Chapter one introduction to project management

Introduction
Many organizations today have a new or renewed interest in project management
Project management Statistics
The top skills employers look for in new college graduates are all related to project
management: teamwork, decision-making, problem-solving, and verbal
communications
Advantages of using formal project management 5- Higher quality and reliability
1-Better control of financial, physical, and human 6- Higher profit margins
resources
7- Improved productivity
2- Improved customer relations
8- Better internal coordination
3- Shorter development times
9- Higher worker morale
4- Lower costs
What is a project?
A project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service,
or result with below characteristics:
 Temporary – Definitive beginning and end
 Unique – New undertaking, unfamiliar ground
Project attributes
◦ Has A Unique Purpose
◦ Is Temporary
◦ Is Developed Using Progressive Elaboration
◦ Requires Resources, Often from Various Areas
◦ Project Sponsor Usually Provides the Direction and Funding for the Project
◦ Involves Uncertainty
Project & Program managers
Project managers work with project sponsors, 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.
Program managers supervise programs; often act as bosses for project managers
Triple constraint
Increased Scope = increased time + increased cost
Tight Time = increased costs + reduced scope

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Tight Budget = increased time + reduced scope.
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 (project scope, time, and cost
goals) and also facilitate the entire process to meet the needs and expectations of
project stakeholders
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
10 project management knowledge areas
Knowledge areas describe the key competencies that project managers must
develop.
Project managers must have knowledge and skills in all 10 knowledge areas
project integration, scope, time, cost, quality, human resource, communications,
risk, procurement, and stakeholder management.
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, 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

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◦ The results of the project met its main objective.
What helps project succeed?
1. Executive support 6. Agile process
2. User involvement 7. Project management
3. Clear business objectives expertise

4. Emotional maturity 8. Skilled resources

5. Optimizing scope 9. Execution

10. Tools and infrastructure

Top three reasons why federal technology project succeeded

1-Adequate funding 2-Staff expertise 3-Engagement from all stakeholders
Program management and portfolio
As part of project portfolio management, organizations group and manage projects
and programs as a portfolio of investments that contribute to the entire enterprise’s
success.
Portfolio managers help their organizations make wise investment decisions by
helping to select and analyze projects from a strategic perspective.

Best Practice
A best practice is “an optimal way recognized by industry to achieve a stated goal
or objective.
Robert Butrick suggests that organizations need to follow basic principles of project
management, including these two mentioned:
1. Ensure projects are aligned with your business strategy and screen out
unwanted ones quickly.
2. Engage stakeholders throughout the project to prevent failure and encourage
teamwork and commitment.

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Role of project manager
Job descriptions vary, but most include responsibilities like planning, scheduling,
coordinating, and working with people to achieve project goals
Suggested skills for project manager
1. The Project Management Body of Knowledge
2. Application area knowledge, standards, and regulations
3. Project environment knowledge
4. General management knowledge and skills
5. Soft skills or human relations skills
Ten most important skills and competencies
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.
Different skills needed in different situations
Large projects: Leadership, relevant prior experience, planning, people skills,
verbal communication, and teambuilding skills were most important.
High uncertainty projects: Risk management, expectation management,
leadership, people skills, and planning skills were most important.
Very novel projects: Leadership, people skills, having vision and goals, self-
confidence, expectation management, and listening skills were 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
A Project Management Office (PMO)
is an organizational group responsible for coordinating the project management
function throughout an organization.
Global issues:
 Talent development for project and program managers is a top concern.
 Project portfolio management is crucial in tight economic conditions.
 Basic project management techniques are essential core competencies.
 Agile approaches are increasingly preferred in project management.
 Benefits realization of projects is a key metric for success.
Project management certification

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Project management institution provides certification as a Project Management
Professional (PMP)
Ethics in project management
 Ethics guide decision-making based on personal values of "right" and
"wrong."
 Project managers often encounter ethical dilemmas.
 PMP certification requires agreeing to PMI’s Code of Ethics and
Professional Conduct.
 The PMP exam includes questions on professional responsibility and
ethics.
Chapter two project management & IT content
Projects can’t be run in isolation
 Projects must operate in a broad organizational environment
 Project managers need to use systems thinking: taking a holistic view of
carrying out projects within the context of the organization.
 Senior managers must make sure projects continue to support current
business needs
A systems view of project Management
A systems approach emerged in the 1950s to describe a more analytical approach
to management and problem solving.
Three parts include:
 Systems philosophy: an overall model for thinking about things as systems
 Systems analysis: problem-solving approach
 Systems management: address business, technological, and organizational
issues before making changes to systems
Organization perspectives

3 basic organization structures

 Functional: functional managers’ report to the CEO
 Project: program managers report to the CEO

