Chapter 1 Overview of Project Management By Prof. Akash Gawade PDF

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Chapter 1 Overview of Project ManagementCONCEPTS OF PROJECT MANAGEMENTWhat is a project?Project is a scientifically evolved work plan devised to achieve a specific objective within a specific period of time. It can be considered as proposal involving capital investment for the purpose of developing ...

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Chapter 1 Overview of Project Management CONCEPTS OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT

What is a project? Project is a scientifically evolved work plan devised to achieve a specific objective within a specific period of time. It can be considered as proposal involving capital investment for the purpose of developing facilities to provide goods a and services. A project is a blue for print action oriented activities of an organization. A project reflected the plan for action in its totality. Like a movie film it is projection oriented process. The project has beginning middle and an end. For example, cement project, manufacturing Power project, refinery projects Health project, Educational projects Social project, construction projects etc.

DEEINITION OF PROJECT A Project is a one-shot, time limited, goal directed, major undertaking, requiring the commitment of varied skills and resources. It has also been described a s a combination of human and non human resources pooled together in a temporary organization to achieve a specific purpose. The purpose and the set of activities which can achieve that purpose distinguish one project form another.

OBJECTIVES 1. To explain the nature and scope of Project management. 2. To give an over view about system approach and Project management.

3. To give an outline about the factors influencing effective Project management.

Projects are the building blocks to meet the enterprise objectives. Project management is essentially involved in executing the projects. It is recognized as a management philosophy in the recent past in addition to that of discipline. Project management has always been central to the existence of industries like construction, aerospace and defense, where schedule and cost goals are contract fundamentals.

Attributes of a Project (FEATURES OF A PROJECT ) A project can be identified by its features. The special features of a project that would differentiate from any other on going activity are given below:  A project fixed set of objectives. Once the objectives have been achieved, the project ceases to exist.  It has a specific life span.  Project has for a teamwork,  Project has a life cycle reflected by growth, maturity and decline similar.  Change is an inherent feature in any project out its life.  Project is based on successive principle and hence it is difficult to learn fully the end results at any stage.  A project works for a specific set of goals with the complex set of diversified activities.  High level of sub-contraction of work can be done in a project.  Every project has risk and uncertainty associated with it.  Project needs feasibility any appraisal studies. So that the sponsors sweet dream becomes realizable.

 Project planning and scheduling- Project management helps to plan the activity such that it will be completed within the time and no hazardous to the flow of all activities  Team collaboration- It helps to make collaboration between the employees and management suppliers and customers  Time tracking- It helps to manage the activity such that all customers requirement will get completed within the timeline  Reporting- Reporting of all the activities considered during the project execution gives the activity status of project and will get the information that project is actually on the right trace. if not then what to do for that.  Project budgeting- project estimation gives the cost of project and effective management of all available sources such that it reduce the cost of the project.  Billing & quotes- Project management helps to analyze the actual financial status of the organizations and how much finance is needed in future this analysis is made by the project management.

Importance of Project Management

Great project management means much more than keeping project management‘s iron triangle in check, delivering on time, budget, and scope; it unites clients and teams, creates a vision for a successful project and gets everyone on the same page of what‘s needed to stay on track for success. When projects are managed properly, there‘s a positive impact that reverberates beyond delivery of ‗the stuff‘. Why Is Project Management Important? 1. Strategic Alignment Project management is important because it ensures what is being delivered, is right, and will deliver real value against the business opportunity. Every client has strategic goals and the projects that we do for them advance those goals. Good project management ensures that the goals of projects closely align with the strategic goals of the business. In identifying a solid business case, and being methodical about calculating ROI, project management is important because it can help to ensure the right thing is delivered, that‘s going to deliver real value. Of course, as projects progress, it is possible that risks may emerge, that turn into issues or even the business strategy may change. But a project manager will ensure that the project is part of that realignment. Project management really matters here because projects that veers off course, or which fail to adapt to the business needs may end up being expensive and/or unnecessary. 2. Leadership Project management is important because it brings leadership and direction to projects.

Without project management, a team can be like a ship without a rudder; moving but without direction, control, or purpose. Leadership allows and enables team members to do their best work. Project management provides leadership and vision, motivation, removing roadblocks, coaching, and inspiring the team to do their best work. Project managers serve the team but also ensure clear lines of accountability. With a project manager in place there‘s no confusion about who‘s in charge and in control of whatever‘s going on in a project Project managers enforce process and keep everyone on the team in line too because ultimately they carry responsibility for whether the project fails or succeeds. 3. Clear Focus & Objectives Project management is important because it ensures there’s a proper plan for executing on strategic goals. Where project management is left to the team to work out by themselves, you‘ll find teams work without proper briefs and without a defined project management methodology. Projects lack focus, can have vague or nebulous objectives, and leave the team not quite sure what they‘re supposed to be doing, or why. As project managers, we position ourselves to prevent such a situation and drive the timely accomplishment of tasks, by breaking up a project into tasks for our teams. Oftentimes, the foresight to take such an approach is what differentiates good project management from bad.

