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One of the things that annoyed me
during my PMP study efforts was nowhere in the Project Management
Book of Knowledge (PMBOK) did anyone illustrate all the project
phases and processes in a project schedule. After fuming for a while and realizing the
processes and phases were just not sinking in, I fired up Microsoft
Project and created such an integrated project schedule which
you'll find at the end of this page. Of course, if you haven't
read the first few chapters of the PMBOK, this schedule will be all
Greek to you!
First, an explanatory note on the
schedule. Since all work and no play makes a project
manager a dull boy or girl, I had a little fun when I laid out the
plan's premise.
For those of you who sat beside me in
educational psychology class, this plan is correctly called a
"mnemonic device"--something that helps a learner remember something
in an easily recallable manner. (See, Mom, that post-secondary
vocational education studies degree from Southern Illinois
University is finally paying off! (Go, Salukis!) ) I built
a few mnemonic devices into the plan to sort of "burn into your
memory" how these terms, phases and integration points work
together.
So what sort of project is
presented in this schedule? Easy--a major software implementation.
Before you groan about the
oxymoron of "easy" and "implementation", take a look at this
schedule and try not to laugh too hard.
- I used the the PMBOK phases and
processes to plan how one would conduct a
fictional Enterprise Resource Management software module
implementation project within a model railroad's corporate office.
- How's that
for a disclaimer this is a fictional depiction and I didn't
steal anyone's copyrighted information of any kind?
In essence, the
project the Nawthjurzee Railway Corporation is undertaking
involves itself and two subordinate companies, namely the Delta
Blues Railroad and Classic Rock Railroad.
- I know when
you're studying your PMBOK or taking your test, this fictional
depiction and company names are going to come flying back out of
your memory--and that's beauty of mnemonic devices--they help
you remember!
The durations
of the tasks are totally fictional and inserted solely for
illustrative purposes.
The tasks are also presented in
pretty much the order they appear in the PMBOK, such as where the
project manager is identified in the initiation phase.
I
realize such an implementation could be completed faster than this
schedule projects in its timeline.
- Techniques
such as parallel tasks could be used to speed the project along,
but that would defeat this specific fictional schedule's
educational purpose of laying out the phases and processes in a
cleanly depicted manner.
- In a few
places, tasks are scheduled in parallel, but that is merely
because it seemed obvious to me that is how I would get them
done in a non-chaotic manner.
- In any
event, the tasks are integrated which is one of the key issues
outlined in the PMBOK!
As of this writing, some task
dependencies and other technical details may be incomplete.
- I included just a few of each to
give the reader the idea of how these dependencies work within
project management.
- Adding more would ruin this
plan's intended use as an illustrative and mnemonic learning
device to help you remember the PMBOK processes and phases when
you take the PMP examination.
While a software implementation is
depicted here, the schedule could modified easily for any other
project such as adding a room to a house, planning a major social
event, or, yes, even building a model railroad!
Close attention should be paid to the
various formulas included for determining variations in cost,
schedule and so forth.
- The PMBOK does not lay these out in
a easily understandable display, so I did it here within the
schedule. Most PM's plug these formulas into spreadsheets
rather than calculate them with a project planning tool.
- I also made the
formulas recurring tasks since a good project manager would
want to keep checking them to make sure costs and schedule are on
target.
- If you don't know your cost
formulas, download a copy of my cost equation study aid before you
take your PMP exam!
Click here to download a copy
of the PMBOK-based project schedule.
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