Teaching Chapter 19: Managing Projects
Timing
This session could be used effectively at either the beginning of the course or in the second half of the course. When used at the beginning of the course, the students are able to apply the material to the planning and execution of their projects. If used later in the course, the students have experienced a few of the difficulties of managing a development project and so are sensitized to the issues brought up in class discussion. We have always scheduled this session later in the course for two reasons. First, the beginning of the course is already packed with material they must know in order to actually do the project work (e.g., identifying customer needs, concept generation and selection). Second, because the project teams are small, the products are relatively simple, and the project assignments enforce a schedule, the teams do not encounter great difficulty in managing their projects. Nevertheless, we have been intrigued by the idea of covering project management in the first week of the course and then having each team structure its own project assignments according to the project plan they generate.
Objectives and Strategy
There are at least two ways to amplify the material covered in Chapter 18. The instructor may focus on the mechanics of planning and executing a project or on subtleties and advanced concepts. In an undergraduate course, the focus on mechanics may be appropriate. In this case the instructor would present the details of PERT, Gantt, Critical Chain, and/or the design structure matrix (DSM). The instructor might also review the details of determining staffing levels and preparing budgets. Most graduate students will have been exposed to these basic tools before. Having read the chapter, these students will have had their memories jogged enough that covering the basic mechanics is likely to bore them. Here we present some ideas for organizing a class session around some of the subtleties and advanced concepts in project management.
Session Outline
The session can be divided into three parts:
Planning the Project
This part of the session focuses on some important issues that must be faced before the project even officially begins. Each of these issues can be covered with a single slide and is likely to involve up to 5 minutes of discussion. In most cases there is not enough time to cover all of these points.
• Functional vs. project vs. hybrid organizations. Students should know the basic concept of a functional vs. project organization. If this material has not been covered earlier in the course, it should be covered now. Exhibit 2-7 can be shown on a slide and the basic strengths and weaknesses of each approach (summarized in Exhibit 2-8) can be discussed.
• Product planning. Chapter 4 explains the planning process from which successful product development projects begin. The concepts of aggregate planning and strategic fit are worth reviewing in class.
• Number of projects vs. productivity. Exhibit 5-2 from Wheelwright and Clark is a summary of several studies of R&D organizations. It shows the relationship between engineering productivity and the number of projects an engineer is working on. A discussion is easily stimulated by asking what explains the shape of the curve and by asking what are the implications for staffing a development team. Because the key feature of the relationship is that productivity peaks at two projects per engineer, many students will recommend that every team member be assigned to two projects. Others will rightly point out that engineering productivity is not the only measure of project performance that is important, and that lead time may suffer when team members are assigned to more than one project.
• Communication vs. separation distance. Exhibit 18-12 shows the relationship between communication frequency and physical separation between people. It is derived from Thomas Allen’s research and the original figure is Figure 8.4 in his book. Asking the students what they find interesting and surprising about the relationship leads to a lively discussion. Among the key points are that communication falls off very rapidly and that even when located in close proximity people do not communicate very much.
• Heavyweight Project Managers. After discussing different types of organizations, the notion of a heavyweight project manager should be easy to communicate. Many students (and faculty) may be uncomfortable with issues of personality and leadership, but they are central to project performance. Chapter 8 of Wheelwright and Clark is an excellent presentation of the key issues. Exhibit 8-4 from that chapter makes a good slide.
• Trade-off rules. This is a good time to present (or refresh students’ memory of) the notion of trade-off rules described in Chapter 17. Exhibit 17-14 makes a good slide for this discussion. The key idea is that before a project really begins, the team should estimate the sensitivity of the project outcome to changes in cost, lead time, and quality. Having a basic sense of the trade-offs and disseminating this knowledge to the team facilitates subsequent decision making.
• Contract book. The concept of a contract book is covered in Chapter 18, but is worth reviewing quickly in class. A simple way to do this is to put up a slide of Exhibit 18-6.
• Milestone prototypes. The instructor may wish to review the idea of a milestone prototype if prototyping will not be covered in another session. The idea that a milestone prototype (alpha, beta, pre-production) anchors the schedule and forces integration is important. The section of Chapter 14 on planning milestone prototypes gives some ideas which could be presented here.
