Unit one: Introduction to project

management
 What is a project?
 Project is a collection of linked activities, carried out in an
organized manner with a clearly defined start point and
finish point, to achieve some specific results that satisfy the
needs of an organization as derived from the current
business plans. (Trevor L Young,1998)
 Project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a
unique product, service, or result.(PMBOK,2008)
 Project is a well-organized development of an end product
that had a discrete beginning, a discrete end, and a discrete
deliverable.(Knutson & Bitz,1991)
 A project is a job that is done once/Jemis P. lweis
 A project is a problem scheduled for solution/J. M. JURAN
 A problem is a gap between where you are and where you
want to be, with an obstacle that prevents easy movement
to close the gap.
 Define a project
• Define a project:
– Unique product or service
– Time-limited
– Project ends when the objectives are achieved or
abandoned

Unique
• How can you tell that an activity is unique?
– Completely new product or service
– Creation of new process
– Product or service new to this group of people.
 Time-limited
• May have a start and end date
• May be measured as “will be complete when a particular
objective is achieved”
• If it simply continues forever or to an unspecified end-date it
is probably an ongoing business activity

Can tell when it is done

• Objective is achieved
• Time limit is reached
• Objective is abandoned
 What is Project management?
 is the discipline that relates all of those words that you
thought of that apply to project.
 cultivates the expertise to plan, monitor, track, and
manage the people, the time, the budget, and the quality
of the work on projects.
 proactive style of management.
 fulfills two purposes:
(1) It provides the technical and business documentation to
communicate the plan and, subsequently, the status that
facilitates comparison of the plan against actual performance,
and
(2) it supports the development of the managerial skills to
facilitate better management of the people and their project(s).
 is a set of principles, methods, tools, and techniques for the
effective management of objective-oriented work in the
context of a specific and unique organizational environment.
is an evolving discipline that integrates the processes of
producing the end product with the processes of planning,
change management, control, and initiating preventive and
corrective action.
begins when a decision is made to devote resources to an
effort and ends when the desired result has been
accomplished.
project management: The planning, scheduling, and
controlling of project activities to meet project objectives
 What Project Management Isn’t

1. project management is not personal

productivity
2. project management is not people
management.
3. project management is not operations or
service management
• is not designed for the management and control
of no project, day-to-day activities within the
organization.
• Responsibility for the day-to-day planning,
operations, and control of the staff remains with
the functional managers and is accomplished
with existing tools and techniques.
• Responsibility for the technical direction of the work
also remains with the functional managers.
• Functional management supports the project
management approach rather than being a part of it.
 using project management provides
advantages
• Better control of financial, physical, and human resources
• Improved customer relations
• Shorter development times
• Lower costs
• Higher quality and increased reliability
• Higher profit margins
• Improved productivity
• Better internal coordination
• Higher worker morale
 Effective project management
helps individuals, groups, and public and private organizations to:
– Meet business objectives;
– Satisfy stakeholder expectations;
– Be more predictable;
– Increase chances of success;
– Deliver the right products at the right time;
– Resolve problems and issues;
– Respond to risks in a timely manner;
– Optimize the use of organizational resources;
– Identify, recover, or terminate failing projects;
– Manage constraints (e.g., scope, quality, schedule, costs, resources);
– Balance the influence of constraints on the project (e.g., increased scope may
increase cost or schedule); and
– Manage change in a better manner.
 Poorly managed projects or the absence of
project management may result in:

• Missed deadlines,
• Cost overruns,
• Poor quality,
• Rework,
• Uncontrolled expansion of the project,
• Loss of reputation for the organization,
• Unsatisfied stakeholders, and
• Failure in achieving the objectives for which the project
was undertaken.
The facts below demonstrate the significance
of project management:
• In 2011, the average annual salary (excluding
bonuses, in U.S. dollars)
– for someone in the project management profession was
$160,409 in Switzerland (the highest-paid country),
– $139,497 in Australia,
– $105,000 in the United States, and
– $23,207 in China (the lowest-paid country).
• This survey was based on self reported data from
more than 30,000 practitioners in 29 countries
• The U.S. spends $2.3 trillion on projects every year, and
the world as a whole spends nearly $10 trillion on
projects of all kinds. Projects, therefore, account for
about one fourth of the U.S. and the world’s gross
domestic product
• Project management certification continues to be one of
the most popular certifications throughout the world.
• CareerBuilder.com found that 44% of U.S. employers
listed project management as a skill they looked for in
new college graduates, behind only communication and
technical skills.
• Project management is also a vital skill for personal
success.
https://aits.org/2016/07/grim-portrait-current-state-project-failure/
https://aits.org/2016/07/grim-portrait-current-state-project-failure/
• The disturbing conclusion from Standish
report is that only 16.2% of projects were
successful by all measures, and that of the
70% of projects that were not successful, Over
52 percent were partial failures and 31% were
complete failures.

