFO 638 Lecture #6 Managing a Team One of the key powers of management is to.
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Transcript Software Project Management Team management and project closeout INFO 638 Glenn Booker INFO 638 Lecture #6 Managing a Team One of the key powers of management is to.
Software Project
Management
Team management and
project closeout
INFO 638
Glenn Booker
INFO 638
Lecture #6
1
Managing a Team
One of the key powers of
management is to create
organizational structures
Doing so poorly can sabotage the best
personnel before the project starts
But with good organization, even
ordinary people can produce good
products
INFO 638
Lecture #6
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Project vs. Functional Managers
The Project Manager is responsible
for the whole project’s successful
completion
The Functional Manager (Wysocki’s
term) is the person responsible for
staffing the project, and matching
people’s skills to the project’s
requirements
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Project vs. Functional Managers
In common terms, the functional
manager (FM) might be a manager of
people with a particular skill set, e.g.
database analysts or interface
designers
Whereas the project manager is
responsible for using the people
“owned” by the FM to get a given
project done
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Motivation
Motivation is a key ingredient to
baking a good team (ouch, lousy analogy)
Just like the director of a play doesn’t
control the actors once they take the
stage, the PM and FM can only set
up good conditions for a team to
work well (ok, that’s better)
Another key contribution to a team’s
success is their motivation
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Motivation
Key for a good manager to recognize
is that different things motivate
different people
And what motivates one person might
change over time
One person might be thrilled to get an
award for their contribution to a project,
another might prefer a check, and a third
might want an extra two days vacation
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Motivation
The big motivational factors for most
people are:
Opportunity for achievement
Opportunity for advancement
Might include technical supervision
Recognition
Increased responsibility
The work itself
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Motivation
The environment in which you work is
considered hygiene factors, which
don’t contribute directly to
motivation, but could detract from it
The hygiene factors are
Company policies and practices, working
conditions, your management,
interpersonal relations, job security,
and salary
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Motivation
An aside – many people would put
salary as their first motivational
factor
These factors are based on landmark
1959 study by Frederick Herzberg
Maybe nobody needed money as much
back then?
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Management and Motivation
Many of the motivational factors can’t
be controlled by a first line manager
Key for managers to focus on are
Provide challenging work
Recognize your people’s work
Design their job to provide a variety of
skills needed, clearly identifiable and
significant tasks, allow autonomy, and
provide feedback
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Recruiting a Team
Creating a great team is a challenging
form of alchemy
You need the right blend of skills to
get the job done, and yet balance
other characteristics (e.g. personality,
salary demands, etc.) to get a viable
collection of people
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Recruiting a Team
Assuming you aren’t the PM, the key
types of recruiting are for:
The project manager
Core team members (those drawn from
within your organization)
Contract personnel (people hired just for
this project)
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PM Recruiting
The project manager typically needs
to be brought on board very early in
the project
Like, before it starts
Key selection criteria include
Relevant background experience
Yes, Brownie, it does make a difference!
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PM Recruiting
Leadership and strategic expertise
The PM has to coordinate issues above the
project level, so broader experience is
important
Technical expertise
Some believe a generic manager can
manage anything; in most technical fields,
this isn’t true
Interpersonal experience
Ability to plan, manage
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Core Team Recruiting
The core team consists of the people
who will also tend to be with the
project from start to finish
They are typically identified when the
project scope is defined
They need to be balanced in terms of
skills, especially if voluntary turnover
is a problem
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Core Team Recruiting
Key characteristics include
Commitment to the project
Shared responsibility for project success
Flexibility to do what’s needed
Results-oriented
Able to work with schedule & resource
constraints
Trust and mutual support of the team
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Core Team Recruiting
Must play nicely with others (a team
player)
Open minded to alternative problem
solutions
Able to work with everyone
Able to use project software tools
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Contract Team Recruiting
Depending on the project, contract
personnel may or may not be needed
Generally required when staffing
and/or specific skills aren’t available
in-house
Typically are called upon for a short
period within the project
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Contract Team Recruiting
Key challenge is getting them up to
speed quickly
May need to monitor their work quality
Key characteristics include
Skills needed
Number of people
When they are needed
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Contract Team Recruiting
Once staffing needs are identified,
make a list of sources for personnel
Write and distribute a request for
proposal (RFP), defining the needs
Evaluate the RFP responses
Give best candidates a chance to
make a formal presentation
Choose the source, and write contract
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Contract Issues
Many management issues involve
contractual concerns
A good resource with more detail is
On Time Within Budget, E.M. Bennatan, 3rd
ed., ISBN 0-471-37644-2, Wiley, 2000.
