Project management process improvement

Project Management

Process Improvement

Recent Titles in the Artech House

Effective Project Management Library

Robert K. Wysocki, Series Editor

The Project Management Communications Toolkit, Carl Pritchard

Project Management Process Improvement, Robert K. Wysocki

For a listing of recent titles in the Artech House Effective

Project Management Library, turn to the back of this book.

Project Management

Process Improvement

Robert K. Wysocki

Artech House

Boston • London

www.artechhouse.com

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A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalog record for this book is available from the British Library.

Cover design by Gary Ragaglia

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International Standard Book Number: 1-58053-717-0

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Contents

Introduction xi

1 Introduction to the Process Improvement Life Cycle 1

1.1 The Importance of Process Improvement 2

1.1.1 Stand Still and Go Backwards 2

1.1.2 Standish Group Chaos Report 2

1.1.3 Balancing People, Project Management Processes,

and Technology 8

1.1.4 Process Improvement Versus Practice Improvement 9

1.2 Typical Project Improvement Practices 11

1.2.1 Project Reviews 11

1.2.2 Best Practices 12

1.2.3 Lessons Learned 12

1.3 Definition of the Process Improvement Life Cycle 12

1.3.1 Where Are You? 13

1.3.2 Where Do You Want To Be? 14

1.3.3 How Will You Get There? 14

1.3.4 How Well Did You Do? 14

1.4 Who Is Responsible for Process Improvement? 15

1.4.1 Establishing a Standard Process 15

1.4.2 Managing Best Practices and Lessons Learned 15

v

1.4.3 Managing Performance Data Against Standard

Processes 15

1.4.4 Continuously Improving the Project Management

Process 16

1.5 Effectively Dealing with the Obstacles 16

1.6 Points to Remember 17

References 18

2 Overview of the Project Management Maturity

Model 19

2.1 The Software Engineering Institute Capability

Maturity Model®

19

2.1.1 Purpose 19

2.1.2 Structure 20

2.1.3 Application 20

2.2 The Project Management Maturity Model 25

2.2.1 Level 1: Initial Process 25

2.2.2 Level 2: Structured Process 26

2.2.3 Level 3: Institutionalized Process 26

2.2.4 Level 4: Managed Process 26

2.2.5 Level 5: Optimizing Process 27

2.3 PMBOK Knowledge Areas and Maturity Profile 27

2.3.1 Project Integration Management 27

2.3.2 Project Scope Management 32

2.3.3 Project Time Management 37

2.3.4 Project Cost Management 42

2.3.5 Project Quality Management 47

2.3.6 Project Human Resources Management 50

2.3.7 Project Communications Management 54

2.3.8 Project Risk Management 58

2.3.9 Project Procurement Management 64

2.4 Points to Remember 70

References 71

vi Project Management Process Improvement

3 Assessing and Reporting Maturity Level 73

3.1 Overview of the Survey Questionnaire 74

3.1.1 Design of the Survey 74

3.1.2 Defining Maturity Level Penetration 75

3.2 Reporting the Process Maturity Baseline 77

3.2.1 Kiviatt Charts 77

3.2.2 Box & Whisker Plots 82

3.3 Reporting the Project/Process Maturity Gap 83

3.3.1 PP Below PD Baseline 85

3.3.2 PP at PD Baseline 86

3.3.3 PP Above PD Baseline 86

3.4 Maturity Profile by Knowledge Area 87

3.4.1 Process Maturity Matrix 87

3.4.2 Closing the Maturity Gap 92

3.5 Points to Remember 94

References 95

4 Metrics to Identify Project Improvement

Opportunities 97

4.1 Project Level 97

4.1.1 Cost/Schedule Control 98

4.1.2 Milestone Trend Charts 101

4.1.3 Project Reviews 106

4.2 Prioritizing Improvement Opportunities 107

4.2.1 Ranking Improvement Opportunities 107

4.3 Points to Remember 111

Reference 112

5 Tools to Investigate Improvement Opportunities 113

5.1 Problem Solving for Continuous Improvement 113

