Notes from 54th International STC Conference
Minneapolis, Minnesota, May 13-16, 2007

Beyond the Basics:
Project Management Essentials for Technical Communicators

Cynthia C. (Cindy) Currie

Second vice-president-elect, destined for the STC presidency in 2009, Currie provided a dynamic, sometimes-humorous, always informative look at the basics of project management. She began her career as a tech writer for a software firm and became progressively more involved in the project management side of the business until she evolved into a full-time project manager as an IT outsourcing consultant.

Session Description: This session was designed to help attendees strengthen their project management expertise. It was intended for technical communicators who already had some experience at project management. The presentation explored advanced issues in managing requirements, managing schedules and milestones, controlling budgets and costs, managing risks, managing project scope, managing changes, communication and leadership, and acquiring credentials in project management. The agenda was dynamic – audience Q&A's and participation were encouraged.

• Core skills of technical communicators make them inherently good candidates for project management.
• "A project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product or service." — http://www.pmi.org
   
• Provides investment opportunities
• Brings about measurable change
• Entails risk


• "Project management is the application of knowledge, tools, skills, and techniques to a broad range of activities in order to meet the requirements of a particular project."
• In the U.S., Henry Gantt is the forefather of project management (inventor of the work breakdown structure and the gantt chart).
• Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT): USN and Lockheed.
• CPM: Critical Path Method.
• PMI = Project Management Institute (1967)
• 1981: Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBoK)
   
• Five major process areas (functions)
• Nine major knowledge areas (measurable skill sets)
• PMI certifies project managers based on these areas


• 1967: International Project Management Association (IPMA)
• PMI Process Groups
   
• Initiating
• Planning
• Executing
• Controlling
• Closing


• PMI Knowledge Areas
   
• Integration management
• Scope management (requirements)
• Time management (scheduling plus)
• Cost management ( budget plus)
• Quality management
• Resource management
• Communication management
• Risk management
• Procurement management


• Triple constraints (the classic cost-schedule-performance triangle): balancing priorities to meet customer requirements.



• Requirements management
   
• User requirements
• Business requirements
• Technical requirements
• Functional requirements
• Process requirements


• Requirements management steps
   
• Start with business goals; discern where the customer wants to go; choose a solution to get them there.
• Identify all key stakeholders
• Gather requirements from all key stakeholders (stated requirements); link these to business goals
• Understand the industry standards and required compliance with regulatory agencies that may apply
• Derive additional requirements; link to business goals.
• Design to meet requirements: validate, validate, validate
• Demonstrate before, during, and after that the requirements are being/have been met


• Traceability matrix (compliance matrix) helps ensure that all requirements have been met
   
• Forward traceability: user requirements forward to system requirements
• Backward traceability: system requirements back to user requirements


• Risk management
   
• Risks are circumstances or events that might occur
• Risks have a probability of occurring and a specific impact
• Risks can be known and unknown
• You can plan (somewhat) for known risks
• You also need to plan for the unknown (trickier to do)


• Rigorous SP21 risk management has 44 procedures that must be followed.
• Risk is what has NOT occurred yet. If it has occurred once, it's an issue; twice, a problem; three times, a failure. J
• Risk management strategies
   
• Transfer it to someone else
• Avoid it altogether
• Reduce some or all of it
• Accept some or all of it


• Risk management planning
   
• Risk identification
• Risk evaluation and prioritization
• Risk mitigation options
• Risk plan maintenance
• Risk management roles and responsibilities
• Risk analysis summary
• Risk response summary
• Risk mitigation costs
• Contingency (risk) budget


• Risk analysis summary (log): number all risks and track them through mitigation until retired (parallels our "step-down" plans at Lockheed Martin)
• Risk response summary (log): presents action plan and date for completion, risk by risk
• Time management (scheduling)
   
• Develop project schedule early on
• Always schedule forward; don't reverse-engineer and back into your schedule (or at least minimize this to the unavoidable [e.g., setback time for print on proposals])
• Schedule at the lowest level of the WBS: the individual task level
• Include entire project team in planning (this minimizes tasks being overlooked)
• Create a baseline as soon as things appear to be stable
• Be extremely aware of all task dependencies and the critical path


• Critical path: tracks task durations and interdependencies (e.g., Task A must finish before Task B can start)... diagram to determine the line that must be followed to make the end date.
• Cost management
   
• Develop a project budget that includes both people and material costs
• Include project management time (10%-20% of total labor)
• Be very aware of overtime costs (especially internationally; labor laws differ)
• Don't forget to add risk mitigation costs
• Don't forget to add overall project contingency


• Scope and change management
   
• Scope is determined by requirements and constraints
• Scope should be clearly documented in either the project charter, a project plan, or a scope document (e.g., SOW)
• Changes in scope mean the project will be impacted in some way: typically schedule and/or costs
• Change management provides a formal process for managing changes to scope
• A formal change management process is necessary to manage change most effectively
• Change approval board


• Quality management
   
• You can't manage what you can't measure
• Define quality goals and metrics
• Measure regularly and correct as you go
• Funnel appropriate corrections into process improvement activities (improve the outcome of future projects: suggests closed-loop failure analysis and corrective action)


• Key quality measures during project execution
   
• Digital dashboard
• R-Y-G reporting
• Weekly status reports


• Key measures
   
• On time, within budget, within scope (± 2.5 to 5%)
• Deliverables pass acceptance testing
• Signoff/acceptance


• Post-project deployment
   
• Customer realizes full business impact of project (higher sales, lower costs)
• Customer identifies unplanned business impacts
• Customer satisfaction... repeat or new business
• Repeatable model for future projects


• Project governance
   
• Project/team structure and environment
• Relationships internal and external to the team at all levels
• Communication touch points and information flows: meetings, reporting
• Advisory councils, review and approval boards, etc.
• Issue resolution and escalation management


• 21st century business environment
   
• Align with business goals
• Do more with less
• Deal with business priorities
• Projects now used to achieve business goals
• Less and less traditional work
• More work spread around the globe
• More information built into products
• New technologies on the rise


• Project management in 21st century
   
• Hard systems approach is no longer effective
• Soft skills of project management: communication, flexibility, creativity, the ability to manage stress and conflict are now viewed as key to the success of projects
• New demand for strategic thinking, new success factors, and "uncertainty" management
• Move away from "high-ceremony" project management to more "lightweight" ones


• Recommendations
   
• Take a good introductory project management courses
• Pursue additional formal training
• Pursue higher-level, more complex project management roles, and find a mentor!
• Hone your people and communication skills.
• Learn more about your business environment.