CH 1 project planning and control Pomg4735

Advantages of Using Formal Project Management

- Better control of financial, physical, and human resources
- Improved customer relations
- Shorter development times
- Lower costs
- Higher quality and increased reliability
- Higher profit margins
- Improved productivity
- Better internal coordination
- Higher worker morale
What Is a Project?
Project is a temporary endeavour undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result.
Operation is work done in organizations to sustain the business.

Projects are different from operations in that they end when their objectives have been reached or the
project has been terminated.

Project vs. Operations:

➔ Projects are extra activities to improve or enhance operations
➔ Operations are activities done to sustain the business -- basically the day to day work (routine)

Examples of Projects can be large or small and involve one person or thousands of people. They can be done in one day or take
years to complete.
- A young couple hires a firm to design and build them a new house
- A retail store manager works with employees to display a new clothing line
- A college campus upgrades its technology infrastructure to provide wireless Internet access
- A group of musicians starts a company to help children develop their musical talents
- A pharmaceutical company launches a new drug
- A television network develops a system to allow viewers to vote for contestants and provide other feedback on programs
- A government group develops a program to track child immunizations.
- The automobile industry develops standards to streamline procurement.

Project Attributes projects come in all shapes and sizes

A project has a unique purpose. Every project should have a well-defined objective. For example, many people hire firms to design
and build a new house, but each house, like each person, is unique.

A project is temporary. A project has a definite beginning and a definite end. For a home construction project, owners usually have a
date in mind when they would like to move into their new home.

A project is developed using progressive elaboration or in an iterative fashion. Projects are often defined broadly when they
begin, and as time passes, the specific details of the project become clearer. For example, there are many decisions that must be made in
planning and building a new house. It works best to draft preliminary plans for owners to approve before more detailed plans are developed.
A project requires resources, often from various areas. Resources include people, hardware, software, or other assets. Many
different types of people, skill sets, and resources are needed to build a home.

A project should have a primary customer or sponsor. Most projects have many interested parties or stakeholders, but someone
must take the primary role of sponsorship. The project sponsor usually provides the direction and funding for the project.

A project involves uncertainty. Because every project is unique, it is sometimes difficult to define the project’s objectives clearly,
estimate exactly how long it will take to complete, or determine how much it will cost. External factors also cause uncertainty, such as a
supplier going out of business or a project team member needing unplanned time off. Uncertainty is one of the main reasons project
management is so challenging, because uncertainty invokes risk.

You should not work on projects just because you think they are cool; projects should add value to individuals or organizations in a cost-
effective manner. A good project manager contributes to a project’s success.
Project managers work with the project sponsors, the project team, and the other people involved in a project to define, communicate, and
meet project goals (Add value in cost effective manner).
Project Constraint
Constraint: A limiting factor that affects the execution of a project, program, portfolio, or process

The Triple Constraint: meeting Scope (Work required), Time (Due Date) and Cost goals (Budget) — often
have a specific target at the beginning of the project.

Scope: What work will be done as part of the project? What unique product, service, or result does the customer
or sponsor expect from the project?

Time: How long should it take to complete the project? What is the project’s schedule?

Cost: What should it cost to complete the project? What is the project’s budget? What resources are needed?

Other people focus on the quadruple constraint,

Quality: How good does the quality of the products or services need to be? What do we need to do to satisfy the
customer?
Risk: How much uncertainty are we willing to accept on the project?

Typical Project Constraints

Experienced project managers: know that you must decide which constraints are most important on each particular project. If
time is most important, you must often change the initial scope and/or cost goals to meet the schedule. If scope goals are most important,
you may need to adjust time and/or cost goals, decrease risk, and increase quality expectations. If communications are most important, you
must focus on that

How can you avoid the problems that occur when you meet scope, time, and cost goals, but lose sight of
customer satisfaction? The answer is good project management, which includes more than meeting project
constraints.
What is Project Management?
Project management: is the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities to meet project
requirements

Key elements of this framework include the project stakeholders, project management process groups, knowledge areas,
tools and techniques, project success, and the contribution of a portfolio of projects to the success of the entire enterprise.

1- Project Stakeholders are the people involved in or affected by project activities.

Stakeholders include:

The project sponsors: would be the potential new homeowners. They would be the people paying for the house and could be on a very
tight budget, so they would expect the contractor to provide accurate estimates of the costs involved in building the house. They would also
need a realistic idea of when they could move in and what type of home, they could afford given their budget constraints

The project manager: the general contractor responsible for building the house. He or she needs to work with all the project stakeholders to
meet their needs and expectations.

The project teams: for building the house would include several construction workers, electricians, carpenters, and so on. These
stakeholders would need to know exactly what work they must do and when they need to do it.