• Task sequencing. Chapter 18 presents the DSM as a method for sequencing tasks, identifying coupled/iterative tasks, and studying product development processes. A thorough discussion of DSM is enabled by presentation of a real DSM example. Exhibit 18-14 or another example from a paper by Eppinger may suffice. See also the DSM web site for additional information, references, and tutorial about DSM.
Executing the Project
In this part of the session, the discussion turns to what to do once the team is properly staffed and motivated in order to assure completion of the project on time and within budget. A very interesting discussion can be had around the topic of project acceleration. The underlying assumption of this discussion is that accelerating a project is a good thing to do. This assumption should be made explicit and the instructor should point out that time is not always (although almost always) a dominant concern in product development.
A good way to stimulate this discussion is to present a "straw man" project plan as a Gantt chart and to ask what could be done to accelerate the project. The straw man should be a completely sequential set of tasks. A possible sequence of tasks might be: design circuit board, design product enclosure, design injection mold, build injection mold, complete assembly and test of product.
The goal of this part of the discussion is to be more specific than the ideas covered in Chapter 18. Rather than suggesting that the team overlap tasks, talk about which tasks to overlap and how to overlap them.
Overlapping is one of the approaches that someone will inevitably suggest. Additional material on when and how to overlap can be introduced at this time. Krishnan and Eppinger’s framework for overlapping is an effective addition at this point in the discussion.
The critical chain method is a relatively new approach to project tracking and control. The planning steps of critical chain are pretty standard; however the use of buffers to aggregate and compress safety time is indeed novel. Monitoring the project based on the status of these buffers is a very important new idea as well. Software to implement critical chain is available from ProChain Solutions Inc. An academic version of the ProChain software is also available.
Debrief on their own project experiences
Assuming this session is conducted later in the term, the students will generally have plenty to say about their own project experiences. One way to codify some of the learning the students have accumulated is to generate a list of "lessons learned" on the board. This list is easily generated by posing the question "What lessons have you learned about project management while completing your projects this term?" In order to avoid a list of completely general statements like "It is important to plan ahead" and "Everyone has to pull their own weight," the instructor generally has to probe with follow-up questions.
In-Class Exercise
The only exercise we use is the group discussion of how to shorten the sequence of tasks presented in the second part of the session.
This session could be used effectively at either the beginning of the course or in the second half of the course. When used at the beginning of the course, the students are able to apply the material to the planning and execution of their projects. If used later in the course, the students have experienced a few of the difficulties of managing a development project and so are sensitized to the issues brought up in class discussion. We have always scheduled this session later in the course for two reasons. First, the beginning of the course is already packed with material they must know in order to actually do the project work (e.g., identifying customer needs, concept generation and selection). Second, because the project teams are small, the products are relatively simple, and the project assignments enforce a schedule, the teams do not encounter great difficulty in managing their projects. Nevertheless, we have been intrigued by the idea of covering project management in the first week of the course and then having each team structure its own project assignments according to the project plan they generate.
Objectives and Strategy
There are at least two ways to amplify the material covered in Chapter 18. The instructor may focus on the mechanics of planning and executing a project or on subtleties and advanced concepts. In an undergraduate course, the focus on mechanics may be appropriate. In this case the instructor would present the details of PERT, Gantt, Critical Chain, and/or the design structure matrix (DSM). The instructor might also review the details of determining staffing levels and preparing budgets. Most graduate students will have been exposed to these basic tools before. Having read the chapter, these students will have had their memories jogged enough that covering the basic mechanics is likely to bore them. Here we present some ideas for organizing a class session around some of the subtleties and advanced concepts in project management.
Session Outline
The session can be divided into three parts:
- Planning the project.
- Executing the project.
- Discussion of the students’ project experiences to date.
Planning the Project
This part of the session focuses on some important issues that must be faced before the project even officially begins. Each of these issues can be covered with a single slide and is likely to involve up to 5 minutes of discussion. In most cases there is not enough time to cover all of these points.
• Functional vs. project vs. hybrid organizations. Students should know the basic concept of a functional vs. project organization. If this material has not been covered earlier in the course, it should be covered now. Exhibit 2-7 can be shown on a slide and the basic strengths and weaknesses of each approach (summarized in Exhibit 2-8) can be discussed.
• Product planning. Chapter 4 explains the planning process from which successful product development projects begin. The concepts of aggregate planning and strategic fit are worth reviewing in class.
