Saturday, September 02, 2017

Education Edge - Communication Knowledge Area

Education Edge - Communication Knowledge Area

Knowledge Area #7 – Communication

Critical Highlights:

• Assure the timely collection, generation, distribution, storage, retrieval and ultimate disposition of project information
• Very important to the ultimate success of the project
• Message transmission: 7% in word, 38% in vocal pitch, 55% in body language (Albert Mehrabian)
• Don’t wait to communication good/bad news – BE TRANSPARENT AND OPEN
• The sender has the responsibility to ensure the receiver correctly understand the message
• If part of the project is procured, more formal written communication will be expected

 

Processes (3)

1. Plan Communications Management

2.  Manage Communications

3.  Control Communications

 

1. Plan Communications Management

• identify the needs for stakeholder communication
• the who, what, when (frequency), why, where and how of communications needs and the persons responsible
• time and budget for the resources, escalation path, flow charts, constraints, guideline and templates
• Communication Methods
o interactive (multidirectional communication, most effective)
o push (active, messages sent without validation of receipt)
o pull (passive, access directly by stakeholders)
• low context vs high context (japan, more polite)
• may need to limit who can communicate with whom and who will receive what information
• (Shannon-Weaver model)Sender-Receiver Model: i) encoded idea, ii) message and feedback, iii) medium, iv) noise level, v) the decoded idea. The sender to ensure info is clear, complete and the recipient correct understands. The recipient to ensure complete message is received (to acknowledge) and provide feedback/response.
• Effective Listening: feedback, active listening and paralingual (voice expression, nonverbal elements)
• Communication channels: N (N -1) / 2      // N is the number of team members
• meetings should facilitate problem solving
• PM spends 90% of their time on COMMUNICATION activities, 50% of the time is spent on communicating with the team
• efficient communication: only the required messages
• effective communication: right timing, right format, right medium

 

2. Manage Communications

• create, collect, distribute, store, retrieve and dispose project information according to the Communication Management Plan
• ensures good communications, noises managed, stakeholders may feedback on how to improve
• Communication Barriers vs Communication Enhancers
• 55% message thru body language, 38% through Para lingual, 7% thru words used
• Types of Communications: Formal Written, Formal Verbal, Information Written, Informal Verbal
• Performance Reporting: status, progress, variance, trend, earned value reports and forecasts, summary of changes, risks and issues
• PM Plan Update to show the latest performance (against Performance Measurement Baseline)
• Feedback from stakeholders are to be stored in OPA

 

3. Control Communications

• to ensure optimal information flow for effective stakeholder expectation management
• issue log is to document the issues and monitor its resolutions (with person responsible)

 


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Education Edge - Human Resource Knowledge Area

Education Edge - Human Resource Knowledge Area

Knowledge Area #6 – Human Resource

Critical Highlights:

• Sexism, racism or other discrimination should never be tolerated, no matter what the circumstances. You must separate your team from discriminatory practices, even if those practices are normal in the country where you’re working.
• Human Resource is the only knowledge area where EEFs (Enterprise Environmental Factors) are updated and hence are outputs of Develop and Manage Team. HR and their skills are EEFs.

 

Processes (4)


1.  Plan Human Resource Management

• include roles and responsibilities (identify resources that can take up the responsibilities) as documented (ownership of deliverables) in RAM in the form of RACI chart (matrix) or in a chart/text form, org charts – an organizational breakdown structure (OBS) and staffing management plan – staff acquisition, release, resource calendar, resource histogram, training, rewards, compliance & safety requirements
• The OBS displays organizational relationships and then uses them for assigning work to resources in a project (WBS)
• networking is useful in understanding skills of individuals and the political and interpersonal factors within the organization
• org chart indicates the reporting structure of the project

 

• The four letters of RACI stands for:
o Responsible – Which project member is responsible for carrying out the execution of the task?
o Accountable – The Project member who is held accountable for the tasks and be given the authority to make decisions? In general, there should only be 1 member accountable for the project task.
o Consulted – The stakeholders that should be consulted for the work or be included in the decision making (to be engaged in two-way communication).
o Informed – Who should be informed of the decisions or progresses of the work by means of email updates, progress reports, etc. (one-way communication)?
o The RACI chart is a tool for tracking the tools for tracking the roles and responsibilities of project members for specific project tasks during project execution.
o While there can be unlimited number of members responsible for the execution of a project task, there should only be one member accountable for the same task. Fixing the accountability to a single person will allow the project team members to know which person to go to should they need to know the progresses or details of the task. This can also avoid the false assumption that the other person (if there are more than one accountable) accountable for the task has taken care of the task but in the end no one has looked after the task.
o The member responsible and accountable can be the same for small tasks.