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  Matrix: middle ground between functional and project structures; personnel
often report to two or more bosses; structure can be weak, balanced, or
strong matrix
Organizational culture: is a set of shared assumptions, values, and behaviors
that characterize the functioning of an organization.
Many experts believe the underlying causes of many companies’ problems are not
the structure or staff, but the culture.
Ten characteristics Organizational culture
Member identity Risk tolerance
Group emphasis Reward criteria
People focus Conflict tolerance
Unit integration Means-ends orientation
Control Information Technology Project Open systems focus
Management
Project work is most successful in an
organizational culture where these items are strong/high and other items are
balanced.
Top management help project managers
 Providing adequate resources
 Approving unique project needs in a timely manner
 Getting cooperation from other parts of the organization
 Mentoring and coaching on leadership issues
Best practices
IT governance addresses the authority and control for key IT activities in
organizations, including IT infrastructure, IT use, and project management. A lack of
IT governance can be dangerous
Organizational commitment
 If the organization has a negative attitude toward IT, it will be difficult for an
IT project to succeed
 Having a Chief Information Officer (CIO) at a high level in the organization
helps IT projects
 Assigning non-IT people to IT projects also encourage more commitment
Standards and guidelines help project managers be more effective
Project phases:
A project life cycle is a collection of project phases that defines in each stage: what
work will be performed, what deliverables and when & who is involved, how
management will control and approve work produced. A deliverable is a product or

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service produced as part of a project
In early phases: lowest resource needs, the level of uncertainty (risk) is highest,
project stakeholders have the greatest opportunity to influence the project.
In middle phases: ◦ the certainty of completing a project improves ◦ more
resources are needed.
The final phase: focuses on ◦ ensuring that project requirements were met ◦ the
sponsor approves completion of the project
Products have life cycles.
 The SDLC is a framework for developing and maintaining information
systems.
 Systems development projects can follow:
 Predictive life cycle: Clearly defined scope with predictable schedule and
cost.
 ASD life cycle: Requirements are unclear, mission-driven, and time-based
cycles are used.

Predictive life cycle models:

 Waterfall model
 Spiral model
 Incremental build model
 Prototyping model
 Rapid Application Development (RAD) model

Agile software development has become popular to describe new approaches

that focus on close collaboration between programming teams and business
experts.
Project Phases: Management reviews, also called phase exits or kill points, should
occur after each phase to evaluate the project’s progress
Recent trends affecting IT project management:
 Globalization
 Outsourcing
 Offshoring
 Virtual teams
Agile project management: Agile means being able to move quickly and easily,
but some people feel that project management, as they have seen it used, does not
allow people to work quickly or easily.
Scrum: According to the Scrum Alliance, Scrum is the leading agile development
method for completing projects with a complex, innovative scope of work.
Kanban: Technique that can be used in conjunction with scrum

Chapter 3: Project management process and groups

A process is a series of actions directed toward a particular result

Project management can be viewed as a number of interlinked processes
The project management process groups include:
◦ initiating processes
◦ planning processes ◦ monitoring and controlling
processes
◦ closing processes pg. 8
◦ executing processes

A methodology describes how things should be done; a standard describes what

should be done.

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Project Pre-Initiation:
 Laying groundwork before a project starts is a good practice.
 Senior managers often perform pre-initiation tasks:
o Determine scope, time, and cost constraints.
o Identify the project sponsor.
o Select the project manager.
o Develop a business case.
o Meet with the project manager to review processes and expectations.
o Decide if the project should be split into smaller projects.

Project initiation:
Initiating a project includes recognizing and starting a new project or project phase.
The main goal is to formally select and start off projects
kick-off meeting & project charters
 Charters are normally short and include key project information and
stakeholder signatures