Breaking up into smaller chunks of work enables teams to remain focused on clear objectives, gear their efforts towards achieving the ultimate project goal through the completion of smaller steps and to quickly identify risks, since risk management is important in project management. Often a project‘s goals have to change in line with a materializing risk. Again, without dedicated oversight and management, a project could swiftly falter but good project management (and a good project manager) is what enables the team to focus, and when necessary refocus, on their objectives. 4. Realistic Project Planning Project management is important because it ensures proper expectations are set around what can be delivered, by when, and for how much. Without proper project management, budget estimates and project delivery timelines can be set that are over-ambitious or lacking in analogous estimating insight from similar projects. Ultimately this means without good project management, projects get delivered late, and over budget. Effective project managers should be able to negotiate reasonable and achievable deadlines and milestones across stakeholders, teams, and management.. A good project manager creates a clear process, with achievable deadlines, that enables everyone within the project team to work within reasonable bounds, and not unreasonable expectations. 5. Quality Control Projects management is important because it ensures the quality of whatever is being delivered, consistently hits the mark. Projects are also usually under enormous pressure to be completed. Without a dedicated project manager, who has the support and buy-in of executive management, tasks are underestimated, schedules tightened and

processes rushed. The result is bad quality output because there‘s no quality management in place. Dedicated project management ensures that not only does a project have the time and resources to deliver, but also that the output is quality tested at every stage. Good project management demands gated phases where teams can assess the output for quality, applicability, and ROI. Project management is important to quality because it allows for a staggered and phased process, creating time for teams to examine and test their outputs at every step along the way. 6. Risk Management Project management is important because it ensures risks are properly managed and mitigated against to avoid becoming issues. Risk management is critical to project success. The temptation is just to sweep them under the carpet, never talk about them to the client and hope for the best. But having a robust process around the identification, management and mitigation of risk is what helps prevent risks from becoming issues. Especially in complex projects, dealing with risk is where the value of project management really comes into play. Good project management practice requires project managers to carefully analyze all potential risks to the project, quantify them, develop a mitigation plan against them, and a contingency plan should any of them materialize. It requires knowing the right questions to ask in order to uncover risks early. Naturally, risks should be prioritized according to the likelihood of them occurring, and appropriate responses are allocated per risk (some PMs use a dedicate risk management software for this). Good project management matters in this regard, because projects never go to plan, and how we deal with change and adapt our project management plan is a key to delivering projects successfully.

7. Orderly Process Project management is important because it ensures the right people do the right things, at the right time – it ensures proper project process is followed throughout the project lifecycle. Surprisingly, many large and well-known companies have reactive planning processes that aren‘t really based around any real project management strategies. But reactivity – as opposed to proactivity – can often cause projects to go into survival mode. This is a when teams fracture, tasks duplicate, and planning becomes reactive creating inefficiency and frustration in the team. Proper planning and process can make a massive difference as the team knows who‘s doing what, when, and how. Proper process helps to clarify roles, streamline processes and inputs, anticipate risks, and creates the checks and balances to ensure the project is continually aligned with the overall strategy. Project management matters here because without an orderly, easily understood process, companies risk project failure, attrition of trust in their business relationships and resource wastage. 8. Continuous Oversight Project management is important because it ensures a project’s progress is tracked and reported properly. Status reporting might sound boring and unnecessary – and if everything‘s going to plan, it can just feel like documentation for documentation‘s sake. But continuous project oversight, ensuring that a project is tracking properly against the original plan, is critical to ensuring that a project stays on track. When proper oversight and project reporting is in place it makes it easy to see when a project is beginning to deviate from its intended course. The earlier you‘re able to spot project deviation, the easier it is to course correct.

Good project managers will regularly generate easily digestible progress or status reports as part of their stakeholder management. This enables clients or stakeholders to track the project on their own. Typically these status reports will provide insights into the work that was completed and planned, the hours utilized and how they track against those planned, how the project is tracking against milestones, risks, assumptions, issues and dependencies and any outputs of the project as it proceeds. This data is invaluable not only for tracking progress but helps clients gain the trust of other stakeholders in their organization, giving them easy oversight of a project‘s progress. It also gives your team a simple, consistent way to maintain regular contact to build your client relationships. 9. Subject Matter Expertise Project management is important because someone needs to be able to understand if everyone’s doing what they should. With a few years experience under their belt, project managers will know a little about a lot of aspects of delivering the projects they manage. They‘ll build technical skills and subject matter expertise; they‘ll know everything about the work that their teams execute; the platforms and systems they use, and the possibilities and limitations, and the kinds of issues that typically occur. Having this kind of subject matter expertise means they can have intelligent and informed conversations with clients, team, stakeholders, and suppliers. They‘re well equipped to be the hub of communication on a project, ensuring that as the project flows between different teams and phases of work, nothing gets forgotten about or overlooked. Without subject matter expertise through project management, you can find a project becomes unbalanced – the creatives ignore the limitations of technology or the developers forget the creative vision of the project. Project management keeps the team focused on the overarching vision and brings everyone together forcing the right compromises to make the project a success.

