Basis of Project Success (Part 1)

Even experienced project managers are not immune to common reasons for project failure. Poor time and budget performance, failure to deal with complexity, and uncontrolled changes in scope can catch any project manager off guard. This collection of materials can help improve your project’s success rate.

Here's Part 1 of a collection of conference presentations, white papers, book chapters, and journal articles on topics developed over 4 decades of managing projects and programs in a variety of domains, where arriving on or before the needed time, at or below the needed cost, with the needed Capabilities to accomplish a mission or fulfill a strategy is necessary for the success of the project.

Five Immutable Principles of Project Success no Matter the Domain, Context, Management Tools, or Processes

The basis of success for all project success, no matter the domain, project management process (Agile or Traditional), project management tools, and technology, starts by answering the questions posed by the Five Immutable Principles, first published in Performance-Based Project Management, American Management Association, February 2014.

1. What does Done look like in units of measure meaning full to the decision-makers, starting with Measures of Effectiveness (MOE), Measures of Performance (MOP), Technical Performance Measures (TPM), and Key Performance Parameters (KPP)?
2. What is the Plan to reach Done, with outcomes fulfilling these measures on the needed date, for the needed cost, to deliver the needed Capabilities to accomplish a mission or fulfill a strategy?
3. What Resources - staff, facilities, funding, and regulatory compliance will be needed to reach Done as needed?
4. What are the Impediments to reaching Done at the needed time, for the needed cost, with the needed Capabilities?
5. How will Progress to Plan be measured in units of measure meaningful to the decision-makers? The passage of time, consumption of money, production of Stories, and Story points are not measures of progress to Plan. Delivery of Capabilities to accomplish the mission are.

Increasing Probability of Success for Software Intensive Complex System of Systems using Agile Development and Earned Value Management

Complex Systems Development, including Software Development Lifecycles, is straightforward when there is a Bright Line between the Performance Measurement Baseline (PMB) and system development processes that define the Capabilities needed to accomplish a mission or fulfill a strategy using Measures of Effectiveness, Measures of Performance, Technical Performance Measures, Key Performance Parameters, all used to inform Physical Percent compared to the Planned Percent Complete - all with Risk-Informed decision making.

• Integration of Program Performance Management with Agile Software Development - Starting with the Engineering Estimate, define the deliverables, the plan for their production, their deployment, any variance of effort and cost, and the corrective actions to keep the planned work on plan. These are activities for Program Controls of Scrum development projects based on Product Roadmaps, Release Plans, and measures of Physical Percent Complete at the Sprint level.
• 6 Steps to Establishing the Performance Measurement Baseline - Building the PMB requires six straightforward steps. Each must be performed. Each is critical. Each cannot be skipped - PMI Forth Worth, July 16th, 2010.

Increasing the Probability of Success for Complex Systems by Integrating Systems Engineering and Agile Project Management with Program Performance Management.

Getting Started – first comes earned value, and system development including the SW Development Lifecycle (agile) is straightforward. The following 20 sections are individual content of the integrated materials in the next section.

1. Executive Overview - Systems Engineering, Earned Value Management, and Traditional and Agile development have much in common.
2. First Comes Earned Value Management - EVM and Agile must be deployed together to harmonize.
3. Opening Background - both EVM and Agile measure progress to plan as Physical Percent Complete
4. Start with the End in Mind - the integrated value proposition of Agile and EVM needs to be articulated upfront.
5. Framing Assumptions - define and track key program assumptions made early in the program development.
6. Foundations of Earned Value Management - physical percent complete is the foundation of EVM + Agile.
7. Performance Planning - is performed by objectively assessing accomplishment at the work performance level.
8. Connecting the Dots Between EVM and Agile - sharing a common theme of Progress to Plan measured by Physical Percent Complete
9. Requirements Elicitation - technical and operational requirements flow down in traditional programs and emerge from Capabilities in Agile programs.
10. Planning, Budgeting, and Estimating in Agile - using Cardinal Values to estimate work on Agile projects.
11. Step-by-Step - building and executing the Performance Measurement Baseline.
12. Dependency Management in Agile at Scale - dependencies will appear with multiple agile teams working System of Systems.
13. Risk Management and Agile Development - naturally occurring uncertainties creating risk can be modeled with Monet Carlo Simulation.
14. Change Control - differences between change control on traditional and agile projects.
15. Physically Connecting the Dots - between Agile, Program Planning and Control, Earned Value Management and Reporting.
16. The Dark Side of Agile - both EVM and Agile have dark sides.
17. Failure Modes of Agile Transformation of Project and Program Performance Management - finding and handling the root causes of failure.
18. Maturity Models for Deploying Agile at Scale - applying EVM through the CMMI governance framework.
19. Root Cause Analysis - Identify conditions and actions creating root causes of project failure to develop corrective and preventive actions.
20. Agile Contracts - FAR 15.201 and Agile Uniform Contract Formats, agile construction contracts, and other non-IT domainsConclusion - Agile integration on EVM programs is straightforward.
21. Conclusion - integrating agile on EVM programs is straight forward, once the bright line is established between the PMB and Agile release Sprint, and Story activities.