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  It’s good practice to hold a kick-off meeting at the beginning of a project so
that stakeholders can meet each other, review the goals of the project, and
discuss future plans
Project Planning The main purpose of project planning is to guide execution.
Project Executing Usually takes the most time and resources to perform project
execution.
Project monitoring and controlling: Involves measuring progress toward project
objectives, monitoring deviation from the plan, and taking correction actions.
Affects all other process groups and occurs during all phases of the project life cycle
Project closing: Involves gaining stakeholder and customer acceptance of the final
products and services  Even if projects are not completed, they should be closed
out to learn from the past.
An informed decision: It is not a snap decision whether to use an agile approach
or not, just like flying or driving somewhere on a trip
Scrum Roles:
 Product Owner: Manages project business value and prioritizes work in the
product backlog.
 ScrumMaster: Ensures team productivity, facilitates daily Scrum, fosters
cooperation, and removes barriers.
 Scrum Team/Development Team: A self-organizing, cross-functional team
of 5-9 members, delivering results in 2-4 week sprints.
Scrum Artifacts:
 Product Backlog: A prioritized list of features by business value.
 Sprint Backlog: Top-priority items from the product backlog to be completed
in a sprint.
 Burndown Chart: Tracks cumulative work remaining in a sprint on a daily
basis.
Scrum Ceremonies:
 Sprint Planning: Team selects work from the product backlog to deliver
during the sprint.
 Daily Scrum: A brief meeting where the team shares progress, challenges,
and plans for the day.
 Sprint Review: Team demonstrates completed work to the product owner.
 Sprint Retrospective: Team reviews performance to find ways to improve
the product and process.
Chapter 4: Project Integration Management
Key to Overall Project Success:
 Good Project Integration Management: Coordinating all knowledge areas
throughout the project’s life cycle.
 New project managers may struggle with the "big picture" and focus too
much on details.
 Project integration management is distinct from software integration.
Project Integration Management Processes:
1. Developing the Project Charter: Create a document with stakeholder
input.
2. Developing the Project Management Plan: Coordinate all planning
efforts to create plan.

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 3. Directing and Managing Project Work: Execute the project management
plan by performing the outlined activities.
4. Monitoring and Controlling Project Work: Oversee activities to ensure
performance objectives are met.
5. Performing Integrated Change Control: Identify, evaluate, and manage
changes throughout the project life cycle.
6. Closing the Project or Phase: Finalize all activities to formally close the
project or phase.

Strategic Planning and Project Selection:

 Strategic Planning: Set long-term objectives, predict trends, and project
the need for new products and services.
 SWOT Analysis: Analyze Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and
Threats.
 Project Selection: Identify potential projects, use realistic methods to
choose projects, and formalize initiation with a project charter.
Methods for Selecting Projects:
 Focus on broad organizational needs.
 Categorize information technology projects.
 Perform net present value or other financial analyses.
 Use a weighted scoring model.
 Implement a balanced scorecard.
Three important criteria for projects:
 There is a need for the project
 There are funds available
 There’s a strong will to make the project succeed
Categorizing IT Projects:
 By Purpose: Addressing a problem, an opportunity, or a directive.
 By Timeline: Duration and timing of the project's need.
 By Priority: Overall project priority.
Financial analysis of projects
Financial Considerations in Project Selection includes:
 Net Present Value (NPV) Analysis: Determines current worth considering a
discount rate.
 Return on Investment (ROI): Calculates return by subtracting costs from
benefits and dividing by costs.
 Payback Analysis: Measures the time required to recoup the invested amount.

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NPV Calculations:
1. Estimate Costs and Benefits: Determine costs and benefits for the
project's life and its products.
2. Determine Discount Rate: Check with your organization for the appropriate
rate.
3. Calculate NPV: Follow the calculation details provided in your text.
4. Notes:
o Investment year might be year 0 or year 1, depending on
organizational practices.
o Costs might be entered as negative numbers or not, based on
organizational preferences.
Return on Investment (ROI):
 Calculation: ROI = (Total Discounted Benefits - Total Discounted Costs) /
Discounted Costs.
 Interpretation: Higher ROI indicates a better investment.
 Required Rate of Return: Many organizations have a minimum acceptable
ROI for projects.
 Internal Rate of Return (IRR): Found by determining the discount rate that
makes NPV equal to zero.
Internal Rate of return
Set Up the Cash Flow Equation:
The IRR is the discount rate r that makes the Net Present Value (NPV) of the cash
flows equal to zero. The equation is:

Solve for IRR:

To find the IRR, you need to solve the equation for r. This is typically done using
financial calculators or spreadsheet software like Excel.
In Excel, you can use the IRR function:
 Enter the cash flows in a column (e.g., -100,000, 30,000, 40,000, 25,000,
20,000, 35,000).
 Use the formula =IRR(A1:A6) where A1:A6 contains your cash flow values.
The IRR is the discount rate r that satisfies this equation.
Payback Analysis:
 Payback Period: Time needed to recoup the total investment through net
cash inflows.
 Payback Occurrence: When net cumulative discounted benefits equal the
costs.
 Preference: Many organizations prefer IT projects with a short payback
period.
Weighted Scoring Model:
 Identify Criteria: Determine important criteria for project selection.
 Assign Weights: Allocate percentages to each criterion so they total 100%.
 Assign Scores: Rate each criterion for each project.
 Calculate Scores: Multiply scores by weights to get total weighted scores.

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Higher weighted scores indicate better projects.
A balanced scorecard
is a methodology that converts an organization’s value drivers, such as customer
service, innovation, operational efficiency, and financial performance, to a series of
defined metrics.

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