2013 Serge Boute/

Nicolas Gothelf
All rights reserved
Course Notes:

1 Introduction & Organisation
2013 Serge Boute/Nicolas Gothelf All rights reserved
Project Management 1. Introduction & Organisation 2/21
Why a project management course for economists! or engineers?
Project mode is an increasingly important way of working
Project management is absent from most academic programmes
Why a practical course and not a theoretical one?
Learning an approach rather than techniques
Actual work on the real world rather than exercises in an artificial one
Searching, defining and building solutions rather than a giving back exercise
Why this course?
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Through the realisation of real-world projects to be executed by groups of 8 students:
building a web site
Implementation
Lectures for all students
Organisation
A minimum of theoretical information necessary to manage and execute the project
The project management process
Key deliverables
Basic techniques
Working in a group topics
Web site development process
Project group meetings
Individual follow-up of each project group by an assistant
Milestone controls
Internal group meetings
Presentation of results
How to achieve this?
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Each group of students proposes a project that must be accepted by the professor
A project for whom?
The client for the project can be an individual, an association, a small or a large
company: no restrictions.
The group must have an easy access to the client at the appropriate level, i.e., access to
decision-makers within the clients organisation.
A project for what?
The project should aim at satisfying real needs of the client.
The project should be a realistic and plausible answer to these needs.
Mandatory & desirable features
The size of the project should be reasonable for a group of 7-8 students
The whole project must be realised in approximately 3 months
The group must have (or acquire) the skills necessary to realise the project (the
assistants will be able to provide technical support).
Projects (1)
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What kind of web site?
Creating a static web site only is not sufficient. The site must include dynamic pages (in
the technical meaning of the words dynamic pages). If dynamic pages are not
necessary to satisfy the clients actual needs, the project is not an acceptable one for this
course.
The site must use a database.
It is highly recommended to use a package (electronic commerce, content management
system, etc.), preferably an open source one, to realise the site in order to avoid complex
programming and database creation activities (this is however not forbidden).
It is recommended to work in a PHP/MySQL environment and to use the OS Commerce
package or the Joomla CMS. Groups who would like not to follow these
recommendations should obtain the agreement of the professor and of their assistant.
Projects (2)
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Composition
7 or 8 students, not more, not less.
The professor reserves the right to add one student to some groups if necessary.
Communication
The form with the composition of the group to be communicated to the professor either by
email or during a lecture.
A provisional Project manager must be identified with his/her contact details (email
address and phone).
Once the group composition is communicated, only the Project manager is allowed to
communicate changes to the group composition.
Groups
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Objective: to close the project by mid-May
Lectures
Thursdays from 12:15 until 14:00 AY.2.107
07 February
Objectives, approach, planning
What is a project?
Practical organisation, how to build a group
14 February
What is project management?
Web site development process overview
Organisation: discussion & approval of projects
21 February
Project management deliverables
Q&A on Project Governance Plan
Roles & Responsibilities
Organisation: final set-up of the groups & approval of projects
Global planning (1)
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Lectures (continued)
28 February
Working in a group
Project file
Web site development process (1
st
part)
07 March
Web site development process (2
nd
part)
Project management techniques (1
st
part)
14 March
Project management techniques (2
nd
part)
Organisation: end of project, evaluation
21 March Presentation of packages (optional)
OS Commerce
Joomla
28 March
Reserve
Global planning (2)
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Project kick-off meetings
Saturday morning 23 February
35 minutes for each group
With professor and assistants
Mandatory participation of the whole group
Group coaching meetings
Meetings (approximately 45 minutes) of the group with the assistant; possible
participation of the professor.
The group decides who takes part to the meeting, depending on the agenda
By appointment, usually on a Saturday morning.
Project presentation & debriefing meeting
In May/June, date to be agreed
With client, professor and assistants
Mandatory participation of the whole group
Delivery of Project Governance Plan: no later than Monday 11 March.
Global planning (3)
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Course notes are not published by PUB or by Solvay Student office
Documents are available on the course web site http://www.ulb.ac.be/project/idg
Course notes
PGP (Project Governance Plan) template
Various forms
These documents include instructions and recommendations for the projects.
Course notes
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The project is executed free of charge by the group.
The group is not allowed to request any payment from the client for their work.
The group of not allowed to order or buy anything on behalf of the client.
The group is allowed to ask for the reimbursement of small expenses by the client. However,
this needs an explicit agreement with the client at the beginning of the project.
Financial aspects
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Intervening parties
The group
The client
The decision-maker owner of the project and his/her representative(s)
Possibly other parties
The teaching staff
The professor
The assistant who is coaching the group
The other assistants
In addition to lectures and coaching meetings, communication will be by phone and email.
Each student must have an operational email and must check his/her mailbox on a
daily basis.
Visibility outside the University
The group should be very cautious in presenting itself and the project in its contacts outside
ULB: It shall never pretend representing the University. It shall never act on behalf of its client
except with the explicit agreement of the client and only for obtaining information.
Communication (1)
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Languages
Lectures
Lectures will be in English
Questions during the lectures should preferably be in English
Answers will be in English
Questions & answers, discussions in a small groups will be in any language that all
persons in the group understand
Documents & mails
All documents and mails shall be in English until the project kick-off meeting.
