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Loading ...Week 9. Status Report
The Survey Results Report for the NetHope – University of Waterloo MMSc Online Project Management Survey was further analyzed throughout the week as an inconsistency was noted during final peer review. This required a thorough re-assessment of the analysis, and required some graph changes and further peer review of the results is to be done this weekend. The importance of this was paramount, given the importance of the conclusions resulting from the Survey.
The pressure is now on completing the assessments on potential areas of improvement and focusing on drafting the final report, which is due at the end of the following week.
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(1 votes, average: 9 out of 10) Loading ...Week 8. Status Report
The Survey Results Report for the NetHope – University of Waterloo MMSc Online Project Management Survey, was completed this week. Of the 16 Member Organizations responding, the following are some key observations:
• Project management skills overall showed as an area in need of improvement.
• Post project lessons learned reviews is an area for improvement (key for corporate knowledge and highlighting areas in need of improvement).
• While Agile PM methodologies are not used much today, there appears to be a good opportunity to benefit from an Agile (light) approach.
In addition, of the 16 Member Organizations responding to the survey, 11 provided contacts for follow up interviews, of which 7 were completed this week. For time reasons, further interviews are unlikely, though the information we have received has been very good. The weekend will focus on building a catalogue of current NHMO “best practices”, and starting an analysis compared against industry “best practices” within key focus areas.
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(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Week 7 Status Report
The NetHope – University of Waterloo MMSc Online Project Management Survey closed on Friday Oct 26, and we have received an additional three responses for a total of twenty seven, covering sixteen Member Organizations.
The survey information from week one has been analyzed, and will be quickly re-analyzed with the additional week-2 responses. The “Survey Results Report” is due this week. At a very high level, the member organizations Project Management skills, as expected vary to quite a degree. There also appears to be a feeling across a good number of NHMO of a need for increased project planning skills. For those who have offered to be contacted, Interview questions will be emailed during the coming week, with follow up calls throughout the week. Again, the project team thanks all who have responded to date, and especially those offering to be interviewed.
Please note that the interviews this week are critical to help understand the survey responses, which is necessary for the quality of the final report, now just three weeks away.
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(2 votes, average: 9.5 out of 10) Loading ...Week 6 Status Report
The NetHope – University of Waterloo MMSc Online Project Management Survey has received twenty four responses covering fifteen Member Organizations. This included:
• 16 responses on areas of potential improvement
• 15 responses on best practices
• 13 contacts offering to provide further information
The survey information will be analyzed and those who have offered to be contacted may receive an email and/or a phone call over the next week should clarifications on their responses be required, or additional questions arise. Based on the survey information received, the team will start analyzing the results. It has been decided to keep the survey open for another week, ending Friday Oct 26, to allow NHMO the opportunity to provide further feedback as this information is critical for the final deliverable. This will push the “Survey Results Report” deliverable back to Nov 1, however as we have received excellent feedback to date, and will be phasing analyzing and clarifying this work with other tasks, it is easy and worthwhile accommodating. The project team thanks all who have responded to date.
The teleconference with Rodolfo this week provided key information the team needed to keep the Project on target and clarified its scope. The final deliverable will include a catalogue of NetHope Member Organizations’ (NHMOs’) Best Practices (BP) guidelines, which other Member Organizations (MO) can pick and modify to fit their needs. In addition, it was agreed that individual MO will be mentioned only in this table, and not in the rest of the report, which will be a generalized discussion related to areas of potential improvements, project maturity levels, and potential recommendations based on industry best practices.
Rodolfo has been invited to all remaining Saturday team teleconferences in order to help ensure best responses to questions that arise, critical due to time pressures and nature of this project (virtual and part time).
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(2 votes, average: 8 out of 10) Loading ...Week 5 Status Report
The NetHope – University of Waterloo MMSc Online Project Management Survey has been finalized and posted. This was achieved on October 10, and the survey’s deadline is Friday October 19.
The milestones related to the Survey have slipped a few days, increasing pressure on later milestones. To mitigate this as much as possible, the project team is attempting to pro-actively prepare for the future milestones where we can. One area, as an example, was preparing how we will analyze the survey results once received. This has largely been completed; however we are currently researching Project Management Maturity Models (PMMM) to help ensure we are knowledgeable in assessing this area. Depending on the results received in the surveys, additional questions may need to be asked, though we are hoping to minimize this due to time constraints.
