October 16th, 2017
BY: EMILY WELSH
Welcome to Week 6 everyone! The halfway point of this semester has come and past. Oh where did the time fly?
The majority of this class was spent presenting our project charters to our peers. The last portion was a brief overview of the work breakdown structure and network diagram which I will discuss in the reading insight below.
Class Learning
Within most of our groups' presentations, we often slipped into providing status reports rather than presenting project charters! It was a good class for practicing our presentation skills as we obviously needed the time and assistance.
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| Don't fall into the trap! Structure your presentation for the goals you hope to achieve! Source. |
Instead of providing updates on where our projects stood at the moment, our presentations should have mirrored the purpose of the project charter. The project charter is a document used to present your project to gain approval, funding, or stakeholder support. Thus the presentation should be structured to achieve these goals!
Here are the recommendations our co-instructors provided us for developing better "pitch" presentations in the future:
1. How you deliver your content can often be more important than what you actually present. If you aren't enthusiastic about your project, who will be?
2. Timing is crucial! If you have a time limit, stick to it. Don't waste people's time. You often lose their attention near the end if you go beyond what was expected.
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| Use a timer! Know your time limit and stick to it to avoid losing (and annoying) your listeners. Source. |
3. Don't read back your written document. Use your presentation as an opportunity to highlight the key points. The listener can read your document if they want further details. Simply highlight that this information is present in the document if you they need it.
4. Make your key points punchy! What about your project will engage your listener and make them want to approve your plan or invest in it? Why does your project matter? Gloss over the negative points of your presentation and make sure you are memorable!
5. De-emphasize planning. Items related to planning are important to your success but aren't of much interest to your listeners in this setting. Stick to the big picture and what sells your project!
6. Use your best communicator! Although you may think it is best to have everyone speak, you only want to have those adept at communicating and holding attention at the helm of the ship in this setting. Know your weaknesses, and if public speaking is one of them, play a supporting role.
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| Not everyone has to speak! Use your best communicators and public speakers for best results. Source. |
7. If you aren't speaking, make sure to watch your body language! Don't lean against walls, look bored or appear distracted. Actively listen to your team member and nod approvingly of their speech. Be ready to support the team by answering questions at the end.
Reading Insight
This week's reading included three sections of Gido and Clements book, Successful Project Management. I was extremely impressed by the sections I read of this book, and I hope to read more! The sections were easy to follow, incredibly practically, with a multitude of examples and diagrams taking you step by step through the creation of work breakdown structures and network diagrams. I'll be brief here this week because I think instead of reading these notes anyone should just look up this chapter for the best advice and explanation of the concepts.
To begin planning, groups need to agree on the project scope. The project scope consists of everything that needs to be completed in order to finish the project. Once this has been established, the work needs to be broken down into manageable chucks. Thus we see the meaning behind the term 'work breakdown structure'. The work is arranged into groupings called 'work packages.' Each package has one major deliverable associated with its completion and is comprised of a series of tasks (aka activities). Each task may also have its own small deliverable and at this stage you can start assigning group members to the tasks. This structure can be presented in a chart or a list.
The next step is to create your network diagram. Essentially you need to know the sequence of tasks and their relationships or dependencies. Each task receives its own box and the boxes are arranged in the order of events. Boxes may be stacked in concurrent or laddering patterns to show more complex and time efficient relationships.
A time duration is assigned to each task and this diagram can be used for the project scheduling, which may take the form of a Gantt chart. The book does an excellent job of walking the reader through the determination of the total slack and critical path of their project and the consequences of positive and negative values. The authors also give you tips for estimating duration of tasks. For example, don't forget that the duration is the total time elapsed! You need to take into account not only the time you will need to do the work, but also the time you will spend waiting!
The authors' considerations let you figure out whether your project, with your estimated task durations, will meet the completion date and if not, how to consider adjusting tasks to alter the slack in the timeline.
Happy Planning!
Resources
Gido, J., & Clements, J. P. (2015). Successful project management (6th ed.). Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning.
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