Tempting Templates – They’re Free and Effective!

1. Tempting Templates – They’re Free and Effective! Kathy Schwalbe and Bill Hunt November 21, 2003 schwalbe@augsburg.edu www.kathyschwalbe.com

2. Personal Backgrounds - Kathy • B.S. in math, 1981 (before Notre Dame and most colleges offered computer science or MIS degrees), MBA in 1986, Ph.D. in education in 1996, PMP in 1998 • First job was as a project manager in the Air Force working on advanced communications systems • Worked on many projects to develop and install several types of systems • Now enjoy teaching, writing, and mentoring others • Personality profile: ENTJ, driver, high need for achievement

3. Personal Backgrounds - Bill • BS/MS in electrical and computer engineering, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1984 • Engineer, manager, and project manager for IBM, Western Digital, Seagate, and JDS Uniphase • Worked on product development for disk drives, data storage subsystems, and opto-electronic transceivers • Increased project management training after experiencing several failed projects • Personality profile: INTJ, like to discover solutions and drive them to completion

4. Presentation Overview • What are templates? • Why use templates? • Sample Templates • U of M student project results • Suggested references • Q & A

5. What Are Templates? • Templates are documents or files that provide an outline or format for creating documentation • Many professionals don’t like to write or ask others how to do “simple” things, and no one likes to reinvent the wheel • Templates make it easier to prepare common project documents and use standard tools and techniques • It’s important to tailor templates to unique project and organizational needs

6. Why Use Templates? • Companies that excel in project delivery capability: • Build an integrated project management toolbox (use standard/advanced PM tools, lots of templates) • Develop streamlined, consistent project delivery processes Dragan Milosevic, Portland State University, “Delivering Projects: What the Winners Do,” PMI Conference Proceedings, November 2001

7. Why the Improvements in IT Project Success Rates? "The reasons for the increase in successful projects vary. First, the average cost of a project has been more than cut in half. Better tools have been created to monitor and control progress and better skilled project managers with better management processes are being used. The fact that there are processes is significant in itself.” The Standish Group, "CHAOS 2001: A Recipe for Success" (2001)

8. Sample Templates • Information Technology Project Management, Third Edition, includes • 34 templates used in the book • information for accessing 333 free templates from other sources • You can access all of these template files for free from www.kathyschwalbe.com • You can also access templates at the companion Web site for the text at www.course.com/mis/schwalbe

9. Sample Templates for Initiating Projects (in text) • Weighted Decision Matrix • Business Case • Financial Analysis • Project Charter • Kickoff Meeting

15. Sample Templates for Planning Projects (in text) • Team Contract • Scope Statement • Statement of Work • Request for Proposal • Stakeholder Analysis • Software Project Management Plan • Work Breakdown Structure • Gantt Chart • Network Diagram • Project Cost Estimate Overview • Quality Assurance Plan • Pareto Diagram • Project Organizational Chart • Responsibility Assignment Matrix • Resource Histogram • Stakeholder Analysis for Project Communications Note: Other templates available in the text and on www.kathyschwalbe.com

16. Now to Bill… Thanks for the great work your team did! +

17. Background on Project • Done as part of IE5541, Project Management, course • Counted for 25 % or grade • Project idea suggested by professor (Kathy) • Four students volunteered, all working adults taking the course virtually

18. “Tempting Templates” Project Objectives • Search for project management templates from the Internet and/or literature • Provide an organized list of templates grouped by web site, process group, and knowledge area • Provide a qualitative evaluation of web sites • Provide recommendations for the list of templates to be included in the appendix of Schwalbe’s text

19. Research ActivitiesThree Phase Approach • Search for Web Sites • Team members assigned different search engines • Obtain a list of web sites that provide (free) project management templates • Organize the list by number and cost of templates found • Gather Template Information • Team members assigned different web sites • Collect detailed information on each free template • Organize the list of templates by web site, process group and knowledge area • Adjust the plan to meet sponsor’s needs • Present results and receive feedback from sponsor • Adjust the plan to meet sponsor’s needs

