Introduction to Project Management

Project Management Introduction

• Projects have defined scope, deadlines, and interdependencies. They are unique and use company resources. Conflicts are common.
• A project manager coordinates activities, monitors schedule and costs, and is accountable for project completion. They act as a facilitator.
• Key questions for PMs: What needs to be done? When must it be done? How can needed resources be obtained?
• Project managers are responsible to the parent company (resource usage, timely reports, keeping the sponsor informed), the client (project integrity, communication of changes), and the project team (team member well-being).

Ethical Considerations in Project Management

• Project managers face ethical dilemmas including accepting gifts from contractors, altering status reports, falsifying time/expense reports, and sacrificing quality for schedule.

Special Demands on Project Managers

• Acquiring resources (budget, personnel, equipment)
• Motivating personnel outside their direct reporting structure
• Handling project obstacles
• Making trade-offs between project goals
• Maintaining a balanced perspective on project progress
• Broad communication and strong negotiation skills

Project Management Office (PMO)

• PMOs establish procedures, improve systems, offer training, assist with administrative details and project risk assessment.
• They help identify impact of changes on projects, conduct reviews/audits, maintain archives, collect lessons learned, and assist with termination.

Project Scheduling

• Techniques like Gantt charts, Critical Path Method (CPM), and Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) are used for project scheduling.
• Gantt Charts: Show tasks' start and end times.
• CPM/PERT: Use project networks to understand project completion time and critical activities.
• CPM (Critical Path Method): Deterministic approach, assumes activity times are known.
• PERT (Program Evaluation & Review Technique): Probabilistic approach, accounts for variability in activity times.
• AOA (Activity on Arrow) and AON (Activity on Node) methods are used for network diagrams.
• AON: Activities are represented by nodes.
• AOA: Activities are represented by arcs.
• Nodes must be numbered in ascending order so activity finishing nodes are larger than their starting nodes.
• Dummy activities (duration = 0) are used if more than one arc starts/ends on the same node.

Critical Path Analysis

• Critical path: Longest path through the project network, determining project completion time.
• Critical activities: Activities on the critical path.
• Earliest time (ET): Longest duration of all preceding activities.
• Latest time (LT): Minimum duration of all following activities.
• Total Float (TF): Time an activity can be delayed without affecting project completion time. Calculated as (Latest Time for successor-Earliest Time for successor).
• Free Float (FF): Time an activity can be delayed without delaying the start of the next activity Calculated as (Earliest time of next task-Latest time of current task).

Explore the fundamentals of project management including key roles, responsibilities, and ethical considerations faced by project managers. This quiz covers essential questions for effective project oversight and the challenges in resource management. Test your understanding of how project managers navigate their unique responsibilities and ethical dilemmas in the workspace.