Project Management Quiz Chapter 1: Defining Modern Practices

Study Notes

A project is a complex, nonroutine, one-time effort limited by time, budget, resources, and performance specifications designed to meet customer needs.
Key characteristics of a project include an established objective, defined life span, involvement of multiple departments and professionals, and specific time, cost, and performance requirements.

The project manager marshals resources for the project and acts as a direct link to the customer.
They provide direction, coordination, and integration to the project team, and are responsible for the project's performance and success.

Compression of the product life cycle is a factor leading to the increased use of project management.
Knowledge explosion, triple bottom line (planet, people, profit), increased customer focus, and small projects representing big problems are also driving factors.

Agile project management is a methodology that emerged from frustration with traditional project management processes in software development.
It employs an incremental, iterative process, focusing on active collaboration between the project and customer representative, and adapting to changing requirements.
Agile is often used in the defining phase to establish specifications and requirements, and then traditional methods are used to plan, execute, and close the project.

Rolling wave development involves iterations that typically last from one to four weeks.
The goal of each iteration is to make tangible progress, such as defining a key requirement, solving a technical problem, or creating desired features to demonstrate to the customer.
Progress is reviewed and adjustments are made at the end of each iteration, with each new iteration building upon the previous one.

A program is a series of coordinated, related, multiple projects that continue over an extended time and are intended to achieve a goal.
Program management involves managing a group of ongoing, interdependent, related projects in a coordinated way to achieve strategic objectives.

The project life cycle includes initiation, planning, execution, and closure.
The project life cycle involves managing temporary, non-repetitive activities and frequently acts independently of the formal organization.

Managing temporary, non-repetitive activities and frequently acting independently of the formal organization are key challenges of project management.