Definition of Project Management: What Is Project PDF

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Definition of Project Management: A project is temporary in that it has a defined beginning and end in time, and therefore defined scope and resources. And a project is unique in that it is not a routine operation, but a specific set of operations designed to accomplish a singular goal. Project mana...

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Definition of Project Management: A project is temporary in that it has a defined beginning and end in time, and therefore defined scope and resources. And a project is unique in that it is not a routine operation, but a specific set of operations designed to accomplish a singular goal. Project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities to meet the project requirements. The planning and organization of an organization's resources in order to move a specific task, event or duty toward completion. Project management typically involves a one-time project rather than an ongoing activity, and resources managed include both human and financial capital. Project management is often closely associated with engineering projects, which typically have a complex set of components that have to be completed and assembled in a set fashion in order to create a functioning product. Project managers use visual representations of work flow such as Gantt charts and PERT charts to determine which tasks are to be completed by which departments.

What Is Project? A project is a unique, transient endeavor, undertaken to achieve planned objectives, which could be defined in terms of outputs, outcomes or benefits. A project is usually deemed to be a success if it achieves the objectives according to their acceptance criteria, within an agreed timescale and budget.

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Project management, then, is the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities to meet the project requirements. The key to successful project management its to focus on the 4p: 1. People: The most important element of a successful project. 2. Product: The project product to be built. 3. Process: The set of framework and people tasks to get the job done. 4. Project: all work required to make the product a reality. It is synergy of all four Ps working together that yields the successful management of products.

Project management processes fall into five groups: 1. Initiation: kicking off the project. 2. Planning: planning all of the work of the project. 3. Execution: actually performing the work. 4. Managing and controlling: all of the work you do during the project to monitor progress. 5. Closing: completing and delivering the project and adjourning the team.

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Why project management important? Project management is the application of skills and knowledge that allows a company to be competitive in its market. It is broken into five different categories: initiation, planning, execution, controlling and closing. Specific software might be used to help manage various projects, with each project having unique requirements. A project manager is typically paid a lot of money to oversee a project. They run every aspect of a project, from scheduling to new innovations, to helping a project reach its completion date on time. They know how to run a project by spending the least amount of money possible, saving the company money and allowing the company to pass the savings on to the customer. Project managers develop a strategy that allows them to organize and lead employees, meet deadlines and see a project through to its conclusion. They are expected to deal with any problems that arise during the course of a project, leaving the executives to deal with other aspects of the business.

What is project analysis? The project analyst provides critical data support to a technical team. Research and analysis functions may include budget tracking and financial forecasting, project evaluation and monitoring, maintaining compliance with corporate and public regulations, and performing any data analysis relevant to project tasks. Project analysts define key performance parameters and create regular variance reports to track progress. A bachelor's degree in computer science, management information systems, or business administration is the standard qualification for an analyst position. A combination of an associate-level computer science degree and several years' experience may also offer entry into project analysis. To progress into a project manager or leader role, certification as a Project Management Professional (PMP) often helps.

Reason for project analysis 1. Requirements analysis prevents scope creep. 2. Requirements analysis serves as concrete evidence in contractual disputes. 3. Requirements analysis keeps projects on time and on budget. 4. Requirements analysis find out weakness and give suggestion.

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Key issue of project analysis A project analysis find out a some weakness of project and how to improve or suggestion for improvement.

Weakness in planning process or reason for failure of project:

Project managers are entering difficult situations every day. The project success rate is generally considered to be less than 50% on average – depending on your success criteria. So many variables go into each project, so many outside entities can affect the success or failure of any given project, and unknowns can enter the picture at any time making risk planning something that is often too overlooked – a very necessary piece to the early project planning puzzle. I’d like to discuss what I consider to be some key things that can greatly diminish any projects chances of success and in all likelihood, any one of these can absolutely squash the project undertaking. Keen project management skills are required to prepare for, plan for, and react to each of these and these are merely the tip of the iceberg of things that can kill a project.

1. Scope Creep Scope is everything that you are going to do and conversely, not going to do. So once you’ve figured out exactly what the project work is, usually via a Work Breakdown Structure, you need to freeze it and zealously guard against unplanned changes to it. So planned changes via a change control board are ok, since then the PM can issue a new schedule, risk and budget plan as needed. Otherwise, you will surely miss your target and make both the management and customer unhappy.

2. Over allocated Resources Often there are too few resources working on too many projects at the same time. In conjunction with that, managers don’t seem to have a grip on what their resources are doing all the time. Team members are left to figure out for themselves what projects they should be working on and when. Better is for managers to meet weekly to discuss resource usage perhaps using a spreadsheet to track.