 

2. Acquire Project Team
• pre-assignment is the selection of certain team members in advance
• acquisition is to acquire resources from outside through hiring consultants or subcontractin
• includes bringing on contractors / consultants
• halo effect: a cognitive bias (if he is good at one thing, he will be good at everything)
• Multi-criteria Decision Analysis: to select team members based on a no. of factors: availability, cost, experience, ability, knowledge, skills, attitude, etc.
• training is usually paid for by the organization, not project

 

3. Develop Project Team
• enhancing and improving overall team performance
• offer feedback, support, engage team members, manage conflicts, facilitate cooperation
• cross-train people 
• team performance assessments : assess team performance as a whole vs project performance appraisals: individual performance
• training cost can be set within the project budget or supported by the organization
• PM Authority: legitimate (assigned in project charter), reward, penalty, expert (need to be earned), referent (charisma and likable, or ally with people with higher power), representative (elected as representative) 
• Expert > Reward are best forms of power. Penalty is worst.
• Tuckman Model: Forming – Storming – Norming – Performing – Adjourning
• cultural difference should be considered when determining award and recognition
• recognition should focus on win-win reward for the team (NOT competitive-based)
• team building is important throughout the whole project period
• Motivational Theories
o Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs – personal needs (Physiological > Security > Social > Esteem > Self Actualization)
o Herzberg’s Hygiene Theory – satisfaction (motivators) vs dissatisfaction (hygiene factors to avoid dissatisfaction but do not provide satisfaction, also called KITA factors e.g. incentives/punishments), hygiene factors include good working conditions, a satisfying personal life, and good relations with the boss and coworkers
o Expectancy Theory – Expectancy (extra work will be rewarded) Instrumentality (good results will be rewarded) Valence (the individual’s expected reward), for a person to be motivated, efforts/performance/outcome must be matched – will only work hard for achievable goals
o Achievement Theory – three motivation needs: achievement (nAch), power (nPow), affiliation (nAff), best is a balanced style for the PM
o Contingency Theory – task-oriented/relationship-oriented with stress level (high stress ->task-oriented better)
o Leadership Theory includes: analytical (with expertise), autocratic (with power), bureaucratic, charismatic, consultative, driver (micromanagement), influencing, laissez-faire (stay out)
o Theory X – assumes employees are lazy and avoid work, need incentive/threats/close supervising
o Theory Y – assumes employees may be ambitious and self-motivated, will perform given the right conditions
o Theory Z – (Japanese) increasing loyalty by providing job for life with focus on well-being of employee (on and off job), produces high productivity and morale
o Situational Continuum Leadership – directing/telling > coaching/selling (manager define the work) > supporting/participating (subordinate define the work) > delegating according to maturity/capability of the subordinate

4.    Manage Project Team

• track team member performance, provide feedback, resolve issues 
• when managed properly, differences of opinion can lead to increased creativity and better decision making 
• issue log is fed from Manage Stakeholder Engagement – used to understand who is responsible for resolving specific issues
• conflict management: conflicts force a search for alternatives, need openness, not personal, focus on present and future
• conflicts: schedule, project priority, resources, technical opinions, administrative overhead (too much administration work), cost, personality
• conflict resolution
o collaborate/problem solve[confrontation of problem] (best)
o compromise/reconcile (give-and-take, temporary/partially resolve)
o force/direct (worst/short-lived)
o smooth/accommodate (emphasis common grounds and avoid/touch lightly the disagreements for harmony/relationship)
o withdraw/avoid (other leads to lose-lose) 
o compromise is lose-lose
o Forcing would only provide a temporary solution
• Award decisions are made during the process of project performance appraisals
• monitoring and controlling is typically performed by functional managers/HR for functional org

