Project Management Unit 5

Knowledge Area

• A Knowledge Area represents a complete set of concepts, terms, and activities that make up a professional field or area of specialisation.
• In the field of Project Management, there are ten Knowledge Areas used on most projects.

The Ten Knowledge Areas

• Project Integration Management
• Project Scope Management
• Project Schedule Management
• Project Quality Management
• Project Resource Management
• Project Communications Management
• Project Risk Management
• Project Procurement Management
• Project Stakeholder Management

Project Integration Management

• Project Integration Management is a way of making various processes work together.
• It creates a number of deliverables, including the development of the project charter, which is used as an input to the Project Management Plan.

Project Charter

• A project charter is a document that authorises the project manager to initiate and lead the project.
• It is issued by upper management and provides the project manager with written authority to use organisational resources for project activities.
• A project charter includes a brief scope description, risk limits, customer needs, spending limits, and team composition.

Project Management Plan

• The project management plan defines how the various processes in the project can work together for greater efficiency and productivity.
• It is a formal document that guides, controls, and executes the project.
• It incorporates different area plans, such as scope management, schedule management, cost management, quality management, resource management, communications management, risk management, and procurement management.

Kick-off Meeting

• A kick-off meeting is a meeting where key stakeholders meet each other formally and deliberate about the project.
• The primary purpose of the kick-off meeting is to integrate and align all stakeholders so that the entire team has a common understanding of the project’s objectives.

Project Scope Management

• Project Scope Management includes the processes required to ensure that the project includes all the work required, and only the work required, to complete the project successfully.
• It involves defining and controlling what is and is not included in the project.
• Project Scope Management can be broken down into the following processes: scope planning, scope definition, creating the WBS, scope verification, and scope control.

Scope Statement

• A scope statement defines what is part of the project and what is not part of the project.
• It lists all the work that will be done over the life cycle of the project.

Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

• The WBS breaks the project scope into smaller manageable tasks.
• These tasks are organised in a hierarchical form with the lowest level more comprehensive than the upper one.
• The WBS is a foundational document used in the project planning process.

Scope Baseline

• The scope baseline is the accepted project scope statement and its associated Work Breakdown Structure.
• It acts as the basis for evaluating project performance.

Scope Creep

• Scope creep is informally making changes to the project scope without appropriate approval.
• It can cause project delays, overspending, and additional work that was not documented or approved.

Project Schedule Management

• Project Schedule Management involves the process of defining, sequencing, and estimating durations to project activities with the view of creating a project schedule.
• It involves the following processes: activity definition, activity sequencing, estimating activity resources and durations, and developing the schedule.

Activity Definition

• Activity definition involves defining the activities that need to be performed to produce the deliverables of each work package.

Activity Sequencing

• Activity sequencing involves identifying and documenting the logical relationships among schedule activities.

Gantt Chart

• A Gantt chart provides a standard layout for displaying schedule information by listing activities with their corresponding start and finish dates with a calendar.
• It helps to ensure that all activities are planned for, their order of performance is accounted for, activity time estimates are recorded, and overall project time is developed.

Network Diagrams

• A network diagram is a schematic display of the logical relationships among, or sequencing of, project activities.
• It has several benefits, including providing the basis for scheduling labour and equipment, enhancing communication among project participants, providing an estimate of the project’s duration, providing a basis for budgeting cash flow, identifying activities that are critical, and highlighting activities that are “critical” and cannot be delayed.### Burst Activity
• A burst activity has more than one activity immediately following it, meaning more than one dependency arrow flowing from it.

Drawing Network Diagrams (AON and AOA)

• AON Diagram:
  • Step 1: Find all activities with no preceding activities and draw their nodes with duration estimates.
  • Step 2: Draw the network diagram from left to right, identifying bursts and merges.
  • Step 3: Continue until all activities are included, with arrowheads facing right and no crossing arrows.
• AOA Diagram:
  • Nodes represent milestones (events) of the project.
  • Arrows represent activities.
  • Node 1 is the immediate predecessor node, and Node 2 is the immediate successor node.

Critical Path Analysis

• What is Critical Path Method (CPM):
  • A schedule network analysis technique used to calculate the earliest project completion date.
  • It identifies the sequence of activities that determines the project's earliest completion date.
• Critical Path:
  • The longest path through the network diagram with the least amount of slack or float.
  • The path that drives the project's completion date.
• Steps to Calculate Critical Path:
  • Identify all paths from the start to the end.
  • Calculate the durations of each path.
  • Select the path with the longest duration, which is the critical path.

Project Integration Management

• Definition:
  • Coordinating plans and ensuring all processes within a project run efficiently.
  • The practice of making certain every part of the project is coordinated.
• Objectives:
  • Assess the effect of project integration management process on project success.
  • Identify project integration management processes and activities that contribute to project success.

Project Cost Management

• Definition:
  • The process of preparing a project budget through estimating resources and costs.
• Cost Estimating:
  • Developing an approximation of the costs of resources needed to complete project activities.
  • Done at various stages of a project, with estimates updated and improved over time.
• Cost Estimating Tools and Techniques:
  • Analogous Estimating: Using the actual cost of similar projects in the past.
  • Bottom-up Estimating: Estimating specific activities from the lowest level to the highest level.
  • Parametric Modelling: Using a statistical relationship between historical data and other variables to calculate cost estimates.

Project Quality Management

• Definition:
  • The processes of determining quality policies, objectives, and responsibilities to ensure the project meets its needs.
• Quality Management Plan:
  • A component of the project management plan that describes how the organisation's quality policies will be implemented.
• Attributes of a Project Quality Plan:
  • Describes quality definitions and standards relevant to the project.
  • Highlights standards that must be followed (regulatory requirements).