Planning in 140 Tweets

KEY TOPICS COVERED Some of the tags that appear throughout the book.

SCOPE

CONTRACTS

LEADERSHIP

COSTS

BUSINESS CASE

WBS

SCHEDULE

TEAM

RISKS

This book is meant to be read by the lawyer, doctor, entrepreneur, researcher, public servant, ie, for all professionals who want to learn the key concepts that involve planning activities and project management in a simple, fast and direct way.

ALSO FROM THE AUTHOR Gerenciamento de Projetos: Estabelecendo Diferenciais Competitivos

@rvvargas

Manual Prático do Plano de Projeto: utilizando o PMBOK® Guide Microsoft Project 2010: Standard e Professional Análise de Valor Agregado em Projetos: Revolucionando o gerenciamento de prazos e custos Microsoft Office Project 2007 Standard & Professional

ricardo-vargas.com

ISBN: 978-1-62825-014-5 U.S. $12.95

PLANNING IN 140 TWEETS

CAREER

No matter what is your profession, every time that a temporary nature shows up in a work of yours, which is different from routine, you have in front of you a project. And managing a project is different from managing routine.

PLANNING IN

140 TWEETS Quick tips on ideas, concepts and the use of project management in your profession and life

Ricardo Viana Vargas is a project, portfolio and risk management specialist, author of 11 books on project management, published in Portuguese and English. During the past 15 years, he has been responsible for over 80 major projects in various countries in petroleum, energy, infrastructure, telecommunications, information technology and finance industries, comprising an investment portfolio of over 18 billion dollars.

He is currently the director of the Project Management Practice Group at UNOPS and lives in Copenhagen, Denmark. His work is focused on improving the management of humanitarian, peace-building and infrastructure development projects in dozens of countries.

He was the first Latin American volunteer to be elected Chairman of the Board for the Project Management Institute (PMI), the largest project management organization in the world with close to 600,000 members and certified professionals in 175 countries.

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planning in

140 tweets Quick tips on ideas, concepts, and the use of project management in your profession and life

@rvvargas

26/08/13 10:41

Translation: Wagner Maxsen de Oliveira Interior Layout: Sérgio Alves Lima Jardim Cover Design: Sérgio Alves Lima Jardim Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Vargas, Ricardo Viana.

[Planejamento em 140 tweets. English] Planning in 140 tweets : quick tips on ideas, concepts, and the use of project management in your profession and life / Ricard Vargas. pages cm Translation of the author’s Planejamento em 140 tweets.

Includes index.

ISBN 978-1-62825-016-9 (English translation : alk. paper) -- ISBN 1-62825-016-X (English translation : alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-8574525716 (Portuguese version : alk. paper) 1. Project management. I. Project Management Institute. II. Title. III. Title: Planning in one hundred forty tweets.

HD69.P75V366 2013 658.4’04--dc23 2013032054 ISBN: 978-1-62825-016-9 Published by: Project Management Institute, Inc.

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PMI Publications welcomes corrections and comments on its books. Please feel free to send comments on typographical, formatting, or other errors. Simply make a copy of the relevant page of the book, mark the error, and send it to: Book Editor, PMI Publications, 14 Campus Boulevard, Newtown Square, PA 19073-3299 USA. To inquire about discounts for resale or educational purposes, please contact the PMI Book Service Center.

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In memory of my unforgettable friend, Professor Danúbio Becker Borba

One of the most spectacular project management teachers I have ever had the opportunity and happiness to meet.

During our last chat, he said: “Ricardo, you have to write a book that talks about projects in homeopathic doses, like tweets. People need to understand projects in a simple, practical, and direct way”.

Well, here’s the book!

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the author Ricardo Viana Vargas is a project, portfolio, and risk management specialist. During the past 15 years, he has been responsible for over 80 major projects in various countries in the petroleum, energy, infrastructure, telecommunications, information technology, and finance industries, comprising an investment portfolio of over 18 billion dollars.

He is currently the director of the Project Management Practice Group at UNOPS and lives in Copenhagen, Denmark. His work is focused on improving the management of humanitarian, peacebuilding and infrastructure development projects in dozens of countries, including Haiti, Afghanistan, Iraq, and South Sudan.

He was the first Latin American volunteer to be elected Chairman of the Board for the Project Management Institute (PMI), the largest project management organization in the world with more than 600,000 members, certification and credential holders, and volunteers in nearly every country in the world.

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Ricardo Vargas has written eleven books on project management, published in Brazilian Portuguese and English, which have sold over 250,000 copies throughout the world.

In 2005 he received the PMI Distinguished Award and in 2011 the PMI Information Systems Community of Practice Professional Development Award for his contribution to the development of project management. He also received the PMI Professional Development Product of the Year award for the PMDome® workshop, considered the best project management training solution in the world.

He is a project management professor for various MBA courses, and actively participates on editorial boards for specialized journals in Brazil and the United States. Vargas is a recognized reviewer of A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide), the most important reference in the world for project management, and also chaired the official translation of the PMBOK® Guide into Brazilian Portuguese.

