Project

Management
Principles and
Practices

Loida F. Hermosura, MSIT

OVERVIEW

– The purpose of presentation is to provide leaders

and team members of projects, committees or task
forces with advanced techniques and practical skills
for initiating, planning, tracking, controlling and
evaluating any kind or size of project.
Agenda

– Introductions
– Course Objective
– Unit 1: Introduction to Project Management
Introductions

– What is your Project Management Experience?

– What types of projects will you be involved in?
– What would you like to get out of the course?
 Course Objectives

– Learn what project management is and the qualities of an effective project

manager.
– Understand the nine knowledge areas of project management and how they
can be applied to your project.
– Discover the phases of a project and what deliverables are expected when.
– Identify a project’s key stakeholders.
– Understand the different types of business cases and how to create a
Statement of Work.
– Learn to be prepared for the unexpected by utilizing risk management and
change control.
– Learn how to organize project activities by creating a Work Breakdown
Structure.
– Create a network diagram to track your project’s progress.
– Learn budgeting and estimating techniques.
Unit 1

Introduction to Project
Management
Introduction to Project Management

– Project Failures
– Project Successes
– What is Project Management?
– Key Functional Areas of Project Management
– Project Life Cycle
Project Failure

– Identify reasons that project fail

Reasons for Project Failure

1. Poor project and program management

discipline
2. Lack of executive-level support
3. No linkage to the business strategy
4. Wrong team members
5. No measures for evaluating the success of the
project
6. No risk management
7. Inability to manage change
Project Success Criteria

– On time
– On budget
– Meeting the goals that have been agreed upon
Iron Triangle
Pick Any Two
What is a Project?

– Temporary with specific start and end dates

– Unique
– Progress elaboration
What is a Project Manager?

– Ultimately responsible for the Project’s Success

– Plan and Act
– Focus on the project’s end
– Be a manager & leader
 Seven Traits of Good Project
Managers

Trait 1
Enthusiasm for the project
Trait 2
Ability to manage change effectively
Trait 3
A tolerant attitude toward ambiguity
Trait 4
Team – building and negotiating skills
Seven Traits of Good Project
Managers

Trait 5
A customer-first orientation
Trait 6
Adherence to the priorities of business
Trait 7
Knowledge of the industry or technology
 Project Success
12 Golden Rules

 Rule #1
– Thou shalt gain consensus on project outcome.
 Rule #2
– Thou shalt build the best team possible.
 Rule #3
– Thou shalt develop a comprehensive, viable plan and keep it up-
to-date.
 Rule #4
– Thou shalt determine how much stuff you really need to get
things done.
 Project Success
12 Golden Rules

 Rule #5

– Thou shalt have a realistic schedule.

 Rule #6
– Thou won’t try to do more than can be done.
 Rule #7
– Thou will remember that people count.
 Rule #8
– Thou will gain the formal and ongoing support of management an
stakeholders.
 Project Success
12 Golden Rules

 Rule #9

– Thou must be willing to change.

 Rule #10
– Thou must keep others informed of what you’re up to.

 Rule #11
– Thou must be willing to try new things.

 Rule #12
Project Management

– Project Management
– The “application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to
project activities to meet project requirements.”
– 9 Knowledge areas
 1. Integration Management

