This Focused Performance Weblog is a "business management blog" containing links and commentary related primarily to organizational effectiveness with a "Theory of Constraints" perspective. TOC is noted for its applications in Project Management and Multi-Project Management (Critical Chain) and Operations Management (Drum-Buffer-Rope), as well as in Marketing, Strategic Planning and Change Management (TOC Thinking Processes). If you are on an archive page, current postings are found here.
Monday, September 22, 2003
PMI Congress Notes: Managing Project Maps for Enterprise Application Integration Repeatable Projects (David Davis) -- Maps. A tool to help you plan a journey, make sure you're not lost. Not a compass. Not a GPS. Not an automated checklist. Only useful if current and accurate. Directions, guidelines, topology, landmarks along the way. Helps get around construction detours, unexpected stuff.
Landmarks different for hikers than for drivers than for airplane passengers.
Maps have legends to help you use it, allowing people with different perspectives to translate the map to their needs.
Repeatable project (oxymoron) - combines core business functionality with PM. Uses the same PM principles to bring many customers onto a defined service or business offering. Same thing, but different customers. Same thing, but different service/products. Efficiencies gained from reuse of major project artifacts (items of enduring value). Paradox -- walking the line between projects and operation. Projects supposed to be unique with defined beginning and ending.
Enterprise Application Initiative - Supply chain management. Tying technology and business processes. Electronic bonding. Overlapping functionalities across selling and buying enterprises...account team/vendor manager, PM/PM, sponsor/sponsor, process engineers/process engineers, tech support/app development, customer service/procurement sme. Project info across enterprises and within enterprises. Overlap of internal with internal = damage control.
PMs use project communication to meet needs across various communication systems. Current, consistent, clear, concise, comprehensible content.
Challenges in EAI - Similar but different, language of docs, testing challenges, vocabulary. Distance communication (web/net meetings have improved over conference calls considerably), but still not used day-to-day.
A Project Map - The path, the landmarks, and the legend.The means to define artifacts for business service provided. Definition and workflow of documentation and templates to allow repeatability. Project plan, contact list, template consistency. Relates function to artifact. Assembled from smaller specialized components. Process steps with checklist. Optional diverging/converging paths from which particular projects are built.
Maps used to build a project from a collection of common processes.
Map components - Templates...guidelines. Forms...fixed values, prompts, tags, input of info from external source. (Is this form more complex than just asking the question?) Requirements...record of necessary details, flexible, but with strict rules for use and identification. Storyboard...mock up walk-through, examples of new environment, business centric supported by tech specs. Documentation...static info, usually published, need to help team member focus on what they need to know, challenge to be useful and useable for many circumstances.
Assemble vs Decomposition - Build from components, vs delete from big map.
Developing and Managing - Maps need care and feeding. Depends on support infrastructure. Tracking completion needs audit trail guided by PMO management, sometimes supported by email acknowledgments.
Building your own maps - Audience. Define journeys independent of artifacts. Milestones, Major variables and relationship to artifacts. Major landmark, 30,000-ft view. Needed data, sources. Legend.
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