• Number of projects vs. productivity. Exhibit 5-2 from Wheelwright and Clark is a summary of several studies of R&D organizations. It shows the relationship between engineering productivity and the number of projects an engineer is working on. A discussion is easily stimulated by asking what explains the shape of the curve and by asking what are the implications for staffing a development team. Because the key feature of the relationship is that productivity peaks at two projects per engineer, many students will recommend that every team member be assigned to two projects. Others will rightly point out that engineering productivity is not the only measure of project performance that is important, and that lead time may suffer when team members are assigned to more than one project.
• Communication vs. separation distance. Exhibit 18-12 shows the relationship between communication frequency and physical separation between people. It is derived from Thomas Allen’s research and the original figure is Figure 8.4 in his book. Asking the students what they find interesting and surprising about the relationship leads to a lively discussion. Among the key points are that communication falls off very rapidly and that even when located in close proximity people do not communicate very much.
• Heavyweight Project Managers. After discussing different types of organizations, the notion of a heavyweight project manager should be easy to communicate. Many students (and faculty) may be uncomfortable with issues of personality and leadership, but they are central to project performance. Chapter 8 of Wheelwright and Clark is an excellent presentation of the key issues. Exhibit 8-4 from that chapter makes a good slide.
• Trade-off rules. This is a good time to present (or refresh students’ memory of) the notion of trade-off rules described in Chapter 17. Exhibit 17-14 makes a good slide for this discussion. The key idea is that before a project really begins, the team should estimate the sensitivity of the project outcome to changes in cost, lead time, and quality. Having a basic sense of the trade-offs and disseminating this knowledge to the team facilitates subsequent decision making.
• Contract book. The concept of a contract book is covered in Chapter 18, but is worth reviewing quickly in class. A simple way to do this is to put up a slide of Exhibit 18-6.
• Milestone prototypes. The instructor may wish to review the idea of a milestone prototype if prototyping will not be covered in another session. The idea that a milestone prototype (alpha, beta, pre-production) anchors the schedule and forces integration is important. The section of Chapter 14 on planning milestone prototypes gives some ideas which could be presented here.
• Task sequencing. Chapter 18 presents the DSM as a method for sequencing tasks, identifying coupled/iterative tasks, and studying product development processes. A thorough discussion of DSM is enabled by presentation of a real DSM example. Exhibit 18-14 or another example from a paper by Eppinger may suffice. See also the DSM web site for additional information, references, and tutorial about DSM.
Executing the Project
In this part of the session, the discussion turns to what to do once the team is properly staffed and motivated in order to assure completion of the project on time and within budget. A very interesting discussion can be had around the topic of project acceleration. The underlying assumption of this discussion is that accelerating a project is a good thing to do. This assumption should be made explicit and the instructor should point out that time is not always (although almost always) a dominant concern in product development.
A good way to stimulate this discussion is to present a "straw man" project plan as a Gantt chart and to ask what could be done to accelerate the project. The straw man should be a completely sequential set of tasks. A possible sequence of tasks might be: design circuit board, design product enclosure, design injection mold, build injection mold, complete assembly and test of product.
The goal of this part of the discussion is to be more specific than the ideas covered in Chapter 18. Rather than suggesting that the team overlap tasks, talk about which tasks to overlap and how to overlap them.
Overlapping is one of the approaches that someone will inevitably suggest. Additional material on when and how to overlap can be introduced at this time. Krishnan and Eppinger’s framework for overlapping is an effective addition at this point in the discussion.
The critical chain method is a relatively new approach to project tracking and control. The planning steps of critical chain are pretty standard; however the use of buffers to aggregate and compress safety time is indeed novel. Monitoring the project based on the status of these buffers is a very important new idea as well. Software to implement critical chain is available from ProChain Solutions Inc. An academic version of the ProChain software is also available.
Debrief on their own project experiences
Assuming this session is conducted later in the term, the students will generally have plenty to say about their own project experiences. One way to codify some of the learning the students have accumulated is to generate a list of "lessons learned" on the board. This list is easily generated by posing the question "What lessons have you learned about project management while completing your projects this term?" In order to avoid a list of completely general statements like "It is important to plan ahead" and "Everyone has to pull their own weight," the instructor generally has to probe with follow-up questions.
In-Class Exercise
The only exercise we use is the group discussion of how to shorten the sequence of tasks presented in the second part of the session.