Project Management Overview

Project Management

• Proper management converts resources (people, machines, materials, money) into production.
• Management Definitions:
  • Taylor: The art of knowing how to achieve goals in the best and cheapest way.
  • Donald: The art and science of decision-making and leadership.
  • Harold: The art of getting things done through people in organized groups.
• Management as Science & Art:
  • Science: Organized body of knowledge.
  • Art: Managing requires skills.
• Effectiveness & Efficiency:
  • Effectiveness: Doing the right things.
  • Efficiency: Efficient use of resources.
• Significance of Management (Organizational Advantages):
  • Determining objectives.
  • Achieving goals.
  • Overcoming challenges.
  • Innovation.
  • Smooth business operations.
• Significance of Management (Societal Advantages):
  • Optimum resource utilization.
  • Social benefits.
  • National economic growth.
  • Job creation.
• Management vs. Administration:
  • Administration is a thinking function, concerned with broad objectives, plans, and policies. Top-level function. Often linked to government policies.
  • Management is a doing function, the art of getting things done through others. Lower-level function. Decisions influenced by internal factors. Usually in business.

Functions of Management

• Planning: The basic function to achieve goals.
• Organizing: Classifying activities, delegating duties, coordinating roles and responsibilities.
• Directing: Communicating with employees and providing motivation/leadership.
• Staffing: Manpower planning and development (estimating & placing). Training, and development.
• Controlling: Establishing standard performance, monitoring actual performance, identifying errors, and taking corrective actions.

Levels of Management

• Top Management: Makes decisions about overall direction and strategy. General managers are responsible for multiple activities. Functional managers focus on one activity (like accounting). Project managers oversee a specific project. Line managers lead activities directly related to the organization's products or services Staff managers contribute indirect inputs. (e.g., finance/accounting).
• Middle Management: Oversees functional managers/ product line managers / departments.
• Low Level Management (Supervisors): Unit managers, first-line supervisors, team leaders.

Traditional vs. Contemporary Management

• Traditional: Stable, routine, hierarchical, centralized decision-making, and strict strategy.
• Contemporary: Adaptable, flexible, emphasizing teamwork and employee empowerment. Often decentralized decision-making.

Managerial Roles

• Interpersonal: Figurehead, leader, liaison.
• Informational: Monitor, disseminator, spokesperson.
• Decisional: Entrepreneur, disturbance handler, resource allocator, negotiator.

Management Skills

• Conceptual Skills: Analytical thinking.
• Human Skills: Working with and understanding others
• Technical Skills: Specialized skills relevant to a specific area.

Organizational Structure

• Functional: People with similar skills work together in departments.
• Divisional: Teams of people with different specialities work together per project.
• Matrix: Combines functional and divisional—employees report to multiple managers ( functional and project).

Organizational Structure Elements

• Work Specialization: Each worker has specific tasks.
• Chain of Command: Clear authority hierarchy—from lowest to highest.
• Span of Control: Number of people reporting to a manager.
• Formalization: Rules, policies, procedures, and communication standards.
• Departmentation: Grouping activities into departments/units
• Centralization/Decentralization: Degree to which decision-making authority is concentrated.

Project Management

• Projects: Temporary endeavors to create unique products, services, or results.
• Project Management: Applying knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities to meet requirements.
• Project Life Cycle: Initiation, Planning, Execution, Monitoring & Control, Closure.

Project Scope Management

• Plan Scope Management: Defines, validates, and controls the project scope. Creating a scope management plan which describes how scope will be managed.
• Collect Requirements: Determining and documenting stakeholder requirements.
• Define Scope: Detailed description of the project and product.
• Create WBS (Work Breakdown Structure): Dividing project into smaller component tasks.
• Validate Scope: Formalizing acceptance of project deliverables.
• Control Scope: Managing changes to maintain the scope baseline.
• Project Charter: High-level project description created by sponsor to formally explain business needs, assumptions, constraints, stakeholders, and the high-level budget.
• Enterprise Environmental Factors: External factors influencing the project (e.g., organizational culture, infrastructure, standards).
• Project Scope Statement: A detailed written explanation of the project's deliverables and characteristics. Includes product scope description, product acceptance criteria, project exclusions/constraints/assumptions.