During the kick-off meeting, the language(s) for the project shall be decided, based
on the client, and on the language capabilities of the group members.
Communication (2)
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Nicolas Gothelf
Address office: H4.253
Mobile: +32 478 48 89 74
E-mail : ngothelf@ulb.ac.be
Jean-Franois Depoitre
Mobile: +32 496 57 43 08
E-mail: idg@depoitre.com
Frdric Trauscht
Mobile: +32 497 05 35 66
E-mail: idg@trauscht.com
Contacts
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End of project criteria
For considering that a project is finished (exception for the end of project presentation), all the
following conditions must be fulfilled:
The web site is on-line; it is hosted on the production server or on a temporary server
and it is reachable through an Internet connection; a local installation on a PC is not
acceptable.
The group has delivered all the required and agreed material deliverables (see next slide)
The group has communicated to the professor and to all assistants, by email, the end of
project form completed with all the information that is necessary for accessing all parts of
the web site.
As soon as this communication is made, it is forbidden to modify any part of the web site
(except of course modifications that occur as a result of the normal usage of the site) without
an explicit authorisation from the professor. This authorisation will only be given if the
modifications are necessary for using the results of the project, but not to complete it.
End of the project (1)
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End of project deliverables
Project file (1 copy)
Content: see lecture notes
The file shall include all documents produced during the project in the form that had
at the time they were produced. Documents shall never be modified.
The final version of the following documents (3 paper copies + 1 CD/USB key)
PGP
Analysis report
Design report
Roll out documents (promotion, hosting, training, user documentation)
There is no need to bind the documents but the documents must be clearly identified.
Delivery
All end of project deliverables must be provided at least 2 weeks before the date of the
presentation (unless agreed otherwise with the professor).
The deliverables must be delivered at the secretary
To obtain the bonus, all deliverables must be provided no later than 10.05.2013 at 16:00.
End of the project (2)
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Objectives of the presentation for the teaching staff
To improve their knowledge of the project by meeting all its parties.
If needed, to clarify some aspects of the management of the project when this is not
possible with the written documentation that is provided.
To meet the client and to close the project with him/her.
Date and venue: at ULB, date and room to be agreed later.
Attendees: the whole group, the client, the professor and all the assistants.
Duration: 50 minutes
Maximum 25 minutes for the group to present, including the time necessary to install any
equipment.
Maximum 25 minutes for questions & answers.
Means
To be decided by the group, provided installation does not require more than 10 minutes.
A Windows PC connected to Internet and a projector will be available (but the group may
use its own).
Additional presentation means can be obtained provided they are requested to the
professor at least one week in advance.
End of Project Presentation (1)
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Content
The group has 25 minutes to present whatever it wishes to present around its project;
Content to be decided by the group. It is up to the group:
To decide what could be of interest for the audience
To set its objectives for the presentation
To make sure the means are in line with the objectives
Notes:
The audience (client, assistants, professor) closely followed the project; they have
reviewed the deliverables and they know the web site: a detailed presentation of
the deliverables and/or of the web site is usually of little interest.
The means should serve the content; too much will be penalised rather than
valorised.
The means should be controlled and mastered: marks are for results rather than for
intentions and effort.
End of Project Presentation (2)
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Principles
Rating will be for the group
Usually, all group members will have the same mark.
In some extreme cases, there will possibly be differences.
In general, for each element that is rated: the content will be worth 2/3 of the mark and
the form 1/3 (this includes presentation, spelling, ...).
Rated elements
Project Governance Plan: 2 points
Project management: 6 points, based on project file, minutes of meetings, project
progress reports, observance of instructions, timeliness of deliveries, management of the
relation between the group and the other parties (client, teaching staff)
Main deliverables: 6 points split as follows:
Analysis: 3 points
Design: 1.5 points
Roll out (publication, promotion, delivery, documentation, training, etc.) : 1.5 points
Overall results of the project (web site): 4 points
End of project presentation: 2 points
Evaluation (1)
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Notes
PGP: 0.2 point will be deducted by day of delay in case of delivery after Monday 11
March.
To avoid an uncontrolled number of incomplete drafts, a maximum of 3 versions of each
document will be accepted. The last version that has been delivered, or the third one if
there are more than three, will be marked.
Bonus: The groups who will completely finish their project (excepting the end of project
presentation) and provide all the requested deliverables no later than Friday 10 May at
16:00, will receive a bonus of 1 point that will be added to the final mark.
Participation to the project from start to end:
Each student must be part of a group (of maximum 8) of which the composition is
communicated to the professor no later than Thursday 21 February at the end of the
lecture. Any student who, without an acceptable reason, does not fulfil this requirement
and who has not contacted the professor before this date could be penalised for not
participating to the whole project.
Evaluation (2)
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Managing successful projects with Prince2, Office of Government Commerce, The Stationery
Office, London, 2009
A guide to the project management body of knowledge (PMBOK Guide), 4th ed., Project
Management Institute, 2008.
(ITIL Service Support, version 2.0, Office of Government Commerce, The Stationery Office,
London, 2003.)
(ITIL Service Delivery, version 2.0, Office of Government Commerce, The Stationery Office,
London, 2003.)
(Unified Project Management, version 6.2, Capgemini, Paris, 2011.)
(Effective Web Publication Process, Herwig Gelissen, Informatique de gestion, ULB, 1998)
References