1. What is project management?

,Briefly explain the key elements of project management

Project Definition
Project in general refers to a new endeavor with specific objective and varies so widely that it
is very difficult to precisely define it. Some of the commonly quoted definitions are as follows.
Project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product or service or result.
Project is a unique process, consist of a set of coordinated and controlled activities with
start and finish dates, undertaken to achieve an objective confirming to specific
requirements,including the constraints of time cost and resource.
Examples of project include Developing a watershed, Creating irrigation facility,Developing
new variety of a crop, Developing new breed of an animal, Developing agro-processing
centre, Construction of farm building, sting of a concentrated feed plant etc. It may be noted
that each of these projects differ in composition, type, scope, size and time.

Project Classification
There is no standard classification of the projects. However considering project goals,
these can be classified into two broad groups, industrial and developmental

● Industrial projects
also referred as commercial projects, which are undertaken to provide
goods or services for meeting the growing needs of the customers and providing
attractive returns to the investors/stake holder

● Development projects
are undertaken to facilitate the promotion and acceleration of overall
economic development. These projects act as catalysts for economic development providing
a cascading effect

Project management
Project management is a distinct area of management that helps in handling projects. It has
three key features to distinguish it from other forms of management and they include: a
project manager, the project team and the project management system.

Why Do We Care About Engineering Project Management?

● Engineering projects are vital for society.

● Engineering projects are “of the essence” to business – they are the
only source of revenue for many companies – and the creator of new methods and
new products for almost every organization (business, government, non‐profit, etc.).

Key elements of project management

● Project scope
Project scope identifies those items and activities that are required to meet the needs
of the owner. For example, a project need three buildings consisting of an employee's office
building, a warehouse, and a maintenance shop. In addition, the project may need a
crushed aggregate area for storage of heavy equipment and bulk materials.
The purpose of project scope definition is to provide sufficient information to
identify the work to be performed, to allow the design to proceed without
signifi- cant changes that may adversely affect the project budget and
schedule

● Schedule of Milestones
As the name implies, a “milestone schedule” is timeline, with target dates, of the major
milestones that need to be achieved in order for the project to be completed. Each
milestone involves the completion of specified “deliverables” that are a byproduct of
prior activities and which must be available to team members in order to proceed to the
next stages of the project. The actual milestones will depend on the particular project and,
for example, a project focusing on new product development might include the following
milestones: design review meetings, completion of initial product testing, availability of
prototype, completion of procurement and receipt of required licenses for sale of the
product. Delivery and presentation of major written and oral reports to senior executives
may also be included on the milestone schedule.

● Resource Management
. Resources can be broken
out into a number of different categories and each of them presents unique
management issues. Generally the most important resources are “human,” including
employees directly assigned to work on the project, people from other departments
within the
company who are expected to make contributions to the project activities even though they are
not directly reporting to the project manager, and personnel from outside parties that provide
inputs for the project (e.g., vendor employees and/or independent contractors providing
services necessary for completion of the project). For each of these persons the project
manager must track the amount of time spent on the project and the quality and efficiency of
the services rendered in furtherance of the project. In addition, however, the project manager
must be sure that he or she has access to the right people with proper skills and tools and the
appropriate amount of human resources will be available at crucial times to ensure that project
proceeds smoothly along the timetable that has been established in the project plan. Finally,
the project manager is responsible for making sure that everyone involved in the project knows
what they need to do and that they all are motivated to completely their tasks on a timely basis
and at or above the expected level of quality and efficiency.

● Budget
The most important criteria for determining the success of a project, assuming that it is
finished reasonably close to the target ending date, is whether or not the project was
completed within budget. Presumably the budget should not be a problem if the resources
were managed correctly and everything proceeded in accordance with the original schedule;
however, the
project manager must nonetheless pay close attention to the critical expense items to
make sure that the actual costs are in
line with the estimates that were made at the time the budget was put together.

● Time Management
All of the human and other resources that are made available for a project will not be
effectively deployed unless the project manager is able to manage their utilization within
the time period allocated for completion of the project. Time management is a critical skill
in
effective project management and project managers who are able to keep their projects on
track are generally able to meet expectation with regard to keeping the project within the
budget that has been set at the outset. Project managers can use sophisticated
project management software programs that can be used for scheduling activities
including keeping track of the status of resources and progress toward completion of
the
deliverables associated with the project objectives. However, in order for these programs to be
effective the project manager must put together all the necessary information about the project
including all the tasks that need to be performed to complete the project, how long each task
will take, what resources will be required for each task, and in what order should all of the
tasks be completed. With this information the software programs will identify the critical path to
successful completion of the project and will also allow the project manager to conduct
sensitivity analysis to determine the consequences of changes in any of the variables.

● Risk Management
As with many other organizational activities project management requires attention to
risk management, which involves identifying events or issues that may present a
serious
impediment to successful completion of the project within the time and budgetary
constraints included in the original project plan. For larger projects risk management
may a substantial issue and the project manager may actually designate a risk
management officer to oversee the area. In most cases, however, risks can be dealt with
more informally and managed through regular discussions among team members as
they
review the progress of the project and share information about unforeseen issues that may
have come up during the course of the work.