He is a chemical engineer and holds a master’s degree in Industrial Engineering from UFMG (Federal University of Minas Gerais). Ricardo Vargas also holds a Master Certificate in Project Management from George Washington University and is certified as a Project Management Professional (PMP®), Risk Management Professional (PMI-RMP®), and Scheduling Professional (PMI-SP®) by PMI.

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He is also certified as a PRINCE2® Practitioner

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THE AUTHOR

IX

by the United Kingdom Office of Government and Commerce (OGC) and as Certified Scrum Master (CSM) by the Scrum Alliance. He attended the Program on Negotiation for Executives at Harvard Law School and has an executive formation in Strategy and Innovation from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Over an eleven-year time frame, which began in 1995, Ricardo, in conjunction with two partners, established one of the most solid Brazilian businesses in technology, project management, and outsourcing industries, which had a staff of 4,000 collaborators and an annual income of 50 million dollars in 2006, when Ricardo Vargas sold his share of the company to dedicate himself on a fulltime basis to the internationalization of his project management activities.

He is a member of the Association for Advancement of Cost Engineering (AACE), the American Management Association (AMA), the International Project Management Association (IPMA), the Institute for Global Ethics, and the Professional Risk Management International Association (PRMIA). www.ricardo-vargas.com @rvvargas facebook.com/ricardo.viana.vargas linkedin.com/in/ricardovargas

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disclaimer The opinions expressed in this publication are the responsibility of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the United Nations (UN), including its Member States and UNOPS.

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presentation When I conceived of this book, the main idea was to create something for the general public, where the main concepts behind the activities of project planning and control would be presented in a simple, quick and direct way, and, for that, I borrowed the term “tweets.”

As everybody knows, the microblog Twitter® has the objective of sharing ideas and information using up to 140 characters. I wasn’t that rigorous in using this concept. You will certainly notice that some of the “tweets” go beyond this limit as I tried to convey the concepts in the best possible way.

The main target audience of this book is not the professional who has project management as his or her career. For these professionals I have 10 other books and more than 20 technical papers where I discuss the most important concepts and tools regarding project, program and portfolio management in a most detailed possible manner.

The target audience for this book is the professional from other areas who wishes to have a preliminary knowledge of the subject and who also thinks that

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Planning in 140 Tweets

project management might contribute as a life skill, just like math.

This book is meant to be read by the lawyer, doctor, entrepreneur, researcher, public servant, and all other professions. Whatever your profession, every time that a temporary nature shows up in a work of yours, which is different from routine, you have in front of you a project. And managing a project is different than managing a routine.

In spite of being organized into themes, “Planning in 140 Tweets� does not have a classic reading sequence. You can just open the book on any page and read it. It doesn’t have to be from the beginning until the end, theme by theme. What matters is the idea and the contemplation about each one of the small messages. It might be that one of them makes a big difference in your job or life, who knows?

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Ricardo Vargas

26/08/13 10:41

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table of contents 1

Chapter 1

basic concepts 11

Chapter 2

Project Management as a Life Skill 17

Chapter 3

the project manager 23

Chapter 4

A Career in Project management 29

Chapter 5

where it all begins: the Business Case 37

Chapter 6

SIZING UP THE WORK TO BE DONE 47

Chapter 7

Establishing and Monitoring deadlines 59

Chapter 8

Managing Costs and Budgets 65

Chapter 9

quality management

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Planning in 140 Tweets

XVI 71

Chapter 10

leading people 77

Chapter 11

Understanding the Importance of Communication 85

Chapter 12

Identifying, Assessing, and Responding to Risks 93

Chapter 13

Planning and Managing Contracts and purchases 99

glossary

107 tag index

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Chapter 1

basic concepts Grasp the basic concepts related to project management and understand why so many people can’t make a clear distinction between what is and what is not a project.

Since project management is a subject that is widely current, thus catching the attention of many people, professionals have been considering everything that they do as “projects.” I have heard many people talking about the management of a project, such as “running the monthly payroll of an organization,” or many other similar claims.

When talking about a project, we have to consider something that has its own unique characteristics.

Projects are temporary events, which means that they have a start date, a period during which they

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2

Planning in 140 Tweets

are executed, and an end date. They are quite the opposite from a routine, which does not have a definite end, and that exists only when there is an interest to continue its existence.

The second characteristic that projects bear with them is to create unique products and services. These products and services have specific characteristics that differentiate them from the rest. It is as if each project has its own unique DNA. This characteristic turns projects into work environments with much more volatility and proneness to risks, when compared to traditional work.

Always bear in mind: “A lot of the things that we currently do are projects. However, not everything is a project.�

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01

The best way to understand what a project is is to compare it to routines. Project is everything that cannot be learned through repetition. routine

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4

The basic difference between routine and projects. Routine: repetition improves results. Project: innovation and differentiated management improve results. routine

02

VISION VISÃO

The Organization and the projects

MISSION MISSÃO

OBJECTIVES OBJETIVOS

PROCESSOS PROCESSES

PRODUÇÃO DELIVER VALUE DE VALOR

PROJETO PROJECT

AUMENTO INCREASEDA THE CAPACIDADE CAPACITY DE PRODUÇÃO TO DELIVER VALUE DE VALOR

ORGANIZATIONAL RECURSOS DA ORGANIZAÇÃO RESOURCES

Projects are temporary and unique.

