Microsoft Project For Dummies. Cynthia Snyder Dionisio

Чтение книги онлайн.

      © John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

      FIGURE 1-1: Waterfall approach.

      As the pace of technological growth accelerated, the waterfall approach was no longer effective for technology development projects. By the time you had planned and executed a two-year technology project, the technology had changed, and the end result was already out of date. Therefore, a new approach to managing technology projects evolved.

In early 2001 an approach called Agile project management was created. Agile is a mindset that is documented in the Agile Manifesto. It starts with four values:

      Note there is less emphasis on following a plan, and change is expected. This is very different than managing construction projects where following the plan is paramount. There are also 12 principles that are documented in the Manifesto. You can find the Agile Manifesto here: https://agilemanifesto.org.

      Over time project practitioners have recognized that the type of project you are managing determines the project management practices you should employ. For scope that is stable and can be well-defined up front, a waterfall approach is appropriate. For scope that is not well defined or can evolve based on feedback and market changes, an agile approach (also known as an adaptive approach) is appropriate. To make things more interesting, there are many projects with some deliverables that can be well defined and other deliverables that can’t — for these projects a hybrid approach that incorporates aspects of waterfall and adaptive approaches is best.

      As project management practices have evolved, so has Microsoft Project. This version of Project allows you to set up Gantt charts that are resource loaded to manage well-defined scope and Task Boards to manage evolving scope, all in one glorious piece of software. To keep things simple, I use Parts 1 through 4 to talk about how set up and manage a Waterfall Project and I use Part 5 to show you how to set up and lead an Agile Project. For those of you who work on hybrid projects, you can use both waterfall and Agile functionalities.

      Project does use the term Agile. Projects with evolving scope that use adaptive approaches are called Sprints Projects.

What’s in a Name: Projects, Project Management, and Project Managers

      In this book, a project is defined as a unique venture undertaken to produce distinct deliverables, products, or outcomes. In the context of a project, a deliverable is an individual component or item that meets the requirements of the project, such as a design document or a prototype.

Project management is the practice of organizing and managing project variables to meet the project outcomes and mission. Some of the variables we work with are listed in Table 1-1.

TABLE 1-1 Project Variables

      Project managers and Scrum masters

      Projects that use waterfall approaches generally have a project manager who creates the master plan for a project and ensures that it is implemented successfully. A project manager uses technical, business, and leadership skills to manage the completion of tasks and keep the schedule on track. Project teams can be small, mid-size, or very large.

      A Scrum master is usually found on projects that use Agile approaches. A Scrum master assists the team in following Agile processes and delivering the work. Teams are optimized at 6 to 10 members.

We look at the roles of project managers and Scrum masters in the following sections.

      The role of the project manager

      The project manager is the person who ensures that aspects of the project are integrated and assumes hands-on responsibility for successes as well as failures.

      The project manager manages these essential pieces of a project: