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How Can we Simplify Projects: Two pizza teams, etc.

Posted: Thu 26 Mar 2015 3:40 pm
by dhaughey
Recently, I was speaking to a colleague about simplifying projects. We agreed that we should reduce the number of people on projects and make sure we have people with skills to match the requirements of the project. One concept mentioned during the discussion was Amazon's "two pizza teams". This was new to me. "If a project team can eat more than two pizzas, it's too large". We agreed that small, focused project teams produce better results.

Later, it got me thinking about what else we could do to simplify projects. What are your ideas? Let's discuss here!

Duncan

Re: How Can we Simplify Projects: Two pizza teams, etc.

Posted: Thu 26 Mar 2015 4:14 pm
by kwalford
Hi Duncan,

Brilliant post!

We have previously discussed this within our PMO. I think there is a real risk of being bureaucratic with projects and the trick is to only do things which add value.

For instance, we use to take ages writing tailored (detailed) project plans whereas now we have a standard plan which can be easily tailored.The old projects plans and our new standard one deliver the same value but at less work effort to develop.

We do not use MS projects anymore either unless the client wants us to. Our standard approach is to use a tailored RACI matrix with fields for work package durations and target/actual completion dates. The high volume and mid-short duration of our projects mean this technique is ideal for our needs as we can schedule work in an easily updated, universal medium (excel). Otherwise, using MS projects could turn into a project in itself.

Thanks,
Kit

Re: How Can we Simplify Projects: Two pizza teams, etc.

Posted: Thu 26 Mar 2015 4:37 pm
by dhaughey
Hi Kit,

I confess that I'm an MS Project junkie. Most people I run projects for don't have MS Project, so I spend time converting MS Project plans into PDF versions. Many of my PM colleagues use Excel so in terms of simplification; perhaps I should go cold turkey and stop using MS Project in favour of Excel.

It's going to be tough!

Duncan

Re: How Can we Simplify Projects: Two pizza teams, etc.

Posted: Fri 27 Mar 2015 1:47 pm
by kwalford
Hi Duncan,

The lack of people with MS Project software installed does inhibit its potential somewhat. I was also finding myself sending over JPEGs etc of the MSP files and every schedule change meant a new file being sent! The benefit of excel is that everyone has it on their PC!

Thanks
Kit

Re: How Can we Simplify Projects: Two pizza teams, etc.

Posted: Wed 08 Apr 2015 3:50 pm
by dmitry21csm
Sorry, it's not about simplification but to add two more options for the gantt charts. When MPP is too heavy-weight or when you're the only one in the team who has it installed you can:
  • use Asana + instagantt. The latter allows you to create a permalink to the baseline or to the project snapshot;
  • use Gantter which has become integrated into the Google Drive. Just go to New > More... > Gantter for Google Drive.
We had an issue with sharing our MPPs to the wider audience and used Gantter as a workaround.