Project

Management
MGT 208 – Management Science
 What is Project Management ?
● Project Management comprises of a set of
techniques that helps management
accomplish large-scale projects; projects that
usually involve coordination of numerous jobs
throughout the organization.
 The Elements of Project Management
● Project Planning
Project plans generally include the following basic elements:
- Objectives—A detailed statement of what is to be accomplished by the project, how
it will achieve the company’s goals and meet the strategic plan, and an
estimate of when it needs to be completed, the cost, and the return.

- Project scope—A discussion of how to approach the project, the technological and
resource feasibility, the major tasks involved, and a preliminary schedule;
it includes a justification of the project and what constitutes project
success.

- Contract requirements—A general structure of managerial, reporting, and

performance responsibilities, including a detailed list of staff, suppliers,
subcontractors, managerial requirements and agreements, reporting
requirements, and a projected organizational structure.
● Project Planning
Project plans generally include the following basic elements:
- Schedules—A list of all major events, tasks, and subschedules, from which a master
schedule is developed.

- Resources—The overall project budget for all resource requirements and

procedures for budgetary control.

- Personnel—Identification and recruitment of personnel required for the project

team, including special skills and training.

- Control—Procedures for monitoring and evaluating progress and performance,

including schedules and cost.

- Risk and problem analysis—Anticipation and assessment of uncertainties, problems,

and potential difficulties that might increase the risk of project delays
and/or failure and threaten project success.
● Project Return
In a business, one of the most popular measures of benefit
is return on investment (ROI). ROI is a performance measure
that is often used to evaluate the expected outcome of a
project or to compare a number of different projects.

However, projects sometimes have benefits that cannot be

measured in a tangible way with something like an ROI; these
benefits are referred to as “soft” returns.
● The Project Team
A project team typically consists of a group of individuals
selected from other areas in the organization, or from
consultants outside the organization, because of their special
skills, expertise, and experience related to the project
activities.
The most important member of a project team is the
project manager.
● Scope Statement
- A scope statement is a document that provides a common
understanding of a project. It includes a justification for the project that
describes what factors have created a need within the company for the
project. It also includes an indication of what the expected results of the
project will be and what will constitute project success. Further, the scope
statement might include a list of the types of planning reports and
documents that are part of the project management process.

- A similar planning document is the statement of work (SOW). In a

large project, the SOW is often prepared for individual team members,
groups, departments, subcontractors, and suppliers
● Work Breakdown Structure
- The work breakdown structure (WBS) is an
organizational chart used for project planning.
- It organizes the work to be done on a project by
breaking down the project into its major components,
referred to as modules.
- These components are then subdivided into more
detailed subcomponents, which are further broken
down into activities, and, finally, into individual tasks.
● Responsibility Assignment Matrix
- After the WBS is developed, to organize the project work into
smaller, manageable elements, the project manager assigns the work
elements to organizational units—departments, groups, individuals, or
subcontractors—by using an organizational breakdown structure (OBS).
An OBS is a table or chart that shows which organizational units are
responsible for work items. After the OBS is developed, the project
manager can then develop a responsibility assignment matrix (RAM).

- A RAM shows who in the organization is responsible for doing the

work in the project.
● Project Scheduling
- A project schedule evolves from the planning
documents discussed previously. It is typically the most critical
element in the project management process, especially during
the implementation phase (i.e., the actual project work), and it
is the source of most conflict and problems.

Developing a schedule encompasses four basic steps:

1. define the activities
2. sequence the activities
3. estimate the time
4. develop the schedule
Gantt Chart
-is a traditional management technique for scheduling
and planning small projects that have relatively few activities
and precedence relationships.
- This scheduling technique (also called a bar chart) was
developed by Henry Gantt, a pioneer in the field of industrial
engineering at the artillery ammunition shops of the Frankford
Arsenal in 1914.
Slack
-is the amount of time by which an activity
can be delayed without delaying any of the
activities that follow it or the project as a
whole.
Project Control
-is the process of making sure a project progresses
toward successful completion

Time management- is the process of making sure a

project schedule does not slip and that a project is on time.
Time–cost trade-off - Some activities may have slack
time, so resources can be shifted from them to activities
that are not on schedule.
Project Control
Cost management- is often closely tied to time management
because of the time–cost trade-off occurrences
Performance management- is the process of monitoring a project
and developing timed (i.e., daily, weekly, monthly) status reports to make
sure that goals are being met and the plan is being followed.
Earned value analysis (EVA) is a specific system for
performance management.
● For example, an EVA metric such as schedule variance
compares the work performed during a time period with
the work that was scheduled to be performed; a
negative variance means the project is behind schedule.
Cost variance is the budgeted cost of work performed
minus the actual cost of the work; a negative variance
means the project is over budget.