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3. Bad Stakeholder Management Stakeholders have a vested interest in the project for the good or sometimes to the detriment of the project. It is the project manager’s job not only to identify all stakeholders, but know how to manage and communicate with them in a timely fashion. A communication management plan helps here.

4. Unreliable Estimates Estimates are very often just guesstimates by team members who are trying to calculate duration of tasks based on how long it took them last time. This may turn out to be totally accurate or may be completely wrong. And if wrong, leads to a flawed schedule and increased risk. Historical records kept between projects helps solve this.

5. No Risk Management Every project is unique and hence, has uncertainty. When we try to qualify and quantify that uncertainty, we call it risk. It is incumbent upon the project manager to proactively anticipate things that might go wrong. Once he has identified risks, then he and the team can decide on how to respond to (e.g., mitigate, avoid) those specific risks should they occur.

6. Unsupported Project Culture I was once asked to consult for a company and discovered that a complex project was being handled by an untrained secretary using 20 Excel spreadsheets. In this case, management clearly did not fully understand what it took to manage a project either in tools or using trained personnel. This is not easily solvable because it requires education of management and a cultural shift.

7. The Accidental Project Manager This is similar to but not exactly the same as the unsupported project culture. In this instance, what typically happens is that a technical person (software developer, chemist, etc.) succeeds at the job. Based on that, gets promoted to project manager and is asked to manage the types of projects they just came from. The problem is they often don’t get training in project management and may well lack the social skills the job calls for. And so they flounder and often fail despite previous successes.

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8. Lack of Team Planning Sessions There is no more effective way to kick off a meeting than to have the entire team come together for a planning session. This enables everyone to not only work together on project artifacts (schedule, WBS) but also to bond as a team and buy into the project.

9. Monitoring and Controlling Many project managers will create a schedule and never (or rarely) update it. Or if they do, they’ll just fill in percent done, which is an arbitrary number often picked out of the air by the team member. Better if they record actuals such as date started, work accomplished and estimate of remaining work.

10. Corruption Corruption is one of the cause for project fail in Bangladesh. Every sector have corrupted that have a great influence of project fail in Bangladesh.

11. Incomplete requirements Incomplete requirements of any project is not complete within time and budget and project goal cannot meet properly .If we don’t spend enough time capturing and documenting requirements during the planning phase of the project, the re-work later on can quickly flood the project budget, ruin customer satisfaction and confidence and bring the project to a halt long before deployment of a final solution ever happens.

12. Poor communication Communication is job one for the project manager. So if communication with the customer is not going well – for whatever reason – it can be disastrous for the project. In order to maintain effective and efficient communication with the customer, the project manager should: • Layout – during project kickoff – how communication on the project is going to happen • Ideally, create a project communication plan document (even if it’s very basic, it will still set good expectations) • Keep to a schedule on the important customer communications like status reporting, status meetings, etc.

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13. Irregular meeting schedules Part of the downfall in the communication category is irregular meeting schedules. I had one project that I took over from another project manager in the very late stages of the engagement. I thought we were just really in a roll-out mode so I tended not to put too much emphasis on adhering to the meeting schedule, and status reporting schedules

14. A budget left unattended I’m sure this just sounds very logical anyway, but I always contend that a 10% budget overrun is much easier to deal with and correct than a 50% overrun. So catch it early! How? By managing the budget weekly, applying actuals to it weekly, and reforecasting it weekly. If you do that, you’ll know every single week where you stand and the project budget will never get so out of hand that proactive and corrective action can’t be administered to fix the situation.

15. Accountability How a good PM handles the accountability problem: Good project managers let team members know, up front, who is responsible for what – and clearly lay out expectations

16. Lack of communication, or hostility, among team members. How a good PM heads off potential hostilities: A good project manager checks in regularly with team members, either by phone or in person, to see how things are going – and if there are any professional or personal issues that could affect the project.

17. Planning discipline with expertise A well functioning planning discipline with consolidated experience and expertise should have been firmly established within government. But this has not happened.

18. Inadequate numbers of officers and facilities Inadequate numbers of officers and facilities including logistics and staff support have led to different types of problems, so causing weaknesses not only in the planning process but also in the entire development administration of the country.

19. Complexity of approval The complexity of project approval process is pin-pointed by and large as one of the root causes in Bangladesh.

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20. Critical chain project management The

most

complex

part

involves

engineering

professionals

of

different

fields

(civil,electrical,mechanical cte.)working together that create a critical chain are given priority over all other activities.

