PROJECT MANAGEMENT

BUS 314

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A project is a series of tasks that need to be completed within a
specified time, in order to achieve the planned outcome.

Project management is the process of piloting teams towards their

predefined goals within the specified time through planning, tracking,
and execution, usually under the guidance of a project manager

Project management is the process of applying professional expertise,

resources, tools and strategies to ensure that the organisation meets
the project objectives in the most efficient way. Project management
usually focuses on a few core objectives and accordingly decides
processes, budgets, and key performance indicators of success

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• What are the Objectives of Project Management?
Successfully Accomplishing All Project Goals: Making sure that all project objectives,
such as deliverables, deadlines, and quality standards, are fulfilled or surpassed.
Providing instructions and supervision for team members: Throughout the project
lifetime, team members should receive clear instructions, assistance, and advice to
ensure tasks are executed effectively and efficiently.
Promoting Cooperation and Communication: To improve the efficacy and efficiency
of a project, team members, stakeholders, and other pertinent parties should be
encouraged to collaborate and maintain open lines of communication.
Implementing all Safety Procedures and Protocols: Ensuring that all essential safety
measures are followed in order to safeguard the health and safety of project
participants and stakeholders.
Optimizing Budget and Resources: Budget and resource optimization refers to the
effective management of project resources, such as funds, supplies, and labor, in
order to achieve project goals while maximizing value and reducing waste.
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Managing Changes and Risks: Actively detecting, evaluating, and controlling
risks at every stage of the project's lifetime in order to minimize dangers and
take advantage of opportunities. In order to keep the project in line with its
goals, it is also important to manage changes to the project's scope, schedule,
or resources successfully.
Ensuring Client Satisfaction: Throughout the project, giving the needs and
expectations of the client first priority, making sure that deliverables meet or
surpass the client's expectations; and aggressively requesting feedback to
resolve any issues and improve client satisfaction.
Attaining Cost Efficiency: Keeping an eye fixed on and handling project
charges to ensure that spending remains inside economic limits whilst
optimizing value.
Continuous Improvement: Promoting a tradition of non-stop development
via the use of best practices, identity of lesson learnt from preceding projects,
and learning from them.
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Benefits of Project planning and control
Improved project success: Projects with project controls are more likely to
meet their objectives.
Efficient resource use: Real-time data can help with resource allocation,
which can improve efficiency and reduce unnecessary costs.
Better risk management: A consistent approach to managing projects can
help identify, assess, and mitigate risks.
Improved stakeholder confidence: Regular communication and transparency
can help build trust and confidence in stakeholders.
Data-driven decisions: Project managers can make better decisions based on
accurate and timely data.
Better productivity: A plan can help improve productivity by reducing the
time spent deciding what to do next.
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Improved customer satisfaction: When a project is completed on time,
within budget, and within scope, customers are more likely to be
satisfied and become repeat customers.
Better communication: Project management can help improve
communication throughout the project.
Some disadvantages of project planning and control include:
Planning can lead to complacency: Managers may become complacent
after creating a plan, and may not monitor progress or detect changes
in the environment.
Planning can prevent flexibility: Managers may feel they must follow a
plan even when it's not working, instead of reporting problems and
making changes.
Project management can be overly obsessed with methodology: Project
management has many tools, but not all are necessary. .
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• Project Management Phases
Conception and initiation phase
This is the first stage where the idea and concept of the project
develops. It usually involves setting goals, deciding the scope and
finalising the timeline of the project. This process usually involves
internal and external stakeholders aligning expectations and fixing the
success criteria. In most cases, this stage involves posing a question,
finding a solution and trying a new approach. This step may culminate
in creating a project brief that outlines the project's purpose, goal and
requirements.

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• Design and planning phase
This is one of the most important stages of the entire project. It
involves defining processes, creating budgets, developing a timeline of
individual milestones and setting safeguards for monitoring and
assessment. In addition to estimating different aspects of the budget,
this stage also determines general workflows, team roles and
responsibilities, vital milestones and monitoring methodologies. This
stage involves the entire team working on the project so that everyone
can contribute in planning and has clarity regarding their role.

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• Execution phase
It is at this stage that the processes and actions begin. These processes are
as per the project plan and design and each team member works on their
task to complete their responsibilities within the deadline. During this
phase, the project manager usually supervises different aspects and
functions, like management of timeline, resources, change, quality and
communication.
Monitoring and controlling phase
A certain time after the execution begins, the team takes steps to review,
monitor and assess progress. Depending on the project goals, quality
assurance tests or client feedback may also be necessary at this stage. All
different processes and tasks in the project undergo validation to
determine if it is complete, successful, ongoing or delayed. This step helps
identify processes and strategies that may not be effective and replace
them to ensure the timely completion of the project.
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• Closing and evaluation phase
Once all the processes and activities are complete, the project ends,
and a closing assessment occurs. This determines the success of the
goals, the shortcomings and the areas of improvement. Evaluating the
performance of the project and team members, alongside discussing
the future phases of the project, if any, is the main objective of this
stage.