Another key milestone achieved this week was the Project Management (PM) Plan, which is now at a very good draft stage, and will be submitted to Dr. Carr and Rodolfo on Saturday Oct 13 or Sunday Oct 14 for feedback. Rodolfo has been invited to a team teleconference to discuss both the PM plan and the Project Charter. Project Scope and expected deliverables is a specific area requiring clarification, and is required for the Project Charter, the PM Plan, and ultimately the success of the NetHope Project.
The specific point requiring clarification is if our end deliverable will be a catalogue of NetHope Member Organizations’ (NHMOs’) Best Practices (BP) guidelines which other Member Organizations (MOs) can pick and modify to fit their needs, or if it will try to go a step further in recommending a subset of BP to be applied across the NHMO as a “standard”. The two are quite different, so we would like to discuss and formally resolve this as soon as possible.
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(6 votes, average: 7 out of 10) Loading ...Team Status Report Week 4
The Project Management Plan has progressed this past week in all areas. Most significant improvements were on the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and the Time Management Plan. The Time Management Plan being implemented is effectively a one page document with a short table of the key project milestones described with fields identifying the responsible lead, start and end dates, as well as an indication of whether the milestone has been reach. All milestone end-dates are color coded and displayed on a calendar, providing an easy method to understand where the team is and where it needs to be in order to meet the projects timelines. Together with the WBS and weekly sub-team status reports which indicate milestone-related activity status (Good, Caution, Critical) and potential issues, we now feel we have a very effective planning framework. A Draft of the Project Management (PM) Plan will be submitted to Dr. Carr and Rodolfo sometime this week for feedback.
The project charter mentioned last week has been completed for review, and the survey was updated based on feedback provided by NetHope Member Organizations. The most significant adjustment to the survey was including questions that are intended to capture Member Organizations’ feelings in regard to the Agile PM principles. It may be interesting to note that the UW project team is using some of the Agile PM principles within this project. Specifically this is being done by keeping the Project Management duties light and letting sub-teams and members lead assigned activities against planned milestones. Given the size of the project, the virtual environment (covering 8 time zones) and that as students we are in effect working part time, a light approach to project management became obvious over the past couple of weeks.
The main area of caution this week is the need to get the survey posted and survey results back from the Member Organizations as quickly as possible. Given our set timeline, this is a critical path task.
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(4 votes, average: 8.25 out of 10) Loading ...Week 3. Team Status Report to NetHope
Team members continue to progress on sub-team organization as they work on their sub-team assignments and as the Project Management Plan has become a focus. The key task currently is working through the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and activity assignments. While last week saw the introduction of the four sub-teams, we were aware at that time that there were some tasks that would not fit neatly into one team (eg: Final Report and Final Presentation). The WBS activity is forcing us to address the above issue proactively, and is anticipated to be corrected early this coming week. The WBS work achieves this as it clearly identifies work packages and associates them with deliverables. Once done, a WBS dictionary ensures work is clearly defined and assigns team-members against these work packages.
A project charter has almost been completed, which is largely pulling together information from various areas, including initial posts on the blog. While this was not required to progress on the project, it was felt to be helpful for team members to review scope and project requirements, and also to become familiar with and understand a key Project Management document.
Another key task that was accomplished was having all sub-teams prepare weekly status reports for their areas. This greatly helps in preparing the weekly status reports for the blog, but also helps sub-teams to communicate their work activities. To provide a quick method of identifying potential or developing problems, a color code has been used for the status indicator (Green = Good, Yellow = Caution, Red = Critical). The areas of caution this week are largely the small delay with the NetHope Member Organization survey, and as mentioned with the Project Management Plan’s WBS. These are not seen as significant, but as areas that need and will receive extra attention to best prevent critical issues from occurring giving the projects tight timelines. The survey in particular is hoped to be ready for the NetHope Member Organizations during the next week.
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(6 votes, average: 8.67 out of 10) Loading ...Draft Survey Questions For NetHope Review
DRAFT Survey Questions
The purpose of this survey is to collect IT project management practices of all NetHope members and compare them with industry standards. The outcome of this survey will be a set of recommendations on the best practices currently used by NetHope members that can be applied across the membership.