The key contractual vehicles are
RFI, RFP, and RFQ
For zillions of examples, go to
www.firstgov.gov and search
on those acronyms
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RFI – Request for Information
An RFI is used to identify reasonably
well qualified vendors
…and screen out unqualified ones
It outlines the general scope of an
intended project or contract, and asks
for potential vendors to prove they
are qualified to work in that area
Qualified potential vendors then get
an RFP or RFQ
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RFP – Request for Proposal
An RFP defines specific project needs
and requirements, and asks potential
vendors to tell how they would solve
the problem presented, and give
specific commitments for the time
and effort to do so
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RFP – Request for Proposal
An RFP includes detailed criteria on
how the vendors will be judged
A large RFP may have separate
management, technical, and cost
volumes
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RFQ – Request for Quotation
Or “Request for Quote”
An RFQ is used to get a bid or
quotation on a well known, common
type of product
E.g. office supplies, computer
components, etc.
The main distinguishing feature of
bids is simply price; delivery schedule
may also play a role
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Contracts
There are several types of contracts,
depending on the complexity of the
transaction
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Retainer
Time & materials
Time & materials – not to exceed
Fixed bid
Fixed price incentive fee
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Retainer
A retainer contract pays a certain
fixed amount per month
Up to some defined amount of work
can be expected per month; beyond
that some hourly rate is set
Typically use retainer for very
specialized skills from outside your
organization
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Time & materials
Used for very vague scope contracts,
a time & materials contract pays for
the amount of effort expended on the
contract
Plus paying for material costs
The ‘not to exceed’ clause is to keep
from getting billed way more than
expected for a given set of tasks
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Fixed bid
A fixed bid puts the risk on the
vendor – a given set of tasks will be
accomplished for a set price
If it takes more work than expected,
the vendor eats the additional costs
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Fixed price incentive fee
A fixed price incentive fee contract
(not in the text) adds bonuses if the
vendor exceeds requirements for the
project (is faster than required, has
more capacity, etc.)
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Contract examples
Lawyers and people with rare skills
(e.g. SAP experts) might be put on
retainer
Research contracts and work on novel
systems might use time & materials
Many software development contracts
using established technologies use
fixed bid or fixed price incentive fee
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Contract Terms
The terms of payment are clearly
defined in any contract
Often payments are based on meeting
specific milestones in the project
Rules for handling contract early
termination, and normal closeout of
the contract are also defined
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Team Organization
A key decision for a project manager
is the delegation of authority
How much is enough?
Too much and you lose control of the
project
Too little and work can’t get done efficiently
Responsibility can’t be delegated
The PM is responsible for the work of all
people under them
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Team Balance
People tend to follow four major
approaches when on a team
Assimilate data & ideas quickly, focusing
on the theory more than the problem
Diverge, and look at the problem from
many perspectives
Accommodate people’s views and keep
conflict to a minimum
Converge on a solution, focusing on the
technology more than people
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Team Rules
Any team needs some rules to
function effectively
How will decisions be made?
How do you solve problems?
How do you resolve conflicts?
How & when does the team meet?
How does the team interact
with other projects? The customer?
Who defines the answers to these?
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Project Closeout
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Closeout
Normal closeout of a project typically
involves six steps
INFO 638
Get client acceptance
Ensure system installed
Ensure documentation delivered
Get client signoff
Post-implementation Audit
Party!
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Get client acceptance
This can be formal or informal
Formal acceptance involves following
your customer’s acceptance procedure
May involve customer-run testing to prove
requirements have been met
Informal acceptance either means you
are done within the stated time limit, or
there is no formal acceptance needed
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Ensure system installed
This step means you have installed
the production system, and it has
gone live (is in production; is
operational; there are lots of terms)
This step is the conclusion of your
project cutover, rollout or deployment
strategy
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Ensure documentation delivered
Everyone loves to forget
documentation
This step reminds you to deliver all of
the promised documentation
May include requirements, design,
implementation, maintenance, training,
and other documentation
May include documenting the total effort
and schedule needed for completion
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Get client signoff
Once the system is in place, and
everything has been delivered, the
customer can formally accept
completion of the contract
This has legal ownership implications
– the system now belongs to them
Might be done with much fanfare
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A note on FCA/PCA
To formally accept a system,
functional and physical configuration
audits (FCA and PCA) may be done
FCA is the act of proving that the system
requirements have been fulfilled
PCA gives a detailed accounting of all
components, code, and documentation in
the final system (as if to say, “here’s
what you got for your money”)
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Post-implementation Audit
A.k.a. a post-mortem for the project
This audit is to assess how well the
project went
What worked? What didn’t? How do we
fix the latter next time?
How accurate was our estimation?
Was the customer happy?
Did the project meet its success criteria?
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Party!
Sounds trite, but celebrating team
success is very valuable
Tokens from the project (mugs, T-shirts,
etc.) can provide a connection for years
afterward, even if you can’t afford five
digit bonuses for everyone
Oodles (that’s a lot) of loyalty and
motivation can come from showing
genuine appreciation
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