Project Management: Intro to Project Management

**[Chapter 1: Intro to Project management]** [-Motivation for studying IT project management] \- IT projects have a terrible record, only a small percentage of the project successfully meet the scope, time and cost goals **[Project]** [What is a Project?] -**A project** -- is a temporary endeav...

**[Chapter 1: Intro to Project management]** [-Motivation for studying IT project management] \- IT projects have a terrible record, only a small percentage of the project successfully meet the scope, time and cost goals **[Project]** [What is a Project?] -**A project** -- is a temporary endeavour undertaken to create a unique product, service or result -Operations -- is the work done to sustain the business -projects end when their objectives have been reached, or the project has been terminated -they can be large/small and take short/long time to complete [Project attributes] -A project: - Has a unique purpose - Is temporary - Involves uncertainty - Should have a primary customer/sponsor (project sponsors usually provide directions and funding for the project) - Requires resources, often from various areas - Is developed using progressive elaboration [Project and program managers] - Project managers -- work with project sponsors, the project team and other people involved in in the project to meet the project goals - Program -- a group of related projects managed in a coordinated way to obtain benefits and control not available from managing them individually (e.g. App development, user support) \- Program managers -- oversee programs and often acts as bosses for project managers \- they provide leadership and direction for the project managers heading the projects within the program [a successful project management] -means meeting all 3 goals (balance them) (scope, time and cost) and satisfying the project sponsor **[What is project management]** \- Project management -- is the application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to project activities to meet the project requirements **[Project stakeholders]** -stakeholders are the people involved in or affected by project activities; they include: - Project sponsor - Manager - Team - Support staff - Suppliers - Customers - Users - Opponents to the project **[Project management framework]** [Project management knowledge areas] 1. Project scope management 2. Time management 3. Cost management 4. Risk management 5. Integration management 6. Stakeholder management 7. Quality management 8. Procurement management 9. Human resources management 10. Communications management [Project management Tools and techniques ] \- assist project managers and their team in various aspects of project management -some specific ones include: - Project charter, scope statement and WBS (scope) - Gantt charts, network diagrams, critical path analysis, critical chain scheduling (time) - Cost estimates and earned value management (cost) [Now project performance improved] [What went right?] -First, the average cost of a project has been more than cut in half. Better tools have been created to monitor and control progress and better skilled project managers with better management processes are being used. The fact that there are processes is significant in itself [Project success] -there are several ways to define project success: - The project met scope, time and cost goals - The project satisfied the customer/sponsor - The results of the project met its main objective, such as making or saving a certain amount of money, providing a good RIO, or simply making the sponsors happy [What helps project succeed?] - Executive support - User involvement - Clear business objectives - Optimizing scope - Agile process - Tools and infrastructure - Skilled resources - Project management expertise - Emotional maturity - Execution [Project Portfolio management] - As part of PPM, organizations group and manage projects and programs as a portfolio of investments that contribute to the entire enterprise's success - Portfolio managers -- help their organizations make wise investments decision by helping to select and analyse projects from a strategic perspective [Project management VS Project portfolio management] **Project management** **Project portfolio management** --------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------- *Tactical goals* *Strategic goals* Are we carrying the project, right? Are we working on the right projects? Are project on time and on budget? Are we investing in the right areas? Do project stakeholders know what they should be doing? Do we have the right resources to be competitive? [IT Project portfolio categories] - Venture -- projects in this category help transform the business - Growth -- "" help the company grow in terms of revenues - Core -- "" must be accomplished to run the business **[Project Managers]** [The role of the project manager] - Job description may vary, but mostly include responsibilities like planning, scheduling, coordinating and working with people to achieve project goals [Suggested Skills for PMs] They should: - Be comfortable with change - Understand the organisations they work in and with - Be able to lead teams to accomplish project goals [10 most important skills and competencies for PMs] - People skills - Leadership - Listening - Verbal communication - Strong at building trust - Strong at building teams - Conflict management and resolution - Problem solving and critical thinking - Ethical behaviour, integrity and consistent - Understand and balance priorities [Different skills needed in different situations] +-----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+ | Large projects | High uncertainty | Very novel project | | | projects | | +=======================+=======================+=======================+ | - Relevant prior | - Risk management | - Having vision and | | experience | | goals | | | - Expectation | | | - Verbal | management | - Self confidence | | communication | | | | | - Leadership | - Expectation | | - Team building | | management | | skills | - People skills | | | | | - Listening | | - Leadership | - Planning | | | | | - Leadership | | - Planning | | | | | | - People skills | | - People skills | | | +-----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+ [Importance of leadership skills] - Effective PMs provide leadership by example - Managers do things right, and leaders do the right things - Leaders determine the vision, and managers achieve the vision - You lead people and manage things - A leader focuses on the long-term goals and big-picture objectives while inspiring others to reach those goals - A manager deals with day-day details of meeting specific goals - PMs often take on the role of both leader and manager [10 hottest IT skills] - Full-stack software development - Project management - Cyber security - Networking - UI design - Quality assurance testing - Cloud engineering - Big data - ML and AI - DevOps