20. Team Member’s Photos

21. Team Responsibilities

22. Summary of Results • The team found 333 free templates and organized them by process group and knowledge area • We set initial guidelines for each team member to start the Internet search, then quickly recorded information on each “hit” • Prioritized and ranked sites based on number of total and unique templates • We evaluated many sites and came up with a “top ten” list

23. Template Distribution byProcess Group and Knowledge Area

24. Number of TemplatesFound by Knowledge Area

25. Percentage of Templates Found by Process Group

26. Students’ Top Ten Free Template Sites

27. Project Success • Project success as defined in our scope statement: • “The project will be deemed successful if the project is completed by 4/29/03, the PM Template Report is delivered to Kathy Schwalbe and some of the report content is included in the 3rd edition of her book.” • Sponsor feedback: • “I think your team did a great job on the project. The results of your research will be used by a lot of people. My reviewers really liked the new appendix with the templates.” • Objectives were attained, the project was a success!

28. Student Project Milestones

29. Project Management Tools • MS Project • Used for Time, Cost, Scope, Human Resource management • Very helpful tool. Allowed us to be effective team members. Has more functionality than required for a project of this size • Communications • Web page, E-mail, Instant Messenger, Teleconferencing • Effective communication tools for our virtual team • Used several templates provided in class (charter, scope statement, etc.)

30. Earned Value Analysis(chart on next page) • Saved project baseline at beginning of project. • Assumed $30/hour labor rate for all team members. • Earned value chart shows us on-time and slightly over-budget. • Our mid-semester review showed us going over-budget. We adjusted by refining the original project scope and by using free slack built into the original schedule.

32. What Went Right? • Spent a lot of time in the planning phase • Spent time, as a team, with the sponsor clarifying the charter • Productive team working sessions to create an effective WBS • Tasks balanced among team members. Tasks matched to team members with appropriate skills. • Very high levels of ownership and schedule integrity • The work was meaningful. Project topic applied directly to the course content • Schedule was able to accommodate a mid-course redirection in activities

33. What Went Wrong? • Communicating with each other was sometimes difficult because we couldn’t easily find a common meeting time/place • The amount of work was underestimated

34. What Did the Team Learn? • We learned a lot about project management and templates • Gained appreciation of the wide use of project management techniques in various industries • Gained experience how to do a general web research project • Learned about advanced features of MS Project • Earned Value • HTML output, reports • Learned about virtual teams from both the project team and the content report

35. Project Web Site Note: You can link to this site from www.kathyschwalbe.com

36. Project Gantt Chart

38. Quote from Kathy’s Book • In the spring of 2003, four students in a project management course at the University of Minnesota did a group project to help find and evaluate templates. Bill Hunt was the project manager, and his team members included Heather Fox, Kinwai Chan, and Roy Musselman. All four students took the class in a virtual environment. I was the sponsor for the project and their instructor for the course, which met one night a week from mid-January through early May. • In their preliminary project report, one of the first product-related deliverables for the project, the students reported finding 54 unique Web sites that offered project management templates. Thirty-five of these sites offered free templates with no required registration or membership, 11 sites required a registration or free membership to access the templates, and 18 sites required a fee for either membership or for direct purchase of the templates. The students used several different search engines and entered key words like "free project management templates" and similar variations. • Table D-2 provides a count of the templates the students found by knowledge area and process group. Note that the students found 333 templates…

39. Kathy’s Observations on Templates • In early 2003 I added templates to my Web site for project proposals, team contracts, and scope statements, and the quality of student assignments/projects improved tremendously • People like to have more guidance on expectations and formats for various project documents, and they want the actual files to make their jobs easier • Be sure the templates are useful and not just bureaucratic paperwork • For example, scope statements should describe project success criteria. Track that info in the status and final project reports

40. Check Out the Free Templates! • Go to www.kathyschwalbe.com and download the free template files from her third edition (created in Word, Excel, Project, and PowerPoint) and access the sites that Bill’s team found • If you’d like to add more, contact Kathy at schwalbe@augsburg.edu

41. Questions or Comments?