Project Management Fundamentals

• A project is a temporary endeavor designed to produce a unique product, service, or result.

Project Attributes

• Projects possess a distinct purpose with a well-defined objective.
• They are temporary in nature.
• They drive change and facilitate value creation.
• Collaboration is progressively used throughout the project.
• Projects require resources, often from various areas.
• A primary customer or sponsor is a key component.
• Uncertainty is inherent in projects.

Stakeholder

• Stakeholders are individuals involved in or affected by project activities
• Stakeholders include sponsors, project teams, support staff, customers, users, suppliers, and even opponents.

Project Management

• Project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to meet project requirements.

Project Management Framework

• The framework includes stakeholders, knowledge areas, tools, and techniques.
• Successful projects contribute to the enterprise.

Project Management Knowledge Areas

• Scope, schedule, cost, quality, resource, communications, risk, procurement, stakeholder, and integration management are all key areas.

Project Management Process Groups

• The process groups include initiating, planning, executing, monitoring and controlling, and closing.

Initiating Processes

• These processes define and authorize a project or project phase.

Planning Processes

• These processes devise and maintain a workable scheme to ensure the project addresses organizational needs.

Executing Processes

• These processes coordinate resources to carry out project plans and create the project deliverables, requiring the most time and resources.

Monitoring and Controlling Processes

• Regular measurement and monitoring ensures the project team meets objectives.

Closing Processes

• Acceptance of the project or phase is formalized and brought to an efficient end.

Project Manager

• The project manager is responsible for working with the sponsor, team, and involved parties to meet goals.

Role of Project Manager

• Leads and manages the project team.
• Acts as an advocate for the project.
• Implements the project in alignment with business and organizational strategy.

Project Constraints (Triple Constraint)

• Scope defines the work, deliverables, and verification methods.
• Time involves the project's duration, schedule, tracking, and approval processes for changes.
• Cost covers the budget, tracking methods, and authorization for changes.

Project Success Criteria

• Meeting scope, time, and cost goals.
• Satisfying the customer or sponsor.
• Achieving the project's main objective (e.g., financial gains, ROI, sponsor satisfaction).

Enterprise Environmental Factors

• These factors include government or industry standards, infrastructure, and marketplace conditions.
• They should be reviewed when developing a project charter.

Organizational Process Assets

• These assets include plans, policies, procedures, guidelines, systems, lessons learned, and historical information and influence a project's success.

Program

• A program is a group of related projects and subprograms managed in a coordinated way to obtain maximum benefits.

Megaproject

• A megaproject typically costs over US$1 billion, affects over one million people, and lasts several years.

Program Manager

• The program manager provides leadership and direction for project managers within the program.

Project Portfolio Management

• Project Portfolio Management involves grouping and managing projects as a portfolio of investments that contribute to the enterprise's success.

Portfolio

• A portfolio consists of projects, programs, subsidiary portfolios, and operations managed as a group to achieve strategic objectives.

Organizational Project Management

• A framework in which portfolio, program, and project management are integrated with organizational enablers to achieve strategic objectives.

Systems Approach

• A holistic and analytical approach to solving complex problems using a systems philosophy, systems analysis, and systems management.

Systems Philosophy

• An overall model for thinking about things as systems.

Systems Management

• Involves addressing the business, technological, and organizational issues related to creating, maintaining, and modifying a system.

Three-Sphere Model for Systems Management

• The three spheres are business, organization, and technology.
• Addressing these can have a huge impact on selecting and managing projects successfully.

Four Frames of Organizations

• The four frames are structural, human resources, political, and symbolic.
• These provide different perspectives to better understand organizations.

Project Life Cycle

• Starting the project.
• Organizing and preparing.
• Carrying out the work.
• Finishing the project.

Waterfall/Predictive Life Cycle

• Characterized by well-defined, linear stages of analysis, design, construction, testing, and support.
• Assumes requirements remain stable after definition.
• Used in large-scale projects where complexity and cost necessitate careful completion of all deliverables.

Agile/Adaptive Life Cycle

• Requirements and solutions evolve through collaboration.
• Applicable for software development or environments with unknown or rapidly changing requirements.

Costs Related to Project Life Cycle

• Costs are highest during the closing phase.
• Risks are highest during the initiation phase.

