Introduction- Project

Management
Fundamentals

RajBala Simon
Agenda
 Project Definition
 Triple Constraints
 Projects & Operation
 What is Project Management
 Project Management Framework
 Project Life Cycle and Organization
 Typical Characteristics of Project Life Cycle
 Project Stakeholders
 Project Management Process Groups
 Project Management Process Interactions
 Project Management Knowledge Areas

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Game

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The Blind Men/Women and
the Elephant

 Strong opinions
 Each is partly right
 All were wrong
 Not one of them saw the elephant
 The moral of the story from a project
management perspective…
 Many experience or read about an aspect or
element of project management and think
they know it ALL
 Accidental Project Managers are out there in
great numbers

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What is Project ?

“Projects are defined as unique,

temporary endeavors with a
specific beginning and end. They
are undertaken to achieve an
objective conforming to specific
requirements, including constraints
of scope, time, cost, quality and
resources”
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What is a project?

 A Project is a planned set of

activities
 A Project can be of a long or short
term duration
 A Project can be large or small task
with specific start and end dates
 A project has scope, time, cost,
quality and resource constraints
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Projects Vary in Size and
Scope
 NASA shuttle launch
 Building a boat
 Building a hospital
 Building renovation and & space
modification
 Planning a party or wedding
 Organizing the Olympic games
 Developing a new software program
 Getting a university degree
 Company mergers

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Project Characteristics

 Constant  Multiple priorities

communication  Complex and
across organizational numerous activities
boundaries
 Unique, one-time
 Many people
involved, across set of events
several functional  Deadlines
areas  Start and end dates
 Sequenced events  Identifiable
 Goal oriented stakeholders
 Has an end product  Limited resources
or service and budget

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When is a Project a Project?

Projects are initiated by organizations for

a variety of reasons, such as to meet a
business need, attain a strategic
objective or meet a market demand.

The end is reached when the project’s

objectives have been achieved, or if the
project is terminated for any reason

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Examples of IT Projects

 A help desk or technical worker

replaces laptops for a small
department.
 A small software development team
adds a new feature to an internal
software application.
 A college campus upgrades its
technology infrastructure to provide
wireless Internet access.
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More Examples
 Building construction
 Domestic building
 Facility
 Industrial park
 Infrastructure construction
 Highway
 Interchange
 Academic research project

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 Triple constraint
 Every project is constrained in different ways
by its:
 Scope goals: What work will be done?

 Time goals: How long should it take to complete?

 Cost goals: What should it cost?

 It is the project manager’s duty to balance

these three often-competing goals.

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 Triple constraint- Time

A project's activities can either take shorter or

longer amount of time to complete. Completion of
tasks depends on a number of factors such as the
number of people working on the project,
experience, skills, etc.
Time is a crucial factor which is uncontrollable. On
the other hand, failure to meet the deadlines in a
project can create adverse effects. Most often, the
main reason for organizations to fail in terms of
time is due to lack of resources

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 Triple constraint- Cost

It's imperative for both the project manager and

the organization to have an estimated cost when
undertaking a project. Budgets will ensure that
project is developed or implemented below a
certain cost.

Sometimes, project managers have to allocate

additional resources in order to meet the
deadlines with a penalty of additional project
costs.
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 Triple constraint- Scope

Scope looks at the outcome of the project

undertaken. This consists of a list of
deliverables, which need to be addressed by
the project team.

A successful project manager will know to

manage both the scope of the project and any
change in scope which impacts time and cost.

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 Triple constraint- Quality

Quality is not a part of the project management triangle,

but it is the ultimate objective of every delivery. Hence, the
project management triangle represents implies quality.

Many project managers are under the notion that 'high

quality comes with high cost', which to some extent is true.
By using low quality resources to accomplish project
deadlines does not ensure success of the overall project.