All these individual elements are contained here in a single file

• Increasing Probability of Success for Complex System of Systems by Integrating Systems Engineering, Agile Project Management with Program Performance Management - Managing Complex System of Systems to FAR 34.2 and DFARS 234.2 by Applying Agile at Scale

Essential Views

The 24 Views of a Project's performance are the minimum set needed for the Program or Project Management to effectively oversee the successful delivery of the project's capabilities on time. on-budget.

The Essential Views are the leading and lagging indicators of project success. The data sources for these views start with project management data, including the Risk Register, Technical Performance Measures, Measures of Effectiveness, Measures of Performance, and Key Performance Parameters. Putting all these together in a set of views for use by management and stakeholders is the primary benefit of this approach. This section starts with two briefings, followed by a Workshop developed at the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA)

• Essential Views of Integrated Program Management Reports, Thomas Coonce and Glen Alleman, ICEAA Professional Development & Training Workshop, June 9-12, San Diego, CA.
• Essential Views of Integrated Program Management Reports, Thomas Coonce, September 2015.

Essential Views Workshop

Here are the contents of a multi-day workshop for applying the Essential Views needed to increase the probability of program success

• Table of Contents
• Introduction
• Essential Views
• TSAS WBS
• System of Systems
• IMP and IMS
• Building a Credible IMP
• 6 Steps to IMP Development
• Nuances of These Steps
• Connecting IMP to Performance Measurement Baseline
• First Pass at Building IMP
• Developing IMS from the IMP
• Scheduling Best Practices
• Developing Cost Baseline
• Managing in the Presence of Uncertainty
• Connecting PMB to IPMR
• Earned Value Management
• Building IMP for PDR
• Avionics PDR
• Root Cause Analysis
• Bibliography
• Background

Managing the Development of Complex System of Systems with Traditional and Agile Methods

The Immutable Principles of Project Success

• Leading on the Edge & Managing IT Departments - following Ernest Shackleton's Antarctic Expedition principles.
• Project Breathalyzer
• Program Management - Important New Concepts and Definitions
• Making the Impossible Possible - Helitropic Abundance for Creating Program and Project Processes to Increasing the Probability of Success.
• "Foundation" Readiness Review
• Heliotropic Abundance - The key to project success is connecting Leadership Behaviours with Project Management Principles, Processes, and Practices
• ➢ Integration of Program Performance Management with Agile Software Development
• Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, and Adjourning - Managers do things right, while leaders do the right thing - Warren Bennis, Ph.D. On Becoming a Leader.
• Nine Best Practices of Project Management
• Integrated Program Performance Management
• Flawless Execution - Using Fighter Pilot techniques to manage our weekly activities.
• Managing Enterprise Projects as Wicked Problems
• Project Disappointment Starts When We Fail To Recognize the 5 Immutable Principles of Project Success
• Survival in the Matrixed Organization
• Project Success: The Basis of the Five Immutable Principles, Building Project Management into a Mission-Critical Endeavor, Excerpt from Public Manager, September 14, 2015.
• The Project Management Paradigm, Carnegie Mellon University, Silicon Valley, February 3rd and 4th, 2009.
• Increasing the Probability of Success - Integrating Process, People, and Tools, Dallas MPUG, May 6th, 2009.
• The Socratic Method
• Measures of Product Value in Exchange for its Cost

The Five Immutable Principles of Project Success

• It's People Who Make the Difference in Brings Aide to Turkey, The Foundations of Success for Public Domain Projects Starts with a Capabilities-Based Plan
• Five Immutable Principles of Project Success, Glen B. Alleman, 2022 Project Management Symposium, University of Maryland.
• Five Immutable Principles of Program Success, Their Processes and Practices, IPMW 2017.
• 5 Immutable Principles of Project Success, Forum Safran 2013.
• Five Immutable Principles of Project Success, Spring Seminar, Austin Chapter, 2012.
• Five Immutable Principles of Project Success
• Increasing the Probability of Project Success by Applying the Five Immutable Principles
• Five Immutable Principles of Project Success, Spring Seminar, Austin Chapter, 2012.
• Five Immutable Principles of Project Success, PMI Mile High Chapter, 19 April 2019.
• 5 Immutable Principles of Capital Project Success, Safran Webinar, 2017.
• The 5 Immutable \(ˌ)i(m)-ˈmyü-tə-bəl\Principles of Project Management Needed ToIncrease the Probability of Project Success(PoPS), Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley, February 1st and 2nd, 2010.
• Five Immutable Principles of Project Success, Spring Seminar, Austin Chapter, 2012.
• Five Immutable Principles of Digital Transformation Project Success, PMI San Diego, 11 July 2018.
• Five Immutable Principles to Increase Your Probability of Project Success, Lakeshore (Ontario) PMI, 27 October 2018.
• Improving the Probability of Project Success with Five Immutable Principles, Lakeshore (Ontario) PMI, 27 October 2018
• Five Immutable Principles of Project Success, Northern Utah Chapter, PMI 2012.

Root Cause Analysis

• Root Cause Analysis - corrective and preventative actions of Agile + EVM.
• Failure is Trying to Tell Us Something - Root Cause Analysis is a problem-solving method identifying the sources of failure or problems.
• Getting It Right - Root Cause Analysis shows failure begins with the buyer not knowing what done looks like.

More Newsletters on the Same Topic

• Basis of Project Success (Part 2)
• Basis of Project Success (Part 3)
• Basis of Project Success (Part 4)
• Basis of Project Success (Part 5)