Temporary because they respect a time constraint. Unique because they have some characteristics that set them aside from everything that you’ve already done before.

03

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pmbok

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BASIC CONCEPTS

5

Being temporary does not mean that the project is to be managed in a fast manner.

There can be projects that last 1 day, 1 year, or even 10 years. What really matters is to ensure that there is an end.

04

There are 12 US$ trillion being invested in projects right now. This represents about 25% of the world’s economy, with the involvement of more than 20 million professionals in project activities.

Source: Economist Intelligence Unit 05

statistics

When planned, a project has much more chances to achieve the expected results.

PMI states that low-performing projects endanger 27% of the budget. On the other hand, high-performing projects reduce the risk exposure to 3%.

Source: PMI Fact Book 2012 Success, pmi, statistics

06

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Planning in 140 Tweets

6

There is no such thing as perfection. A well managed project does not imply a perfect project. Mistakes and problems will most certainly happen. What is expected is that they will be minimized. success

07

Managing projects is about applying adequate knowledge and techniques so that the project bears more chances of success. Of course, it is you who decide whether to manage or just ‘follow’ the project from a distance!

08

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success

My favorite quote: “Done is better than perfect!”

Facebook - Palo Alto, CA, USA quote

09

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BASIC CONCEPTS

7

The further in the future is any given work, the harder and riskier it is to manage. tips, risks

10

Controlling a project is different from monitoring it. Control requires proactivity and involvement. Monitoring is just a passive task of observation.

11

control, success, proactivity

What enables project success is its control, not just its monitoring. control

12

In order for your project to fail miserably, you don’t need to do anything. It will fail by itself. What requires effort and energy is the act of making sure it accomplishes its objective and follows the desired plan!

13

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8

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What ensures the success or failure of a project is the relationship between the scope of the work to be done, the available time, and the associated costs. These comprise what is known as triple constraint.

success, scope, schedule, cost

14

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BASIC CONCEPTS

9

When we talk about success, we are obviously talking about the execution of the idea. Without a sound business case it’s irrelevant to execute the project tasks well… The product will be strategically worthless. business case, success

15

The organizational structure has a direct influence over the project work. The more rigid and departmentalized the organization is, the more challenging the projects will be.

16

tips

Be humble, don’t overvalue your own project. Your project is not more important than the organization or the political and social environments inside which we all are. tips

17

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Planning in 140 Tweets

10

Many organizations use matrix structures to organize the aspects of their projects and routines. It can be a solution… but it has to be a temporary structure. The collateral effects and the conflicts will always be huge. routine

18

Setting up a project management office (PMO) is definitely not the first thing to do when starting to work with projects.

First, one has to learn about the subject, promote it internally and socialize the idea across the organization before taking bigger steps.

19

pmo

And, finally, my favorite quote about executive support to planning: “Executives never have time to plan… but there’s always money to redo things all over again.”

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quote

20

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KEY TOPICS COVERED Some of the tags that appear throughout the book.

SCOPE

CONTRACTS

LEADERSHIP

COSTS

BUSINESS CASE

WBS

SCHEDULE

TEAM

RISKS

This book is meant to be read by the lawyer, doctor, entrepreneur, researcher, public servant, ie, for all professionals who want to learn the key concepts that involve planning activities and project management in a simple, fast and direct way.

ALSO FROM THE AUTHOR Gerenciamento de Projetos: Estabelecendo Diferenciais Competitivos

@rvvargas

Manual Prático do Plano de Projeto: utilizando o PMBOK® Guide Microsoft Project 2010: Standard e Professional Análise de Valor Agregado em Projetos: Revolucionando o gerenciamento de prazos e custos Microsoft Office Project 2007 Standard & Professional

ricardo-vargas.com

ISBN: 978-1-62825-014-5 U.S. $12.95

PLANNING IN 140 TWEETS

CAREER

No matter what is your profession, every time that a temporary nature shows up in a work of yours, which is different from routine, you have in front of you a project. And managing a project is different from managing routine.

PLANNING IN

140 TWEETS Quick tips on ideas, concepts and the use of project management in your profession and life

Ricardo Viana Vargas is a project, portfolio and risk management specialist, author of 11 books on project management, published in Portuguese and English. During the past 15 years, he has been responsible for over 80 major projects in various countries in petroleum, energy, infrastructure, telecommunications, information technology and finance industries, comprising an investment portfolio of over 18 billion dollars.

He is currently the director of the Project Management Practice Group at UNOPS and lives in Copenhagen, Denmark. His work is focused on improving the management of humanitarian, peace-building and infrastructure development projects in dozens of countries.

He was the first Latin American volunteer to be elected Chairman of the Board for the Project Management Institute (PMI), the largest project management organization in the world with close to 600,000 members and certified professionals in 175 countries.