5.1.1 Definition 113

5.2 Brainstorming 116

Contents vii

5.3 Fishbone Diagrams 116

5.4 Force Field Analysis 117

5.5 Pareto Diagrams 118

5.6 Process Charts 119

5.7 Root Cause Analysis 120

5.8 Prioritizing Processes 120

5.8.1 Scheduling Improvement Initiatives by Knowledge

Area 120

5.8.2 Scheduling Improvement Initiatives in Groups 122

5.8.3 Scheduling Improvement Initiatives One at a Time 122

5.9 Recap 125

5.10 Points to Remember 125

Reference 126

6 Commissioning Improvement Initiatives 127

6.1 Characteristics of an Improvement Program 127

6.1.1 Long Duration 128

6.1.2 Multiproject Approach 128

6.1.3 Just-in-Time Planning 129

6.1.4 High Change 129

6.1.5 High Kill Rate 129

6.2 Characteristics of an Improvement Initiative 130

6.2.1 Short Duration 130

6.2.2 Multiphase Approach 130

6.2.3 Just-in-Time Planning 131

6.2.4 High Change 131

6.2.5 High Kill Rate 132

6.3 Setting Maturity Goals 132

6.4 Scope the Initiative 133

6.4.1 Evaluating Improvement Opportunities 133

6.5 High-Level Planning of the Initiative 135

6.5.1 Work Breakdown Structure 136

viii Project Management Process Improvement

6.5.2 Prioritize and Schedule Approaches 136

6.6 Monitoring the Initiative 136

6.6.1 Define Performance Metrics 136

6.6.2 Track Performance Metric 137

6.7 Redirecting the Initiative 137

6.7.1 Abandonment of Approaches 138

6.7.2 Reprioritize and Reschedule Approaches 138

6.8 Closing the Initiative 138

6.8.1 Assess Final Performance Improvement 138

6.8.2 Reprioritize Improvement Opportunities 138

6.9 Points to Remember 139

Reference 139

7 Case Study: B. Stoveburden Trucking Company 141

7.1 Case Study Background 142

7.1.1 Project Overview Statement 143

7.1.2 Fishbone Diagram to Identify the Reasons Why

Projects Fail 145

7.2 PD and PP Maturity Levels for Selected Knowledge

Areas 147

7.3 Process Level 148

7.3.1 Scope Management Processes 148

7.3.2 HR Management Processes 155

7.3.3 Time Management 158

7.3.4 Cost Management 159

7.4 Results of the Improvement Programs 161

7.5 Points to Remember 163

8 Closing Thoughts 165

8.1 Implementation Challenges 165

8.1.1 Perceived Value 166

8.1.2 Cultural Fit 166

8.1.3 Sponsorship 166

Contents ix

8.2 Suggested Implementation Strategies 167

8.2.1 Major Program Initiative 167

8.2.2 Project Initiative 168

8.2.3 Slow but Steady 169

8.3 Points to Remember 169

Appendix: Maturity Assessment Questionnaire 171

Project Integration Management 171

Project Scope Management Processes 175

Project Time Management Processes 179

Project Cost Management 186

Project Quality Management 192

Project Human Resources Management 197

Project Communications Management 202

Project Risk Management Processes 205

Project Procurement Management Processes 212

About the Author 221

Index 223

x Project Management Process Improvement

Introduction

Regardless of the extent of your efforts to design and deploy an exemplary proj￾ect management process, the realities always seem to fall far short of your expec￾tations. Project managers and their teams do not use the processes you worked

so hard to get accepted and approved. Some use the processes sporadically. Oth￾ers modify them to suit their own purposes. Others ignore them all together and

opt to use their own processes, which they believe to be superior to the ones

offered by their organization. Risk underlies many of these decisions. Project

managers would prefer to use the tried and true rather than expose the project to

added risk through the use of unfamiliar processes. Only after prompting from

you do they give the new processes a try. Their reluctance is obvious and you do

not seem to have won any converts to the new way. The question remains: How

do you win converts to the processes and support you are offering?

