Project Management Fundamentals

What is a Project?

• A project is a collection of tasks to create a product/service with a defined start and finish.
• Projects are unique and temporary undertakings.
• The first challenge is to deliver the project within defined constraints.
• The second is effectively allocating and integrating resources to meet pre-defined objectives.
• A project is a temporary endeavor to create a unique product, service, or result.
• All Projects consume time and resources and have start and end dates

Success of Projects

• Projects often fail due to:
  • Poor communication
  • Inadequate planning
  • Unrealistic expectations
  • Failure to meet customer expectations
  • Scope creep
  • Lack of resources and control
  • Unclear objectives

Role of the Project Manager

• The project manager is assigned by the performing organization to achieve project objectives.
• A project manager differs from a functional/operations manager.
• Beyond authority, a project manager needs:
  • Knowledge of project management
  • Performance in applying their knowledge
  • Strong personal attitude, character, and leadership
  • Project management competences

The Triple Constraint

• The triple constraint includes time, cost, and scope.
• Time: The amount of time available to complete a project.
• Cost: The budgeted amount available.
• Scope: What must be done to produce the project's end result.
• These 3 constraints often compete.
• Increased scope typically results in increased time and cost.
• A tight time constraint leads to increased costs and reduced scope.
• A tight budget results in increased time and reduced scope.

Importance of Project Management

• Project management is important because:
  • Product lifecycles are shortening, requiring constant innovation
  • Product launch windows are narrow
  • Products are increasingly complex and technical

History of Project Management

• Henry Gantt is the forefather of project management.
  • He created the Gantt chart.
  • He contributed to the early development of work breakdown structure tools.
• Frederick Winslow Taylor contributed to scientific management.
• Changes were made to improve labor productivity.
• CPM is the Critical Path Method.
• PERT is also an important part of the history of project management

Selected Well-Known Scientific Management Concepts

• Cybernetics focuses on how information is processed and reacted upon and how changes can be made to improve tasks.
• Six Sigma, developed by Motorola, focuses on improving processes through defect elimination, asserting:
  • Continuous variation reduction is key to business success.
  • Manufacturing and business processes are measurable, analyzable, improvable, and controllable.
  • Sustained quality improvement requires commitment from the entire organization.

Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

• WBS is a core project management technique that defines and organizes the total project scope using a hierarchical tree structure.
• The first two levels of WBS define planned outcomes, representing 100% of the project scope.
• A well-defined WBS describes planned outcomes, not planned actions.

Future Trends in Project Management

• There is an increase in project management scope and system integration.
  • It's shifting from strategic to tactical approaches.
  • Project managers have increased responsibility in flat organizations.
  • There are more project-oriented companies.
• There is greater discipline in project management.
  • Standardization is done via enterprise project management.
  • Standardization is done via external review techniques.
• There is a greater emphasis on risk management.
• There is more outsourcing of projects to expert project management companies.

Project Stakeholders

• Project stakeholders include suppliers, customers, colleagues, sponsors, experts, and other interested parties.
• A stakeholder can influence or be influenced by the project.
• Without total stakeholder satisfaction, the project is considered a failure.

Program Management

• Program management involves managing groups of projects.
• Program management gains benefits and control through managing similar projects together.

Portfolio Management

• A portfolio is a collection of programs/projects to help management achieve strategic business objectives.
• Portfolio management is the central alignment of one or more portfolios.
• It focuses on aligning projects with organizational strategies and objectives.

Enterprise Environmental Factors

• These factors are internal and external influences surrounding and influencing a project's success.
• They can arise from any enterprise involved in the project, acting as input to planning processes.
  • Examples include organizational culture, structure, and process.
  • Marketplace conditions

How a Company is Managed: Vision and Mission

• Upper management develops vision statements.
  • Vision statement defines the business' meaning and purpose for stakeholders.
  • It looks to the future.
• Middle management develops mission statements.
  • Mission statements state the purpose and objectives of organizations.
  • It defines the firm’s core business.
• The mission gets broken into objectives for projects and departments.
• These are further broken down into strategies, goals, values, and initiatives.

