Introduction to Project Management

Learning Objectives
 Understand the growing need for better project
management, especially for information technology
projects
 Explain what a project is, provide examples of
information technology projects, list various attributes
of projects, and describe the triple constraint of
projects
 Describe project management and discuss key
elements of the project management framework,
including project stakeholders, the project
management knowledge areas, common tools and
techniques, and project success
 Learning Objectives (continued)
 Discuss the relationship between project, program,
and portfolio management and the contributions
they each make to enterprise success
 Understand the role of the project manager by
describing what project managers do, what skills
they need, and what the career field is like for
information technology project managers
 Describe the project management profession,
including its history, the role of professional
organizations like the Project Management Institute,
the importance of certification and ethics, and the
advancement of project management software
Advantages of Using Formal
Project Management
 Better control of financial, physical, and human resources
 Improved customer relations
 Shorter development times
 Lower costs and improved productivity
 Higher quality and increased reliability
 Higher profit margins
 Improved productivity
 Better internal coordination
 Positive impact on meeting strategic goals.
 Higher worker morale (less stress)
What Is a Project?
 A project is “a temporary endeavor undertaken
to create a unique product, service, or result”

 Operations is work done to sustain the

business

 Projects end when their objectives have been

reached or the project has been terminated

 Projects can be large or small and take a short

or long time to complete
Examples of IT Projects
 A help desk or technical worker replaces ten
laptops for a small department
 A small software development team adds a new
feature to an internal software application for the
finance department
 A college campus upgrades its technology
infrastructure to provide wireless Internet access
across the whole campus
Various phase
of the IT
Project
Project Attributes
 A project:
 Has a unique purpose
 Is temporary
 Is developed using progressive elaboration
 Requires resources, often from various areas
 Should have a primary customer or sponsor
 The project sponsor usually provides the direction and funding
for the project
 Involves uncertainty
Project Constraints
 Scope
 What work will be done as part of the project?
 What unique product,service, or result does the customer or sponsor expect from
the project?
 How will the scope be verified?
 Time
 How long should it take to complete the project?
 What is the project’s schedule?
 How will the team track actual schedule performance? Who can approve changes
to the schedule?
 Cost
 What should it cost to complete the project? What is the project’s budget?
 How will costs be tracked? Who can authorize changes to the budget?
Project and Program Managers
 Project managers work with project sponsors, a
project team, and other people involved in a
project to meet project goals
 Program: group of related projects managed in a
coordinated way to obtain benefits and control
not available from managing them individually
 Program managers oversee programs and often
act as bosses for project managers
The Triple Constraint of Project
Management

Successful project
management means
meeting all three
goals (scope, time,
and cost) – and
satisfying the
project’s sponsor!
What is Project Management?
 Project management is “the application of
knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to
project activities to meet project requirements”

 Project managers strive to meet the triple

constraint by balancing project scope, time,
and cost goals
Project Management Framework
 Relationship among user,
stakeholders and customers
Project Stakeholders
 Stakeholders are the people involved in or
affected by project activities
 Stakeholders include:
 The project sponsor
 The project manager
 The project team
 Support staff
 Customers
 Users
 Suppliers
 Opponents to the project
Allocation of IT project Resources
Project Management Knowledge
Areas
 Project scope management involves defining and managing all
the work required to complete the project successfully.
 Project time management includes estimating how long it will
take to complete the work, developing an acceptable project
schedule, and ensuring timely completion of the project.
 Project cost management consists of preparing and managing
the budget for the project.
 Project quality management ensures that the project will
satisfy the stated or implied needs for which it was
undertaken.
Project Management Knowledge
Areas
 Project human resource management is concerned with
making effective use of the people involved with the project.
 Project communications management involves generating,
collecting, disseminating, and storing project information.
 Project risk management includes identifying, analyzing, and
responding to risks related to the project.
 Project procurement management involves acquiring or
procuring goods and services for a project from outside the
performing organization.
Project Management Knowledge
Areas
 Project stakeholder management includes identifying and
analyzing stakeholder needs while managing and controlling
their engagement throughout the life of the project.
 Project integration management is an overarching function
that affects and is affected by all of the other knowledge areas.
Project Management Tools and
Techniques
 Project management tools and techniques
assist project managers and their teams in various
aspects of project management
 Some specific ones include:
 Project charter, scope statement, and WBS (scope)
 Gantt charts, network diagrams, critical path analysis,
and critical chain scheduling (time)
 Cost estimates and earned value management (cost)
Super Tools
 “Super tools” are those tools that have high use
and high potential for improving project success,
such as:
 Software for task scheduling (such as project
management software)
 Scope statements
 Requirements analyses
 Lessons-learned reports
 Tools already extensively used that have been
found to improve project importance include:
 Progress reports
 Kick-off meetings
 Gantt charts
 Change requests
Project Success
 There are several ways to define project success
 The project met scope, time, and cost goals
 The project satisfied the customer/sponsor
 The results of the project met its main objective, such
as making or saving a certain amount of money,
providing a good return on investment, or simply
making the sponsors happy
What Helps Projects Succeed?*
1. Executive support 7. Firm basic requirements
2. User involvement 8. Formal methodology
3. Experienced project 9. Reliable estimates
manager 10. Other criteria, such as
4. Clear business small milestones,
objectives proper planning,
5. Minimized scope competent staff, and
6. Standard software ownership
infrastructure
*The Standish Group, “Extreme CHAOS,” (2001).
Suggested Skills for Project
Managers
 Project managers need a wide variety of skills