We can’t guarantee project success every time. We can’t even guarantee it most of the time. And while using strategic web-based project management tools can enhance communication, collaboration and task management, it still won’t guarantee success. The factors I’ve mentioned here need special attention – they must not be skipped. And for every one mentioned, there are several more. I’d like to hear feedback from our readers what pitfalls have you experienced that can or have brought your project to a screeching halt?

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Suggestion for improvements or factors to ensuring to project success: As a project manager, you are ultimately responsible for delivering a successful project. The buck stops with you, so it is in your interest to make sure relevant tools and techniques are used to make this happen. some of the following may sound obvious, but I encounter these basic mistakes month in month out, with project managers left scratching their heads wondering where it all went wrong. Many of the reasons include subjects that could justify the use of a project management tool. Easy access to communications and dynamic updating of the project’s tasks as well as keeping on top of who is doing what (ie. resource allocation) are just some of the benefits that a tool such as one of those mentioned below can provide.

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1. Define the Scope: The first, and most important, step in any project is defining the scope of the project. What is it you are supposed to accomplish or create? What is the project objective? Equally important is defining what is not included in the scope of your project. If you don't get enough definition from your boss, clarify the scope yourself and send it back upstairs for confirmation. While the example is slightly off the business topic, we can all relate to a wedding reception. In planning a wedding reception, you may have as your scope: prepare a wedding reception for 100 guests, complete with dinner, open bar, wedding cake and a live band for dancing by a certain date at a cost not to exceed $20,000.

Determine Available Resources: What people, equipment, and money will

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you have available to you to achieve the project objectives? As a project manager, you usually will not have direct control of these resources, but will have to manage them through matrix management.

Understand the Timeline: When does the project have to be completed? As

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you develop your project plan you may have some flexibility in how you use time during the project, but deadlines usually are fixed, as in the case of the wedding reception. If you decide to use overtime hours to meet the schedule, you must weigh that against the limitations of your budget.

Assemble Your Project Team: Get the people on your team together and

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start a dialog. They are the technical experts. That's why their functional supervisor assigned them to the project. Your job is to manage the team.

Detail the Work, Part 1: What are the major pieces or components that have

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to be created to complete the project. For example, a wedding reception requires at a high level: a reception hall, food, drink, a cake, guests and entertainment. Of course, each of those larger items can be broken down into many additional items. That is the next step. •

Detail the Work, Part 2: In our wedding reception example above, you likely have a team or person in charge of different components. Work with your team members to spell out the details necessary to achieve each major item. The person in charge of food must understand the options, the cost limitations and make selections that support achieving the scope. List the smaller steps in each of

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the larger steps. How many levels deep you go of more and more detailed steps depends on the size and complexity of your project. •

Develop a Preliminary Plan: Assemble all your steps into a plan. A good way to do this is to use a precedence table identifying what items must precede other items. Formal project management practices call for developing what is termed a network diagram and identifying the critical path. While this may be beyond your needs or knowledge level, the core issue is to sequence the activities in the right order and then allocate resources against the activities. Questions to ask include: What happens first? What is the next step? Which steps can go on at the same time with different resources? Who is going to do each step? How long will it take? There are many excellent software packages available that can automate a lot of this detail for you. Ask others in similar positions what they use.

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Create Your Baseline Plan: Get feedback on your preliminary plan from your team and from any other stakeholders. Adjust your timelines and work schedules to fit the project into the available time. Make any necessary adjustments to the preliminary plan to produce a baseline plan.

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Request Project Adjustments: There is almost never enough time, money or talent assigned to a project. Your job is to do more with the limited resources than people expect. However, there are often limits placed on a project that are simply unrealistic. You need to make your case and present it to your boss and request these unrealistic limits be changed. Ask for the changes at the beginning of the project. Don't wait until it's in trouble to ask for the changes you need. However, if your project involves a wedding, do not expect to be successful asking for many significant changes!

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Work Your Plan, But Don't Die For It: Making the plan is important, but the plan can be changed. You have a plan for driving to work every morning. If one intersection is blocked by an accident, you change your plan and go a different way. Do the same with your project plans. Change them as needed, but always keep the scope and resources in mind.

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Monitor Your Team's Progress: You will make little progress at the beginning of the project, but start then to monitor what everyone is doing anyway. That will make it easier to catch issues before they become problems. 11

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Document Everything: Keep records. Every time you change from your baseline plan, write down what the change was and why it was necessary. Every time a new requirement is added to the project write down where the requirement came from and how the timeline or budget was adjusted because of it. You can't remember everything, so write them down so you'll be able to look them up at the end-of-project review and learn from them.

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Keep Everyone Informed: Keep all the project stakeholders informed of progress all along. Let them know of your success as you complete each milestone, but als...