“I’m still interested in project management after reading this book. What should I do next?”

Project Closure

Mom was leaving to pick up Nathan from baseball practice, but Abby wanted to make sure the project sponsors were happy with everything and ready for the party to start. So, Abby took her dad around to show him the food spread and decorations, taking pictures of these things with her tablet so that her mom could review the pictures while she waited for Nathan in the car. There were certain things Mom really cared about, like having the food on ice and a meat thermometer to ens

Project Monitoring and Controlling

Project Execution

At this point, Abby had a lot of important information figured out. She could clearly see what would need to happen to get the work done, and what it would take to get there. Abby decided the best next thing to do next was to review and add to her human resource management plan, to finish planning how to best manage her team. She had already involved her friends in some of the planning, like the brainstorming sessions, and she documented the processes that she had used so far

Now that Abby had determined the scope of the project to throw the party, created a schedule for her team to set up the party, and estimated the total cost of throwing the party, she could see how changes in any one of these three elements could affect the other. If extra items were added to the party, it would result in the party taking more time to prepare if any setup was required or costing more money if the extra items were purchased. So, an increase in scope would incre

As Abby figured out how much work would be involved with certain parts of the party, she decided it was time to think about hiring some help from outside of the project team. She knew Nathan would really love a bouncy castle at the party, but neither she nor her friends or parents, had ever worked with a bouncy castle before. They could make every last party supply themselves, but some would be hard to do and would take a long time. There were just certain things that made mo

As a thank you to her friends, Abby came up with an idea to “pay” them for their help. She wanted to surprise them after the party with a carnival ride punch card for the fair that would be in town the next weekend. Would this fit within the cost constraint set by her parents? There were a few different prices to choose from, and she thought it would be great since the fair was such a special event for them every year. To get it all worked out, Abby made a plan to determine h

The next day, Abby continued to work on the schedule of setting up the party. Most of the work on this was done, but she needed to make sure everything could get done in time for the party. To do this, Abby would calculate a very important timeline in project management known as the critical path . The critical path is the absolute minimum amount of time required to complete all the work for a project from start to finish, and any delays in the tasks on the critical path will

With the requirements and scope in mind, Abby was ready to start developing a project schedule for her team to use. Would they be able to fit all the scope they had planned into the time left before the party? If not, Abby would have to identify what would be the easiest thing to cut out of the party, but even that would be a hard task and she really didn’t want to do that. De-scoping a project is never easy, but especially when it would take away from the fun of something li

The thought of the requirement to get the meat hot enough to be safe to eat stuck out in Abby’s mind as a definite risk to everyone’s safety, and it would really ruin the party if not successfully prevented. That would be a terrible way to remember Nathan’s 10 th  birthday. Just the thought of it jolted Abby with a split second of fright.

After Abby and her friends finished defining the scope of the party and figuring out how communications would work, it was time for them to go home for dinner. Abby made sure to take a nice break from the work, knowing there was plenty to do still and not wanting to get burned out. Her mom was almost done making dinner when Nathan watched her put a thermometer in the pork chops.

Some of Abby’s friends were pretty busy with summer jobs, sports camps, and family vacations, but everyone was happy to offer help where...

Since everyone would be working closely together to execute the project plans, Abby suggested they should take some time to build rapport...

Project Planning Abby was so excited to get started on planning Nathan’s big party! She could hardly wait to get to work, but soon she...

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Do you like to par-tay? Is fun with friends your jam? If so, read on! This story is all about planning a great party, but really, it’s...

Why Start with Waterfall? The practice of project management has undergone major evolution over the past generation. A major benefit of...

The next several posts tell a project management story of a young girl and her quest to throw the best 10th birthday party her little...