 They should:

 Be comfortable with change

 Understand the organizations they work in and with

 Be able to lead teams to accomplish project goals

The Role of the Project Manager
 Job descriptions vary, but most include
responsibilities like planning, scheduling,
coordinating, and working with people to achieve
project goals

 Remember that 97% of successful projects were

led by experienced project managers, who can
often help influence success factors
Suggested Skills for Project Managers
 The Project Management Body of Knowledge
 Application area knowledge, standards, and
regulations
 Project environment knowledge
 General management knowledge and skills
 Soft skills or human relations skills
Ten Most Important Skills and
Competencies for Project Managers
1. People skills
2. Leadership
3. Listening
4. Integrity, ethical behavior, consistent
5. Strong at building trust
6. Verbal communication
7. Strong at building teams
8. Conflict resolution, conflict management
9. Critical thinking, problem solving
10. Understands, balances priorities
Project-Related Characteristics
 Achieves the objectives and goals of the project within the
established schedule, budget, and procedures
 Develops IT projects on budget and on time to the complete
satisfaction of the users
 Has experience in related or similar projects
 Can control project outcomes by measuring and evaluating
performance against established objectives and standards
 Develops and executes contingency plans to meet unforeseen
circumstances and problem
Team-Related Characteristics
 Has good communication  Shares success with the
and managerial skills team members•
 Is able to plan, organize,  Selects the right person for
lead, motivate, and the right job•
delegate proper  Shows appreciation to good
responsibilities to team workers•
members  Gets others in the
 Respects team members organization to accept his
and has their confidence or her ideas and carry out
and respect• his or her plans
Team-Related Characteristics
 Delegates duties and  Recognizes individual
maintains control differences and takes
 Believes in professionally advantage of individual
training people for their strengths
delegated jobs  Provides work that
 Considers himself or stimulates a feeling of
herself as a part of the team personal respect and
 Creates structured
professional growth
discipline  Allows sufficient time for
ideas to develop and
mature
Team-Related Characteristics
 Allows free time and  Monitors his or her team
encourages openness members on a regular basis
 Understands the team for the following types of
members and creates people and takes necessary
effective communication actions:
 People who waste their time and that of
others
 Opportunists who steal others' ideas
 Critical people who find only mistakes
in others' work
 Idle people who are unproductive
 Egotistic people who brag about
themselves
 Gossips who spread rumors
Project-Related Characteristics
 Develops and implements decisions relating to planning
 Is willing to redefine goals, responsibilities, and schedules as
necessary to get the project back on track in case the
schedule slips or the project is over budget
 Establishes and meets real priorities and deadlines
 Believes in good planning to reduce pressure and stress and
increase productivity
 Establishes long-term and short-term planning
Different Skills Needed in Different
Situations
 Large projects: leadership, relevant prior
experience, planning, people skills, verbal
communication, and team-building skills are most
important
 High uncertainty projects: risk management,
expectation management, leadership, people
skills, and planning skills are most important
 Very novel projects: leadership, people skills,
having vision and goals, self-confidence,
expectations management, and listening skills
are most important
Importance of Leadership Skills
 Effective project managers provide leadership by
example
 A leader focuses on long-term goals and big-
picture objectives while inspiring people to reach
those goals
 A manager deals with the day-to-day details of
meeting specific goals
 Project managers often take on the role of both
leader and manager
Careers for IT Project Managers
 Computerworld’s annual forecast survey supports this career
projection.
 IT executives listed the “nine hottest skills” they planned to
hire for in 2012.
 Programming and application development took over first
place from project management, mainly due to the increased
need for programmers of mobile devices.
 Managers also noted that they were looking for “working”
project managers and business analysts who could get
projects done.
The Project Management Profession
 The profession of project management is growing
at a very rapid pace
 It is helpful to understand the history of the field,
the role of professional societies like the Project
Management Institute, and the growth in project
management software
Figure 1-6: Sample Gantt Chart
Created with Project 2007
Figure 1-7: Sample Network
Diagram in Microsoft Project
Ethics in Project Management
 Ethics, loosely defined, is a set of principles that
guide our decision making based on personal
values of what is “right” and “wrong”

 Project managers often face ethical dilemmas

 In order to earn PMP certification, applicants

must agree to PMI’s Code of Ethics and
Professional Conduct

 Several questions on the PMP exam are related

to professional responsibility, including ethics
Project Management Software
 There are hundreds of different products to assist
in performing project management
 Three main categories of tools
 Low-end tools: handle single or smaller projects well, cost
under $200 per user
 Midrange tools: handle multiple projects and users, cost
$200-600 per user, Project 2007 most popular
 High-end tools: also called enterprise project
management software, often licensed on a per-user
basis, like VPMi Enterprise Online (www.vcsonline.com);
see front cover for trial version information
 See the Project Management Center Web site or
Top Ten Reviews for links to many companies that
provide project management software
Chapter Summary
 A project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to
create a unique product, service, or result
 Project management is the application of knowledge,
skills, tools, and techniques to project activities to
meet project requirements
 A program is a group of related projects managed in
a coordinated way; project portfolio management
involves organizing and managing projects and
programs as a portfolio of investments
 Project managers play a key role in helping projects
and organizations succeed
 The project management profession continues to
grow and mature