Project Management

What Is Project Management?

Project Management Concepts and Methodologies

 PROJECTS: THE WORK

 Projects are ubiquitous. They are everywhere, and everybody does
them. Projects are the driving force for many organizations in most
industries.
 Projects can be looked upon as the change efforts of society, and the
pace of change has been increasing.
 Therefore, effectively and efficiently managing change efforts is the only
way organizations can survive and grow in this modern world.
 One way to describe projects is by example. Most such descriptions start
with such things as the pyramids, the Great Wall of China, and other
undertakings of ancient history.
 These were major construction projects, and indeed, construction is
inherently a project-oriented industry. But there are other project-
oriented industries: pharmaceuticals, aerospace, and IT all operate on a
project basis and all are notable for technological developments that
have changed the way we live and work.
 But not all projects are of such great magnitude. A community fund-
raising or political campaign, the development of a new product,
creating an advertising program, and training the sales and support staff
to service a product effectively are all projects. Indeed, it is possible that
most executives spend more of their time planning and monitoring
changes in their organizations—that is, projects—than they do in
maintaining the status quo.
Some Characteristics of Projects

 Projects are unique undertakings that result in a single unit of

output. The installation of an entertainment center by a homeowner
with the help of a few friends is a project.
 The objective is to complete the installation and enjoy the product of the
effort. It is a unique undertaking because the homeowner is not likely to
repeat this process frequently.
 It is not unusual, however, for multiple units to be involved in a project
at one level of detail or another.
 Projects are composed of interdependent activities. Projects are
made up of activities.
 Consistent with the definition of a project, an activity has a beginning
and an end.
 Activities are interrelated in one of three possible ways. In some
situations, one activity must be completed before another can begin.
 Generally, these mandatory relationships are very difficult to violate, or
to do so just does not make sense. The relationship of other activities is
not as obvious or as restrictive. These more discretionary
interdependencies are based on the preferences of the people
developing the plan.
 Some activities are dependent on some external event, such as
receiving the materials from the vendor. In any of the three instances,
mandatory, discretionary, or external, activities have a relationship one
to another.
 Projects create a quality deliverable. Each project creates its own
deliverable(s), which must meet standards of performance criteria. In
other words, each deliverable from every project must be quality
assured. If the deliverable does not meet its quantifiable quality criteria,
that project cannot be considered complete.
 Projects involve multiple resources, both human and nonhuman,
which require close coordination. Generally there are a variety of
resources, each with its own unique technologies, skills, and traits.
 When focusing on human resources, this leads to an inherent
characteristic of projects: conflict. There is conflict among resources as
to their concepts, approaches, theories, techniques, and so on.
 In addition, there is conflict for resources as to quantity, timing, and
specific assignments. Thus, a project manager must be skilled in
managing both such conflicts.
 Projects are not synonymous with the products of the project.
For some people, the word project refers to the planning and controlling
of the effort.
 For others, project means the unique activities required to create the
product of the project. This is not a trivial distinction, as both entities
have characteristics specific to themselves.
 The names of some of these characteristics apply to both. For example,
the life cycle cost of a product includes the cost of creating it (a project),
the cost of operating it (not a project), the cost of major repairs
(typically done as projects), and the cost of dismantling it (often a
project, if done at all). The project cost of creating the product is
generally a relatively small proportion of the life cycle cost of the
product.
 Projects are driven by the competing constraints. These
competing constraints represent the balance of including but not limited
to Scope, Quality, Schedule, Budget, Resources, and Risk.
 Different projects may be driven by a different constraint depending on
the emphasis established by management. Being first in the market
often determines long-term market position, thus creating time pressure
as the major driver.
 Most projects require the investment of considerable sums of money
and/or labor before enjoying of the benefits of the resulting product.
Thus, containing resource expenditures may be the driving factor. A
need exists for the resulting product of the project to be of the highest
quality, as for example, with a new system within the healthcare
industry.
 In summary, projects consist of activities, which have interrelationships
among one another, produce quality-approved deliverables, and involve
multiple resources.
PROJECT MANAGEMENT: THE DISCIPLINE

 The word discipline has the following two definitions, according to

Webster’s dictionary:
 1) the “rules used to maintain control” and 2) “a branch of learning
supported by mental, moral, or physical training.”
 Project management, therefore, is a discipline (definition 2) which
requires discipline (definition 1).
 In other words, project management is a branch of learning that deals
with the planning, monitoring, and controlling of one-time endeavors.
Some Characteristics of Project Management

