Practias

TE AM FL Y

Practical Project Management
Tips, Tactics, and Tools

Harvey A. Levine

JOHN WILEY & SONS, INC.

Practical Project Management

Practical Project Management
Tips, Tactics, and Tools

Harvey A. Levine

JOHN WILEY & SONS, INC.

This book is printed on acid-free paper. ∞ Copyright © 2002 by Harvey A. Levine. All rights reserved. Published by John Wiley & Sons,Inc., New York. Published simultaneously in Canada. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, orauthorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 750-4744. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158-0012, (212) 850-6011, fax (212) 850-6008, E-Mail: PERMREQ@WILEY.COM. Thispublication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services. If professional advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought. Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronicformats. Some content that appears in print may not appear in electronic formats. Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. In all instances where John Wiley & Sons, Inc. is aware of a claim, the product names appear in initial capital or all capital letters. Readers, however, should contact the appropriate companies for more complete informationregarding trademarks and registration. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data: Levine, Harvey A. Practical project management : tips, tactics, and tools / Harvey A. Levine. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. Bookz ISBN 0-471-20303-3 (alk. paper) 1. Project management. I. Title. HD69 .P75 L484 2002 658.4'04—dc21 2002003007 Printed in the United States of America. 10 98 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments Preface 1. Setting Up the Project Management Operation 1.1 About Projects and Project Management 1.2 Organizing for Project Management 1.3 Does Your Company Need a CPO? 1.4 Implementing a Computer-based Project Management Capability Getting Started 2.1 Project Initiation Techniques 2.2 Do You Weebis? Clarifying WBS, OBS, and RBS 2.3 Project LifeCycles

ix xi 1 2 13 24 29 39 41 60 65

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3.

Scheduling 73 3.1 Critical Path Scheduling 76 3.2 Critical Path, Critical Chain, and Uncertainty: Exploring Concepts of Shared Contingency 84 3.3 Estimating Task Durations 93 3.4 How Important Are Schedules and Time Compression? 100 3.5 Practical Scheduling 107 Resource and Workforce Management 4.1 An Overview of the Different Elements ofResource Management 4.2 Role-based Needs for Managing Resources in a Project-driven Organization 4.3 Resource Leveling and Games of Chance 4.4 Practical Resource Scheduling 117 119 123 139 150

4.

v

vi
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CONTENTS
Budgeting and Cost Control 5.1 Concepts and Issues of Project Budgeting and Cost Control 5.2 Software Support for Cost Management Risk Management and Contingency 6.1 Using andManaging Contingency 6.2 Risk Management for the Sigmaphobic: Managing Schedule, Cost, and Technical Risk and Contingency 6.3 Some Computer-based Approaches to Schedule Risk Analysis Maintaining the Plan 7.1 Change Control and Scope Management 7.2 Real-time Status versus Period Data 7.3 Automatic Project Management: A Classic Oxymoron Performance Measurement 8.1 Measuring the Value of Work...