The participation on this survey is voluntary and anonymous, and the information collected will be kept confidential. However, if you would like to self-identify for better analysis on this project, the individual or organization identification will not be disclosed unless approval for such is received.
The survey will take approximately 10 minutes and you may skip/omit any question on your discretion. The deadline for the survey is (7 days after survey is posted).
If you require further information or have any questions about this survey, please contact Rodolfo Siles at _____________.
Survey
Identification of Responder
Name (optional): ____________________
Organization (optional): ____________________
1. What is your job role?
a. Executive Management (CIO / CTO / CEO / President)
b. Director / Vice-President
c. Manager
d. Other_______________
2. If you have been involved in information technology project/s in your organization please indicate the role/s that you have undertaken. Select all that apply.
a. Initiating Process Group (e.g. defines and authorize the project)
b. Planning Process Group (e.g. defines/refines objective, plans the course of action)
c. Executing (e.g. integrates resources)
d. Monitoring and Controlling process (e.g. measures and monitor progress)
e. Closing (e.g. formalizes acceptance of the product/service/result)
f. Other______________
Identification of Organization
3. Which NetHope organization do you work for?
a. ActionAid
b. CARE
c. Christian Children’s Fund
d. Children International
e. Catholic Relief Services
f. Concern Worldwide
g. Family Health International
h. Heifer International
i. International Rescue Committee
j. International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
k. Mercy Corps
l. Nature Conservancy
m. Opportunity International
n. Oxfam
o. Plan International
p. Relief International
q. Save the Children
r. Wildlife Conservation Society
s. Winrock International
t. World Vision
Structure of IT Department
4. How much does your organization outsource its IT projects?
(scale 1 = never, 2 = seldom, 3 = sometimes, 4 = often, 5 = always)
IT Project Governance
Definition: IT Project Governance is defined as processes that need to exist for a successful IT project.
5. What percentage of IT projects is completed on time in your organization?
a. Less than 25%
b. 25-50%
c. 50-75%
d. more than 75%
e. Do NOT know
6. What percentage of IT projects is completed within the allocated budget in your organization?
a. Less than 25%
b. 25-50%
c. 50-75%
d. more than 75%
e. Do NOT know
7. What is the percentage of failed/terminated IT projects in your organization?
a. Less than 25%
b. 25-50%
c. 50-75%
d. more than 75%
e. Do NOT know
8. To what extent do the following exist in IT projects undertaken in your organization?
(scale 1 = never, 2 = seldom, 3 = sometimes, 4 = often, 5 = most of the time)
a. There is a lack of general agreement on a well-articulated set of project goals and objectives
b. There is a weak project team
c. The project team does not work well together
d. There is weak project management
e. There is a poor system to measure project progress
f. There is poor leadership when critical decisions are needed
g. The project team lacks the technical capability required for the project
h. The project lacked sufficient senior management support and involvement
9. What IT Project Governance methodology/standard is currently followed in your organization?
a. SOX 404
b. COSO Framework
c. PMBOK/PMI Guide
d. PRINCE2
e. Other____________
f. None
10. To what extent do the following affect your IT projects?
(scale 1 = never, 2 = seldom, 3 = sometimes, 4 = often, 5 = most of the time)
a. IT Project governance not integrated well with overall corporate governance.
b. IT Strategy not aligned well with business strategies.
c. Project Manager Office/Project Management not integrated well with IT project teams.
