You have a Project Manager
Yay!
Now what?
Martin Bailey January 19, 2016

Introduction
 Assoc. Degree
 Electrical Construction & Maintenance
 Bachelor’s Degree
 Computer Science
 Master’s Degree
 Project Management
 Master’s Studies
 Applied Computer Science
Martin R. Bailey
Project Manager, UITS
Certifications:
Project Management Professional
Certified Scrum Master
ITIL Foundations
 30+ years in IT
 10+ years Functional & Project
Management
• 20+ Years Volunteer Fire & EMS
• EMT
• EMT Instructor
• EMS Chief
• Medic @ Woodstock ‘94

Agenda
 Project, Program, or Portfolio?
 Does everything need to be a Project?
 Some reasons why projects fail
 Gains from good Project Management
 Project Process Groups
 Where does Achieve IT Fit in?
 Why initially only Execution Timelines?
 Example Execution Timeline
 Resource Utilization
 Why all phases in a Project Plan?
 Martin’s Project Maturity Steps
 Martin’s Portfolio Maturity Steps
 Current Work
 What about ….
 Questions

Portfolio, Program, or Project
 PORTFOLIO: a collection of projects and/or
programs and other work that are grouped
together to facilitate the effective management
of that work to meet strategic business
objectives.
 PROGRAM: a group of related projects
managed in a coordinated way to obtain
benefits and control not available from
managing them individually.
 PROJECT: a temporary endeavor undertaken
to create a unique product, service, or result.
“Project Management is doing the Project right, while Portfolio Management is doing the right Project”

Portfolio, Program, or Project (continued)
 Examples:
◦ Portfolio:
 ACHIEVE IT
◦ Program:
 Campus Networks
◦ Project:
 Academic Wireless
There can be numerous Programs
within a Portfolio.
There can be numerous Projects
within a Program.
A Project generally has one unique
goal; although there may be
many work packages or
deliverables.
“Project Management is like juggling three balls – time, cost and quality.
Program management is like a troupe of circus performers standing in a circle, each juggling-three balls and
swapping balls from time to time.”

Does everything need to be a project?
The definitions seem to look that way
 PORTFOLIO: a collection of
projects and/or programs and other
work that are grouped together to
facilitate the effective management
of that work to meet strategic
business objectives.
 PROGRAM: a group of related
projects managed in a coordinated
way to obtain benefits and control
not available from managing them
individually.
 PROJECT: a temporary endeavor
undertaken to create a unique
product, service, or result.

Does everything need to be a project?
NO, everything does NOT need to be a project
Examples of what is NOT a project
 Normal “keep the lights on” work.
 Simple work with little/no dependencies may not need to be a project.
 Emergencies or other cases where the overhead for creating and monitoring a project
outweighs the work.
 Repetitious work (car assembly line) is not project work
 Small efforts (?)
BUT
 Each of these MUST be part of a Portfolio (or a Program within a Portfolio)
 There are still costs and resources used on work that are not projects. This affects the
Programs, Portfolios, and other Projects.
“Process for process sake is not good for goodness sake.”

Some reasons why Projects fail
 Lack of Senior Management Involvement
 Poor Requirements
 Unrealistic Expectations
 Scope Creep
 Lack of User Involvement
 Poor Project Management
 Lack of Resources
“Failure to Plan is Planning to Fail”

Some gains from good
Portfolio and Project Management
 Better planning
 Completing projects more quickly
and cheaply.
 Being more predictable.
 Saving effort and cost with
proactive scope management.
 Better solution “fit” the first time
through better planning.
 Resolving problems more
quickly.
 Resolving future risk before the
problems occur.
 Communicating and managing
expectations with customers,
team members and stakeholders
more effectively.
 Better understanding of Resource
Utilization and needs
 Improved financial management.
 Stopping “bad” projects more quickly.
 Improved work environment
 More focus on metrics and fact-
based decision making.
“A project is complete when it starts working for you, rather than you working for it.”

Project Process Groups
 Initiating (start) - 5%
 Planning (plan) – 15%
 Executing (do) – 40%
 Monitoring and Controlling
(check and act) – 35%
 Closing (end) – 5%
“‘Begin at the beginning,’ the King said gravely, ‘and go on till you come to the end; then stop.’”
These numbers are not carved
in stone.
Longer & Better planning can
lead to shorter
Execution and Monitoring time.

Where do Achieve IT
Workgroups fit?
For the Projects that are the
26 Achieve IT Initiatives the Workgroups are:
 Projects (or multiple projects)
 The Initiation Phase (and partial Planning
Phase) for Implementation Projects (or
multiple projects)
◦ Outlining the problem
◦ Involving stakeholders
◦ Investigating requirements
◦ Evaluating solution pathways
◦ Recommending a solution pathway
◦ Outlining potential resource needs

Why initially only the Execution Timelines?
Why not a full Project Plan?
◦ Quick Win
◦ “What if” scheduling
◦ Quick Introduction to planning
◦ Quick understanding “realistic time”
 People are maximum 70-80% productive during the day
 Holidays and vacation are known interruptions
 How much of a person’s productive time is allocated to the project
 Show the effect of delayed dependencies
 Realistic timeline to share
“Quick wins showing success can be a great motivator.”