Like with the scope, quality will also be an important

deliverable for the project

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What is Operation?
 Operations are an organization's
on-going, repetitive activities,
such as accounting or production.
 Operations are permanent
initiatives that produce repetitive
results, with resources assigned
to do the same set of tasks and
produce a standard output

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Similarities Between Projects
& Operations

 Both are performed by people,

 Both are planned, executed and
controlled, and
 Both have resource limitation

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 Differences Between Projects
and Operations
 Projects are executed to start a new business
objective and terminated when it is achieved,
while Operational work does not produce
anything new and it is ongoing.
 Projects create a unique product, service, or
result; Operations produce the same product,
aim to earn profit, and keep the system
running.
 Projects have a fixed budget; Operations
don’t have fixed budget or time duration

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Project Management

Project management is “the

application of knowledge, skills,
tools and techniques to project
activities to meet project
requirements

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 Project Management Contd..

Project management is a method and/or

set of techniques based on the accepted
principles of management used for
planning, estimating and controlling work
activities to reach a desired result on time,
within budget, and according to the project
specifications
It is the art of organizing, leading, reporting
and completing a project through people

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What is Project Management?

 Tools/techniques
 Processes and methodology
 Within time, cost and scope
 Hard and soft skills
 A discipline evolving towards a
profession

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Business and Social Aspects
of Project Management

 Hard and soft skills

 Technical aspects of project
management
 Interpersonal skills

Influence

Politicking

Negotiation

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Project Management

 Projects and project

management are about
people and teamwork
 Who does what?
 Who takes what risk?

 Who else is involved or

interested/affected?

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Project Management
Challenges

 Lack of a common understanding

on the question “What is project
management???”
 Managing stakeholders,
expectations, teams, projects,
uncertainty
 Measuring project management
results
 Methodology issues
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Value of Project Management
(Why are we doing this?)

 Improve project/program/firm
performance as measured by
efficiency, effectiveness
 Competitive advantage through
competency
 Be more “Successful”

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Value of Project Management
(Why are we doing this?)

 Proactive vs. reactive

 Root out ill-conceived,
directionless projects
 Increase visibility by providing
roadmaps

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 Project and Program
Managers
 Project managers work with project
sponsors, project teams, and other people
involved in projects to meet project goals.
 Program: “A group of related projects
managed in a coordinated way to obtain
benefits and control not available from
managing them individually.”*
 Program managers oversee programs and
often act as bosses for project managers.
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Project Management Team

 Project Sponsor(s)
 Decision maker, funder
 Project Manager
 Manages the big picture
 Project Leads
 Manage parts of a project

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Project Management Team
Contd…

 Project Team
 Work on specific tasks
 Stakeholders
 Vested interests
 Many of them
 Keep them happy

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 Project Life Cycle and
Organization

Project life cycle

Divide projects into phases to provide better
management control with appropriate link to ongoing
operations.
Project life cycle defines:
- What technical work to do in each phase
- What deliverables are to be generated in each phase
and how they are reviewed, verified and validated
- Who is involved in each phase
- How to control and approve each phase

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Project Life Cycle

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 Project Management
Processes (PDCA)

Plan – Do – Check – Action Cycle (PDCA)

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 Common characteristics for life
cycles
 Phases are generally sequential
 Cost and staffing levels are low at the start, peak
during intermediate phase and drop rapidly on
closing phase.
 Highest level of uncertainty, greatest risk of
failing to achieve the objectives at the start of
project.
 Highest influence of stakeholders on project's
product and final cost at the start of project
because the cost of change increase as project
progressing.
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Characteristics of The Project
Life Cycle

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 Project Phases

The completion and approval of one or

more deliverables characterize a project
phase. For reason of size, complexity,
level of risk, and cash flow constraints,
project phases can be further
subdivided into sub phases aligned with
one or more specific deliverables for
monitoring and control. For each phase
and sub phase, the project
management processes can be applied.
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 Project life cycle and product life
cycle

Product life cycle starts with the

business plan, through ideas to
product, ongoing operations and
product divestment.
The project life cycle goes through a
series of phases to create the
product.