– “Processes and activities needed to identify, define, combine, unify

and coordinate different processes and activities with project
management process groups.” In short, project managers will have
to keep an eye on every aspect of a project and check if everything is
going according to the plan.
– Good project integration is not possible without good teamwork. In
order to be successful, you should have the resources who know
their role and responsibilities. It is the responsibility of project
managers to make project objectives clear and manage the inter-
dependencies effectively to complete projects successfully.
Therefore, project managers should focus on the bigger picture and
follow a strategic approach to project management. Keep an eye on
the obstacles and address them quickly before the problem gets out
of hand.
Project Scope Management
Scope creep and lack of proper scope document is one of the main reasons
behind project failure. Furthermore, defining and documenting all the work
comes under scope management. Your project team should know what the
deliverables are and what problems your project will solve. All this makes it
easier for your team members to achieve the goals and helps clients in knowing
what to expect from the projects. Therefore, project scope should also
contain milestones related to projects.
There are five sub-processes involved in the project scope management
process.
 Collect requirements (Document stakeholder requirements)
 Define scope (Detailed description of project and what it will do)
 Create work breakdown structure (Dividing projects into smaller tasks)
 Verify scope (Getting acceptance of project deliverables from stakeholders)
 Control scope (Difference between actual and approved scope)
Project Time Management
– One of the biggest challenges for project managers is to complete projects
on time. However, most project managers do not understand this knowledge
area. Hence, most projects under their supervision fail to complete before
the deadline. There are six sub-processes associated with the project time
management knowledge area that every project manager should know in
order to complete projects on time.
Here are the six sub-processes:
 Define activities
 Sequence activities
 Estimate the resources required
 Estimate the time required
 Develop a schedule
 Control schedule
 Project Cost Management
– Most project managers consider managing costs against their project as their
biggest challenge. However, cost management can be a difference maker
between a successful project and a project failure. Many projects are
abandoned due to budget constraints. If you do not want this to happen to
your projects, then you should learn the art of effective project cost
management and complete projects within the specified budgets. Latest tools
and techniques can help you in this regard.
– Here are three main sub-processes involved in project cost management.
 Estimate costs
 Determine budget
 Control costs
Project Quality Management
– No matter how you define quality, a high-quality project is one which
satisfies the customer needs and does not contain any defects and
deficiencies. In order to achieve the highest project quality, project
managers and their team should focus on customer requirements they have
gathered initially, try to know what the customer wants and which problems
your project will solve.
– Develop a prototype of the project and give it to the end user to use it. Their
feedback will allow you to make necessary adjustments before you deliver
the final product to the customer. At the end of it all, the project should
completely align with the user requirements in order to be called a high-
quality project. Hence, all the requirements should be well documented so
that your team can deliver a project that satisfies customer’s requirement.
Project Human Resource
Management
– Another knowledge area of project management that usually is ignored is
project human resource management. It is the set of processes and
activities involved in organizing, leading and managing project teams. It is
how you manage the most valuable asset of your company i.e. people. To
be successful at it, project managers should have a clear strategy when it
comes to hiring and staffing people and inducting them into project teams.
Hiring the right people can increase the chances of your success.
– Project Human Resource Management process involves following sub-
processes:
 Developing a human resource plan
 Hire the project team
 Develop a project team
 Manage project team
Project Communications
Management
– Poor project communications can wreck havoc on your project progress.
Moreover, it can take your project towards failure. So, if you want to
complete projects successfully, all team members should be on the same
page. Moreover, they should work as a team to achieve the common
objective. If you want that to happen, then you will have to communicate
effectively and regularly. Project managers can enhance collaboration and
communication among their team members by using task management
software that offers communications and collaboration features. Here are
some of the key activities that project managers need to undertake to ensure
uninterrupted communications throughout the project:
 Identify stakeholders
 Plan communications
 Distribute information
 Manage stakeholder expectations
 Report performance
Project Risk Management
– Most project managers consider risk management as the most important
factor in completing projects successfully. Therefore, effective risk
management plays an important role in preventing your projects from
failure. In addition to this, project managers can reduce the risk by
following a proactive approach and managing risks at the initial stage.
Project managers who ignore minor risks have to suffer from project
failure because these minor risks can turn into major risk and can lead to a
project disaster if left unattended. Here are some of the activities that
project managers will have to undertake in project risk management:
 Plan risk management
 Identify risks
 Perform qualitative and quantitative risk analysis
 Plan risk response
 Monitor and control risks
Project Procurement Management
– The Project Procurement Management knowledge area covers all the
aspects related to purchase and acquiring of products and services needed
to complete projects effectively. Although, the procurement process is quite
transparent and conducted through a contract or agreement, it important
for project managers to ensure that there are no discrepancies. Whether
you are a buyer or seller, you need to understand both perspectives to get a
better knowledge of the project procurement process. Additionally, cost
benefit analysis, cost utility analysis, and risk analysis also comes under
project procurement management.
 Plan procurement
 Conduct procurement
 Administer procurement
 Close procurement
Project Life Cycle
Project Definition Phase

– Initiate the project

– Identify the Project Manager
– Develop the Project Charter
– Conduct a Feasibility Study
– Define Planning Phase
– Sign off on the Project Charter
Project Planning Phase

– Organize and staff the project

– Develop a Project Plan
– Sign off on the Project Plan
Project Execution Phase

– Execute the Project Plan

– Manage the Project Plan
– Implement the project’s results
– Sign off on project’s completion
Project Close-out Phase

– Document the lessons learned during the project

– After-implementation review
– Provide performance feedback
– Close-out contracts
– Complete administrative close-out
– Deliver project completion report
 Project Life Cycle Flow

Partial Execution
Solution
Know Answer
Pr Space
oje
ct
HOW Pla
nn
ing

Problem Partial
Don’t Know
Space Answer

Project Definition

Don’t Know Know

WHAT
 COMMON PROJECT TERMS

• Deliverables: Tangible ‘things’ that the project produces

• Milestones: Dates by which major activities are performed.
• Tasks: Also called Actions. Activities undertaken during the project
• Risks: Potential problems that may arise
• Issues: Risks that have happened
• Gantt Chart: A specific type of chart showing time and tasks. Usually
created by a Project Management program like MS Project.
• Stakeholder: Any person or group of people who may be affected by your
project
EXAMPLE: Building a deck
• Deliverables: A plan, a consent form, the deck

Plan drafted Plan approved 1 Jun

• Milestones: 15 Jun

Plan submitted Plan approved 16 Jun

19 Jun

Materials purchased Resources booked Equipment 16 Jul

identified Deck constructed Deck tested 16 Jul
Deck quality approved “Deck warming” completed 16 Jul
20 Jul
24 Jul
24 Jul
28 Jul

• Tasks tasks Subtasks

:
Plan drafted Requirement gathered Best
practice researched Draft 1
prepared Distributed to
stakeholders
Plan approved Feedback gathered
Amendments made Final
plan prepared
Distributed to stakeholders
Sign-off obtained
WORK-BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE
 WBS
 Hierarchy of tasks required to complete project
 Each task is broken into smaller tasks that can be managed and
estimated
 Define task dependencies
▪ Some tasks must begin at the same time, some must end at
the same time and some cannot start until the other tasks
have finished.
 Estimate task durations and cost
 May be inputted into project management software
• Final WBS plan is called baseline WBS
• Risks:
• Plan is not approved after first round of feedback
• Resources are not available at the required time
• Plan is not given consent
• For each of the above, you should have a contingency plan, or do
some activity that may prevent it happening in the first place.

• Issues:
– If any of the above actually happens, then it becomes an issue to
solve.

• Gantt Chart:

• Stakeholder:
– House owner, Builder, Council, ???
–A successful Project Manager must simultaneously manage the four basic
elements of a project:
–resources, time, money, and most importantly, scope.
–All these elements are interrelated. Each must be managed effectively. All
must be managed together if the project is to be a success. The resource that
can be leveraged to the greatest extent in all projects is the people involved