Project

A project as a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result. The
temporary nature of projects indicates a definite beginning and end.
Project management
Project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project
activities to meet the project requirements.
Triple Constraint of Project Management
A common teaching in the project management world is the Triple Constraint. This is
represented by the simple triangle shown.

All projects are constrained by three

factors: scope, cost, and time. Each of these three constraints exists while the service provider is
simultaneously meeting customer quality requirements.

Phases of Project lifecycle

There are five phases of project
1) Initiation phase
During the first of these phases, the initiation phase, the project objective or need is identified;
this can be a business problem or opportunity. An appropriate response to the need is
documented in a business case with recommended solution options. A feasibility study is
conducted to investigate whether each option addresses the project objective and a final
recommended solution is determined. Issues of feasibility (“can we do the project?”) and
justification (“should we do the project?”) are addressed.
2) Planning
The next phase, the planning phase, is where the project solution is further developed in as much
detail as possible and the steps necessary to meet the project’s objective are planned. In this step,
the team identifies all the work to be done. The project’s tasks and resource requirements are
identified, along with the strategy for producing them. A project plan is created outlining the
activities, tasks, dependencies, and timeframes. The project manager coordinates the preparation
Prepared by: ZAIN UL ABIDIN (FA16-EEE-053)
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, CUI Abbottabad
of a project budget by providing cost estimates for the labor, equipment, and materials costs. The
budget is used to monitor and control cost expenditures during project implementation.
3) Executing
This is the phase that is most commonly associated with project management. Execution is all
about building deliverables that satisfy the customer. Team leaders make this happen by
allocating resources and keeping team members focused on their assigned tasks.
Execution relies heavily on the planning phase. The work and efforts of the team during the
execution phase are derived from the project plan.
4) Monitoring and controlling
Monitoring and control are sometimes combined with execution because they often occur at the
same time. As teams execute their project plan, they must constantly monitor their own progress.
To guarantee delivery of what was promised, teams must monitor tasks to prevent scope creep,
calculate key performance indicators and track variations from allotted cost and time. This
constant vigilance helps keep the project moving ahead smoothly.
5) Closing
During the final closure, or completion phase, the emphasis is on releasing the final deliverables
to the customer, handing over project documentation to the business, terminating supplier
contracts, releasing project resources, and communicating the closure of the project to all
stakeholders. The last remaining step is to conduct lessons-learned studies to examine what went
well and what didn’t. Through this type of analysis, the wisdom of experience is transferred back
to the project organization, which will help future project teams.

Project Management Knowledge Areas

There are total ten knowledge areas of project management.
1. Project integration
This knowledge area contains the tasks that hold the overall project together and integrate it into
a unified whole.
2. Project Scope
This knowledge area involves the project scope, that is, the work that is included within the
project.  Since scope changes are one of the top causes of project changes and grief in general, it
is very important that the boundaries of the project be well defined from the outset and
monitored rigorously.  It is very easy for people to insert unauthorized work into the project
when the project appears to be big enough to absorb it, but most projects are estimated with the
minimum cost.
3. Project Schedule 
This is usually the most time consuming of the knowledge areas.  During planning, the project
manager must divide the project into tasks and create both a schedule (start and finish dates for
each task) and budget for each task. 
4. Project Cost

Prepared by: ZAIN UL ABIDIN (FA16-EEE-053)

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, CUI Abbottabad
The project budget is usually one of the most sensitive parts of a project.  Wouldn’t it be nice to
have project budgets that are comfortable and contain plenty of cushion, but very few projects
have this luxury.  The budget must be established through rigorous estimating techniques and
monitored to ensure there are no unnecessary changes that make stakeholders unhappy.
5. Project Quality
Quality is one of the triple constraints of Time, Cost, and Quality.  As such, when you need
better quality you need to put in more time or cost.  Because of this integral nature of
the quality of the project’s deliverables, the quality level should be established during project
planning and specified within the project management plan.  Then when issues arise regarding
product specifications, there is a plan to deal with it.
6. Project Resource
The project team is usually one of the most important factors in the success of a project.  If you
have a good team, you will have a successful project.  This knowledge area is concerned with
acquiring the right team, ensuring their satisfaction, and tracking their performance.
7. Project Communications 
Communication with stakeholders is often the key factor that allows stakeholders to be satisfied
even when unexpected changes happen.  It is essential to develop a communications plan to keep
all stakeholders “in the loop” throughout the project and communicate early and often when
unexpected issues occur.
8. Project Risk
Managing project risk is one of the most underrated aspects of project management.  Major risk
is very seldom identified up front and analyzed within the project management plan, but when
they are project stakeholders tend to forgive the unexpected issues much quicker.  Not to
mention they hold the project manager in high regard for strong safeguarding of their
investments.
9. Project Procurement
Almost all projects have some form of outside procurement.  Hiring subcontractors can get the
job done quicker or with better expertise but sacrifices the ability to control the quality, schedule,
or other factors.  Also, the fine print often results in budget and schedule overruns that were not
envisioned
10. Project Stakeholder
There is nothing more important than the project’s stakeholders.  You could, in theory, declare a
project a success if the stakeholders are satisfied but the project was a disaster (although I
wouldn’t recommend this line of thinking).  The stakeholders should be actively managed and
addressed within the project management plan

Prepared by: ZAIN UL ABIDIN (FA16-EEE-053)

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, CUI Abbottabad