Organizational Structure: Functional Organizations

• Functional organizations are divided by categories of specialization.
  • Strengths:
    • Suitable for projects within a basic functional structure.
    • They enable the development of in-depth knowledge and intellectual capital.
    • They allow for standard career paths
  • Weaknesses:
    • They can be difficult to achieve functional cooperation.
    • They have a lack of customer focus.
    • Projects may take longer due to structural problems and slower communication.
• Projects are less likely to be successful in functional organizations.

Organizational Structure: Project Organizations

• Strengths:
  • Authority is assigned solely to the project manager.
  • Leads to improved communication across the organization.
  • Promotes effective and speedy decision-making.
  • Promotes the creation of project management experts.
  • Encourages a rapid response to market opportunities.
• Weaknesses:
  • Setting up and maintaining teams can be expensive.
  • Team members may develop loyalty to the project.
  • It can be difficult to maintain a pooled supply of intellectual capital.
  • There is concern among project team members about the future.

Organizational Structure: Matrix Organizations

• Matrix organizations create an organization with 2 bosses.
• Strengths:
  • Suited to dynamic environments.
  • Emphasizes the dual importance of project management and functional efficiency.
  • Promotes coordination across functional units.
  • Maximizes scarce resources between competing projects.
• Weaknesses:
  • Dual hierarchies mean two bosses are present.
  • They require significant time to be spent negotiating sharing of critical resources.
  • They can be frustrating for workers.

Stakeholder Management: Project Stakeholders Definition

• Project stakeholders are individuals or groups with an active stake in the project.
• Identifying project stakeholders:
  • Internal:
    • Management
    • Accountants
    • Team members
  • External:
    • Clients
    • Competitors
    • Suppliers
    • Environmental, political, consumer groups

Stakeholder Relationships

• Communication paths = n(n-1)/2, where n is the number of communication participants.
• Everything in the project depends on efficient communication.
• Project managers spend 90% of their time on communication.

Stakeholder Management: Managing Stakeholders

• The process includes:
  • Identifying stakeholders
  • Gathering information
  • Identifying mission
  • Determining strengths and weaknesses
  • Identifying strategy
  • Predicting behavior
  • Implementing a management strategy

Organizational Culture

• Each organization develops its own unique outlook, operating policies, procedures, patterns of thinking, attitudes, and norms of behavior.
• Organizational culture is the solution to external and internal problems.
• Key factors in cultural development:
  • Technology
  • Environment
  • Geographical location
  • Reward system
  • Rules and procedures
  • Key organizational members
  • Critical incidents

How Culture Affects Projects

• Department Interaction: Cultures favoring cooperation lead to more successful projects.
• Employee Commitment: Projects rely on the motivation and commitment of team members.
• Project Planning: "Padding" of duration estimates when delays are unacceptable.
• Performance Evaluation: A culture that prioritizes innovative products strengthens an aggressive project management culture offers potentially high payoffs.

Summary of Weeks 2 & 3

• Understand how effective project management contributes to achieving strategic objectives.
• Recognize the three components of the corporate strategy model: formulation, implementation, and evaluation.
• See the importance of identifying critical project stakeholders and managing them.
• Recognize the strengths and weaknesses of organizational structures.
• Understand key concepts of corporate culture.
• Recognize the effects of supportive/unsupportive organizational culture on project management.

Project Scope Management and LEAN Software Developments: Collecting Requirements

• Requirements include:
  • Business
  • Stakeholder
  • Solution (functional and nonfunctional)
  • Project
  • Quality

Project Constraints

• Know and understand enterprise environmental factors that place natural limits.
• Constraints limit the team's options for resources, budget, and schedule.

