Essence of Project

Management
What is a project?
• In order to understand project management, one must begin with the
definition of a project. A project can be considered to be any series of
activities and tasks that:
Have a specific objective to be completed within certain specifications
Have defined start and end dates
Have funding limits (if applicable)
Consume human and nonhuman resources (i.e., money, people,
equipment)
Are multifunctional (i.e., cut across several functional lines)
What is Project Management?
• Project management involves project planning and project monitoring
and includes such items as:
Project planning:
• Definition of work requirements
• Definition of quantity and quality of work
• Definition of resources needed
Project monitoring:
• Tracking progress
• Comparing actual outcome to predicted outcome
• Analyzing impact
• Making adjustments
Potential benefits from project
management
• Identification of functional responsibilities to ensure that all activities
are accounted for, regardless of personnel turnover
• Minimizing the need for continuous reporting
• Identification of time limits for scheduling
• Identification of a methodology for trade-off analysis
• Measurement of accomplishment against plans
• Early identification of problems so that corrective action may follow
• Improved estimating capability for future planning
• Knowing when objectives cannot be met or will be exceeded
Are there any obstacle in project
management?
• Project complexity
• Customer’s special requirements and scope changes
• Organizational restructuring
• Project risks
• Changes in technology
• Forward planning and pricing
Definition
• Project management is the planning, organizing, directing, and
controlling of company resources for a relatively short-term objective
that has been established to complete specific goals and objectives.
Furthermore, project management utilizes the systems approach to
management by having functional personnel (the vertical hierarchy)
assigned to a specific project (the horizontal hierarchy).
Project Scope Management
• Project scope is the common understanding among stakeholders
about what goes into a project and the factors that define its success.
• A project's scope is made up of the functionalities or specifications outlined in
its requirements.
• Before we go further, we need to know about the scope statement
• It's a written document that is used as the basis for project decisions
down the line. The scope statement clearly delineates what is in
scope (the work required). Everything else is out of scope.
Project Scope Management
• Managing project scope is primarily concerned with defining and
controlling what is and is not included in the project.
• What is involved in project scope management?
Planning scope management
Collecting requirements
Defining scope
Creating the Work Breakdown Structure
Validating scope
Controlling scope
Project time management
• Project time management involves analyzing and developing a schedule and timeline for
project completion.
• Formalized time management processes provide a buffer for things like unexpected roadblocks and
misestimate project timelines.
• Why is time management important?
• Less stress
• Increased productivity
• Fewer mistakes
• Improved proficiency
• More opportunities
• Stay on budget
• Meet goals
Best practices for time management
• Pareto Principle: The Pareto Principle is also known as the 80/20 rule. This
means that 20% of your time should produce 80% of your results. From the
beginning, identify and highlight the tasks that provide the most value. If at any
time value and time fall out of balance, review the task priority and, if
necessary, submit a formal change request.
• Keep it simple: It’s easy to overcomplicate tasks. Take a step back, evaluate the
real “why”, and think of more focused ways to accomplish a task.
• Observe and analyze: Regularly review time allocation across the board.
• Act instead of worry.
• Break larger goals into smaller steps.
• Set daily, weekly, and monthly goals.
Project Cost Management
Cost management in project management is the process of planning,
estimating, budgeting, and controlling project costs. Cost management
processes are in place to help project teams plan and control budgets
during the project life cycle. We can break it down into four processes:
1. Resource planning: Resource planning looks specifically at the costs
associated with each of the resources. Because of the complexity of
this process, a work breakdown structure (WBS) can help to simplify
and provide clarity.
2. Cost estimation: Cost estimation is the process of approximating the
costs associated with each of the resources required for all scheduled
activities.
3. Cost budget: Cost estimations lead directly into the cost budgets. In
this step, you will determine the cost baseline and the funding
requirements for the project. A good project budget will help you make
key decisions with respect to the project schedule and resource
allocation constraints.
4. Cost control: Good project managers will carefully monitor the cost
of their projects to prevent an increase in decided cost structure. This
includes watching to see where actual cost has varied from estimated
cost. Cost control also involves informing the stakeholders of cost
discrepancies that vary too much from the budgeted cost.
Project Quality Management
• Project quality management is the process of continually measuring the quality
of all activities and taking corrective action until the desired quality is achieved.
• Quality management processes help to control the cost of a project, establish
standards, and determine the steps to achieving and confirming those
standards.
• Effective quality management of a project also lowers the risk of product failure
or unsatisfied, unhappy clients.
• Project quality management happens with these three processes:
Quality planning
Quality assurance
Quality control
Project human resource
management
• Project Human Resource Management includes the processes that organize, manage, and lead
the project team.
• The project team is comprised of the people with assigned roles and responsibilities for
completing the project.
• Points to remember:
• Plan Human Resource Management—The process of identifying and documenting project roles,
responsibilities, required skills, reporting relationships, and creating a staffing management plan.
• Acquire Project Team—The process of confirming human resource availability and obtaining the
team necessary to complete project activities.
• Develop Project Team—The process of improving competencies, team member interaction, and
overall team environment to enhance project performance.
• Manage Project Team—The process of tracking team member performance, providing feedback,
resolving issues, and managing changes to optimize project performance.
Project risk management
• Project risk management is the process that project managers use to manage potential
risks that may affect a project in any way, both positively and negatively.
• The goal is to minimise the impact of these risks.
• Project managers do not always know which risks the project is exposed to, when they
occur, and why.
• Due to this high degree of uncertainty, project risk management requires a serious and in-depth
approach.
• Project risk management consists of the following steps:
Risk identification
Risk analysis
Risk assessment
Risk management
Risk monitoring
Project Procurement Management
• Procurement is the act of obtaining goods, supplies, and/or services.
• Therefore, project procurement is obtaining all of the materials and services
required for the project.
• Project procurement management includes three primary processes:
1. Plan procurements: What are all the materials and services you will
require for the project? What can be provided by your company,
and what should you purchase elsewhere? Do you have the
required delivery dates? Do you want a fixed price contract or cost-
reimbursable? Will you release a request for proposal (RFP)? Do you
have a preferred supplier?
Project procurement management includes three primary processes
2. Conduct procurements: This is the execution phase of project
procurement management. It’s when the RFPs are released, bids are
gathered, and selections are made. Any vendor negotiations will occur
during this phase, and then the agreed-upon contracts are signed.
3. Administer (or control) procurements: The project manager does
not generally conduct the procurements. However, you are still
responsible for ensuring they are conducted appropriately. This means
you need to be aware of the status of procurements. If something is
late, you need to know how it impacts the rest of your project schedule
and mitigate it appropriately.