WEEKLY PORTFOLIO
Project Management Methodologies PPMP20009 Week 5 Lecture Best Practice • Different definitions “…best practices are those actions or activities undertaken by the company or individuals that lead to a sustained competitive advantage in project management.”Kerzner • Early days – industry focused successes whereas the government looked at failures to identify best practice. Assessing Readiness for Implementing Organisational PM Critical Success Factors • Committed sustained executive level leadership • Organisational change management including assessing the organisation’s readiness for change • Continuous Improvement to sustain benefits of implementation Critical Success Factors • Determine feasibility by determining strategic need and the cost benefit position • Share OPM information – to increase awareness, understanding and buy-in • Evaluate the organisation’s current state Developing a blueprint or roadmap Knowing where the organisation is now. Knowing where the organisation wants to be in the future. How Business Case • Capture rationale of OPM • Set parameters and define success criteria • Tool to guide design, management, and evaluation of the OPM initiative. What should be included in a business case? Key Points (Kerzner) • Once business case endorsed form an OPM team to lead the implementation • Need to demonstrate the linked to the organisational strategic objectives • Consider the culture and environment carefully • Senior leadership commitment and support needs to be visible, as do the OPM Leaders. Strong sponsorship Clear vision Implementation plan Understand your people Co-design with diverse working group Context appropriate governance & method Meaningful accountability Not in the text books Audit management 70 % 20 % 10 % Change Mgt initiative Experienced Practitioners 10, 20, 70 principle Resource constrained? ‘Project by numbers vs practice flexibility Key Points (DoC) Understand what you want to achieve, why you want to achieve it, & if you have an authentic sponsor. Develop a practical and pragmatic implementation plan. Know what is realistic with the resources and timeframes you have. Your people are your greatest asset. Implement as a change management initiative. Use them to co-design the journey and co-maintain the maturity. Project Selection (Portfolio Prioritisation) What is it and who does it? Feasibility Study vs Cost Benefits analysis Feasibility Study • Can we do it? • Validate that the project is feasible in terms of cost, technology, safety, marketability, and ease of execution requirements Cost Benefit Analysis • Should we do it? • Validate that if executed correctly, the project will provide required financial or non-financial benefits. • That benefits are of greater value than the cost of the initiative. 1. What is an opportunity cost and why do executives prioritising projects need to consider it? 2. What metrics could be used for a cost benefits analysis? Prioritisation Criteria What criteria would a portfolio board use to select projects? Organisational Structures Matrix Structures Matrix and Project Management The Article • Project Management Journal • Volume 44 No 1, pages 17-34 • Besner C. & Hobbs B. (2012) Contextualized Project Management Practice: A Cluster Analysis of Practices and Best Practices Lessons Learnt What are lessons learnt? What are some ways to gather lessons learnt? PortfolioCollect Reflect Share Select Tutorial 5 1. Readings: Mandatory Readings • Kerzner Chapter 1.14-1.16, & 3; • PMI Implementing Organizational PM Chapter 2; Optional Readings • If you have time then please access the Project Management Journal Volume 44 No 1, pages 17-34 for the article by Besner C. & Hobbs B. (2012) Contextualized Project Management Practice: A Cluster Analysis of Practices and Best Practices Make sure you have done the readings. 2. Watch recordings: Also, watch YouTube: Project Governance by Darya Duma from Procept Associates Ltd (9 mins) 3. Answer following Questions to reflect and assist in your Portfolio What are the different ways of classifying projects? How senior is a Project Manager in an organization? Do you think that functional managers would make good project managers? Project managers are usually dedicated and committed to the project. Who should be “looking over the shoulder” of the project manager to make sure that the work and requests are also in the best interest of the company? Does your answer depend on the priority of the project? Is project management designed to transfer power from the line managers to the project manager? Explain how career paths and career growth can differ between project-driven and non–project-driven organizations. In each organization, is the career path fastest in project management, project engineering, or line management? Think about your own career into the future and describe a possible career path. Describe the different organizational structures and explain the pros and cons of each. Do you think that personnel working in a project organizational structure should undergo “therapy” sessions or seminars on a regular basis so as to better understand their working environment? If yes, how frequently? Does the frequency depend upon the project organizational form selected, or should they all be treated equally? How would each person identified below respond to the question, “How many bosses do you have?” o Project manager o Functional team member o Functional manager In this unit you are required to complete a weekly and consolidated portfolio. A portfolio provides evidence of previous and current experience and presents a dynamic record of your growth and professional learning over the duration of this unit. Your portfolio will provide an account of your