Project Management Guide

This book explains one topic per page, like a big glossary, easy wiki, quick encyclopedia, or summary notes. Edited by Joel Parker Henderson (@joelparkerhenderson).

This guide covers topics such as project management life cycles, project management methodologies, ideation, planning, design, development, modeling diagrams, statistical analysis, AI, enterprise considerations, and more.

Contents

Introduction

• What is this book?

• Who is this for?

• Why am I creating this?

• Are there more guides?

Project management

• Project management life cycle (PMLC)

• Project portfolio management (PPM)

• Portfolio optimization

• Project versus program

• Outputs versus outcomes (OVO)

Inception

• Liftoff

• Agile chartering

• Project charter

Ideation

• North Star

• Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG)

• Vision, mission, values

• Voice of the Customer (VoC)

• Subject matter expert (SME)

• Mind map

• Decision tree

Creative thinking techniques

• Futurespective

• Brainstorming

• Thinking hats

• SCAMPER

• Oblique strategies

• Mind map

• Flowchart

• Mental model

• The map is not the territory

Intent plan

• Objectives and Key Results (OKRs)

• Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

• Key Risk Indicators (KRIs)

• Critical Success Factors (CSFs)

• Critical To Quality (CTQ)

• Goals, Ideas, Steps, Tasks (GIST)

• Risks, Actions, Issues, Decisions (RAID)

• SPADE decision framework

• Decision tree

• Decision record

• SMART criteria

Statement Of Work (SOW)

• Scope

• Scope creep

• Out-of-scope

• Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

• Functional specifications

• Functional specifications - steps

• Software development life cycle (SDLC)

• MoSCoW method

• Gantt chart

• Quad chart

Project estimation

• Planning poker estimation

• T-shirt size task estimation

• Fibonacci task estimation

Resource leveling

• Critical chain project management

• Critical path project management

• Constraint satisfaction

• Roll-on Roll-off (RoRo)

Project management methodologies

• Lean manufacturing

• Lean software development methodology

• Agile software development methodology

• Kanban

• Scrum

• Prince2

Change management

• Six Sigma methodology

• DMAIC methodology

• Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA)

• OODA loop

• OODA loop v DMAIC cycle v PDCA spiral

• Kaizen (continuous improvement)

• ADKAR change management model

• EBFAS organizational climate

Design Development

• Big design up front (BDUF)

• Domain-Driven Design (DDD)

• Behavior-Driven Development (BDD)

• Test-Driven Development (TDD)

Modeling diagrams

• Activity diagram

• Sequence diagram

• Use case diagram

• Object diagram

• Class diagram

• Package diagram

• Component diagram

• Deployment diagram

• State diagram

• Timing diagram

• Entity-relationship diagram (ERD)

• Cause-and-effect diagram

• Fishbone diagram: see cause-and-effect diagram

• Ishikawa diagram: see cause-and-effect diagram

• Unified Modeling Language (UML)

• PlantUML

• Mermaid.js

Teams

Teamwork

• Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing (FSNP)

• Icebreaker questions

• Pizza team

• Squad team

• Community of Practice (CoP)

• The Spotify Model

• Ways Of Working (WOW)

• TEAM FOCUS

• Pair programming

Roles and responsibilities

• Organizational chart

• Chain of command

• Stakeholders

• Responsibility assignment matrix (RAM)

• RACI matrix

• PARIS matrix

Outsourcing

• Offshoring

• Nearshoring

Meetings

• Meeting types

• All-hands meeting

• Standup meeting

• One-on-one meeting

• Skip-level meeting

Larger Projects

Digital transformation

• Business information systems

• Line-of-business (LOB) application

• Front-office applications

• Back-office applications

Change management

• Business continuity

• Operational resilience

• Standard Operating Procedure (SOP)

• Playbook

• Runbook

Quality control

• Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT)

• After-Action Report (AAR)

• Blameless retrospective

• Issue tracker

• Cynefin framework

• Five Whys analysis

• Non-functional requirements: see system quality attributes

• Root cause analysis (RCA)

• System Quality Attributes (SQAs)

• Quality of Service (QoS) for networks

• Good Enough For Now (GEFN)

• Technical debt

• Refactoring

• See also: cause and effect diagram

Statistical analysis

• Descriptive statistics

• Inferential statistics

• Correlation

• Causation

• Probability

• Variance

• Trend analysis

• Anomaly detection

• Quantitative fallacy

• Regression to the mean

• Bayes' theorem

• Chi-square analysis

• Monte Carlo methods

• Statistical analysis techniques

Artificial intelligence (AI)

• AI for project management

• AI for product development

• AI resource leveling

Enterprise companies

• Enterprise Portfolio Project Management (EPPM)

• Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

• Enterprise Change Management (ECM)

• Enterprise Architecture (EA)

• Enterprise software

Scientific management

• Theory X and Theory Y

• Theory Z

• Command and control (C2)

• Value Alignment framework

Lore

Books about project management

• The Project Management Book Of Knowledge (PMBOK)

• Project Management for the Unofficial Project Manager by Kory Kogon et al.

• Making Things Happen by Scott Berkun

Project management quotations

• Culture eats strategy for breakfast

• Execution eats strategy for lunch

• Move fast and break things

• Ideas are easy, implementation is hard

• Learn early, learn often

• Make mistakes faster

• Perfect is the enemy of good

• Data beats emotions

• See things in the present, even if they are in the future

Aphorisms

• Brooks' Law

• Conway's Law

• The Law of Conservation of Complexity (Tesler's Law)

• The Pareto Principle (The 80/20 Rule)

• Chesterton's fence

• For more aphorisms see our Business Lingo Guide

Idioms

• Ahead of the pack

• Get on the front foot

• Think outside of the box

• Unknown unknowns

• Win-win

• For more idioms see our Business Lingo Guide

Soft skills

• How to give a demo

• How to lead a meeting

• How to work with stakeholders

• How to get feedback

• How to give feedback

Conclusion

• About the editor

• About the AI

• About the ebook