Stakeholder Analysis?

Recently, in one of the brainstorm session with my colleagues from PMO, we were discussing about the design of the template for Stakeholder Analysis, which will be used by all project managers later in their project.

Ultimately, these templates are driving us to draw a few useful charts:

Note: above charts are derived from the following links:
http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newPPM_07.htm
http://www.stakeholdermap.com/stakeholder-analysis.html

Then, I was thinking it a few times, when is the time the Stakeholder Analysis document will be useful to me?

I believe if I am taking over a running project from someone else, this info will be useful. So, if I do it at the start of project, and I should keep on updating this document until someone takes over my project? :)

Honestly, a few things that I think the PM or PMO should consider when designing the template:

1. How to identity your stakeholders
2. Where is the source of information
3. Reliability of the source of information
4. Frequency of update to the status of stakeholder (last week he was our friend, this week he has become our enemy?)
5. Who will be responsible to handle individual stakeholders

But, to keep a good log of the stakeholders' status is not an easy task, but it will be a useful tool if your project is big and involving many executors.

Project Dashboard: Managing Project KPIs

Project Dashboard, if designed correctly, it will become very powerful tool for the organisation to act pro-actively and appropriately.

To design it correctly, the dashboard should have the following elements:

1. Objectives of the KPIs
2. Tolerance range (eg. Red, Yellow or Green; High, Medium or Low; Excellent, Good, or Bad, etc)
3. Target Audience in mind
4. Relevant measurement (measurement value that should be shown together in one chart or dashboard item)

Basically, the dashboard should tell you: I should be happy or I should be upset. What should I do if I am upset with the measurement result.

Example of possible questions to be asked when designing the Project Dashboard:

Note: Project Dashboard is usually focussing on individual projects

1. Are we on time?
2. Is our budget sufficient for us to complete the project?
3. Are our requirements stable?
4. Is the quality of our deliverables good?
5. How fast we resolve issues?
6. Who are the contributors to delay?
7. How much more budget do we need to complete the project?

 When individual dashboards are functioning stably, the executives (senior management) may want to have Corporate wide Project Portfolio Dashboard. Then when designing the Corporate wide Project Portfolio Dashboard, the possible questions will be coming from Corporate perspective, for example:

1. Which customers that are affected by project delay?
2. Which project that is not having sufficient budget to complete the project as of now?
3. Which project manager that is responsible for those projects that are in trouble (schedule delay, cost overrun, having issues not resolved, etc)
4. Resources from which department or solution team that are involved in those issues (delay, additional cost involved, unresolved issues, etc)

When designing the corporate or project dashboard, the designer should consider the perspective of the target audience, for example:

1. What are their concerns?
2. Based on what they need to react?
3. How can they trace down the culprit or source of cause (root cause)?

All the information provider for these KPIs should come from an integrated or online Information System. You can't achieve this if all those information is saved inside the PC of each project manager. There are many project management IS (Information System) out there in the market, some even open source. Of course, you have to consider the cost of implementation and the challenges in implementing it. It will be a separate topic when we talk about implementing it. But, first things first: Do you care about your project or the projects in your organisation?

Installing Ms SQL Server 2005 Express SP3

As you may know, SQL Server Express edition is free for personal use or being included as part of your distribution. But, if your requirement is simple, then you can try out this express edition.

There are a few features that are separated into a few packages.

The latest version of the installation packages are in SP3. If you are installing the non SP3 version, the system will prompt you that there is a newer version that is available, or known issues are there.

So, the easiest way is to install the SP3 version directly.

SQL Server 2005 Express SP3 with Advanced Features included:
Database, Reporting Services, Client Management Tool.

SQL Server 2005 Express SP3 Toolkit included:
BI Development Tool and Client Management Tool. The only difference in this package is the BI Development tool. If you need to create SSIS (SQL Server Integration Services) package, or reports on using the SSRS (SQL Server Reporting Services), you need this tool.

C# tips: Multi-threading with BackgroundWorker Component

Now I found a simpler way of doing multi-threading programming in C#: using the Backgroundworker component.

For it to work properly, you must make sure that "any" interaction with UI (controls on your Windows form) must be done at the "ProgressChanged" event handler of your BackgroundWorker component.

The following is a summary of the things you need to do for using the backgroundworker component:

(1) Add the backgroundworker component to your form
(2) Set the "WorkerReportsProgress" property of the backgroundworker to True
(3) Set the "WorkerSupportsCancellation" property of the backgroundworker to True
(4) Create the event handler of the backgroundworker for "DoWork", "ProgressChanged" and "RunWorkerCompleted"
(5) Put in the statements or procedures to be executed by the backgroundworker inside the event handler of "DoWork". This should be the starting point of the thread-processing. This event will be fired when you execute the statement such as

backgroundWorker1.RunWorkerAsync();

The sample codes can be found here
Reference in MSDN

Visual C# 2008 Express and Ms SQL Server 2005 Express

I have been playing around with Visual C# 2008 Express, ASP.NET and Ms SQL Server 2005 Express edition for a few months lately ... just for the sake of gaining back some interests and good memories of programming ... :)

Basically, for those who likes programming can download the .NET Framework 3.5 free and you can also download the IDE (Integrated Development Environment) such as Visual C# 2008 Express and Visual Studio 2008 Express for web development free too. Another interesting thing is you can even download and install Ms SQL Server 2005 express edition free too! But, after you install the Ms SQL 2005 express edition, you need to also download the SQL Server Management Studio client for the UI-based creation of database and stored procedures.

However, when you get real with product development then you can buy the necessary licenses for proper support and additional things you need.

For further information, try this :)

Construction Contract Claims, Changes & Dispute Resolution (Paperback), by Paul Levin

Product Details

Paperback: 255 pages
Publisher: American Society of Civil Engineers; 2 Sub edition (June 1998)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0784402760
ISBN-13: 978-0784402764
Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.6 inches
Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: No customer reviews yet. Be the first.
Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,319,885 in Books

Comment: This book has many good examples which can also be used in IT projects.

The Key Categories of CSFs

In my opinion, having a competent project manager to manage your project is not enough to guarantee a successful project outcome. The reason is that, if certain Critical Success Factors are there to support the project manager, even if the project manager is not experienced or competent enough, there is still very high possibility for the project to be successful.

I like the idea of the 4 M's which was talked about in the Chapter 8, in the book titled "Construction Management" that was written by Daniel W. Halpin and Ronald W. Woodhead. The 4 M's are:

1. Money
2. Machines
3. Manpower
4. Material

By leveraging on that, based on my observation and experience in managing a few troubled IT projects, I have identified the following Five Key Aspects of the Critical Project Success Factors (CPSF) that can be based on:

1. Manifest
2. Money
3. Methods, Machine, Tools & Technology
4. Management, Man Power & Stakeholders
5. Time

The CPSFs have to be addressed accordingly during those key project phases:-

1. Project Start-up
2. Project Initiation
3. Project Planning
4. Project Execution
5. Project Hand-over
6. Project Closure

Some of the CPSFs are beyond project manager's control, but have to be addressed through good working relationship with respective stakeholders.