If you are experiencing these behaviors, I do not want you to think that

they are due to any failure on your part. Much to the contrary, to have a project

management process in place is a considerable accomplishment. You should be

proud of having reached this goal. However, I want you to take the position that

it is just an intermediate goal. The long-term goal is to have a fully developed

and integrated portfolio of project management processes. Your initial offering

is just that—initial. You are now dealing with a cultural change. As teams begin

to use these processes, you will learn about the process shortcomings. These you

will fix, and the cycle of learning and fixing will continue. This improvement

cycle is a major focus of this book.

This book will take you through the steps you will need in order to mature

your project management processes to whatever level your management expects.

xi

In addition to the process goals, you will want to achieve a certain level of adop￾tion, and we will consider the steps to achieve that goal as well.

The book is organized chronologically and designed to be read from cover

to cover. The first three chapters establish the foundational information we will

need for the remainder of the book. Chapter 1 sets the stage for process

improvement. Its primary contribution is a presentation of the process improve￾ment life cycle. This is the roadmap for the remainder of the book. Chapter 2

establishes the concepts that drive all further discussion. A project management

maturity model is introduced as an adaptation of the Software Engineering

Institute’s Capability Maturity Model® for software development. The nine

knowledge areas defined by the Project Management Institute, which are intro￾duced in Chapter 2, are the infrastructure upon which we are going to build a

strategy for process improvement. This chapter also introduces the process

maturity matrix as the entity on which all improvement initiatives are based.

Chapter 3 describes the survey instrument that is used for data collection. It

serves two purposes. The first is to set the baseline project management matur￾ity. This is an assessment of the maturity level of the project management

processes themselves. This is the baseline against which all projects will be

assessed as to the maturity level of the practice of the processes. There will be

gaps between the maturity of the processes and the maturity of the practice of

the processes. Chapter 3 will address those gaps and the information they con￾vey regarding the organization’s project management effectiveness.

Chapters 4 and 5 present the tools that we will use to analyze and pres￾ent the maturity data and identify improvement opportunities. Chapter 4 pres￾ents project level performance tools that are familiar to most project managers:

cost schedule control (a.k.a. earned value), milestone trend charts, and project

reviews. Chapter 4 closes with a brief look at four ways to quickly rank these

improvement opportunities: forced ranking model, risk matrix, paired compari￾sons model, and weighted criteria model. Chapter 5 presents tools that we can

use to investigate a specific process for improvement possibilities: My own varia￾tions on a problem-solving model, fishbone diagrams, force field analysis, Pareto

diagrams, process charts, and root cause analysis.

Chapter 6 discusses the life cycle of projects that are focused on improve￾ment initiatives. These are projects just like any other projects we have been

managing for years but with some notable differences. They are small, they are

frequently killed, their scope can change radically, and they give life to many

new improvement projects. I will lay out the life cycle of these projects along

with the documentation specific to them.

Chapter 7 presents a case study that I call B. Stoveburden Trucking Com￾pany. It is a disguised version of an improvement program from one of my cli￾ents. Not all of their adventure is reported here. I have condensed it to contain

xii Project Management Process Improvement

the most significant analyses and findings. It shows by way of example how all of

the tools introduced in Chapters 5 and 6 can be used.

Chapter 8 is the closing chapter and presents two important thoughts with

which I wish to leave you. The first deals with implementation challenges.

Improving the effectiveness of your project management process is no small

task. It embodies value statements, cultural fit, and sponsorship. The second is

implementation strategies. There are at least three ways to approach project

management process improvement: through major project initiatives, through a

long-term program, and through a slow but steady pace.

Hopefully you have a clear picture of my agenda for this book. You will

find my presentation style to be informal and brief. I do not want to burden you

with more reading than is necessary. The purpose here is to give you a handy

guide and reference for your improvement initiatives. You have my best wishes

for a productive and rewarding reading and learning experience.

Introduction xiii