http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/analysis/6840_f03_papers/frese/
 The top 5 factors found in successful projects
1.User Involvement
2.Executive Management Support
3.Clear Statement of Requirements
4.Proper Planning
5.Realistic Expectations

http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/analysis/6840_f03_papers/frese/
The top 5 indicators found in “Challenged”
projects are:
1.Lack of User Input
2.Incomplete Requirements & Specifications
3.Changing Requirements & Specifications
4.Lack of Executive Support
5.Technical Incompetence

http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/analysis/6840_f03_papers/frese/
 factors found in “Failed” projects
1.Incomplete Requirements
2.Lack of user involvement
3.Lack of Resources
4.Unrealistic Expectations
5.Lace of Executive Support
6.Changing Requirements & Specifications
7.Lack of Planning
8.Didn’t Need it Any Longer
9.Lack of IT management
10.Technical Illiteracy
http://www.umsl.edu/~sauterv/analysis/6840_f03_papers/frese/
 1.1 Is pm science or art?
science art
• supported by •political, interpersonal,
charts, graphs, and organizational
mathematical
calculations, and factors
other technical •Communication,
tools. negotiation, and conflict
• requires the hard resolution
skills to manage a •soft skills
project
 1.2 History of Project
Management: Past and Present
 History of Project Management
• Early methodologies not well-documented, but
results still stand: the pyramids, Stonehenge, mass
human migrations
• Late 19th century
– Construction of intercontinental railroad, other large
projects
• Early 20th Century
– Frederick Taylor created Scientific Management of
industrial processes
– Henry Gantt developed a bar-chart approach to illustrating
timing of project tasks and progress
 History of Project Management
(continued)

• Mid-20th century
– CPM and PERT methodologies identified the
importance of task sequences, task dependencies
and the concept of the critical path.
– Project management as a profession
• Project Management Institute (PMI) was founded
• Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) was created
 History of Project Management
(continued)
• Today
– Increasing recognition of project management as a
specialized set of skills applicable to many different
industries
– Project Management certifications: PMP, CAPM,
specializations
– PMBOK is in its 6th edition
– Variations on methodologies:
• phased (waterfall approach)
• Agile methods
• The importance of integrating projects into portfolios and programs
RELATIONSHIP OF PROJECT, PROGRAM, PORTFOLIO,
AND OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
1.3 Project Management and leadership
• The words leadership and management are often used
interchangeably. However, they are not synonymous.
• The word management is more closely associated with
directing another person to get from one point to another
using a known set of expected behaviors.
• In contrast, leadership involves working with others
through discussion or debate in order to guide them from
one point to another.
• The method that a project manager chooses to employ
reveals a distinct difference in behavior, self-perception,
and project role.
• Project managers need to employ both
leadership and management in order to be
successful.
• The skill is in finding the right balance
for each situation.
• The way in which management and
leadership are employed often shows up
in the project manager’s leadership style.
 1.4 Characteristics of Work Using Project
Management
The word project is a buzzword. The tendency is to use it
very loosely.
• People refer to the jobs they have been assigned to
perform as projects.
• The secretary refers to cleaning out a file cabinet and
disposing of old, outdated material as a project.
• The youth refers to cleaning up his or her room as a
project.
• A spouse refers to wallpapering the bedroom as a
project.
 THE CHARACTERISTICS OF PROJECTS
A project:
has a specific purpose which can be readily defined;
is unique because it is most unlikely to be repeated in
exactly the same way by the same group of people to
give the same results;
is focused on the customer and customer
expectations;
is not usually routine work but may include routine
type tasks;
is made up of a collection of activities that are linked
together because they all contribute to the desired
result;
has clearly defined and agreed time constraints - a
date when the results are required;
 THE CHARACTERISTICS OF PROJECTS CONT’D


is frequently complex because the work involves people in different
departments and even on different sites;

has to be flexible to accommodate change as the work proceeds;

involves many unknowns both within the work itself, the skills of the
people doing the work and the external influences on the project;

has cost constraints which must be clearly defined and understood to
ensure the project remains viable at all times;

provides a unique opportunity to learn new skills;

forces you to work in a different way because the 'temporary‘
management role is directly associated with the life of the project;

challenges traditional lines of authority with perceived threats to the
status quo;

involves risk at every step of the process and you must manage these
risks to sustain the focus on the desired results.
• Project management can be used with work that has three major
characteristics: desired technical objectives, a deadline, and a budget

