A Look at IT Project Management Approaches for Chip Projects
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Freedom from
Project Surprises Newsletter - Issue #35
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March 2008 |
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Over
the last few months I have had the opportunity to learn more about
Project Management (PM) in the Information Technology (IT) industry. It
is intriguing to see the management parallels that exist between a
mixed signal design and an IT software development project. Both
industries have similar project management challenges on the path to
product revenue. Information Technology New Product Development (NPD)
teams tend to be much more engaged in a broader array of project
management practices and be more inclined to enrich the art of project
management. There is excellent value in examining the Information
Technology industries approaches to Project Management. This newsletter
is intended to engage your thought process by expanding your awareness
of the approaches in use by Information Technology teams today.
Notable Observation:
PM = Project Management = Preventative Maintenance
Jeff Jorvig, NPD Process Consultant
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Contrasting the PM Practices of IT and
Semiconductor Businesses
We
all have a moderately good knowledge of formal Project Management and
most of us will answer positively if asked about the use of a
formalized management process on projects in our organizations. My
observation is that most mature semiconductor business units have
embraced formal Project Management at the business level but it is much
less practiced, or even acknowledged in the engineering teams
themselves. This is a key difference between the semiconductor and
Information Technology worlds. IT businesses largely embrace all
aspects of formal Project Management for New Product Development while
the semiconductor businesses typically have a PM system in place,
although the level of implementation is usually far less. In fact most
of the new project management philosophies have their roots in the IT
industry, further strengthening their position as a PM driver and
innovator.
Why would there be such a gap in the level of formal
Project Management commitment between these two industries? Is it the
size and complexity of the projects? Is it management's commitment to
Project Management? Is it that engineering team resistance is greater
in the semiconductor business? Good questions, although the answers are
of little relevance. Of major importance is that IT teams believe in
fully engaging formal Project Management techniques as the best path
for their projects success. This fact is something that those of us in
the semiconductor business should take note of, as the demands for
faster and better product releases (revenue generation) drives us down
a path of continuous improvement.
 We
must candidly assess the effectiveness of formal Project Management for
our businesses. If projects are honestly exceeding the needs of
the
business then it is a safe assumption that the PM implementation in
place is working well. However, if projects exhibit a level of
unpredictability and delays I suggest a serious look at the depth of
Project Management practices in your organization. By depth I mean how
far the formal Project Management reach is into each of your NPD team
disciplines. If an organization has formal Project Management in place
at the business level while the planning and tracking of projects for
product engineering, design, test and so on does not fully embrace
formal PM practices, then it is improbable that a business level
Project Management implementation will be successful. Garbage in,
garbage out type of analogy would best describe this scenario.
Ideally
there must be an individual that understands formal Project Management
practices within each of your disciplines; someone who is experienced
in the principals and knows both the technical activity flow and the
technical tradeoffs. This individual would ask the tough questions and
can visualize the sequence of tasks along with the required
deliverables/receivables for each. Essentially you are looking for a
project manager type mind set within each discipline that can properly
identify and frame the project activities for that group. Either there
is a project manager that has the exceptional background to properly
assess and plan the activities for all disciplines, or that talent must
be developed within each discipline to deliver accurate project
planning and tracking data to the project manager.
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Sampling
of PM Practices in use for IT Projects
For
your reference I am providing some information about the formal Project
Management practices and methodologies being utilized today in IT. I
believe there is much to be learned about this industries approach to
PM and there is definitely a level of applicability to the projects we
support in the semiconductor world. Your takeaway from the information
below will be a better understanding of the meanings behind the most
common Project Management buzzwords you will find in the literature
today.
PMBOK (Project
Management Body of Knowledge)
This
is the standard implementation of structural project management in the
US as developed by the Project Management Institute. There is a
certification process for a PMP, PgMP and CAPM levels of project
managers. Please see http://pmi.org for more
information about this methodology for managing projects.
Prince2 (Projects in
Controlled Environment)
 Prince2
is the 2nd generation of a structured methodology for managing a
project that was developed in the UK. Essentially it mandates that any
project must have a controlled start, a controlled middle and a
controlled end. There is training and exams much like those of the
program management institute. More about prince2 may be found at http://www.prince2.org.uk.
Wikipedia also has some good information at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PRINCE2.
For literature on this methodology please see http://www.apmg-businessbooks.com/bookshop/bookshop.aspx?catID=3.
Agile
This
was primarily developed for software development teams and the premise
is rapid spins and delivery of the software throughout the development
process. It focuses on multiple deliveries of smaller, fully tested
subsets of the final product. This produces end customer sub-set
deliverables early while the team continues iterating and expanding
functionality until the final product is realized. One key concept of
an Agile approach is that the project details are planned out
incrementally as the project progresses, allowing a system that is much
more capable of adapting to scope change. When in an environment of
high innovation this approach may produce benefits over classical
Prince2 or PMBOK structured approaches. For more information please see
wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agile_software_development.
Scrum
 Scrum
is a methodology that is typically associated with Agile software
development although there is no hard requirement that I can see. It's
really more of a PM methodology that employs a scrum master in place of
a project manager. The premise of this approach is a series of short
2-4 week sprints to complete a predefined set of tasks. The teams focus
purely on the sprint items during the sprint period and have daily
meetings that cover what was done yesterday, what you will do today and
what obstacles are in your way. There is also an emphasis on risk
assessment and mitigation throughout the project cycle. A nice quick
guide on this process can be found at http://www.softhouse.se/Uploades/Scrum_eng_webb.pdf.
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How we can Help
There are several areas where we can strengthen
your teams Project Management skills:
- Coaching of your design team on the core the
principals for planning and tracking their activities using a live
project.
- Our
"Managing Excellence in Design Team Execution" workshop is an ideal
working session with your team to develop and understand the core
project management principals.
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Feedback
To increase the value of this newsletter for you I hear would
like to hear your comments.
- What do you like or not like about this newsletter?
- What subjects would you like to see covered in
the future?
- How is the format?
Please email me here with any questions,
comments or suggestions that will help me better serve my readers.
Jeff Jorvig (480) 895-0478
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