Project Integration Management

• This involves coordinating all project management knowledge areas throughout the project's life cycle.

Main Processes Involved in PIM

• Developing the project charter.
• Developing the project management plan.
• Directing and managing project work.
• Managing project knowledge.
• Monitoring and controlling project work.
• Performing integrated change control.
• Closing the project or phase.

Project Charter

• Formally authorizes the project or phase, establishes the project manager's authority, and documents high-level requirements, milestones, budget, risks, and success criteria.

Project Management Plan

• Used to coordinate all project planning documents and guide project execution and control.

Scope

• all the work involved in creating the products of the project and the processes used to create them.

Project Scope Management

• Encompasses the processes required to complete all project work, and only the work needed.

Main Processes Involved in Project Scope Management

• Planning scope management.
• Collecting requirements.
• Defining scope.
• Creating the WBS.
• Validating scope.
• Controlling scope.

Planning Scope Management

• Planning involves determining how scope and requirements will be managed.

Collect Requirements

• Define/document stakeholder needs and requirements.

Define Scope

• Develop project and product detail description.

Create WBS

• Subdividing deliverables into smaller, manageable pieces.

Work Package

• A task at the lowest level of the WBS.

Validate Scope

• Formalize acceptance of deliverables.

Control Scope

• Monitoring scope status, managing changes, and preventing scope creep.

Scope Creep

• The tendency for project scope to keep getting bigger and bigger.

Project Schedule Management

• Processes to ensure timely project completion.

Processes in Project Schedule Management

• Planning Schedule management
• Defining activities
• Sequencing activities
• Estimating activity durations
• Developing the schedule
• Controlling the schedule

Defining Activities

• Identify the specific activities that team members and stakeholders must perform to produce project deliverables.

Sequencing Activities

• Identifying and documenting the relationships between project activities.

Estimating Activity Durations

• Determining the number of work periods needed to complete individual activities.

Developing the Schedule

• Analyzing activity sequences, resource requirements, and activity duration estimates to create the project schedule.

Controlling the Schedule

• Managing changes to the project schedule.

Project Cost Overrun

• The amount or percentage by which actual project costs exceed estimates.
• Actual project cost = project cost estimate + project cost overrun

Project Cost Management

• Processes to plan, estimate, budget, and control costs for a project to be completed within the approved budget.

Processes for Project Cost Management

• Planning cost management.
• Estimating costs.
• Determining the budget.
• Controlling costs.

Plan Cost Management

• Determining the policies, procedures, and documentation for planning, executing, and controlling project costs.
• The main output is a cost management plan.

Estimate Costs

• Approximating costs for the resources needed to complete a project.
• Main outputs include activity cost estimates, basis of estimates, and project documents updates.

Determining the Budget

• Aggregating estimated costs of individual project activities or work packages to determine the authorized cost baseline.

Control Costs

• Controlling changes to the project budget.

Rough Order of Magnitude (ROM) Estimate

• A high-level estimate of project cost performed prior to start and/or during initiation.
• Provides estimate for project selection.
• Accuracy ranges from -50% to +100%.

Budgetary Estimate

• Done early to mid-way through the project.
• Updates the budget plans.
• Accuracy ranges from -10% to +25%.

Definitive Estimate

• Performed later in the project, closer to the close.
• Provides actual costs and estimates future costs.
• Accuracy ranges from -5% to +10%.

Cost Baseline

• Made up of Cost estimate + contingency reserves

Project Budget

• Made up of cost baseline + management reserves

Earned Value Management (EVM)

• Evaluates project performance based on cost, time, and scope.

Rate of Performance (RP)

• RP = Actual Work Completed / % of work planned to be completed

Budget at Completion (BAC)

• The original budget planned for the entire project.

Earned Value (EV)

• EV = % work completed * BAC OR PV * Rate of Performance

Planned Value (PV) (Baseline)

• Estimated value of work planned as of today.

Actual Cost (AC)

• How much has been spent on the project as of today.

Cost Variance (CV)

• CV = EV - AC

Schedule Variance (SV)

• SV = EV - PV

Cost Performance Index (CPI)

• CPI = EV/AC

Schedule Performance Index (SPI)

• SPI = EV/PV

Estimate at Completion (EAC)

• EAC = BAC/CPI

Variance at Completion (VAC)

• VAC = BAC - EAC