Execution Time Line
The example below is a representative Execution Time Line that considers:
• Task Dependencies and Sequencing
• Outside Dependencies
• Holidays
• No weekend work – standard work week
• Generic Resource at 80% productive time
• Generic Resource available FULLY to this project
“Each completed task establishes certain parameters and imposes constraints on the next task.”

Resource Utilization
 Generic Resource
◦ Maturity Step 2
◦ An introduction to
Planning
◦ Provides a general
Realistic view of
Execution planning
◦ Realistic Availability
 Work days
 Work hours
 % Productivity
 % Availability
 Holidays
 Dependencies
 (Vacation)
 Real Resources
◦ Maturity Step 3
◦ Realistic Availability
◦ Staff Allocation across
projects
◦ Staff Allocation across
programs
◦ Staff Utilization
◦ Staffing needs
 May use unfilled roles
◦ This does NOT mean
timesheets
◦ Leads to Project
Prioritization, and more
Project Resources include: People, Technology, Facilities, Utilities, Funding, Standards, History, Contractors & more.

Why track all Process Groups (Phases) in a
Project Plan?
 Other work is being done
◦ Meetings
◦ Requirements gathering
◦ Building and sequencing a plan
◦ Monitoring & Controlling
 Scope
 Risks
 Issues
 Progress
◦ Final Reports
Resource Utilization and Schedule in this project must account for this
“other work” and related costs. It affects other projects, other work and
overall financial health.
Maturity Step 4
 Phases
◦ Initiating
◦ Planning
◦ Executing
◦ Monitoring and Controlling
◦ Closing
“If it is not documented, it doesn’t exist …
As long information is retained in someone’s head, it is vulnerable to loss”

Martin’s Project Management Maturity Steps
 1 – Why Portfolio & Project Management
 2 – Execution Timelines
◦ Martin Creating & Maintaining Execution Timelines
 3 – Resource Allocation/Utilization
 4 – Complete Project Plans
◦ Martin Creating & Maintaining Project Plans
 Plan, Status, Completion Updates
 Assisting Managers with roadblocks
 5 – Financial Tracking
 6 – Roll-up to Portfolio level reporting
 7 – Formal Risk & Issue tracking
 8 – Continuous Mentoring
 9 – Others creating & maintaining projects
“Project management can be defined as a way of developing structure in a complex project, where the
independent variables of time, cost, resources and human behavior come together.”

Martin’s Portfolio Management Maturity Steps
 1 – Prioritization Discussions
 2 – Creation of Achieve IT Time Line
 3 – Creation of Achieve IT Charters
 4 – Creation of other Project Charters
 5 – Ensure all Projects & Support work
represented
 6 – Roll-up of Projects for reporting
 7 – Continuous Monitoring and Updating
 8 – Repeat steps as needed
“Never allow a person to tell you no who doesn’t have the power to say yes.”

Current Work
 Recommendation of PPM Tool
 Design of Project Charters, WorkGroup Charters, and more
 Initial Achieve IT Timeline Creation
 Execution plans for:
◦ Splunk
◦ VMWare rebuild
◦ VMWare Migrations
◦ SharePoint 2013 creation & migrations
◦ Wireless – Academic
 Project Involvement:
◦ Wireless Academic
◦ More coming
 Achieve IT WorkGroups
 UITS liaison
 Project Management Introduction
 Project Management Mentoring & Coaching
“No matter how good the team or how efficient the methodology,
if we’re not solving the right problem, the project fails.”

What about Waterfall, Iterative, Agile,
SAFe and other methodologies?
 Let’s walk before we run
 You can be agile without being Agile.
◦ It is not necessary to follow Agile processes to
be agile.
 Build in checkpoints so your customers can validate
direction
 Build in checkpoints to ensure vendor compliance
 Respond quickly to changes/needs
 Allow ease of reasonable changes
 Document to the level necessary
 Multitasking is NOT productive
“Don’t do anything you don’t have to do.”

Key Points Covered
 Project, Program, Portfolio
 Does everything need to be a Project?
 Gains from good Project Management
 Project Process Groups
 Where does Achieve IT fit?
 Resources
 Martin’s Steps and Current Work
Reminder, the goal is NOT timesheets,
and is NOT meant to
complicate/confuse.

Introducing EclipsePPM

Example Project View

Example Portfolio View

Questions or Comments?
Martin R. Bailey
Project Manager
University IT Services
University of Arkansas
155 S Razorback Rd
Fayetteville, AR
mrb040@uark.edu
MartinRBailey@gmail.com
479-270-2485
MPM, PMP, CSM, ITIL
PMP Exam Preparation Coach
“In poorly run projects, problems can go undetected until the project fails. It’s like the drip … drip … drip of an
leaky underground pipe. Money is being lost, but you don’t see it until there is an explosion.”