 Project management is a unique career and profession. Its origins

can be traced back to efforts such as U.S. Department of Defense major
weapons systems development, NASA space missions, and major
construction and maintenance efforts, as well as comparable efforts in
Europe. The magnitude and complexity of these efforts were the driving
force in the search for tools that could aid management in the planning,
decision making, and control of the multitude of activities involved in
the project, especially those occurring simultaneously.
 Project management is not just scheduling software.
 There is a misconception that project management is no more than
scheduling using PERT (Program Evaluation and Review Technique) or CPM
(Critical Path Method) to be found on a piece of software.
 A more realistic view is that scheduling software is a small part of project
management. Software has permitted time scheduling, resource allocation,
and cost management to be done much more efficiently and, therefore, in
less time, in more detail, or both.
 Thus, a project can be planned and executed more precisely, leaving more
time to perform the other aspects of project management. Constantly
improving software also has made it easier to manage the schedules, the
resources and the costs associated with multiple projects going on at one
time.
 Project management is different than operations and technical
management.
 Operations management can be characterized as managing the steady
state. As soon as the operation is established, the concern becomes
maintaining the operation in a production mode for as long as possible.
Technical management tends to focus on the theory, technology, and
practice in a technical field concerning itself with questions of policy on
strength of materials, safety factors in design, and checking procedures.
Factors That Influence the
Practice of Project Management
 Strategic Planning: The Directive.
Decisions from the strategic planning process become the directive from
which projects are initiated.
Project practitioners need to see the connection between the Strategic Plan
and the project.
Strategic Planning converted into an ongoing Strategic Management
Process continues to review strategic objectives and filter down any
changes, so that the project manager can redirect his/her efforts
appropriately.
 Resource Allocation: The Critical Success Factor.
 Resources used by projects are defined as skilled human resources
(specific disciplines either individually or in crews or teams), equipment,
services, supplies, commodities, material, budgets, or funds).
 The project manager must ensure that the allocation of specific resources
is adequate but not overcommitted and that the right resources are
assigned to the right tasks. This is not a simple procedure because of the
number of activities that can be in process simultaneously.
 Fortunately, project management software provides assistance by
identifying overloading or underloading of any one resource or pool of
resources. Having identified any problems, human judgment is still
required to evaluate and make the final decisions.
 Change Management: The Differentiator.
 Typically identifying, documenting, approving or rejecting and controlling
changes to the baselines come to mind when we speak of Change
Management in the context of project management.
 However, every project creates significant changes in the culture of the
business. Additional focus needs to be paid to planning and managing
cultural change generated by projects.
 Quality: Win/Win or Lose/Lose.
 A Quality initiative (the degree to which a set of inherent characteristics
fulfills requirements) begins at the same time as the project
management discipline.
 Mentorship: Transfer from One Generation to the Next.
 Every person who leaves a company/agency or a division/department
takes with him/her the “history,” the “networking,” and the “knowledge”
of past projects.
 Cultures survive by passing knowledge from the elders to the young. To
keep the information needed to perpetuate the project management
culture in house, proactive mentorship programs are established to
orchestrate the passing of “culture” onto new project practitioners.
 Metrics and Close-out: Inspect What You Expect.
 Metrics are the data collected after a project was completed to be used
to plan for the next project(s).
 As project management has evolved, we’ve learned that we can’t wait
until the end of a project to set thresholds and collect the data.
 Management wants measurement metrics throughout in the project
that can be managed using Dashboards. Control procedures need to be
in place before the project proceeds so that the records can be complete
from the beginning.
 Productivity: Doing More with Less.
 The drive to do more with less money and fewer resources, to do it
faster, and to produce the highest quality deliverable will never go away.
 To accomplish this mandate, the biggest bang for the buck comes from
increasing productivity. Project practitioners use new and creative
techniques (automated and non-automated) to facilitate greater
productivity.
 Teams:
 Remote or distant teams face the challenge of geography and diversity.
Project management needs to address variables such as multifunctional,
multicultural, multigenerational, multigender, and multipersonality
project environment.
 Risk: The Defeating Factor. Risks are the holes in the dike. Too much
vulnerability in the dike can make it crumble. If risks are isolated and the
potential holes they present are plugged up, the dike will remain sound
and solid.
 The subdiscipline of Risk Management is a major area of focus. One
emerging approach is to use the techniques for controlling negative
risks (threats) or capturing positive risks (opportunities).
 Competencies: Today and Tomorrow.
 Initially, project practitioners focus on their subject matter expertise,
such as financial analysis, telecommunications design, or marketing
creativity. Those who became involved in projects transition to
competencies, such as scheduling, status reporting, and risk
management.
 The next movement is to add general business awareness
skills/competencies, such as financial knowledge, facilitation, leadership,
problem solving/decision making, and creating/innovation.
 Each of you must ask what’s next in your world.
Definition of Project Management

