Introduction to events project management

C. Hattingh

THE PEANUT BUTTER SANDWICH APPROACH TO EVENT PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Question

List, in detail, all of the steps for making a peanut butter sandwich. What tasks would you state?

• Chances are that my answers will be different to yours. Perhaps you thought about a different brand of products. Or, perhaps you continued going into detail about how to cut the crusts off or you outlined all of the clean-up tasks, and so on.

• Some tasks on my list may have seemed so obvious they were unnecessary to list, but imagine what could have happened without the detail.

• If the details around using sliced, whole grain bread weren’t included, you could find yourself smearing peanut butter on top of an entire loaf of Italian bread!

• Now, hopefully quality testing (the sandwich eater, in this case) would reveal the errors, but re-work is costly.

FROM SANDWICH CREATION TO EVENT MANAGEMENT

• Project managing your events requires a similar breakdown of tasks and understanding of the details.

• However, depending on the event project at hand and level of experience, you may not have the expertise to know every task that needs to take place or which sequence of tasks make the most sense.

• The aim of this subject is to learn how to do this: project manage your event.

TASK SEQUENCING: THE BEST THING SINCE SLICED BREAD • Often, seemingly simple tasks are turned into long,

drawn out initiatives. And adversely, people can take months to do something that could have taken a fraction of the time with the right task sequencing.

• It’s important to get the work breakdown structure somewhat granular from the start, but not to the point that it is more work to manage the project schedule than to do the tasks.

Activity

• By looking at the picture on the next slide, identify a list of tasks and activities that you think will be important for the success of this beach event.

What is a Project?PMBOK (Project Management Body of Knowledge) – Defines it as:

“A temporary endeavour undertaken to create a unique product or service”

Projects are similarly defined to events – but what are the differences/dissimilarties and similarities?

Events Versus Projects

The characteristics and similarties between events and projects :

1) Time based (temporary): every aspect has a time constraint.

2) Unique: offering different goods/services/outcome than what was previously offered.

3) Event and projects both have a start and finish date.

4) Both involve considerable unfamiliarity and possibility of unforeseen risks.

5) Executed by teams formed specifically for that purpose

Events unlike projects (dissimilarities):

• Are executed and consumed simultaneously.

• Co-created with participants (audience) and adjustments are made during execution.

• Executed on specific dates that cannot be adjusted.

Events Versus Projects

• The project management of events concentrates on the management process to create the event, not just what happens at the event.

• The event may take place over a period of hours or days. The event management process may take place over many months or years…..

• .......project management is a system that describes the (1) work before the event actually starts (initiation & planning), (2) the event and (3) finally the shutdown of the event.

Events Versus Projects

Managing the Triple Constraint

• Often referred to as the Project Management Triangle.

• The Triple Constraint demonstrates, the key attributes that must be handled effectively for successful completion and closure of any project.

Triple Constraint explained…• Time – This refers to the actual time required to produce a

deliverable (the project). Naturally, the amount of time required to produce the deliverable will be directly related to the amount of requirements that are part of the end result (scope) along with the amount of resources allocated to the project (cost).

• Cost (resources) – This is the estimation of the amount of money that will be required to complete the project. Cost itself encompasses various things, such as: resources, labor rates for contractors, risk estimates, bills of materials, etc. All aspects of the project that have a monetary component are made part of the overall cost structure.

• Scope – These are the functional elements that, when completed, make up the end deliverable for the project. The scope itself is generally identified up front so as to give the project the best chance of success.

• Scope can potentially change during the project life-cycle, a concept known as ‘scope creep’)

Triple Constraint explained…

Event coordinators invariably encounter the “could-you-just” syndrome:

-Could you just add candles to the centerpieces?-Could you just have your people put up these flags behind the stage?-Could you just change those table linens from red to blue?

The client keeps adding or changing one more thing, and one more thing, and one more thing, expecting there to be no change in the (cost) resources provided. Changing the linen color, even if feasible, can involve numerous telephone calls, various pieces of paperwork, which affects ‘time’

This is called scope creep - the scope of the project keeps creeping outward.

Triple Constraint explained…

• The major take-away from the Triple Constraint, being that it is a triangle, is that one cannot adjust or alter one side of it without in effect, altering the other sides.

• So for example, if there is a request for a scope change mid-way through the execution of the project, the other two attributes (cost and time) will be affected in some manner.

• How much or how little is dictated by the nature and complexity of the scope change.

Triple Constraint explained…

Based on the aforementioned explanation, how does the project manager stay on top of the triple constraint? What steps can one take to ensure successful project rollout knowing how the three attributes affect each other?

1) Understanding the triple constraint2) Convey the triple constraint3) Monitor the triple constraint

1) Understand the Triple Constraint

• The project manager MUST be fully cognizant of the fact that scope, time and cost are fully inter-related and that the triple constraint dictates any adjustment to any of those items MUST affect the other.

• In many cases, a project manager may be somewhat aloof about adding scope to a project or accepting a budget cut without taking the effort to determine what the consequences of that change will be.

• Denial of the potential repurcussions of adjustments to the scope, time or cost of a project are only going to lead to issues down the road and may also cause the project to fail.

2) Convey the Triple Constraint

• The project manager should convey the triple constraint functions to the project stakeholders.

• Making sure everyone who is involved with the project recognizes the importance of the constraint will make discussions regarding the scope, time and cost far easier.

• In many cases, the stakeholders are likely to be the main reasons for scope creep or budget adjustments in a project. Having them aware up front of what the ramifications might be for any requested changes will make dialog easier in follow-up meetings and will also make them scrutinize their change requests more thoroughly rather than assuming that any change will have no issue on the final project outcome and quality.

• Note that conveyance of the triple constraint to the stakeholders is best performed at the outset, likely during the formation of the initial project plan.

3) Monitor the Triple Constraint

• Making sure that you stay on top of all the key attributes of the triple constraint will make the likelihood of project success that much higher.

• Be cognizant of any fluctuations to the key attributes, whether they be unexpected or requested.

• Never assume that other attributes can be left un-changed if one attribute is known to be changing or fluctuating.

• As noted earlier, one cannot simply dismiss a change to one without being fully aware of the fact that it WILL affect the other two.

• Quality is not a part of the project management triangle, but it is the ultimate objective of every delivery. Hence, the project management triangle represents quality.

• Many project managers are under the notion that 'high quality comes with high cost', which to some extent is true. By using low quality resources to accomplish project deadlines does not ensure success of the overall project.

• Like with the scope, quality is an important deliverable for the project.

Defining quality in events management (notes on Blackboard p. 207 – 211)

Triple Constraint – affecting quality