Volume X - Issue VI - June 2008
Featured Papers
Public Private Partnerships: By Robert Prieto The funding and delivery of US Infrastructure projects using Public Private Partnerships (PPP) is an increasingly attractive tool in the United States. Legislative changes in SAFETEA-LU (the latest US transportation bill) provided the States with new and improved tools to foster development. In turn this has created new opportunities for contractors and developers to participate in the design, build, finance, and operation of tomorrow’s transportation infrastructure. The PPP process is not “business as usual” for either the public sector or the traditional service providers that have served the industry over the years. For the public sector a new regulatory design is required to meet the challenges PPPs present while realizing the opportunities they hold. For the Contractor/Developer the risks are higher as are the rewards – but only if a deliberate process is employed. Regulators and Contractor/Developers must understand each other’s needs and processes as the programmatic delivery of infrastructure changes. This paper provides a “How To” Guide from the Contractor/Developer’s perspective to facilitate this understanding and to begin surfacing the myriad of issues that must be considered in this changed programmatic arrangement. For the Contractor/Developer, his role in the total program process is earlier and more extensive than before. This brings with it a need for new skills and new questions which he must focus on. The contractor/developer’s objective is create, complete and prosper from a project that might otherwise not exist. For the public sector partner the transfer of responsibility, risk and reward brings its own set of issues and a need for a changed regulatory and even sometimes a changed legislative framework. Read complete paper in English
Where to look when Requirements do not Exist By Prof. Hubert Vaughan Anyone managing software development projects will agree it is extremely difficult to identify “Requirements” that enable us to define “specifications” of the solution today, thus causing continuous changes during our development cycle, delaying project delivery and resulting cost over-run. A lot had been discussed and written about the techniques or ways of identifying requirements during the early stage of system development. It is unfortunate that we don’t seem to gain from any of these ideas and experience. Today’s “information age” is very much different from the “automation age” of the past. Most projects Sponsors and Stakeholders really don’t have any ideas about what the requirement will be during project initialization stage. We can never identify “Requirement” that do not exist from our customers or users. On top of the non-existent of “Requirement”, most project managers failed to define a Project Scope that can be managed. Without a manageable scope definition, we can never manage the subsequent changes request during delivery. PMBok made it very clear the important of Scope Management, only if you can manage the project scope, you can manage the Change Requests because Project Scope bounded the requirement of our development.
I T - Project and Program Management-Best Practices By TD Jainendrakumar, MCA, PMP Most of the IT projects comprise of the development of various software projects, Hardware Projects, Networking & communication Projects and all these related projects together form an IT program. And the IT Program/project manager think about the initiation of programs/projects, planning programs/projects, directing and executing programs/projects, monitoring and controlling programs/projects and closing programs/projects which interacts with scope management, time management, communication management, risk management, cost management, quality management, Resource management, Procurement management and finally the success of any project or program lies in aligning it with the over all business success of the organization. This article aims to distinguish between the project/program life cycle phases and the project/program management process groups (PMBOK) with reference to the IT project/program management and also it describes the best practices can be adopted in an IT project/program management, In the page number 31 of PMBOK Third edition clearly specifies that “The project life cycle defies the phases that connect the beginning of a project to its end” it also specifies that the “Phases of the project life cycles are not the same as the project management process groups”. It again clarifies that “There is no single best way to define an ideal project life cycle”. Read complete paper in English
Extreme Programming for Better Results
By Aleksandr Tarabykin What is Extreme Programming? Extreme Programming (XP) is a structured agile approach to software engineering prescribing a set of daily practices. It emphasizes the importance of communication with the customer, communication between team members, and development of automated testing plans over formal documentation. XP is based on principles of rapid feedback, preferring simplicity (and rejection of planning for the future, scalability and reusability in advance), incremental changes and embracing the change in the requirements. Why should I care about XP? Researches conducted by many companies reflects improved performance, better quality of code (lower costly errors), better customer satisfaction and team morale when XP is implemented. For instance, JP Morgan Chase study [4] reported that when XP is implemented, the total amount of defects in XP environment is averagely reduced by 63%, amount of critical defects goes down by 79% and number of features not working as designed is reduced by 38%. At the same time, the development time is reduced by 44-47%. Read complete paper in English
Historical Events of June and July 1940 By Mark Kozak-Holland Most people are very familiar with Winston Churchill but may not be familiar with his “agile” approach to project management and his skills as a PM in the summer of 1940. Parts 16-21 looked at how Churchill’s organization prepared itself for the air battle to meet his short term objectives of staving off the invasion, and how it put together a solution. Switching gears this article enters the final phase of the series that examines the historical sequence of events between June and October 1940. This analysis will reflect on the effectiveness of Churchill’s solution and how well it was utilized. With any project one of the most difficult questions to answer is did it meet the requirements and reach its goals? Did the solution output accomplish what it was designed to do? Did it assist in a critical situation and help the organization react to it? Most of the news for Churchill in early June 1940 is bad. It indicates an imminent invasion, and a poor state of readiness in the British defenses. While the Battle of France still rages the first phase of the battle opens up, the Luftwaffe makes small active operations against the UK to harass the civilian population, reconnoiter airfields, and disrupt industry . Read complete paper in English Read the previous paper in this series. Churchill the Project Manager (Part 21)
|
PM World Today™ is a trademark of PMForum, Inc.
PMWT™ is a trademark of PMForum, Inc.
The information on this web site was checked for accuracy and authenticity when last updated. If there is any accidental infringement of copyright, the publisher of this site apologize for their actions, and would like to be notified. In addition, the publisher of this site cannot bear responsibility for the actions or the results of action of individuals or companies arising from use of information and advice contained within it.
PM World Today Privacy Policy Terms and Conditions.
© Copyright 2008 PM World Today
© Copyright 2008 PMForum, Inc.
unless otherwise noted.