 The official definition provided by the Project Management Institute (PMI,

2013) is as follows:
 Project management, then, is the application of knowledge, skills and
techniques to execute projects effectively and efficiently. It’s a strategic
competency for organizations, enabling them to tie project results to
business goals – and thus, better compete in their markets.
 The official definition provided by the Association for Project Management
 (APM, 2013) is as follows:
 Project management focuses on controlling the introduction of the desired change.
 This involves:
 - understanding the needs of stakeholders;
 - planning what needs to be done, when, by whom, and to what standards;
 - building and motivating the team;
 - coordinating the work of different people;
 - monitoring work being done;
 - managing any changes to the plan;
 - delivering successful results.
 Most authors of project management literature agree that project
management is about setting and then achieving (or beating) targets for
time, cost and performance (quality).
 Increasingly authors are introducing the variable of safety, which is
becoming more and more important as a result of increasing statutory
provisions on health and safety. Some authors are also introducing the
variable of risk, as economic necessity increasingly drives projects
towards higher and higher risk states.
 One possible definition, therefore, could be:
 The planning and control processes and skills required to complete a
project using project resources while matching or improving on time,
cost, quality and safety limits at an acceptable level of risk.
 Time, cost and quality are often referred to as project success criteria,
as ultimately these are the variables that determine whether or not a
project is successful. In most cases it is not possible to maximise or
minimise these criteria and the aim of the project manager is to achieve
a satisfactory balance of the three.
The history of project management

 No one individual or group can be regarded as being responsible for

inventing project management and no individual sector or industry can
really claim to be the one in which project management first appeared.
The appearance of project management as a discipline is often assumed
to lie somewhere in the great Apollo space programmes of the late
1960s and early 1970s. In fact the origins of project management go
back a couple of decades earlier than this.
 It is true that individual aspects of what we now call project management
were a feature of very early human endeavours. An obvious example is the
ancient Egyptian pyramids, built several thousand years ago without highly
developed technology.
 Another example is the Roman road network that was developed around two
thousand years ago and stretched from the River Euphrates as far as
Scotland. Many of these roads are still in existence today and much of the
current European road layout is strongly influenced by the Roman roads. The
pyramids and the Roman roads were both incredible projects in their day.
 The Roman roads were part of a network that was worked on for hundreds of
years and involved hundreds of thousands of slaves and paid labourers. We
may well wonder how such large projects could have been constructed
without the use of project management.
 The main reason is their lack of complexity. The pyramids and the
Roman roads were big projects but they were relatively simple. The
Roman roads network was not developed as a simple project with a
single cost limit and time target, but simply expanded along with the
empire and was financed by the plunder of the empire as more and
more countries were taken over.
 The actual processes involved were relatively simple, although they did
involve enormous amounts of hard work and considerable ingenuity and
innovation.
 The fact that there were no time and cost constraints, however, meant
that there was no need for a management and control tool like project
management. As far as the emperors were concerned, there was time
and money to spare.
 It was not until the Industrial Revolution that there was a significant
increase in the complexity of projects as more and more manufacturing
processes became industrialised.
 For example, new processes such as cotton spinning led to the
development of large cotton mills powered by belts that were ultimately
driven by steam. The steam itself was generated by burning coal. The
cotton spinning industry involved a large number of different people,
from the slaves in North America who were forced to pick the cotton to
the miners of Yorkshire who extracted coal.
 These processes were interdependent. An interruption to any part of the
raw materials or components of the system could result in the whole
process collapsing.
 Project interdependency increased steadily and so the need for a combined
planning and control tool increased. Project management as a discipline first really
appeared in the atomic bomb development project based at Los Alamos in the US
in the 1940s. The atomic bomb involved entirely new technologies that made use
of recently discovered scientific facts.
 The project involved large numbers of very highly specialised scientists and
engineers working together in close proximity on what was an extremely
interdependent project. The failure of any component from tens of thousands of
possibilities could result in disaster. In addition there was a real-world time limit in
place.
 By 1944 the US had pushed the Japanese back across the Pacific and was in a
position to invade Japan. The US military planners estimated that their armed
forces would suffer more than a million casualties if they attempted an opposed
invasion of the Japanese mainland. They saw no alternative to force a final
Japanese surrender other than a new atomic bomb super-weapon.
 Events in the Pacific dictated that the weapon had to be ready by mid-1945 if it
was going to make a strategic impact in the war.
 The US defence industry was finding it difficult to control the cost and time
schedules of its large-scale weapons systems projects, including strategic
nuclear submarines and strategic air command aircraft.
 To address these problems two new networkbased systems were developed
almost simultaneously, by the US Navy and the DuPont Corporation. In 1957
DuPont created the critical path method (CPM), and in 1958 the US Navy
launched the program evaluation and review technique (PERT).
 Both methods originated exclusively for planning, scheduling and controlling
large projects with numerous interrelated work activities. About ten years later
both methods were combined with computer simulation techniques into a
method called graphical evaluation and review technique (GERT) to allow a
more realistic analysis of schedules.
 Things all began to change again in the late 1960s with the advent of basic
mainframe computing technology. This new technology allowed the storage
and processing of very large amounts of data. This provided the opportunity
for PERT and CPM-based tools to be computerised. This obviously speeded up
calculations and allowed even very large schedules to be rescheduled very
quickly.

