Project Management Overview and Tools

Project Management Overview

• A project is a temporary effort to create a unique product or service, aimed at solving problems. Failure to properly define the problem can lead to project failure.
• Project management is the planning, scheduling, and controlling of project activities to meet objectives (performance, cost, time) while managing scope. Scope defines goals, deadlines, and deliverables.
• Scope creep increases time and cost; tight time increases cost and reduces scope; tight budgets increase time and reduce scope.
• Project failure is caused by scope creep, poor requirements gathering, unrealistic planning/scheduling, and resource limitations.
• A project lifecycle consists of initiation, planning, execution, monitoring/control, and closure stages.
• A project backlog is a prioritized list of project tasks (features, bugs, tasks), evolving over time, to manage work throughout the project lifecycle.

Project Management Tools and Techniques

• A Gantt chart is a visual tool showing tasks on a timeline, displaying start and end dates, duration, and dependencies. It helps manage schedules.
• A prototype is an early model used for testing and validating ideas, designs, or features before full-scale production. It provides feedback for refinements.
• Constraints within a project include risk, cost, and time.
• The Project management process includes establishing infrastructure (resources, roles, governance), defining the project (objectives, scope, plan, and resources), creating a detailed plan, managing project controls (budget, risk, quality, people), and closing the project (reporting, lessons learned).

Project Management Steps

• Define the problem: Identify the client's needs and the desired end result of the project.
• Develop solution options: Explore various solutions considering cost and feasibility.
• Plan the project: Determine tasks, responsibilities, resources, costs, timelines.
• Execute the plan: Implement the detailed project plan.
• Monitor and control progress: Track, address problems, and adjust the plan if necessary.
• Close the project: Complete the project, evaluate the process, and document lessons learned.

Agile Project Management (Scrum)

• Scrum is a general-purpose project management methodology, adaptable by teams.
• Scrum characteristics: Self-organized teams, time-boxed iterations ("sprints") of 1-4 weeks, roles (product owner, scrum master, team).
• Sprint cycle: Sprint planning, daily scrum, sprint execution, sprint review, sprint retrospective. Sprints are time-boxed iterations (usually 1-4 weeks).
• Agile boards (e.g., Kanban, Scrum) use lists and cards to manage tasks, features, and risks.
• Scrum elements: Product backlog, sprint backlog.