 

Knowledge Area #7 – Communication

Critical Highlights:

• Assure the timely collection, generation, distribution, storage, retrieval and ultimate disposition of project information
• Very important to the ultimate success of the project
• Message transmission: 7% in word, 38% in vocal pitch, 55% in body language (Albert Mehrabian)
• Don’t wait to communication good/bad news – BE TRANSPARENT AND OPEN
• The sender has the responsibility to ensure the receiver correctly understand the message
• If part of the project is procured, more formal written communication will be expected

 

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Education Edge - Quality Knowledge Area

Education Edge - Quality Knowledge Area

Knowledge Area #5 – Quality

Critical Highlights:

• Everyone in the organization is responsible for the quality (project team for destined parts while PM for project quality), PM is ultimately responsible for the project quality
• Prevention over inspection
• Outliers are singular measurements outside the control limits
• Continuous improvement to ensure quality (quality assurance)
• Some costs of quality will be borne by the organization (organization quality policy, e.g. quality audit, ISO accreditation)
• Quality: the degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfills requirements, decrease rework/costs, increase productivity/stakeholder satisfaction
• Under ‘control’: the process is predictable and repeatable
• PM: perform continuous improvement activities (quality assurance), verify quality before completion of deliverables (control quality)
• Grade (fit for use or not) vs Quality (conformance to stated requirements)
• Accuracy (correctness) vs Precision (consistence, how closely conforms to target, standard deviation is a measure of precision, smaller standard deviation higher precision)
• Quality Management Concepts
o Crosby Zero Defects: identify processes to remove defects, quality is built in to the processes
o Juran Fitness for Use: does the product/service meet customer’s need? i) Grade, ii) Quality conformance, iii) Reliability/maintainability, iv) Safety, v) Actual Use
o W. Edwards Deming: 85% of quality problem is managers’  responsibility, develop “System of Profound Knowledge” [system = components working together to achieve an aim] i) Appreciation for system, ii) Knowledge about variation (special cause vs common cause) , iii) Theory of Knowledge (built up by prediction/observation/adjustment) , iv) Psychology
o Six Sigma: achieve 3.4/1 mil defect level (99.999%) using DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Implement, Control) or [Design for Six Sigma] DMADV (Define, Measure, Analyze, Design, Validate) approach, refine the process to get rid of human error and outside influences with precise measurements, variations are random in nature
o Just In Time: eliminate build up of inventory
o Total Quality Management (TQM): ISO 8402 all members to center on quality to drive customer satisfaction , refine the process of producing the product
o Kaizen改善: implement consistent and incremental improvement, to reduce costs, cycle time, drive customer satisfaction using PDCA (Plan Do Check Act)
o The Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle is a way of making small improvements and testing their impact before you make a change to the process as a whole. It comes from W. Edwards Deming’s work in process improvement, which popularized the cycle that was originally invented by Walter Shewhart in the 1930s.
o Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI): improve overall software quality (design, development and deployment)
o ISO9000: ensures the defined processes are performed in accordance to the plan
• Quality Management processes are so focused on reviewing EVERY deliverable – not just the final product, but all of the components, designs and specifications too.

 

Processes (3)

 

