Chapter 12 - Project Management

1. Chapter 12 - Project Management ME101 Dr. Nhut Tan Ho

2. Lecture Objectives and Activities • Discuss the importance and components of project planning • Introduce tools for planning and managing project • Active learning activities • group-assignment: Create GANNT charts

3. Introduction • “Failure to plan is planning to fail.” • A good plan is one of the most important attributes of successful teams and projects. • Projects should be organized systematically.

4. Eight Questions that can be Addressed with a Plan • What does your team do first? • What should come next? • How many people do you need to accomplish the tasks? • What resources do you need? • How long will it take? • When can your team get the tasks completed? • When will the project be finished? • How do we know we’re done with project?

5. Creating a Project Charter • First step: a project summary defining what your project is and when you will know when it is done • Elements include • Deliverables • Planning information • Tasks and time needed • Milestones • Personnel and roles • Budget

6. Task Definitions and Organization • Identify the completion tasks to achieve the objectives and outcomes. Example: • Plan • Design • Build • Deliver • Determine task relationships and sequencing

7. Defining Times • Include the full time needed for tasks • As a student, you don’t have a full eight-hour work day every day • Break tasks into week segments • Weekday and/or weekend • Class periods • Break tasks into short time periods • Be conservative with your time estimates

8. Milestones • Deadlines for deliverables • Monitoring of your plans progress • Completion of subcomponents

9. Project Evaluation and Planning Technique (PERT) Charts • Each task is represented by a box containing a brief description of and duration for the task • The boxes can be laid out just as the project plan is laid out • Useful as a “what if” tool during planning stages

10. PERT Chart Example: Complete BS ME Degree in 4 Years Complete Math, Physics, Chemistry Courses 1 year Complete ME, EE, CE Courses 3 years Start ME Program Complete ME Program Complete GE Courses 2 years • Critical path (in red) is the longest string of dependent project tasks • Tasks on critical path will hold up project completion if there are delayed

11. PERT Chart Example

12. Gantt Charts • Popular project management charting method for people to understand your team’s progress relative to your plan • Horizontal bar chart • Tasks vs. dates • Example GANTT Chart

13. Team Activity: GANTT Chart • Examine the sample GANTT Chart in the Design Packet (page 13) and create a GANTT Chart for your project (30 minutes) • Present your chart to the class (5 minutes)

14. Details, Details • Remember Murphy’s Law - “Anything that can go wrong, will.” • Leave time to fix debug or fix errors • Don’t assume things will fit together the first time • Leave time for parts malfunction and order/delivery

15. Personnel Distribution • Get the right people on the right tasks • Assign people after developing a draft of the plan • Balance the work between everyone • Weekly updates – does everyone understand what they’re doing and is everyone still on task?

16. Team Roles • Roles • Project Leader or Monitor • Liaison • Others: Procurement/Financial officer • Project Documentation • Document milestones as they occur • Leave time at the end for reviewing, not writing

17. Lecture Recap: Project Management • Engineering projects are complex, requiring systematic project management • Tasks must come together to meet deadlines and satisfy requirements • Next lecture: Engineering Design Process • This week assignment: Teamwork for problems 12.1-12.9