learning based on your practice and your critical reflection.Further information is available on the Moodle site. Task Your task is to write weekly portfolios reflecting upon your learning from the prior week. In your portfolio you will identify: · the learning outcomes and module/topic of the unit, · a description of your experience, including reading samples or records, · your learning from your experiences, and · any supporting documentation of prior or current learning. Purpose The primary purpose of this assessment item is to help you to develop skills for undertaking research and translating, via your technical and creative skills, underpinning concepts about project management methodologies. The secondary purpose of this assignment is to give you the opportunity to enhance your analysis, critical thinking and written communication skills; particularly in the areas of thinking about and reflecting on different project domains and project management methodologies. Developing a portfolio, as a result, makes your learning more explicit as you translate your workplace and personal experiences into documented evidence. You can then learn to critically examine the nature of your learning on this unit in relation to specific experiences in your project management practice and demonstrate that you have learned from those experiences and how you have achieved or maintained your professional competence as a result. The assignment will also give you the opportunity to enhance your analysis and written communication skills; particularly in the areas of rigorous structured assignment writing. Structure You will be provided on the Moodle web site with a template for the weekly portfolios. You should use this template to structure each weekly portfolio and then upload weekly portfolios to the Moodle web site as directed (Portfolio Submission 1 contains portfolios for weeks 1 to 4, Portfolio Submission 2 contains portfolios for weeks 5 to 8 and Portfolio Submission 3 contains portfolios for weeks 9 and 10). At the end of the unit you will consolidate your portfolio submissions into a single document and upload an overall consolidated portfolio submission.Your portfolio should contain a coherent, but necessarily restricted review of the academic literature related to the project management topics for each week. You should also include a weekly reference list formatted in the prescribed Harvard style. You are also encouraged to include a bibliography. This assessment item involves researching the topics to enhance your understanding of each concept through an utilisation of academic literature and secondary sources. Whilst you must use the recommended textbooks and web links, you should also refer to other sources on the Moodle web site and additional relevant peer reviewed academic journal articles of your choosing. Weekly Portfolio Each weekly portfolio is to be no more than 4 pages long.The portfolio shows your development of understanding during the unit. Naturally, this will make the portfolio different for everyone. Each student’s background, education, current and past work experiences is what makes it different. Each student’s personal researches will be different.What you need to do is to give yourself enough time to reflect and show how you have thought and come to grips with the ideas that address the learning outcomes of the unit. The amount of time you should be allocating to the unit is 12 to 16 hours per week (which includes writing the portfolio). So there should be a fair bit of time for you to make the reflections and reach a depth of insight that will make the portfolio meaningful. With each week's portfolio that you submit you do not include the writing that you made for a prior week. Instead you use the same portfolio template using only the section for the week you are writing about. In other words each week’s portfolio is a reflection upon that week. You should however, revisit the whole of the unit learning outcomes each week.The portfolio for any previous week is a reflection of your insights and thoughts for that week. Over the duration of the unit you will find that there is a development and change of your ideas as you study the material. You will then have opportunity at the end of the unit to consolidate everything and show how you have gained the insights that the unit is seeking to provide. At the end of the unit you should review your weekly portfolios and consolidate them into a single submission. You should make a personal reflection in this submission. This is the assessment that gets marked in detail. It is to your benefit to have the personal discipline to make sure that you do not get behind. If you are allocating 12 or 16 hours per week for the unit then there is plenty of time for the portfolio. If you find that one week you slip then ok, but the unit is fundamentally planned so that you need to allocate 12 to 16 hours each week. Two hours lost in one week means that you need to do 14 to 18 hours the next! The unit is straight forward, but there are lots of web sites to visit and material to download. The text books are only part of the story and you won’t be able to do the unit with just the text books. Unfortunately, much of the material is written from a North American perspective. You will need to consider other industry sectors and also to be able to translate the learning outcomes into an Australian or other cultural perspective. Therefore, you will need to download other files and visit web sites to be able to gather the material you need in your portfolio. There are no bonus points for getting the weekly portfolio perfect from the first week but marks will be awarded for timely submission (as per the schedule) and for content that