11. Is there an IT Project Management Office in place to oversee and provide direction to IT activities?
a. No
b. To some extent, but it is informal
c. Yes, however they don’t report to the board
d. Yes, they report to the board
Stakeholder Involvement
12. How well does your organization involve the following stakeholders in its IT projects?
(scale 1 = very poorly, 2 = poorly, 3 = fairly, 4 = good, 5 = excellently involved)
a. Project sponsors
b. End Users
c. Service beneficiaries
d. External organizations
Project Management Maturity Model
13. What is the maturity level of your organization as it relates to IT project management?
a. Initial stage - no formal planning process exists or is followed; organization operates without a structured IT plan
b. Repeatable stage - IT department can perform similar work on a repeated basis due to key staff members and their expertise
c. Defined stage - IT processes are constant and well defined with quantifiable value of the process attributable to cost and schedule estimates
d. Managed stage - IT department can predict trends and establish quantitative boundaries for quality control; the conduct of comparative analysis is common
e. Optimizing stage - IT plans and processes are optimized through incremental improvements; innovation differentiates the organization from others
f. Do NOT know
Project Management Methodology
14. How would you rate the project management processes of your organization? (scale 1 = Excellent 2 = Good 3 = Average 4 = Fair 5 = Poor
a.Risk Management (includes Risk Management Planning, Risk Identification, Qualitative Risk Analysis, Risk Response Planning, Risk Monitoring & Control)
b. Integration Management (includes Develop Project Charter, Develop Preliminary Project Scope Statement, Develop Project Management Plan, Monitor and Control Project Work, Integrated Change Control, Close Project)
c. Time Management (includes Activity Definition, Activity Sequencing, Activity Resource Estimating, Activity Duration Estimating, Schedule Development, Schedule Control)
d. Scope Management (includes Scope Planning, Scope Definition, Create WBS, Scope Verification, Scope Control)
e. Cost Management (includes Cost Estimating, Cost Budgeting, Cost Control)
f. Human Resources Management (includes Human Resource Planning, Acquire Project Team, Develop Project Team, Manage Project Team)
g. Communication Management (includes Communication Planning, Information Distribution, Performance Reporting, Managing Stakeholders)
h. Quality Management (includes Quality Planning, Performance Quality Assurance, Performance Quality Control)
15. Who is usually the liaison between the project team and project stakeholders in your organization? (choose one)
a. Member of the executive team
b. Functional Manager
c. Project Manager
d. A project team member
e. Others ____________
16. How often do project managers provide status and progress reports to the stakeholders during the project life cycle? (choose one)
a. Frequently (i.e. after every major milestone)
b. Somewhat frequently (i.e. after each phase of a multi-phase project)
c. Only when one of the stakeholders request for this information
d. No communication until project completion
e. Other______________
17. Do project managers in your organization record the lessons learned and other important information in organizations’ PM knowledge base so that they could be transferred to other projects?
a. Always
b. Sometimes
c. Never
18. What do you think are the most important areas that could be improved in how your organization manages projects? (write in answer)
19. What project management practices do you feel are good practices within your organization? (write in answer)
20. We would like to contact some of the people who complete the survey to better understand the survey results. If you are willing to do this, please provide your email address here: (write in answer)
Thank you for taking the time to complete our survey!
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(5 votes, average: 8.8 out of 10) Loading ...Week 2 Status Report
Team members have made significant progress towards organizing themselves into four main sub-teams. These four teams are: 1) Project Management, 2) Information Gathering (Internal or NetHope Member Organization Focus), 3) Information Gathering (External Good/Best Practices Focus), and 4) Governance & Administration. These teams are in various stages of working out there main work activities and deliverables, which will be a focus over the next two weeks as we focus on developing our Project Management Plan for delivering the “NetHope Project”. In addition, a rough schedule has been prepared for the next few weeks, but will require further iterative changes over the next several weeks as the project progresses.
Our main deliverable this week was the preparation of DRAFT Survey Questions, which is an art in itself. The timeframe was a challenge, but we believe we have some good draft questions prepared. The team also feels that a follow up interview likely will be necessary to pose future questions which may not be evident at this stage of the project, and/or to target the questions to select IT staff within the NetHope member organizations. It is being assumed that the respondents will be a wide variety of staff from within each NetHope Member organizations IT departments, presumably ones that have had some involvement with IT projects. The survey can be anonymous, though it is hoped that members will self-identify. In either case, individual survey responses will not be made public in such a way as to reveal the identity of the member organization, unless approval for such is received.
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(8 votes, average: 8.5 out of 10) Loading ...NetHope Response To Week 1 Questions
Here are the responses to the Week 1. student group questions from Rodolfo Siles at NetHope:
University of Waterloo Processes
1. We understand we are to do some interviews with your member organizations; do you have any guidelines or suggestions for us? For example (but not limited to): the online survey method preferred, how long to give member organizations to respond to the survey?
