ART Project Management Workshop

1. ART Project Management Workshop Managing Your Project through Good Organization, Planning and Teamwork Presented to the Aragon Robotics Team (v 1.0i) July 27, 2001 Peter P. Yim yimpp@cim-oem.com

2. Agenda • Why are we here? • How can people get work done these days? • A Primer to the tools & mechanics of PM • Leveraging our strengths • Let’s get ourselves organized • What’s next?

3. Why are we here?From ART PM Workshop Prep Responses • 4 responses received as at 7.27.01-13:42 [from JeremyY; JasonP; JeremyL & GeorgeW] • The top 3 things that you would want to get out of this workshop: • • Knowledge of how to keep us better organized as a team • • Better organization among the managers • • Implementation of management theories through the processes of effective organization • • groupwork / team coordination • • Improved communication skills • • Management Theories • • Better Management Skills • • { PR skills }* * items in { } will not be addressed in this workshop • • { Knowledge about robotics }* • • { possible design for a robot }* • The top 3 things that worry you most about the entire ART work: • • Our level of organization / organization (3) • • The whole money thing / Funds / lack of funding (3) • • Schedule coordination • • Skills • • Successfully completing the project with little prior information, practice, etc. • • The fact that the school year is coming up on us really fast

4. How people get work done? • Craftsmanship • Industrialization • Scientific Management • Quality Movement • Information Age • Data >> Information >> Knowledge >> Innovation • Economy of Abundance • Bootstrapping to cope with rate of change • Problem – Solution - Delivery • Define the problem • Get organized • Design the solution • Plan & Execute • Foster Collaboration

5. A Primer to the tools & mechanics of Project Management

6. Key Concepts (1) • What was then, how is tomorrow? • Industrial Era vs. Information Era • Organization: Hierarchical – Matrix – Organic (Complex Adaptive) • What do we need to manage? • Deliverables • Resources • Priorities • Expectations • Risks • the Project Life Cycle • Getting organized, prioritize and nurturing an environment upon which the community can thrive • Bootstrapping** on the Learning Experience [**Source : Doug Engelbart / Bootstrap Institute] • Co-evolution of Human System & Tools System • A-B-C Work • NIC & MetaNIC [NIC = Networked Improvement Community] • DKR & OHS[ DKR = Dynamic Knowledge Repository; OHS = Open Hyperdocument System ]

7. Key Concepts (2) • There is much more to do in this than just “fabricating a robot” • A SWOT Analysis of the situation • Tools system vs. Human system • Capitalize on the tools we have [Tools System] • Machine tools • Groupware tools • Teamwork & Collaboration [Human System] • Understanding our mission - the “wicked problem” vs. the “tame problem” [ref. Horst Rittel / IBIS / GDSS] • establishing “shared understanding” & “shared commitments” with the help of a “Shared Display” and proper “Facilitation” [ref. Jeff Conklin / Cognexus.org] • Planning/knowledge, information/communication & language/action perspectives [ref. Winograd / Newman / Yim] • The collaborative environment and the facilitator • Managers: foster an environment to fully optimize the resources at hand • Quality, Excellence, Ownership, Responsibility & Trust

8. Tools & Jargon • Project Team Organization & Leadership • Mission & Vision • Requirements, Specifications, Deliverables, Action Plan, Metrics & Monitor • Life Cycle: Waterfall vs. Iterative Development [for a great article on the subject, see “From Waterfall to Iterative Lifecycle - A tough transition for project manager” by Philippe Kruchten of Rational Software] • Work Breakdown Structure • Tasks, Milestones, Resources • Network Diagrams, Gantt Charts, Project Plans • Dependencies, Critical Path & Slack • Project Management Tools/Software

9. You’ve already got a great Mission Statement (and a most wonderful Vision) ! “ The Aragon Robotics team is a group of students motivated by an interest in science, math, and technology. Our goal is to unite a team of students, engineers, teachers, and adult volunteers to accomplish the central goal of constructing a robot to capable of competing in the U.S. FIRST Robotics Competition. By doing this, we hope to gain experience in the fields of computer science and electrical and mechanical engineering, and an understanding and appreciation of the cooperative process of design and engineering. In addition, we intend to establish a robotics program at Aragon High School that will continue to thrive for years to come. ”