10. Managing and Learning from Success and Failure Project management is important because it learns from the successes and failures of the past. Project management can break bad habits and when you‘re delivering projects, it‘s important to not make the same mistakes twice. Project managers use retrospectives, lessons learned, or post project reviews to consider what went well, what didn‘t go so well and what should be done differently for the next project. This produces a valuable set of documentation that becomes a record of ―dos and don‘ts‖ going forward, enabling the organization to learn from failures and success. Without this learning, teams will often keep making the same mistakes, time and time again. These retrospectives are great documents to use at a project kickoff meeting to remind the team about failures such as underestimating projects, and successes such as the benefits of a solid process or the importance of keeping time sheet reporting up to date! The Importance Of Project Management Without PM, teams and clients are exposed to chaotic management, unclear objectives, a lack of resources, unrealistic planning, high risk, poor quality project deliverables, projects going over budget and delivered late. Great project management matters because project managers with great training deliver success. Project management creates and enables happy, motivated teams who know their work matters, so do their best work. And that project management enabled team ensures the right stuff is delivered; stuff that delivers real return on investment, and that makes happy clients.

Components of a Project Management System The vital components of a project from the systems perspective are:  Objective: The fundamental rationale of a system that must be accomplished.  Requirement: A sine qua non or a fundamental and irreducible constident of a whole system that may even satisfy the objective to some extent.  Alternative: A surrogate, a secondary course of action, if one fails out the other will substitute and fulfill the needs of a system  Selection criteria: The matter of ‗carrying out‘ is focused on assessing the choice and selecting the best course of action.  Constrain: A demarcation point which describes the frontiers of a system within which the alternatives must move and devote their resources.

Project Management Process

Phase 1: Project Initiation Phase 2: Project Planning Phase 3: Project Execution Phase 4: Project Performance/Monitoring Phase 5: Project Closure

Characteristics of Project Management Now that we know the components of project management, let's look at some characteristics. The following characteristics contribute to a successful project.

Phase 1: Project Initiation This is the start of the project, and the goal of this phase is to define the project at a broad level. This phase usually begins with a business case. This is when you will research whether the project is feasible and if it should be undertaken. If feasibility testing needs to be done, this is the stage of the project in which that will be completed. Important stakeholders will do their due diligence to help decide if the project is a ―go.‖ If it is given the green light, you will need to create a project charter or a project initiation document (PID) that outlines the purpose and requirements of the project. It should include business needs, stakeholders, and the business case.

Phase 2: Project Planning This phase is key to successful project management and focuses on developing a roadmap that everyone will follow. This phase typically begins with setting goals. Two of the more popular methods for setting goals are S.M.A.R.T. and CLEAR:

S.M.A.R.T. Goals – This method helps ensure that the goals have been thoroughly vetted. It also provides a way to clearly understand the implications of the goal-setting process. Specific – To set specific goals, answer the following questions: who, what, where, when, which, and why. Measurable – Create criteria that you can use to measure the success of a goal. Attainable – Identify the most important goals and what it will take to achieve them.

Realistic – You should be willing and able to work toward a particular goal. Timely – Create a timeframe to achieve the goal. C.L.E.A.R. Goals – A newer method for setting goals that takes into consideration the environment of today‘s fast-paced businesses. Collaborative – The goal should encourage employees to work together. Limited – They should be limited in scope and time to keep it manageable. Emotional – Goals should tap into the passion of employees and be something they can form an emotional connection to. This can optimize the quality of work. Appreciable – Break larger goals into smaller tasks that can be quickly achieved. Refinable – As new situations arise, be flexible and refine goals as needed. During this phase, the scope of the project is defined and a project management plan is developed. It involves identifying the cost, quality, available resources, and a realistic timetable. The project plans also includes establishing baselines or performance measures. These are generated using the scope, schedule and cost of a project. A baseline is essential to determine if a project is on track. At this time, roles and responsibilities are clearly defined, so everyone involved knows what they are accountable for. Here are some of the documents a PM will create during this phase to ensure the project will stay on track: 

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Scope Statement – A document that clearly defines the business need, benefits of the project, objectives, deliverables, and key milestones. A scope statement may change during the project, but it shouldn‘t be done without the approval of the project manager and the sponsor. Work Breakdown Schedule (WBS) –This is a visual representation that breaks down the scope of the project into manageable sections for the team. Milestones – Identify high-level goals that need to be met throughout the project and include them in the Gantt chart. Gantt Chart – A visual timel...