Project Management Fundamentals

• Project management is the discipline of initiating, planning, executing, controlling, and closing the work of a team to achieve specific goals and meet specific success criteria.
• It is a strategic competency for organizations, enabling them to tie project results to business goals.
• The primary challenge of project management is to achieve all of the project goals and objectives while honoring the preconceived constraints.
• Typical constraints are scope, time, and budget.
• The secondary and more ambitious challenge is to optimize the allocation and integration of inputs necessary to meet pre-defined objectives.

Project Management Processes

• Project Management processes fall into five distinct groups: initiation, planning, execution, monitoring and controlling, and closure.
• Initiation involves defining the project at a broad level.
• Planning includes setting objectives, scope, and approach.
• Execution is performing the work defined in the project plan.
• Monitoring and controlling involves tracking, reviewing, and regulating progress.
• Closure includes finalising all activities to formally close the project.

Project Management Knowledge Areas

• Project management also encompasses several knowledge areas, including integration, scope, schedule, cost, quality, resource, communications, risk, procurement, and stakeholder management.
• Integration management involves coordinating all project elements.
• Scope management ensures the project includes all the work required, and only the work required, to complete the project successfully.
• Schedule management involves creating a realistic project timeline.
• Cost management keeps the project within the approved budget.
• Quality management ensures the project meets quality standards.
• Resource management involves acquiring, managing, and leading the project team.
• Communications management ensures timely and appropriate generation, collection, distribution, storage, retrieval, and ultimate disposition of project information.
• Risk management identifies, analyzes, and responds to project risks.
• Procurement management involves purchasing or acquiring products, services, or results needed from outside the project team.
• Stakeholder management involves managing the expectations of anyone affected by the project.

Risk Management

• Risk management in project management is the process of identifying, analyzing, and then responding to any risk that arises over the life cycle of a project.
• It is a proactive approach to handling potential threats and opportunities.
• Risk management is not simply reaction to adverse events, but rather a continuous process throughout the project.
• Objectives include increasing the probability and impact of positive events, and decreasing the probability and impact of events adverse to the project.

Risk Management Processes

• Risk management processes include risk management planning, identification, analysis (qualitative and quantitative), response planning, and control.
• Risk management planning involves deciding how to approach and conduct risk management activities for the project.
• Risk identification determines which risks might affect the project and documenting their characteristics.
• Qualitative risk analysis prioritizes risks for further analysis or action by assessing and combining their probability of occurrence and impact.
• Quantitative risk analysis numerically analyzes the effect of identified risks on overall project objectives.
• Risk response planning develops options and actions to enhance opportunities and reduce threats to project objectives.
• Risk control involves implementing risk response plans, tracking identified risks, identifying new risks, and evaluating risk process effectiveness throughout the project.

Risk Identification Techniques

• Various techniques are employed for risk identification, including brainstorming, checklists, and expert judgment.
• Brainstorming brings team members together to identify potential risks.
• Checklists provide a structured way to identify risks based on past projects.
• Expert judgment relies on the knowledge and experience of experts to identify risks.

Risk Analysis

• Risk analysis can be qualitative or quantitative.
• Qualitative risk analysis assesses the probability and impact of risks.
• Quantitative risk analysis uses numerical methods to determine the probability and impact of risks.

Risk Response Strategies

• Risk response strategies include avoidance, transference, mitigation, and acceptance.
• Avoidance involves eliminating the threat or protecting the project from its impact.
• Transference shifts the impact of a threat to a third party, such as insurance.
• Mitigation reduces the probability or impact of a threat.
• Acceptance acknowledges the existence of a threat, but no proactive action is taken.

Project Planning

• Project planning is the process of defining how to complete a project within a certain timeframe and budget.
• It involves creating a set of plans to help guide the project team through execution and closure.
• Project planning is iterative and occurs throughout the project lifecycle.
• A well-defined project plan reduces risk, improves communication, and increases the chances of project success.

Key Components of a Project Plan

• The key components of a project plan include the scope statement, work breakdown structure (WBS), schedule, budget, and risk management plan.
• The scope statement defines the project objectives, deliverables, and boundaries.
• The WBS decomposes the project into smaller, manageable tasks.
• The schedule outlines the timeline for completing each task.
• The budget estimates the costs associated with each task.
• The risk management plan identifies potential risks and outlines strategies for mitigating them.

Project Scheduling Techniques

• Project scheduling techniques include Gantt charts, critical path method (CPM), and Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT).
• Gantt charts provide a visual representation of the project schedule.
• CPM identifies the sequence of activities that determines the shortest possible project duration.
• PERT uses statistical techniques to estimate project duration.

Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

• The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is a deliverable-oriented decomposition of a project into smaller components.
• It organizes and defines the total scope of the project.
• The WBS provides a framework for detailed cost estimating and control along the project's timeline.
• Each descending level represents an increasingly detailed definition of the project work.

Project Budgeting

• Project budgeting involves estimating the costs of resources needed to complete project activities.
• It includes direct costs, indirect costs, and contingency reserves.
• Budgeting techniques include analogous estimating, parametric estimating, and bottom-up estimating.
• Analogous estimating uses historical data from similar projects.
• Parametric estimating uses statistical relationships between historical data and project variables.
• Bottom-up estimating involves estimating the cost of each individual activity and then summing them to arrive at a total project cost.