ProjectSteps: 100 Rules for NASA Project Managers

When it comes to NASA every project is critical and stakes are high. These rules have been passed on internet and emails. I recently found a blog article on 100 Rules for NASA Project Managers that I am sharing with you.

These are the 100 Rule for Project Managers.
ProjectSteps: 100 Rules for NASA Project Managers

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When to Involve the End User in a Project

The success of a software project how easily the end-users adopts it… This also means that the software solution or product that you are going to deliver should be user-friendly and should improve the end-user productivity.

Recently I was working on a Project for a particular group of a client, where they were using a MS-Excel based system to get their things done. It was decentralized system where different team member work on their piece of excel sheet and then all the works were consolidated, verified and reports were generated.

We got this Project to convert the existing system to Web based Centralized application. Now as a part of requirement understanding we also created prototype of this application which contained a nice Form based interfaces.

The business stakeholder were happy to see the prototype but when we displayed it to the end-user one of them raised concern that in Excel System they could quickly enter the enter data in tabular sheet and saved the entire sheet with single go…whereas with this form based approach they will be able to enter single record at a time which can be time consuming to them.

Well it was a nice observation…and as we got the early feedback from the client we could offer them two solution, one was grid based form and the second alternative was they fill a excel document in a given format and our application able to import data from it.

So coming back to the original question, When should we involve end users in Project? The short reply would be involve them if possible in all the phases and as early as possible:

1. During the Requirement Phase: These are the actual users though they might not be able to tell you how exactly the system works, but they can give you valuable insight like how it works, how things can be better.
2. During the Design Phase:  Though the end-user is never concerned about what hardware you are going to use or the sophisticated design pattern you want to implement. But at times you need to understand the behavior expected from the application on a given scenario, during these times the end users will be a great help.
3. During the Development: If you have anything presentable to the user, you can show it to him and get early feedback on whether that part of application meets the end-users expectation.
4. During the User Acceptance Test: Probably your end-user will least bother you during this phase if end-user was actively involved in the previous steps.

Benefits of involving End Users early on are:

1. Active involvement of end-user from early stages of project will increase user adaptability.
2. Early verification of users expectation will result in less amount of rework.
3. Help you identify and fix issues at the early stages of project.
4. An involved end-user means a happy customer.

Summary:
Involve your end users as early as possible, as the system or solution you are going to provide will be used by the same end-users. Involving end-user will give them the feeling of contributing to the project and ensure having a satisfied customer at your end.

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Bad Attitudes – How they affect your Project.

If your project has adversaries, participants who are hostile or reluctant to contribute, it can damage team cohesion and threaten the outcome. You must confront the problem early on, taking steps to win them over to allies, minimize their negative impact, or remove them from the effort entirely.

Tom Kendrick, discusses here the effect for Bad Attitudes on your project here.

Bad Attitudes

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Project Management Checklist

Project Management requires you to manage various activities at different stages of Project and take into consideration the processes defined by your organization.

As a project manager you would like cover as many aspect that can affect the project. Though during managing a project everything might not go as planned, but if you cover the standardized processes or activities that will definitely help you in any situations.

The Project Management Checklist will help you to accomplish the standardized processes and activities. A good checklist will give you a list of activities that needs to be completed and it will also keep you informed about the status of things to be done so that the project moves in the right direction.

Things to remember while creating Project Management Checklist:

• The project management checklist should help you getting your task done rather than hurting you by adding unnecessary complexities.
• The checklist should have a clear and concise objective.
• It should contain a simple sentence written in a basic language.
• Should take consideration of your organization policy or standardization.

The author of book “The Checklist Manifesto” Atul Gawande has provided an excellent Checklist for Creating Checklist, you can download this document from the following link:

http://www.projectcheck.org/checklist-for-checklists.html

To prepare for project management checklists, You can first search your organizations archive if they have predefined checklists for various activities. This will be the best source as checklist prepared and maintained in your organization will be aligned to its processes and policies.

You can refer to template checklists available online but they will be more generic and you might need to customized them according to your organizations policies or processes.

Reference:

• List of Checklists for Project Management
• http://www.gantthead.com/checklists/

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