What is a Project?

A project is a temporary effort to create a unique product or service. Projects usually

include constraints and risks regarding cost, schedule or performance outcome.

Figure 1. Triple Constraints of a project from https://www.projectmanager.com/

The Project’s Triple Constraints.

The aim is of the project is to produce a quality product or service, but in practice there
will always be some mitigating factors that constrain the project’s progress. The above
diagram shows the quality triangle whose shape is “supported” by the cost, scope and
time at its vertices. The diagram popularly called the Triple Constraints diagram
illustrates that quality depends on the three elements.

1. Cost: The financial constraints of a project, also known as the project budget

2. Scope: The tasks required to fulfill the project’s goals

3. Time: The schedule for the project to reach completion

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Basically, the Triple Constraint states that the success of the project is impacted mainly
by its budget (cost), deadlines (time) and features (scope). As a manager of that
project, one can trade between these three constraints; however, changing one of the
constraints means that the other two will suffer to some extent.

Figure 2 Example Meaning of “Constraints”

While it’s true that the Triple Constraint is an important part of any successful project, it
doesn’t determine success. Projects are made from many parts, more than the three, albeit
major ones, that make up the Triple Constraint. Sometimes you can’t play around with
the Triple Constraint, but those three factors are always at play in the project.

Other underlying factors (or sub-factors) that can determine the quality of the project
include risk and resources. However a closer analysis of these other elements shows that
they relate to the major factors as example resources relates to cost and risk, on the other
hand, relates to quality as it determines the level to which the project satisfies its
objectives.

What is Project Management?

Project management is a set of principles, practices, and techniques applied to lead
project teams and control project schedule, cost, and performance risks to result in
delighted customers.

Project Management Definition

Project management is the science (and art) of organizing the components of a project,
whether the project is development of a new product, the launch of a new service, a
marketing campaign, or a wedding. A project isn't something that's part of normal
business operations. It's typically created once, it's temporary, and it's specific. "It has a

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beginning and an end." A project consumes resources (whether people, cash, materials,
time), and it has funding limits.

Project Management Life Cycle

No matter what the type of project, project management typically follows the same
pattern:

1. Initiating
2. Planning
3. Executing
4. Monitoring & Controlling
5. Closing

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Initiating (Defining) the Project

In this stage the project manager defines what the project is and what the users hope to
achieve by undertaking the project. This phase also includes a list of project deliverables,
also known as milestones, which are the outcome(s) of a specific set of activities. The
project manager works with the business sponsor or manager and other stakeholders --
those who have a vested interest in the outcome of the project implementation.

Planning the Project

In this stage, the project manager lists all activities or tasks, how the tasks are related,
how long each task will take, and how each tasks is tied to a specific deadline.

Some project tracking techniques using diagramming such as the Critical Path Method
CPM or Program Evaluation Review Technique PERT and Gantt chart may be used at
this stage depending on the complexity of the project. The CPM and PERT methods
(which the student may have covered in other courses) show relationships between the
various stages with respect to agreed start and finish times of such tasks before moving to
the next task.

The Gantt chart compares the durations and the personnel available or responsible for the
tasks outlined in the CPM or PERT diagrams.

This phase also allows the project manager to define relationships between tasks, so that,
for example, if one task is x number of days late, the project tasks related to it will also
reflect a comparable delay. Likewise, the project manager can set milestones, dates by
which important aspects of the project need to be met.

Define requirements for completing the project. In this stage, the project manager
identifies how many people (often referred to as "resources") and how much expense
("cost") is involved in the project, as well as any other requirements that are necessary for
completing the project. The project manager will also need to manage assumptions and
risks related to the project. The project manager will also want to identify project
constraints. Constraints typically relate to schedule, resources, budget, and scope. A
change in one constraint will typically affect the other constraints. For example, a budget
constraint may affect the number of people who can work on the project, thereby
imposing a resource constraint. Likewise, if additional features are added as part of
project scope, that could affect scheduling, resources, and budget.

Executing the Project

Build the project team. In this phase, the project manager knows how many resources and
how much he budget or she has to work with for the project. The project manager then
assigns those resources and allocates budget to various tasks in the project. Now the work
of the project begins.

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Monitoring and Controlling the Project

The project manager is in charge of updating the project plans to reflect actual time
elapsed for each task. By keeping up with the details of progress, the project manager is
able to understand how well the project is progressing overall. A product such as
Microsoft Project facilitates the administrative aspects of project management.

Closing of the Project

In this stage, the project manager and business owner pull together the project team and
those who have an interest in the outcome of the project (stakeholders) to analyze the
final outcome of the project.

Project Portfolio Management (multiple projects)

Recent trends in project management include project portfolio management (PPM). PPM
is a move by organizations to get control over numerous projects by evaluating how well
each project aligns with strategic goals and quantifying its value. An organization will
typically be working on multiple projects, each resulting in potentially differing amounts
of return or value. The company or agency may decide to eliminate those projects with a
lower return in order to dedicate greater resources to the remaining projects or in order to
preserve the projects with the highest return or value.

Summary and Conclusion

A project first and foremost is results oriented. In streetwise talk almost everyone you
meet is involved in a “project” of some form could be buying, selling, building, event
planning and many other ventures which have end results. The outcome has a boundary
or scope which is determined by the end user(s) in qualitative terms.

The main undertaking is temporal meaning that it has a start and finish time frame like a
race. This time is specified at the beginning of the project.

The project needs financial backing which could be from some source such as money
borrowed from the bank, donations funded through crowd sourcing or family, money
raised by shareholders etc.

Thus in order to ensure an outcome of high quality the project must finish on time and in
order for it to finish on time the resources such as money must be accessible to guarantee
the sourcing of the requisite skills, materials and equipment among others to bring out a
high quality product.

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Broiler Chicken Project example
A broiler chicken breeder has a duration of between 6 to 8 weeks in order to come out
with quality chickens for sale. The chicken breeder needs a certain amount of money to
buy the day-old chicks for breeding which he or she has to treat with some antibiotic on
the first day. The breeder then has to buy chicken starter mash to feed the chicks,
followed by the grower and finisher mashes which have time frames.

The chickens should be sold around 6 weeks at which they should have an average
weight of around 2.5 kg. After the 6 weeks they start consuming more feed with
insignificant growth thus become inefficient ….

The management of the project cycle can also be demonstrated in any project including
the above.

Practically the farmer must list the tasks in their order of occurrence and duration say for
example there are delays in getting a certain feed he or she must be prepared to shorten
some later stage or stages or take alternative steps like get some supplementary feeds
without (hopefully) not lose out on the quality of the end product.

The student is free to look at other example projects how they can be implemented
following the simple project cycle given above. Note that as the project increases in
complexity other sub-cycles kick in but basically the main stages still hold true as a
guideline. Normally our farmer would follow the above cycle following some
veterinarian text book or notes but with time and experience they might appear not to do
so whilst inherently following the tried and tested procedures.

It must also be stated or pointed out that the conclusion or closure of the cycle is
important as the manager reflects on successes as well as failures to then re-adjust or fine
tune the next cycle.