Scope Statement

• A scope statement is the first document produced managed during the project planning phase.
• It includes:
  • Objectives
  • Deliverables
  • Milestones
  • Technical requirements
  • Limits
  • Exclusions
• It requires sign-off approval from the customer and corporate management

Scope Management Plan

• It can be driven by progressive elaboration.
• It describes how scope and scope changes are managed.
• It leads to:
  • Less scope creep
  • Fewer scope changes
  • Better communication
  • Improved customer satisfaction
• Scope verification is formal acceptance of the project scope by stakeholders.

Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

• A WBS groups project components to organize and define the total scope.
  • WBS breaks the project scope into smaller, manageable pieces.
  • Project managers manage pieces of projects.
  • WBS decomposes the scope to a manageable level.
• Characteristics:
  • The lowest-level tasks should take between 8-80 person-hours.
  • WBS shows the flow of work.
  • WBS generates stakeholder buy-in.
• Creation Rules:
  • The WBS is created by the full project team.
  • The first level is completed before the project breaks down further.
  • Each WBS level is a smaller segment of the level above.
• The entire project has to be include in each of higher levels
• Work goes toward project deliverables.
• Work not in WBS is not part of project.
• The project breaks down into realistic, estimable, quickly completable, and meaningful deliverables.

Work Packages

• The work package is the lowest level managed by the project manager.
• The person completing the work package may break it down further, but the project manager only tracks the work package level.
• 8-80 hour rule may be exceeded on very large projects.
• Exceeding the rule often indicates the project manager is working on another project.

Project Management Maturity

• High maturity: Institutionalized, seeks continuous improvement
• Moderate maturity: Defined practices, training programs, organizational support
• Low maturity: Ad hoc process, no common language, little support

Work Authorization

• Project management contracts require legal right to contract, legal age, sound mind, valid consideration, legal scope, offer and acceptance, and mutual intent.
• Project management contracts contain:
  • Excusable delays
  • Allowable costs
  • Statements of liquidated damages
  • Criteria for inspections
  • Responsibility for defect correction
  • Dispute resolution mechanisms

Scope Reporting

• Scope reporting consists of regular updates on cost, schedule, and technical performance.
• Typical documents include:
  • S-Curves
  • Earned Value Analysis
  • Variance or exception reports
  • Schedule status
  • Technical performance status

Control Systems

• Configuration control tracks the emerging scope versus the baseline scope.
• Design control monitors the project's scope, schedule, and cost.
• Trend monitoring tracks estimated costs, schedules, and resources.
• Document control ensures documentation is compiled and disseminated.
• Acquisition control monitors systems used to acquire necessary project equipment, materials, or services.
• Specification control ensures project specifications are prepared, communicated, and only changed with proper authorization.

Lean History

• Lean is a manufacturing and production practice that considers expending resources beyond creating end customer value is wasteful and should be eliminated.

Types of Wastes

• Defects/Rework: Scrap and fixing errors.
• Overproduction: Making more than is needed, just in case.
• Inventory/Queue: Excessive work-in-process inventory.
• Over-processing: Doing more than the customer needs or requires with over abundance.
• Motion: Unnecessary and awkward movements.
• Transport: Unnecessary material movement.
• Waiting: Delay for an upstream activity to complete.
• Under-utilized talent: Not using people where their strengths lie

Value

• Value is defined by the customer.
• Value is created through value added activities.

Agile vs Waterfall

• Waterfall methodology:
  • Highly structured
  • Employs a bureaucratic structure.
  • Government are often regulated
• Agile methodology:
  • Uses fast, lean organizations
  • Develops an environment of collaboration
  • Can be adopted by big or small organizations

Types of Proposals and Plans

• Preliminary Project Proposal (PPP):
  • A short, enthusiastic study that outlines the advantages and benefits
  • Contains raw costs, benefit estimates, and positive impacts.
• Project Proposal (PP):
  • Contains detailed project objectives, costs, and benefits.
  • It defines required resources.
  • It is used as a contractual agreement.
• Project Management Plan (PMP):
  • Is the last, updated revision.
  • It provides accurate financial estimations.
• Project Post Mortem (PPM):
  • Contains lessons learned and statistical data on performance and quality.