1.  Perform Quality Assurance

• quality policy (either organizational or just for the project), methods and procedures to meet the objectives and satisfy customer’s needs
• identify the quality requirements and document how to achieve
• Cost-benefit Analysis: cost of implementing quality requirements against benefits
• Cost of Quality: lowest quality cost is prevention, highest quality cost (poor quality) is rework and defect repair (as high as 5000 times the cost for carrying out unit testing), lost reputation and sales, failure cost may be internal/external (found by customer)
• Warranty claims are external cost of quality
• Cost of Quality is the total cost of quality efforts throughout the product’s lifecycle
• cost of conformance (prevention cost, appraisal cost) vs cost of non-conformance (failure cost [internal/external])
• internal/external is reference to the project (not the organization)
• Poka Yoke (mistake proofing), Zero Quality Control (100% source inspection), Voice of Customer and FEMA (Failure Modes of Effects Analysis) are planning tools for quality management
• Quality Metrics: function points, MTBF (mean time between failure), MTTR (mean time to repair)
• Marginal Analysis: ROI of quality measures
• 7 Basic Quality Tools
• Cause-and-effect / Ishikawa / Fishbone Diagram: for identifying the cause
• Flowchart: (e.g. SIPOC diagram) for identifying failing process steps and process improvement opportunities
• Check Sheets (tally sheets): collecting data/documenting steps for defeat analysis
• Histograms: does not consider the influence of time on the variation that exits within a distribution
• Pareto Chart: based on 80/20 principle, a prioritization tool to identify critical issues in descending order of frequency, sort of a histogram
• Statistical Process Control (SPC) Chart: determine if a process is stable/predictable using statistical sampling (assessed by accuracy[conformance] and precision[standard deviation]), identity the internally computed control limits (UCL/LCL) and specification limits (USL/LSL) by the customer/PM
• run chart is similar to control chart, but without the control
• usually +-3sigma i.e. a range of 6 sigma
• a form of time series
• if a process is within control limit but beyond specification limit, the process is experiencing common cause variation (random) that cannot be corrected by the system, management help is needed (special cause can be tackled but NOT common cause)
• Stability Analysis / Zone Test: rule of seven (7 consecutive on either side of the mean = out of control), rule of six (six consecutive with a trend = out of control), rule of ten (10 as a saw-tooth pattern around the mean), rule of one (1 point beyond control limit) [signal in the noise]
• Scatter Diagram: for trending, a form of regression analysis
• Benchmarking: compare to past activities/standard/competition
• Design of Experiments (DOE): change several factors at a time for each experiment, to determine testing approaches and their impact on cost of quality
• Additional Quality Planning Tools
• Loss Function: a financial measure of the user’s dissatisfaction with product performance
• Matrix Diagrams: House of Quality (HOQ) used in Quality Function Deployment (QFD) (method to transform user demands [VOC]  into design quality)
• Kano Model: differentiate features as satisfy, delight or dissatisfy
• Marginal Analysis: cost-benefits analysis
• Force Field Analysis (FFA): reviews any proposed action with proactive and opposing forces
• Process Improvement Plan: process boundaries, configuration, process metrics/efficiencies, targets for improved performance
• Quality Checklists: checklist to verify a series of steps have been performed
• The goal is to refine the process so that human errors and outside influences no longer exist, and any remaining variations are completely random

 

2. Perform Quality Assurance
• in the Executing Process Group
• ensures the quality standards are being followed, to ensure unfinished works would meet the quality requirements
• by quality assurance department or sponsor/customer not actively involved in the project
• primarily concerned with overall process improvement for activities and processes (rather than the deliverable)
• utilize the data collected in Control Quality Process
• Quality Management Tools
• Affinity Diagrams: like a mind-mapping diagram, organize thoughts on how to solve problems
• Process Decision Program Charts (PDPC): defines a goal and the steps involved, useful for contingency planning
• Interrelationship Digraphs: maps cause-and-effect relationships for problems with multiple variables/outcomes
• Tree Diagrams
• Prioritization Matrices: define issues and alternatives that need to be prioritized for decision, items are given a priority score through brainstorming
• Activity Network Diagrams
• Matrix Diagrams: e.g. ‘house of quality’ in QFD
• Kaizen改善, Kanben看板: quality assurance methods developed by Japanese
• Quality Audit: to verify quality of processes, to seek improvement, identify best practices, reduce overall cost of quality, confirm implementation of approved changes, need quality documentations
• Quality Review: to review the quality management plan
• change requests are mostly procedural changes

 

3. Control Quality
• verify the deliverables against customer’s specifications to ensure customer satisfaction
• validate the changes against the original approved change requests
• conditional probability (events somewhat related) vs statistical independence (events not interrelated) vs mutual exclusivity
• statistical sampling for control quality
• variable (continuous) data: measurements, can do maths on e.g. average
• attribute (discrete) data: yes/no, no.123, just an identifier, can’t do maths on
• QC includes the PM process (lesson learnt, budget, scope)
• tolerance (spec limits, deliverables acceptable) vs control limits (process acceptable)
• if within control limit but outside tolerance: rework the process to give better precision
• all control and execution processes may generate lesson learned

 


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