Chapter 1 Introduction to Project Management PDF

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Chapter 1: Introduction to Project Management What Is a Project? A project can be defined as a effort constrained performance specifications, resources, and budget to create a unique product or service. Projects require: an organized set of work efforts. progressively elaborated detail. a defined be...

Description

Chapter 1: Introduction to Project Management 1-1 What Is a Project? A project can be defined as a time-bound effort constrained by performance specifications, resources, and budget to create a unique product or service. Projects require: • • • •

an organized set of work efforts. progressively elaborated detail. a defined beginning and ending. a unique combination of stakeholders.

Projects are subject to time and resource limitations. Stakeholders are people and groups who can impact the project or might be impacted by either the work or results of the project. Project management is the application knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities to meet project requirements. This includes work processes that initiate, plan, execute, control, and close work. During these processes, trade-offs must be made among the following factors: • • • • • •

Scope Quality Cost Schedule Resources Risks

Project management includes both administrative tasks for planning, documenting, and controlling work and leadership tasks for visioning, motivating, and promoting work associates. Project management knowledge, skills, and methods can be applied and modified for most projects regardless of size or application. 1-3 How Can Project Work Be Described? 1-3a Projects versus Operations Projects are temporary, and no two are identical. Other projects may have both routine and unique aspects. Operations are ongoing work needed to ensure that an organization continues to function effectively. 1-3b Soft Skills and Hard Skills Soft skills include the ability to work in teams, interpersonal skills, communication, conflict resolution, negotiation, and leadership activities. Hard skills can include risk analysis, quality control, scheduling, budgeting, change control, planning other related activities, and project execution.

1-3c Authority and Responsibility Projects are most effectively managed with one person being assigned accountability. However, that person often needs to negotiate with a functional manager, who is someone with management authority over an organizational unit. A project manager needs to develop strong communication and leadership skills to extract cooperation from functional managers and to persuade project team members to focus on the project when other work also beckons. 1-3d Project Life Cycle A project life cycle is the series of phases that a project goes through from its initiation to its closure. Project life cycle stages: •

• • •

Selecting and initiating starts when an idea for a project first emerges and the projects selected and planned at a high level and ends when key participants commit to it in broad terms. Planning starts after the initial commitment, includes detailed planning, and ends when all stakeholders accept the entire detailed plan. Executing starts when the plan is accepted, and includes authorizing, executing, monitoring, and controlling work until the customer accepts the project deliverables. Closing and realizing includes all activities after customer acceptance to ensure the project is completed, lessons are learned, resources are reassigned, contributions are recognized, and benefits are realized.

Three other points should be made concerning the project life cycle. First, most companies with well-developed project management systems insist that a project must pass an approval of some kind to move from one stage to the next. In both exhibits, the approval to move from selecting and initiating to planning, for instance, is the approval of a charter. Second, in some industries, the project life cycle is highly formalized and very specific. For example, in the construction industry, the executing stage is often described as the three stages of design, erection, and finishing.

Third, many companies even have their own project life cycle model, such as the one Midland Insurance Company has developed for quality improvement projects. 1-4 Understanding Projects 1-4b Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK®) A project management process group is a logical grouping of the project management processes to achieve specific project objectives. The five process groups are as follows: 1. Initiating define a project or a new phase by obtaining authorization 2. Planning establish the project scope, refine objectives, and define plans and actions to attain objectives 3. Executing complete the work defined to satisfy project specifications 4. Monitoring and controlling track, review, and regulate progress and performance, identify changes required, and initiate changes 5. Closing formally complete or close project or phase 7 The 10 knowledge areas, paraphrased from the PMBOK® Guide, are as follows: 1. Integration management processes and activities to identify, define, combine, unify, and coordinate the various processes and project management activities 2. Scope management processes to ensure that the project includes all the work required, and only the work required, to complete the project successfully 3. Schedule management processes to manage timely completion of the project 4. Cost management processes involved in planning, estimating, budgeting, financing, funding, managing, and controlling costs so that the project can be completed within the approved budget 5. Quality management processes to incorporate the organization s quality policy regarding planning, managing, and controlling quality requirements to meet stakeholder expectations 6. Resource management processes to identify, acquire, and manage resources needed to successfully complete the project 7. Communications management processes to ensure timely and appropriate planning, collection, creation, distribution, storage, retrieval, management, control, monitoring, and ultimate disposition of project information 8. Risk management processes of conducting risk management planning, identification, analysis, response planning, response implementation, and monitoring risk on a project 9. Procurement management processes to purchase or acquire products, services, or results from outside the project team 10. Stakeholder management processes to identify the people, groups, or organizations, that could impact or be impacted by the project, analyse their expectations and impact, and develop strategies for engaging them in project decisions and execution 1-4d Selecting and Prioritizing Projects During the selecting and initiating stage of a project, one of the first tasks leaders must do is to identify potential projects. Regardless of the company s size and the level of formality used, the prioritization efforts should include asking the following questions: •

What value does each potential project bring to the organization?