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• Projects Management Models
Critical Path Analysis Method

Performance Evaluation and Review or Rating Technique

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• Project Network Diagrams
Project network diagrams are graphical representations of a project.
They look like a series of arrows that connect to boxes and they show
how activities interact in a project. The boxes are called nodes and they
represent an activity in the project, while the arrows show the
relationship among the activities.
Network diagrams work well as a project management technique as
they must have a start and finish, just like a project. There isn’t one way
to draw a network diagram, however, the most common are the
precedence diagramming method (PDM) and arrow diagramming
method (ADM).

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The purpose of the network diagram in terms of project management
techniques is that it helps project managers track each project element.
It also makes it easier to share and communicate with others on the
project team.

Network diagrams are used in various project management techniques

that require a graphical representation of task sequences, such as PERT
or the critical path method.

Because of their simplicity, they’re also considered a helpful program

management tool as they allow program managers to easily visualize the
estimated timeline of multiple projects side by side.

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• SOME OF THE TERMS IN PROJECT NETWORK METHODS
1. Activity- is the task to be completed
2. Duration- is the time taken to complete a task
3. Preceding Activity- is the activity that take place before another
4. Succeeding Activity-is the activity that takes place after another
5. Critical Activity-is the path with longest duration
6. Burst - When more than one activity leaves an event, such event is
known as a burst event.
7. Merge - When more than one activity comes and joins an event,
such event is known as merge event
8. Slack-is the time that a project can be delayed for without affecting
the completion time
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Illustration 1:
Use the information below to determine the following:
i) Draw the Network
ii) Find the total Completion time
iii) Find the critical path

Activity Preceeding Activity Duration

A ______ 1

B A 2

C A 3

D B, C 4

E D 7
15
 B

2
D E
A

4 7
1

SOLUTION

A ---- B ---- D --- E

1 + 2 + 4 + 7 = 14
A ---C --- D ---E
1 + 3 + 4 + 7 = 15 (Completion time is 15)
The critical path is a project management technique that identifies the longest
sequence of tasks in a project. The critical path here is A-C-D-E i.e longest path

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Illustration 2
Given the following information below:
i) Draw the network
ii) Determine the completion time
iii) Determine the critical path
iv) Determine the slack
Activity Preceeding Duration
Activity
A ______ 2
B A 4
C B 3
D C 1
E C 5
F D,E 6
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 D

1
B C
A F

4 3
2 6

(iii) A ---- B --C-- D --- E=

2 + 4 + 3 + 1 + 6 = 16
A ---B --- C ---E --- F ----- Critical
Path
2 + 4 + 3 + 5 + 6 = 20 – Completion Time
is 20

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 D EST = 9
EFT = 10
LST = 14
LFT = 13
1
B C
A F
9 10

4 3
2 6
2 6 6 9
0 2 E 14 20

EST=6 EST=14
EST =0 EST=0
EFT=9 5 EFT=20
EFT=2 EFT=6
LST = 9 LST = 20
LST = 2 LST = 6
LFT = 6 LFT = 14
LFT = 0 LFT = 2 9 14

EST=9
EFT=14
LST = 14
LFT = 9
Forward Pass Backward Pass

Activity EST EFT LST LFT Slack LST - EFT

A 0 2 2 0 0

B 2 6 6 2 0

C 6 9 9 6 0

D 9 10 14 13 4

E 9 14 14 9 0

F 14 20 20 14 0
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•Illustration 3

Activity Preceeding Activity Duration

A ______ 1
B A 2
C A 4
D B, C 3
E D 5
F D 6
G E,F 7

•Determine the Network of the above activity

•Determine the critical path
•Determine the total Completion time
•Determine the Slack

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 SOLUTION
B
E

A
2
CD
5
G

1 33
7
C
F

4
6

•A ---- B ---- D --- E---- G = 16

1 + 2 + 3 + 5 + 7
A ---- B ---- D --- F---- G = 19
1 + 2 + 3 + 6 + 7
A ---- C ---- D --- E---- G = 20
1 + 4 + 3 + 5 + 7
A ---- C ---- D --- F---- G = 21 ------- Critical
Path
1 + 4 + 3 + 6 + 7
Completion time = 21 21
 B EST=1
E EST=8
EFT=3
EFT=13
LST = 5
2 LST = 14
A LFT = 3 5 LFT = 9
1 3 D
8 13 G
1 3
0 1 7
5 8 1421
C
F
EST=0
EST=5 EST=14
EFT=1 4 6
EFT=8 EFT=21
LST = 1 1 5 LST = 8 8 14 LST = 21
LFT = 0
LFT = 5 LFT = 14
EFT=1
LST = 14
EFT-5
LFT = 8
LST = 5
LFT = 1

Forward Pass Backward Pass

Activity EST EFT LST LFT Slack LST - EFT
A 0 1 1 0 0
B 1 3 5 3 2
C 1 5 5 1 0
D 5 8 8 5 0
E 8 13 14 9 1
F 8 14 14 8 0
G 14 21 21 14 0
B and E are not in the critical 22