Master Project Coordination and Planning

Different organizations use different approaches to the planning of a master project. One common approach is to conduct simultaneous launch meetings for all of the team projects that make up a master project. If your organization uses this approach, you will find the information in this section useful.

Opening the Work Breakdown Structure

During a launch, most planning activities will be performed in the Work Breakdown Structure Editor. It is easy for several different subteams to be working in the WBS Editor at the same time:

  1. When installing the Process Dashboard, at least one person from each team should choose the "Tools for Team Leaders" option so they receive a Team Dashboard shortcut on their computer. Or, if you cannot bring this computer into the conference room where the launch is being held, you can install the Team Dashboard on the conference room computer. (Of course, the conference room computer must still have a network connection to the team's shared network directory.)
  2. During the launch, use this shortcut to open the Team Dashboard. You may receive a message stating that another individual has the Team Dashboard open; if so, click Yes to continue in read-only mode.
  3. When the Team Dashboard window appears, select your team project from the tree on the left. Then choose Work Breakdown Structure Editor from the list on the right.

If individuals have already joined the team project, individuals can also open the WBS Editor using the corresponding option on the script menu in their personal dashboard. If you open the WBS Editor in this way and intend to edit the overall team plan, you will probably want to open the WBS Editor's Team menu and make certain the box to "Optimize Editing Operations for ..." is unchecked. (For more information on this feature, see the help topic on personal editing optimized mode.)

Sharing Team Dashboard Access

There are a small number of launch planning tasks that are not performed within the WBS Editor. For example:

These activities would be performed in the Team Dashboard itself, not in the WBS Editor. To perform these activities, you must open the Team Dashboard in read-write mode. However, only one person can have the Team Dashboard open in read-write mode at a time. As a result, the various subteams may need to coordinate with each other to determine who is using the Team Dashboard at any given time.

Since these activities represent a relatively small portion of the overall launch, it is very possible that the teams won't need to perform these activities simultaneously. If a particular subteam needs read-write access to the Team Dashboard and they see that another team has it open, it may be sufficient to contact the other team and ask them to close the Team Dashboard if they are not using it.

If two subteams need to create their quality plans simultaneously, this can be accomplished by using a special technique:

  1. The leader of the master project should open the Team Dashboard on an appropriate computer.
  2. If this computer has a personal firewall installed, it should either be temporarily disabled, or configured to allow incoming connections to port 3000 from within the local area network (LAN).
  3. The leader of the master project should perform these steps for each team project:
  4. Leave the Team Dashboard running during the planning sessions.
Important: Because organizations have different network configurations, you should perform a dry run of these steps before your launch. This way, if you encounter connectivity problems, you can enlist your local tech support team in finding a resolution before the launch begins, and avoid disruptions to the team planning process. If you discover that your network will not support this special technique, you may need to schedule your various quality planning sessions so they do not overlap.

Viewing Consolidated Master Project Planning Data

While the individual project teams are developing their detailed plans, it is easy to see a master project view of the planning progress. In the Team Dashboard, select the master project from the tree on the left, then select Bottom-Up Work Breakdown Structure from the list on the right.

The bottom up Work Breakdown Structure will be displayed.

This window displays a WBS containing all of the components and tasks declared by all of the team projects that belong to this master project. Since the data is rolled up and computed, it is read-only. If you display the Team Time Balancing Panel, it will show the planned completion dates of each team project.

The data in this window will update in near-real-time. Each time a team project saves changes to their WBS, this window will see the changes within a few seconds, and recalculate its display.