 The discipline of project management thrived in this environment and the PMI
in the US and the APM in the UK were formally instituted in the late 1960s.
 Throughout the 1960s additional methods were developed to help project
managers. Some enabled managers to specify the type and quantity of
resources needed for each activity, and to plan for and allocate resources
across a number of projects simultaneously.
Project Management Today

 Project management is now the world’s most generic and internationalised

discipline.
 It has established standardised codes of practice across a large number of
different countries, and project management tools and techniques are becoming
increasingly established as standard management applications.

 Project management has evolved into a global generic profession. Provided

the correct international standards are observed, project managers all over
the world speak the same project ‘language’. There is no reason why a project
manager in charge of a forestry project in France should not be able to look at
the contract documentation and project records of a UK construction project
and understand 90 per cent of the information that is presented there.
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
PROCESSES
 Scope Management ensures “that the project includes all the work
required, and only the work required, to complete the project successfully.”
 “The Project Scope Management Plan is the document that describes how
the project scope will be defined, and verified and how the work
breakdown structure will be created and defined, and that provides
guidance on how the project scope will be managed and controlled by the
project management team. It is contained in or is subsidiary plan of the
project management plan.”
 Scoping a project is putting boundaries around the work to be done as well
as the specifications of the product to be produced.
 When defining scope, it is wise to articulate not only what is included
within the scope but also what is excluded.
 Time Management is “the processes required to manage the timely
completion of the project.”1 The management of time is crucial to the
successful completion of a project.
 The function of time management is divided into six processes: define
activities, sequence activities, estimate activity resources, estimate
activity durations, develop schedule, control schedule.1
 Cost Management processes maintain financial control of projects:
“includes the
 processes involved in estimating, budgeting, and controlling costs so
that the project can be completed within the approved budget.”1 Cost
estimating is the process of assembling and predicting costs of a project.
The cost budgeting process involves establishing budgets, standards,
and a monitoring system by which the cost of the project can be
measured and managed.
Developing a Mission, Vision, Goals, and
Objectives for the Project

 Before a project team does any work, it should spend time ensuring that
it has a shared understanding of where it is going.
 The terms used to define that destination are “mission,” “vision,”
“goals,” and “objectives.” And it is at this very early stage that projects
tend to fail, because everyone takes for granted that “we all know what
the mission is.”
 Defining the Problem
 Every project solves a problem of some kind, but people are inclined to
skip over the definition of the problem. This is a big mistake.
 The way you define a problem determines how you will solve it, so it is
critical that a proper definition be developed

 People sometimes define a problem as a goal. A goal in itself is not a

problem.
 It is when there are obstacles that make it difficult to reach the goal that
one has a problem. Given this definition of a problem, we can say that
problem solving involves finding ways to deal with obstacles: They must be
overcome, bypassed, or removed.
 A problem is a gap between where you are and where you want
to be, with
 obstacles existing that prevent easy movement to close the
gap.
Projects’ life cycles