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 Project Stakeholders

Are Individuals and organizations

- actively involve in the project
- whose interest may be affected by
the Project
- Influence the project objectives or
outcomes

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Project Stakeholder Contd…

 Understand the role of the

various stakeholders
 Identify the real nature of each
stakeholder and their interest in
the project
 Understand their motivation and
behaviour

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Key stakeholders include:

- Project Manager
- Customer/User
- Performing organization
- Project team members
- Project Management team
- Sponsor
- Suppliers
- Influencers
- PMO
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Organizational Influences

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 Project Management System

Set of tools, techniques,

methodologies, resources and
procedures used to manage a
project.

Project Management Plan describes

how the project management
system will be used.
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Functional Organization

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Weak Matrix Organization

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Balanced Matrix Organization

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Strong Matrix Organization

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Projectized Organization

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Composite Organization

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Project Management
Framework

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 Project Management Process
Groups

 A process is a series of actions

directed toward a particular result

 Project management can be viewed

as a number of interlinked processes

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 Project Management Process
Groups Contd..
 The project management process groups include:
 Initiating processes


Defining and authorizing a project or project phase
 Planning processes

Devising and maintaining a workable scheme to ensure that
the project addresses the organization’s needs
 Executing processes

Coordinating people and resources to carry out the various
plans and produce the products, services or results of the
project or phase
 Monitoring and controlling processes

Regularly measuring and monitoring progress ro ensure that the
project objectives are met
 Closing processes

Formalizing acceptance of the project or phase, closing out contracts,
documenting lessons learned

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Level of Activity and Overlap of
Process Groups Over Time

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 Project Management Process
Groups
 Level of activity and length of each process group
varies for every product
 On the average:

Executing process requires 50-60% of the resources and
time

The planning process requires about 15-25%

The initiating and closing processes are usually the
shortest and require the least amount of resources,
usually 5 -10% each

Monitoring and controlling is done throughout the project
and generally takes 5-15%

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 Process Groups Outcomes
 Initiating processes
 The organization recognizes that a new project exists –
completion of a business case and project charter
 Planning processes
 Completing the WBS and scope statement, project
schedule and cost estimate
 Executing processes
 Performing actions necessary to complete the work
described in the planning activities
 Monitoring and controlling processes
 Measuring progress toward the project objectives,
monitoring deviation from the plan and taking corrective
action to match progress with the plan
 Closing processes
 Formal acceptance of the work and creation of closing
documents 54
Major Causes of Project
Failure

 Projects fail for the following

reasons:
 The project is a solution in search of a
problem
 Only the project team is interested in
the result
 No one is in charge
 There is no project structure
 The plan lacks detail
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Major Causes of Project
Failure

 Projects fail for the following

reasons:
 The project has insufficient budget
and/or resources
 Lack of team communication
 Straying from original goal
 The project is not tracked against
the plan

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Major Causes of Project
Success

 Stakeholders are identified

 Stakeholders expectations are
known and met
 Senior Management support
 There is a clearly stated purpose
and a sound plan
 Goal and objectives are understood
and communicated

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Major Causes of Project
Success

 A constructive goal-oriented
culture
 Technically competent team
 Effective (and committed) team
 Excellent communication
 Trust

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 Nine Project Management
Knowledge Areas
 Knowledge areas describe the key
competencies that project managers must
develop.
 Four core knowledge areas lead to specific project
objectives (scope, time, cost, and quality).
 Four facilitating knowledge areas are the means
through which the project objectives are achieved
(human resources, communication, risk, and
procurement management).
 One knowledge area (project integration
management) affects and is affected by all of the
other knowledge areas.
 All knowledge areas are important!

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Project Management
Knowledge Areas

 Scope  Procurement
 Time  Quality
 Cost  Risk
 Human Resources Management
 Communication
 Integration

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Knowledge Areas and Key
Terms

 A project manager juggles 9 +

balls (knowledge areas) and
many tools and techniques

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Relationships Among Process
Groups and Knowledge Areas

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Groups and Knowledge Areas
Contd..

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 For successful project:-
 Select appropriate processes required to meet
project objectives
 Use a defined approach that can be adopted to
meet requirements
 Comply with requirements to meet stakeholder
needs and expectations
 Balance the competing demands of scope, time,
cost, quality, resources and risk to produce
specified product service or result.

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