Support staff: might include the employers of the homeowners, the general contractor’s administrative assistant, and other people who
support other stakeholders. The employers of the homeowners might expect their employees to complete their work but allow some
flexibility so they can visit the building site or take phone calls related to building the house. The contractor’s administrative assistant would
support the project by coordinating meetings between the buyers, the contractor, suppliers, and other stakeholders.

Customers:

Suppliers: The suppliers would provide the wood, windows, flooring materials, appliances, and other items. Suppliers would expect exact
details on what items they need to provide, where and when to deliver those items, and similar information.

Opponents to the project: In this example, there might be a neighbour who opposes the project because the workers are making so
much noise that she cannot concentrate on her work at home, or the noise might awaken her sleeping children. She might interrupt the
workers to voice her complaints or even file a formal complaint. Alternatively, the neighbourhood might have association rules concerning
new home design and construction. If the homeowners did not follow these rules, they might have to halt construction due to legal issue

2- Project Management Knowledge Areas

Four core knowledge areas lead to specific project objectives.

Project scope management involves defining and managing all the work required to complete the project successfully.

Project time management includes estimating how long it will take to complete the work, developing an acceptable project schedule, and
ensuring timely completion of the project.

Project cost management consists of preparing and managing the budget for the project.

Project quality management ensures that the project will satisfy the stated or implied needs for which it was undertaken.
Four facilitating knowledge areas are the means through which the project objectives are achieved.

Project human resource management is concerned with making effective use of the people involved with the project.

Project communications management involves generating, collecting, disseminating, and storing project information.

Project risk management includes identifying, analyzing, and responding to risks related to the project.

Project procurement management involves acquiring or procuring goods and services for a project from outside the performing
organization.

One knowledge area (project integration management) affects and is affected by all of the other knowledge areas.

All knowledge areas are important!

3- Project Management Tools and Techniques

Project management tools and techniques assist project managers and their teams in various aspects of project management.

Note that a tool or technique is more than just a software package.

Specific tools and techniques include:

Project charters, scope statements, and WBS (scope)

Gantt charts, network diagrams, critical path analyses (time)

Net present value, cost estimates, and earned value management (cost)
These super tools are bolded
These super tools included software for task scheduling (such as project management software), scope statements, requirement analyses, and
lessons-learned reports. Tools that are already extensively used and have been found to improve project performance include progress
reports, kick-off meetings, Gantt charts, and change requests.

Super Tools: are those tools that have high use and high potential for improving project success, such as:

Software for task scheduling (such as project management software)

Scope statements
Requirements analyses
Lessons-learned reports

Tools already extensively used that have been found to improve project importance include:
Progress reports
Kick-off meetings
Gantt charts
Change requests

What Went Right? Improved Project Performance

- Follow-up studies by the Standish Group showed some improvement in the statistics for IT projects:
^ The number of successful projects has doubled, from 16 percent in 1994 to 32 percent in 2008
^ The number of failed projects decreased from 31 percent in 1994 to 24 percent in 2008

- “The reasons for the increase in successful projects vary. 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.”

4- Project Success
There are different ways to define project success:

The project met scope, time, and cost goals.

The project satisfied the customer/sponsor.

The project produced the desired results.

What is a Program?
“a group of related projects managed in a coordinated way to obtain benefits and control not available from
managing them individually.

A program manager provides leadership and direction for the project managers heading the projects within the
program.

Program managers also coordinate the efforts of project teams, functional groups, suppliers, and operations
staff supporting the projects to ensure that project products and processes are implemented to maximize
benefits. Program managers are responsible for more than the delivery of project results; they are change agents
responsible for the success of products and processes produced by those projects. Program managers often have
review meetings with all their project managers to share important information and coordinate important aspects
of each project.

For example, for the single-family homes, the program manager could try to get planning approvals for all the
homes at once, advertise them together, and purchase common materials in bulk to earn discounts.

Project Portfolio Management

Project portfolio management is an emerging business strategy in which organizations group and manage
projects and programs as a portfolio of investments that contribute to the entire enterprise’s success.

Pacific Edge Software’s product manager, Eric Burke, defines project portfolio management as “the continuous
process of selecting and managing the optimum set of project initiatives that deliver maximum business value.”

Project and Program Management Compared to Project Portfolio Management

Project and program management address questions like:
Are we carrying out projects well?
Are projects on time and budget?
Do project stakeholders know what they should be doing?

Portfolio management addresses questions like:

Are we working on the right projects?
Are we investing in the right areas?
Do we have the right resources to be competitive?
The Project Management Profession
Project, program, and portfolio managers need to develop specific skills

Certification is available for project managers

There are many software tools to assist in project, program, and portfolio management

Suggested Skills for Project Managers

Knowledge of the following:

All nine project management knowledge areas

The application area (domain, industry, market, etc.)
The project environment (politics, culture, change management, etc.)
General management (financial management, strategic planning, etc.)
Human relations (leadership, motivation, negotiations, etc.)

Media Snapshot – Good Project Management Skills from The Apprentice

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