10. The Traditional “Waterfall” Lifecycle Plan/Req’ment Design T = 3 - 24 months Code Integration Test & QC Release Ops & Maintain

11. An Typical Iteration of a “Non-Waterfall” Lifecycle (based on UML - Cantor, Booch, Jacobson, Rambaugh, Eriksson, Penker et al.) Inception Elaboration Construction Transition User-Level Use Cases time High-Level Package Diagrams Development Level Use Cases, Sequence Diagrams Class Diagrams Class Implementation, Interim Integrations System Build, Test & Deploy

12. Successive Iterations R1, R2 … Rn, incremental, staged and staggered time Td = 2 hours - 3 months R1 Tp = 4 hours - 4 months R2 Where, Td = time for one development cycle Tp = pitch between releases R3

13. I really liked your plan - it conveys the annual iterative cycle whereby the ART learning community will continue to improve and evolve Source : ART Feb. 2001

14. What do Project Managers need to know and manage? Source : PMBOK http://www.pmi.org/

15. Typical Project Tasks & Flow Gantthead Source : http://www.gantthead.com/

16. Let’s Get Organized • Work Breakdown – what are the tasks at hand? • Division of Management ownership – who is responsible for what? • Institutionalizing the process • Improving Communications and Managing Expectations • Extending our resources

17. Sizing Up (1) • S.W.O.T. analysis of our situation • Strengths • Motivated • Affinity to science & technology • Started early • Have lots of devoted mentors • Members know each other already • Already put on one exhibition which was very well received • Already interacting on a virtual community platform • Have already put together a good foundation (e.g. have Lego Mindstorms kits, some financial resources, etc.) • We have realistic goal (just operational, not to win) • Have full support from the principal and teachers (ART will be a key program in the school) • We can learn from others before us (e.g. Gunn) • Weaknesses • We are complete beginners and don’t know what we are doing • Don’t know what to expect (no experience) • Hard to get everyone together for meetings • Have not even been in the machine shop yet

18. Sizing Up (2) • S.W.O.T. analysis of our situation(cont’d) • Opportunities • Have a good vision and mission • We are starting a program, building a community and building a knowledge base • This is a total “green field” operation, and we have the opportunity to take it practically in any direction we can imagine • We can learn from Gunn • We may even join up with Mills • Threats • Only have 4 months left to learn everything • Lots of members have busy schedules • Funding not totally in place yet • We don’t have a dedicated space • Lack of Skills • Inexperience • Inadequate tools and material • All managers are seniors (succession plans need to be in place too)

19. Sharing Management Responsibilities • Scheduling, Planning and Calendar [Denise] • Training - Organize all the training/workshop [Denise] • Membership / Human Resources manager [Jason] • Fund Raising: Sponsorship proposals, sponsor relationship [Jason] • Treasurer / Budget [Krista] • Outreach / Public Relations (local community) [?] • Outreach / Community Relationship (other robotics activities) [?] • Website (external facing) [Rishi/JeremyL?,Matt?, Dan?] • Manage eGroups community environment (internal facing) [JeremyL & JeremyY] • Communications person - phone calls, notices [Denise] • IT support person [Charles] • Knowledge manager (Cyberian) [?] • Construction: • Chassis • Locomotion: Drive Train, … • Manipulators: Grippers, … • Electronics • Programming • Material/Inventory/Purchase manager [JeremyL] • Testing / Reliability / Safety / Quality Assurance • Practice (organize, schedule, coach) • “Parliamentarian” – someone who knows the rules and regulations

20. More Actions & What’s Next? • Action items – owner – due by (to be advised) • Arrange field trip to Gunn [JeremyL] • Need more mentors on robotics design & fabrication skills [Denise] • get people to be more responsive on eGroups (turn “lurkers” to active participants) [JeremyL & JeremyY] • Every meeting to have agenda, take roll, take notes/minutes and all posted onto eGroups [owner of each meeting] • Setup a short-term to-do list on eGroups [Denise] • Setup a medium-term to-do list on eGroups [Denise] • Each line item on the to-do list to have (a) the task, (b) the responsible person, & (c) the due date [all please note] • Clarify eGroup messaging policy and post it [JeremyY & JeremyL] • Next meeting • regular Management meeting – Fridays (time TBA); • next Friday 8.3.01 – AIM chat starts 3:00pm Denise to call