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Chapter 12 - Project Management

ME101Dr. Nhut Tan Ho

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Lecture Objectives and Activities

Discuss the importance and components of project planning

Introduce tools for planning and managing project

Active learning activities group-assignment: Create GANNT

charts

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Introduction

“Failure to plan is planning to fail.” A good plan is one of the most

important attributes of successful teams and projects.

Projects should be organized systematically.

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Eight Questions that can be Addressed with a Plan What does your team do first? What should come next? How many people do you need to

accomplish the tasks? What resources do you need? How long will it take? When can your team get the tasks

completed? When will the project be finished? How do we know we’re done with project?

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Creating a Project Charter First step: a project summary defining

what your project is and when you will know when it is done

Elements include Deliverables Planning information

Tasks and time needed Milestones Personnel and roles Budget

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Task Definitions and Organization Identify the completion tasks to achieve

the objectives and outcomes. Example: Plan Design Build Deliver

Determine task relationships and sequencing

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Defining Times Include the full time needed for tasks As a student, you don’t have a full

eight-hour work day every day Break tasks into week segments

Weekday and/or weekend Class periods

Break tasks into short time periods Be conservative with your time

estimates

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Milestones

Deadlines for deliverables Monitoring of your plans progress Completion of subcomponents

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Project Evaluation and Planning Technique (PERT) Charts

Each task is represented by a box containing a brief description of and duration for the task

The boxes can be laid out just as the project plan is laid out

Useful as a “what if” tool during planning stages

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PERT Chart Example: Complete BS ME Degree in 4 Years

StartME Program

Complete Math, Physics, Chemistry Courses

1 year

Complete ME, EE, CE Courses

3 years

Complete GE Courses2 years

CompleteME Program

• Critical path (in red) is the longest string of dependent project tasks• Tasks on critical path will hold up project completion if there are delayed

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PERT Chart Example

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Gantt Charts

Popular project management charting method for people to understand your team’s progress relative to your plan

Horizontal bar chart Tasks vs. dates Example GANTT Chart

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Team Activity: GANTT Chart

Examine the sample GANTT Chart in the Design Packet (page 13) and create a GANTT Chart for your project (30 minutes)

Present your chart to the class (5 minutes)

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Details, Details

Remember Murphy’s Law - “Anything that can go wrong, will.”

Leave time to fix debug or fix errors Don’t assume things will fit

together the first time Leave time for parts malfunction

and order/delivery

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Personnel Distribution

Get the right people on the right tasks Assign people after developing a draft

of the plan Balance the work between everyone Weekly updates – does everyone

understand what they’re doing and is everyone still on task?

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Team Roles Roles

Project Leader or Monitor Liaison Others: Procurement/Financial officer

Project Documentation Document milestones as they occur Leave time at the end for reviewing,

not writing

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Lecture Recap: Project Management Engineering projects are complex,

requiring systematic project management Tasks must come together to meet

deadlines and satisfy requirements

Next lecture: Engineering Design Process This week assignment: Teamwork for

problems 12.1-12.9