Estimating the proportions of a networks project - have a go!

Survey time!
How would you spread the labour effort across a typical, generic, vanilla-flavoured Networks project?
Now I know I know... no two networks projects are the same and there is a big difference between installing one firewall and deploying a whole global MPLS network. But I want people to generalise here and spread 100% of effort across the following project headings:

[Assume what you need to for the project headings]

1) Initiation

2) Discovery

3) Design

4) Development

5) Deployment

6) Handover to Ops

7) Closedown

8) Project Management [separate out the PM time here]
=100%

I plan to collate and let people know the results, so please have a go by leaving your estimate in the comments below.

Cheers
Rob

So whats the best Project Management software package?

This is an all too familiar questions I often see asked. In fact it popped up on LinkedIn Q&A the other day and I couldn't resist diving in with two feet, especially when I saw all these people running off and naming this and that.

Here's how it went:

Question: What is the best project management software out there for a novice and considering that financial/budgeting tracking is not important?

My Answer:
To be honest I often find that I can do all the basics of Project Management by just using MSExcel.

Please bear in mind that 'back in the day' our forefathers built dams, skyscrapers, railways, managing these projects using... paper!

So I have upgraded from Paper 1.0 to MSExcel and find that for the sake of putting a simple schedule down and ensuring that a small number of resources are correctly allocated; it does it all nicely. I have can and do use MSProject to a relatively advanced level quite regularly and have also used Primavera as well.

But to be honest, by the time you set up all the parameters, unpick the things that the software wants to do automatically for you and then find that not everyone on the project has the right software to read it - you could have actually spent all that time working on delivering the project. This type of software is a classic time waster for a novice and my advice if you do go down the specialist software route, is to start out whiteboarding/writing down the project plan before you enter it into the software.

I have only really witnessed the power of PM software come into its own on typically multi-million dollar programmes running over 12 months with teams of over 70 personnel. What I also observed with these types of programmes is that there are few people who need that powerful overview and computational capabilities, so everyone else breaks the programme down into little manageable chunks that can be easily run on... a Excel spreadsheet!

Hope this helps.

They liked my answer and rated it the best *blush*, arguably against a bunch of people wanting to recommend OTT packages that would befuddle a novice, or even seasoned PM!
Now don't get me wrong, Project Management is an evolving technical skill and needs to be treated as such. I am certainly an advocate of adopting a rigorous technical approach to Project Reporting (such as metrics and Earned Value etc), as well as an analytical approach to Risk Management
- but PM's really need to grasp the first principles of these disciplines before they engage software to do it for them.

I am often reminded of the Officer in charge of Logistics for the entire British Land Forces during the Gulf War - this man needed to ensure that every soldier got his bullets, beans and bayonet. He ran the entire Logistics Battle successfully from the back of just four Landrovers.

Now if he can do that, I think we can get by with a few simple Project Management tools, can't we?.

Project Managers and Take-off & Landing Pilots

Back in the days when you were allowed in the cockpit of a passenger airliner to meet the pilots; there used to be a well used gag where one pilot would explain his job was to fly the aircraft at take-off and it was his colleagues job to land the aircraft. At that point his co-pilot would turn to him and say "But I'm a take-off pilot too, not a landing pilot!" "What! Then who's going to land it then!?"
This analogy has got good mileage in our project environment in recent weeks, as we grapple with project resourcing. I hold a supernumary role as the LAN WAN Technical Project Group (TPG) Lead. One of my responibilities is to maintain a list of LAN WAN 'Practitioners' who could be deployed on high value projects.
Where our previous Networks project management group managed to achieve good results was to cast aside the heuristic that a PM really needs to be assigned through out the lifecycle of a project. We found that we were better able to target high-value skills by assigning senior resources as "Take-off Pilots", establishing the beachhead on an account, undertaking the scoping and estimating phase of the project/programme and getting the package of work into a recognisable form. Once this was established, then their role might evolve to being the Programme Manager of the work or they could be lifted out and replaced with a more junior resource that could deliver the project once the rudimentary framework was in place (aka the "Landing Pilot").
Having been the Take-Off Pilot PM/Programme Manager more than once myself, I found this an exciting way to work, as often the biggest hurdles were faced in the initial stages of the project and once things were in a Steady State, well, it got a bit boring to be honest. There is also an opportunity to retain this senior resource in a Governance role as the project continues through the lifecycle; so they retain close contact with the incumbent PM and any big issues which crop up.

To test or not to test for PM competency?

Question Details: Does anyone know of a simple Networks Skills/Knowledge test for Network-centric project managers?

Nigel Deighton wrote:
Einstein once said "imagination is more important than knowledge" he also said something along the line of "the level of knowledge that got us into this problem is insufficient to solve it" ............... a recommendation, when sorting the wheat from the chaff and talking about people IMHO people are the best at doing this.
As you can imagine I detest tests. They are designed to find out what you don't know rather than find out what you do know. How valuable is resourcefullness and knowledge to your group? Simply put how badly do you want to succeed?
Your team is key.

-------------------------------
Nigel,

Thanks very much. Almost poetic.

I understand where you coming from, but the fact remains that I have 20+ people who think they know something about managing networks projects and I don't have the time or luxury of putting them on a project to see if they're kidding themselves or not.
Nevertheless, I will keep in mind the point you make and try and rule with my heart rather than my head ocassionally.
BTW my wife has just finished reading a book called "Blink" by Malcom Gladwell. "Thinking without thinking" is the strapline. It mentions a Psychiatrist who could assess a couple coming to him for counselling within 15 minutes of meeting them; and predict almost with 100% reliability whether they would still be together in five years. I think I probably have a lesser talent for assessing Network PM's, but unfortunately I don't get to meet all the people face-to-face.

Regards
Rob Gourdie

LinkedIn: Answers: Are you Prince 2 Certified? Share your experience.

LinkedIn: Answers: Are you Prince 2 Certified? Share your experience.:
My PRINCE2 Practitioner has just expired and I will be resitting it again soon.
Why?
Many projects and organisations need some tangible backstop to say they have hired a competent PM. Anybody can fudge their CV to make themselves sound like they know what the are doing (trust me, I think I've interviewed most of them!). So I would expect more and more to ask for either PRINCE2 or PMP certification.
I would also recommend that you have some real world experience under your belt before you sit the exam because the exam asks you to apply the principles to examples of projects
In my opinion; to be a good PM you need experience AND formal training in the 'science' of Project Management. I have heard many older PM's argue Experience against Training, and the fact is you need BOTH. They are often afraid of study and/or find being told how to modify how they do things as an afront to their ego. PRINCE is just a formal collaboration of best practise and it is easy to see the short comings of untrained (but highly experienced) PM's when you start asking the tough questions on formal scheduling techniques, stakeholder- and risk-management for example.
Finally, I am putting more emphasis on PMP these days as I work for a US based corporate in the UK, and PMP is the currency of PM's in North America.