Complimentary Plans to Time Plan

• Contingency plan:
  • It is elaborated when risk management is performed.
  • It consists of identification.
  • It quantifies on project cost and schedule.
• Quality Standards:
  • Strict, quantifiable levels of quality are contractually required.
  • It includes mandatory quality standards and plans.
• Implementation Standards:
  • Organizations follow technical standards for product elaboration.
  • Standards should be included on activities to be accomplished.
• Installation plan:
  • Installation of products is required.
• Acceptance plan:
  • Testing includes needed everything to.
  • Standards clients include requirements
• Maintenance plan:
  • Contracts given delivered products.
  • Standards act client between vendor.
• Documentation standards:
  • All should have documentation standards.
  • Standards should should be included sub plans.
• All plans make the Project Plan

Rules for Creating Network Activity Diagrams

1. Determination of activity precedence ordering
2. Network diagrams flow left to right
3. Activity can't begin until all preceding activities have been completed
4. Arrows on network indicate presence and logical flow
5. Each activity have a unique identifier

Key Scheduling Terminology

• Scope: Work content and products
• Work Breakdown Structure (WBS): Task-oriented family tree
• Work Package: A deliverable unit
• Project Network Diagram: Schematic display of relationships
• Path: Sequence of activities
• Early Start Date: The earliest possible data portions can be completed
• Late Start Date: The latest possible data activity
• Forward Pass: Network determine early start/finish time each activity
• Backward Pass: Calculate finish times all for network not completed
• Event: Point in time
• Node: One or more data points
• Predecessors: Activities
• Successor: Activities start
• Float (Slack): time from early start before project is done
• Critical path: longest duration
  • long of tasks in network that must complete
  • critical to delaying entire project
  • critical path method: technique identify flexibility can completed
  • Resource limited: Project schedule that finish rates reflect availability
  • Program Evaluation and Review Tool (PERT): probability analysis to where project time difficult measure

Steps To Reduce Critical Path

• eliminate the most on costs
• realign paths
• overlap task sequential
• tasks activity path
• early tasks speed up
• the project up speed

Resource Leveling

• Necessary to critical path longer
• almost extend
• Project addresses scheduling that limited times
• Project selects cost resources during work

Exam

• Exam slides week 5 and 16

Earned Value Analysis

• Technique project measure
• measure and predict moving
• measure and value so far
• Project senior by management is simple for project

Project Management- How Is Risk Defined?

• Risk is any negative in the project.
• Risk varies.
• the idea minimise negatives.
  • project need do risk such as-
  • identify possible risk occurrence.
  • rate the impact.
  • find solutions.

How is Risk Equation?

- risk = impact times impact
- all will be time or cash
- Alternate is better solution to rate

Project Risk And opportunity

• Risks and opportunities mirror.
• risks is project events occur.
• opportunity helps whereas risk cause damage.
• All is to minimal impact company.
• Team creates a list as follows-
  • with teams
  • list with experts
  • assessments
  • past data

4 stage approach Risk-Management

• Risk Determination:
  • factors likely affect the project.
  • risks such as time, risk, resources.
  • financial, tech, execution,contractual risk

Probability Analysis

• value likely by will impact project the occurrence.
• the Likelihood and effect have reasonable.
• can with teams
• quantitate

Risk Mitigation

• help reduce factors could
• Control documentation:
  • new data base can needed
  • new data is needed new update

Quantitate Risk Analysis.

• data Representation
  • Quantitate the most likely.
• Expert judgment*:
  • team techniques and new process validation.

Technique Analysis

• Expected analysis:
  • decision tree help design.
• modeling by simulation

Mitigation Strategies

• Next phase by is new affect mitigation.
  • Alternatives can adopted
  • most risks, minor risks

Minimise and transfers costs

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Project Evaluation Review

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• network is help with timing.

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