 ConceptDevelopment Implementation Termination

 the processes to manage the project

 might be Initiating, Planning, Executing, Monitoring and Controlling, and
Closing.
 Quality Management “includes the processes and activities of the
performing organization
 that determine quality policies, objectives, and responsibilities so that
the
 project will satisfy the needs for which it was undertaken. If the
requirements for the product of the
 project are consistent with the real, or perceived, needs of the customer,
then the customer
 is likely to be satisfied with the product of the project. The product either
conforms
 to these requirements or it does not.
 Human Resource Management comprises all the “processes that organize
and manage
 the project team.”1 It’s all about making the most effective use of people, from
 sponsors, customers, and partners, to individual contributors. Human resource
planning
 and the formation, development, and management of the project team are all
part
 of Human Resources Management. The project manager is responsible for
developing
 the project team and building it into a cohesive group to complete the project.
Two
 major types of tasks are recognized: administrative and behavioral.
 Communications Management includes “the processes required to ensure timely and
 appropriate generation, collection, distribution, storage, retrieval and ultimate disposition
 of project information.” The project manager must communicate to upper management,
 to the project team, and to other stakeholders. The communications process is not
 always easy because the project manager may find that barriers exist to communication,
 such as lack of clear communications channels and problems in a global team
 environment. The project manager has the responsibility of knowing what kind of
 messages to send, knowing whom to send the messages, and translating the messages
 into a language that all can understand.
 Risk Management includes “the processes concerned with conducting
risk management
 planning, identification, analysis, responses, and monitoring and control on
a project.”1
 Risk management is the formal process whereby risk factors are
systematically identified,
 assessed, and provided for. The term risk management tends to be
misleading
 because it implies control of events. Risk management must be seen as
preparation for
 possible events in advance, rather than simply reacting to them as they
happen
 Procurement Management includes “the processes to purchase or acquire the
products,
 services, or results needed from outside the project team to perform the work.”1
 Planning for purchases or acquisitions, contracting, requesting seller responses,
source
 selection, and contract administration (including closure) are all part of Procurement
 Management. Inherent in the process of managing a project is the procurement of a
 wide variety of resources. In most instances, this requires the negotiation of a
formal,
 written contract. In a global business environment, it is essential to understand
varying
 social, political, legal, and financial implications in this process.
Key Points to Remember

 ! A project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to produce a

 unique product, service, or result.
 ! A project is also a problem scheduled for solution.
 ! Project management is application of knowledge, skills, tools,
 and techniques to project activities to meet project requirements.
 Project management is accomplished by applying the
 processes of initiating, planning, executing, monitoring and
 controlling, and closing.
 ! All projects are constrained by Performance, Time, Cost,
 and Scope requirements. Only three of these can have
 values assigned. The fourth must be determined by the
 project team.
 ! Projects tend to fail because the team does not take time to
 ensure that they have developed a proper definition of the
 problem being solved.
 ! The major phases of a project include concept, definition,
 planning, execution and control, and closeout.
 Questions for Review
 1. Project management is not just:
 a. planning
 b. rework
 c. scheduling
 d. controlling
 2. The problem with being a working project manager is that,
 in a conflict between working and managing:
 a. You don’t know what priorities to set.
 b. Your boss will think you’re slacking off.
 c. There will never be enough time to do both.
 d. The work will take precedence and managing will suffer.
 4. Project scope defines:
 a. A project manager’s visibility to the end date.
 b. The magnitude or size of the job.
 c. How often a project has been changed.
 d. The limits of a project manager’s authority.
The Role of the Project Manager

 The primary responsibility of the project manager is to ensure

that all work is completed on time, within budget and scope,
and at the correct performance level.

 A project manager must understand the mission and vision of

 the organization first, see how the project they are managing
 meshes with the organization’s mission, and then steer the
 project to ensure that the interests of the organization are met.
 The first skills a project manager needs are people skills.

 ! One of the biggest traps for project managers is to perform

 technical work in addition to managing the job, because,
 when there is a conflict between performing the two, the project
 manager cannot neglect the management aspects.
 Instead of asking for authority, make decisions yourself, take
 action that is appropriate and does not violate policy, and then
 inform your boss what you have done.

 The project manager’s job is to ensure that everyone in the

 project team has what he needs to do his job well.
 ! A project manager must exercise both leadership and management
 skills.
Research topics

 Conflit management in projects

 Project Customers management
 Ressource allocation
 Projects Risk managment
 Project Time management
 Project Change management
 Project procurement management
 Leadership in project management