• • • •

Are the demands of performing each project understood? Are the resources needed to perform the project available? Is there enthusiastic support both from the external customers and from one or more internal champions? Which projects will best help the organization achieve its goals?

1-4e Project Goals and Constraints All projects should be undertaken to accomplish specific goals. Those goals can be described both by scope and by quality. Scope is a combination of product scope and project scope. Product scope is the entirety of what will be present in the actual project deliverables. Project scope is the entirety of what will and will not be done to meet the specified requirements. Quality is the characteristics of a product or service that bear on its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs. 1-4f Defining Project Success and Failure 1. Project success is creating deliverables that include all the agreed-upon features. 2. The outputs should satisfy all specifications and please the projects customers. 3. The customers need to be able to use the outputs effectively as they do their work. 4. The project should be completed on schedule and on budget. 5. Finally, the performing organization should reap business-level benefits such as development of new products.

Project failure can be described as not meeting the success criteria. Some basic causes of failure are as follows: • • • • •

Incomplete or unclear requirements Inadequate resources Unrealistic time demands Unclear or unrealistic expectations Inadequate planning

1-4h Types of Projects Four ways to classify projects that help people understand the unique needs of each are by industry, size, understanding of project scope, and application. CLASSIFYING BY INDUSTRY Projects in different industries often have unique requirements. Several industry-specific project life cycle models are in use, and various trade groups and special interest groups can provide guidance. CLASSIFYING BY SIZE Large projects often require more detailed planning and control. CLASSIFYING BY TIMING OF PROJECT SCOPE CLARITY Deals with how early in the project the project manager and team are likely to be able to determine with a high degree of certainty what the project scope will be. CLASSIFYING BY APPLICATION Many of these projects include extensive cross-functional work, which contributes to the challenges associated with managing project teams and the triple constraints of scope, duration, and cost. All projects require planning and control. 1-4i Scalability of Project Tools All projects require • • • • •

Project specifications Understanding of work involved Budget and schedule determinations Assignment of available workers to tasks Project management

Projects are scaled up or down to meet the complexity of the task 1-5 Project Roles To successfully initiate, plan, and execute projects, a variety of executive, management, and associate roles must be accomplished. Traditional project roles are shown in Exhibit 1.7.

In a large organization, a person often fills only one of these roles; sometimes, more than one person fills a role. In small organizations, the same person may fill more than one role.

1-5a Project Executive-Level Roles The first executive-level project role is that of sponsor. A modern definition of executive sponsor the person or group that provides resources and support for the project and is accountable for enabling success. The second executive-level project role is that of the customer. The customer needs to ensure that a good contractor for external projects or project manager for internal projects is selected, make sure requirements are clear, and maintain communications throughout the project. The third executive role is the steering or leadership team for an organization. From a project standpoint, the important role for this team is to select, prioritize, and resource projects in accordance with the organization s strategic planning and to ensure that accurate progress is reported, and necessary adjustments are made. The fourth executive-level project role is that of project management office (PMO), an organizational structure that standardizes the project related governance processes and facilitates the sharing of resources, methodologies, tools and techniques.

1-5b Project Management-Level Roles •

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The project manager is the person assigned by the performing organization to lead the team that is responsible for achieving the project objectives. The project manager is normally directly accountable for the project results, schedule, and budget. This person is the main communicator, is responsible for the planning and execution of the project and works on the project from start to finish. Functional managers are the department or division heads the ongoing managers of the organization. They normally determine how the work of the project is to be accomplished, often supervise that work, and often negotiate with the project manager regarding which workers are assigned to the project. Facilitator. If the project is complex and/or controversial, it sometimes makes sense to have another person help the project manager with the process of running meetings and making decisions. The Scrum Master serves and leads in a facilitating and collaborative manner. This is a more limited, yet more empowering role than the traditional project manager.

1-5c Project Associate-Level Roles The project team members who are directly involved in project management activities. The core team, with the project manager, does most of the planning and makes most of the project-level decisions. The temporary members who are brought on board as needed are called subject matter experts...