Project Management Concepts

Project, DefinedA project is an endeavor to accomplish a specific objective through a series of tasks/activities.

A project consumes resources.

A project produces a tangible deliverable.

A project has a customer & target market.

Six Primary areas of project management

Providing leadership and vision

Planning and organizing the project

Organizing and managing the project team

Six Primary areas, Cont.

Estimating costs and developing the project budget

Monitoring and controlling the project schedule

Ensuring the quality of the final result

Providing leadership and vision

Develop the project vision Why are we undertaking this project What is it expected to achieve How do the members of the team relate to each

other What standards of conduct are expected How are coordination and cooperation achieved

Providing leadership and vision, cont.

Share the project vision Instilling a vision requires frequent and

continual communication with the project team

Planning and organizing the project

Estimate the size of the projectDefine project milestonesDevelop a detailed list of tasksAssign resources to tasksDevelop and maintain a project schedule Developing a Baseline Plan is an essential part of

project management. In essence, the plan is a roadmap. Unforeseen circumstances may jeopardize

achievement of the project objective.

Organizing and managing

Recruiting and obtaining staff for the team

Cross-functional teams are essential in the early phases of a project.

Who are the project’s stakeholders?Who are the project’s stakeholders?

Prepare a team charter

Assigning team members to work groups and tasks

Ensuring that team members are well trained

Organizing and managing, cont.

Ensuring that groups develop into effective work teams

The challenge facing the project manager is to prevent, anticipate, and/or overcome unforeseen circumstances by using high performance teams.

Estimating costs and developing the project budget

Two of the most difficult tasks

Ongoing for the life of the project

Monitoring and Controlling Projects—comparing actual to predicted

Tracking progress using the schedule and defined milestonesMaintaining an open items control logUnderstanding and utilizing corrective procedures carefullyImplementing consistent status review and communication techniquesManaging client expectations

Ensuring the quality of the final result

Validate to ensure that the system meets the user requirements

Verify to ensure that the system is internally consistent and correct

Walkthroughs validate diagrams against user requirements and ensure consistency

Testing validates the system

Project Objective Prior to developing a project plan, justify the need for a project and define the project objective. The objective must be:

Specific Measurable Actionable Relevant Time bound

The project objective is usually defined in terms of scope, performance, schedule and cost.

The Baseline Plan

Clearly defines the project objective.

Determine the specific tasks that need to be performed using the Work Breakdown Structure.

Create relationships among the tasks. Determine predecessors and PERT chart.

The Baseline Plan (cont.)

Determine the resources needed and how many. Make a time schedule and cost estimate.

Communicate this baseline plan in a Gantt chart.

The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

A task/activity is a piece of work that consumes time.The WBS is a hierarchical tree of end tasks/activities to be accomplished. A work item is one small piece of the project. A work package is the lowest-level item.

Responsibility is assigned at the work package and work item tasks.

Responsibility MatrixDisplays in tabular format the individuals responsible for the work items.

Used for team “resource leveling” in ensuring a fair distribution of work. “X” can be used to indicate who is responsible. “P” indicates who has primary responsibility. “S” indicates who has secondary responsibility.

Preparing the PERT chart – Sequencing Tasks

Ask the following questions regarding each activity: Which activities must be finished immediately

before this activity can be started? Which activities can be done concurrently with this

activity? Which activities cannot be started until this activity

is finished?

MS Project will create both PERT and Gantt charts.

Project Scheduling

It is necessary to select an estimated start time and a required completion time for the overall project.Relate these times to the project objective, contracts (RFP) & resources available.Be aggressive since people work up/down to expectations.

Activity Duration Estimates

The first step in allocating time to each task is to estimate how long each activity will take.

The duration estimate is the total elapsed time for the work to be done PLUS any associated waiting time.

The person responsible for performing the activity should help make the duration estimate.

Schedule Calculations

Once you have an estimated duration for each activity and an overall window, you must determine whether the activities can be done by the required completion date.

Schedule Calculations

A project schedule includes:

the earliest times (or dates) at which each activity can start and finish, based on the project's estimated start time (or date)

the latest times (or dates) by which each activity must start and finish in order to complete the project by its required completion time (or date)

Scheduling Outcomes

Critical Path – the series of tasks that must be completed within duration in order to not delay the project.

Alternate definition—the longest path through the tasks of a project, which identifies the earliest possible completion date.

Slack Time – a task whose start time can be delayed without affecting the required completion date.

Controlling the ProjectA regular reporting period should be established.

Reports are produced which document the following:Data on actual performance Information on any changes in scope, schedule, and budget

Keep in mind:Data should be collected in a timely manner and used to update the schedule and budget Compare updated schedule and budget to the baseline and analyze

The Baseline PlanKeep in mind:

Projects overrun their budgets, miss completion dates, or only partially satisfy their technical specifications because there is no viable baseline plan.

The people involved in performing the project should participate in planning the work; they are most knowledgeable.

Customer satisfaction increases in proportion to involvement in the baseline plan.