R. Most NetHope members prefer online surveys, but keep them simple and to the point. NetHope uses online surveys as a method to gather feedback from its many members, a typical survey usually take no more than 10 minutes to fill, we usually give people seven days to compete. If the questions you have in mind are longer than that I would recommend to break them into separate surveys. A favorite tool used is surveymonkey.com
2. What are NetHope’s expectations in terms of the minimum and possible wish list deliverables?
R. A basic understanding of the current state of project management methodologies within NetHope member organizations. Not specific to each member but as a general overview, perhaps compared using a project maturity level model. This will include:
How the different agencies are using PM and how mature are their processes?
How well understood are the concepts and ideas behind PM (from a PMI perspective approach)?
What are the challenges these agencies face in their IT projects, this may include issues with governance, methodologies, and practices.
Once we have this current state we need to measure the gap with an ideal state as described by the PMI, this will include the current challenges that can be solved by the correct application of a robust PM methodology for example:
Reduce project risks by establishing a risk management process
Increase user’s ownership by including stakeholder feedback during the project life cycle
Reduce uncertainty by incorporating and adaptive (Agile) approach to project management
The NetHope Organization
3. Is there an organization chart available depicting the structure and roles within NetHope and its member organizations? Is there a description of scope and accountability of these roles?
R. NetHope is by design a small organization, an Executive Director who reports to the Board. Two assistants and two full time project managers, most of NetHope work is done via the NetHope committees
4. Who are generally considered key internal and external stakeholders?
R. Internal stakeholders are the NetHope members, external stakeholders are vendors, donors and partners from the IT industry
5. What is NetHope’s vision of the Special Interest Group (SIG), in relation to its formation, deployment and function?
R. The idea of an SIG on IT project managements is that it can take the deliverables from this project and work on the actions we need to improve our IT project management practices, by developing a place were practitioners meet and discuss on how to improve skills and share best practices.
6. Has NetHope encountered corporate or other cultural factors during past projects that affected project performance with its member organisations? If so, what are the primary issues and how have they been managed?
R. This is a good question that we can ask to the NetHope organizations as part of the survey.
7. NetHope operates internationally bounded by differing norms and laws. Does NetHope provide any overseeing guidance for those involved in member organization projects to prepare for this? If so, what are the main processes involved?
R. NetHope doesn’t operate at that level, NetHope as an entity is designed to be a facilitator, coordinator and a catalyst for initiatives that the INGOs have identified as critical. CARE, for example, does operate internationally and each country office needs to adapt the central policies and procedures to reflect the local laws and norms, especially in the areas regarding financial resources.
8. How many member organization projects are initiated each year and of these, what is the average project success rate per year?
R. In 2006 the project committee reviewed about 35 project ideas, out of which 8 became a reality. 4 were lead by members and 4 were lead by NetHope. We don’t have a definitive criteria for projects success.
9. Are there any project management processes at NetHope and its member organizations that should be key focus areas?
R. This could be something that we can discover as part of this research project; by looking at the different processes members use for managing IT projects we can identify what areas are in need of more discipline or maturity. For example, given the nature of our work (non-profit) the focus is less on timely delivery of projects and more on business benefits and user ownership.
Administration
10. Does NetHope provide any capital assistance towards IT infrastructure projects?
R. What NetHope does is to channel Donor resources to the members, for example the Microsoft software donation, hardware discounts and other vendor license discounts. Each NetHope member organization has its own infrastructure projects funded by their own budgets and uses the resources made available by NetHope to help offset some of their costs.
11. Who initiates project ideas? NetHope, its member organizations, or a combination of both?
R. A combination of both, but largely the ideas and proposals come from the members who try to address their needs and use NetHope as a way to get support from other members either by collaborating or sharing resources.
12. What role does NetHope have on projects implemented by member organizations?
R. None, but member organizations have a large role in the projects implemented by NetHope
Documentation
13. Would it be possible to obtain copies of NetHope’s Strategic Business Plan, Charter, and any PM guidelines currently in use?
R. All the information about NetHope should be available on the web site (www.nethope.org). NetHope does not have an IT project Management guideline, what we have are some basic project management proposal guidelines and a simple process to rank proposals, all made by the project committee ( I will send the documents on a separate attachment)
14. Does NetHope have any other documentation that would support this project’s efforts? For example (but not limited to): Statement of Work (SOW), Formal Deliverables List, Project Success Critieria, Limitations List.
R. The NetHope Project Committee has developed some initial documents to help in the ranking and selection of proposals. (See above comment), there is a need to increase our documentation to help NetHope project managers do their work.