1. A discrete technical objective: If knowledge of the end product or service

does not exist, it is extremely difficult to produce a plan.
• In this circumstance, some type of planning may be possible, but project
planning it is not!
• If the definition of the technical objective is part of the project, the effective
application of project management requires that the project be broken into
several smaller projects, the first of which will have the technical objective
as its end product.
• In addition, the end product should be capable of being examined in some
objective manner to determine whether it possesses the attributes and
quality desired by the individual(s) for whom the project is being
accomplished.
• If the product will be assessed on the basis of subjective criteria, it is much
more difficult to plan and to manage the effort.
2. A deadline: The deadline can be established
prior to the development of the project plan, or
it can be the result of negotiation between the
project manager and the client after the plan
has been conceived.
• In either case, the project team ultimately
works toward a designated end date, with
some consequence associated with any delay
in completion of the effort.
3. A budget: The budget can be in the form of dollars
and/or staffing required; it can be established prior to the
development of the project plan, or it can be the result of
negotiations between the project manager and the client
based on the plan.
• In addition, the project manager and the other personnel
with the requisite subject matter expertise must be able
to divide or partition the work into small, discrete
segments whose completion can be measured.
• This partitioning or decomposition of the work results in
the development of a task (or to-do) list.
• If the task list is hierarchical and has a logical structure,
it is called a work breakdown structure (WBS).
1.5 Project Management
Overview
 project objectives
• The four project objectives are related to each other
by the following equation:

• performance: The quality of the work being done.

cost: The cost of project work, directly related to
the human and physical resources applied.
• time: The schedule that must be met.
• scope: The magnitude of the work to be performed.
• In addition, if project work extends beyond an
optimum time, costs increase because people
are not working efficiently.
• Some senior managers believe that if enough
people are thrown at a project, it can be
completed in whatever time is desired.
• This is simply not true, but the idea is the
cause of many project fiascos.
• What the equation says is that cost is a function ( f ) of
performance (P), time (T), and scope (S).
• As P and S increase, cost generally increases.
• The relationship between time and cost, however, is not linear. As
a rule, cost increases as the time to do the project decreases below
a certain optimum time.
• That is, there exists a project duration that results in the best
performance of all resources.
• If the duration is shortened, it is often necessary to pay premium
labor rates as a consequence.
• Further, worker errors often increase, resulting in costs for
corrections, and productivity often declines.
• Studies have shown that if a knowledge worker spends twelve
hours of overtime on a job, the actual increase in output is
equivalent to that normally obtained in two hours of regular work.
 Project Success
• Traditionally: on time, within budget and delivers the
promised scope

• More effective measure: satisfied customer

 factors affect the success of a project.
• having the right people and managing them
appropriately.
1. The Right People
– In many organizations, people are assigned to projects
because they are available, not because they are
necessarily the right choice for the project.
2. The Right Type of Management
– Unfortunately, individuals often are chosen to become
project managers because they are good at their technical
discipline but then are given no training in management.
 Project constraints
• Cost
• Scope
• Quality
• Risk
• Resources
• Time
 Triple constraint
• All the constraints can be grouped into these three:

The triad constraints by John M. Kennedy T. (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_triad_constraints.jpg) used under CC-BY-SA license (
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)
 Project Management Expertise
• Application knowledge
– Industry group
– Technical specialty
– Managerial area
• Understanding the project environment
– Cultural, social, political, international, physical
• Management knowledge and skills
• Interpersonal skills
– Communication, influence, leadership, motivation, negotiation and
problem solving
 Industry sectors
• Business owners
• Agriculture and Natural Resources
• Arts, Media and Entertainment
• Building Trades and Construction
• Energy and Utilities
• Engineering and Design
• Fashion
• Finance
. . . continued on next slide
 Industry sectors (continued)
• Health and Human Services
• Hospitality, Tourism and recreation
• Manufacturing and Product Development
• Education
• Public Services
• Retail and Wholesale Trade
• Transportation
• Information Technology
Project management framework
Common project management tools and
techniques by knowledge area
knowledge area cont…
 Skills for Project Managers
Project managers and their teams must develop
knowledge and skills in the following areas:
 All ten project management knowledge areas
 The application area (domain, industry, market, etc.)
 The project environment (politics, culture, change
management, etc.)
 General management (financial management,
strategic planning, etc.)
 Human relations (leadership, motivation,
negotiations, etc.)
PHASE PROJECT MANAGEMENT
 The components of a project management
system.
• Human Factors
– Leadership
– Negotiation
– Team building
– Motivation
– Communication
– Decision making

• Methods
• Culture
• Organization
• Planning
• Information
• Control
 Group work
• In small groups, try to identify the LARGEST project each of
you have been involved with.
• You do not have to have been the project manager—if not,
what was your role? (team member, volunteer, purchaser, ??)
• With the group, make it clear how the project you have
identified meets the criteria