PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Project management is the application of processes, methods, skills, knowledge and experience to achieve specific
project objectives according to the project acceptance criteria within agreed parameters. Project management has final
deliverables that are constrained to a finite timescale and budget.

WHAT IS A PROJECT?
A project is a unique, transient endeavour, undertaken to achieve planned objectives, which could be defined in terms of outputs,
outcomes or benefits. A project is usually deemed to be a success if it achieves the objectives according to their acceptance criteria,
within an agreed timescale and budget. Time, cost and quality are the building blocks of every project. 
 Time: scheduling is a collection of techniques used to develop and present schedules that show when work will be
performed.
 Cost: how are necessary funds acquired and finances managed?
 Quality: how will fitness for purpose of the deliverables and management processes be assured?

PROJECT LIFE CYCLE

Project manager’s technical expertise, people skills, and mastery of the project management basics are essential for completing a
project according to plan.

Although preferred project management methodologies vary depending on the project or the company working on it, a successful
project typically follows five major stages from beginning to end — also known as the different phases of the project management life
cycle, namely:
 Initiation
 Planning
 Execution
 Monitoring and control
 Closure

THE FIVE PHASES OF THE PROJECT LIFE CYCLE

Source: InvensisLearning.com

WHAT IS PROJECT ORGANIZATION?

The project organization is the structure of the project. It’s created separately, with specialists and workers from various
departments. These personnel work under the project manager.

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Project organization is a process. It provides the arrangement for decisions on how to realize a project. It decides the project’s process:
planning how its costs, deadlines, personnel and more will be implemented and by which project management tools. The project
organization is then presented to the project stakeholders.

Areas of Responsibility
There are three areas of competence and responsibility in a project organizational structure: project leadership, project team and
project board. The project leadership is responsible for the management of the project, and the project team implements the project.
The project board is the decision-making body that defines project success and whether or not a project must be cancelled.

TYPES OF PROJECT ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURES

There’s a variety of project organizational structures. Here are three:
1. Functional is when the organizational departments are grouped by areas of specialization. In this case, the project is usually
executed in a silo environment.
2. Projectized is when the entire organization is organized by the project.
3. Matrix has teams report to functional manager and project manager, sort of a hybrid of the previous two structures.
4. Organic project organization embraces flexibility.
5. Virtual is when the project manager is the hub in the network.
6. Multi-division means that functional groups are decentralized.

Understanding what type of organizational structure to use determines a project’s management. The structure provides the bones for
the project, and therefore the project plan must align itself with the structure. This is usually done with a project organization chart.

WHAT IS A WBS OR WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE?

The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is defined by A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge 3 rd Edition (PMBOK
Guide) as “A deliverable-oriented hierarchical decomposition of the work to be executed by the project team to accomplish the
project objectives and create the required deliverables”. A WBS is the cornerstone of effective project planning, execution,
controlling, monitoring, and reporting. All the work contained within the WBS is to be identified, estimated, scheduled, and budgeted.

Work Breakdown Structure Diagram

The Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is developed to establish a common understanding of project scope. It is a hierarchical
description of the work that must be done to complete the deliverables of a project. Each descending level in the WBS represents
an increasingly detailed description of the project deliverables.

The first two levels of the WBS (the root node and Level 2) define a set of planned outcomes that collectively and exclusively
represent 100% of the project scope. At each subsequent level, the children of a parent node collectively and exclusively represent
100% of the scope of their parent node. Below diagram is a Work

Breakdown Structure example:

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Quality of a Work Breakdown Structures
A well-designed WBS describes planned outcomes instead of planned actions. Outcomes are the desired ends of the project, such
as a product, result, or service, and can be predicted accurately. Actions, on the other hand, may be difficult to predict accurately.
A well-designed WBS makes it easy to assign elements of the WBS to any project activity. A good WBS should exhibit the
following characteristics:
 Definable — can be described and easily understood by project participants.
 Manageable — a meaningful unit of work where specific responsibility and authority can be assigned to a responsible
individual.
 Estimable — duration can be estimated in time required to complete, and cost can be estimated in resources required to
complete.
 Independent — minimum interface with or dependence on other on-going elements (i.e., assignable to a single control
account, and clearly distinguishable from other work packages).
 Integratable — integrates with other project work elements and with higher level cost estimates and schedules to include
the entire project.
 Measurable — can be used to measure progress; has start and completion dates and measurable interim milestones.
 Adaptable — sufficiently flexible so the addition/elimination of work scope can be readily accommodated in the WBS
framework.

Guidelines for Developing Work Breakdown Structure

The development of Work Breakdown Structure involves subdividing the major project activities or sub-activities into smaller,
more manageable activities until the activities are defined in sufficient detail to support the management and development of
project works. The items at the lowest level of a branch are known as work packages. Here are some tips in developing a Work
Breakdown Structure that can express works effectively:
1. Always express Work Breakdown Structure activities at the lowest levels of granularity in verb form.
2. Review the Work Breakdown Structure. Make sure all deliverables have been fully covered by the works defined in the
Work Breakdown Structure.
3. Ensure that testing and training have been considered.
4. Ensure that non-IT work packages are also included such as, documentation and review activities are included in the
structure.
5. Ensure that other supporting activities such as, product/service launch and implementation activities are planned.
6. Ensure that delivery approval cycles are considered.
7. Include project management deliverables on the project as well (e.g. production of Project Plan). Include any deliverables
that must be met or delivered by the customer or any external parties. Check the Work Breakdown Structure against the
project approach specified in Project Charter for any activities that needs to be included in the Work Breakdown Structure.

MANAGING RESOURCES
A successful project manager must effectively manage the resources assigned to the project. This includes the labor hours of the
project team. It also includes managing labor subcontract and vendors. Managing the people resources means having the right people,
with the right skills and the proper tools, in the right quantity at the right time. However, managing project resources frequently
involves more than people management. The project manager must also manage the equipment (cranes, trucks and other heavy
equipment) used for the project and the material (pipe, insulation, computers, manuals) assigned to the project.

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There are three different types of resources that a project manager needs to manage specifically people, equipment and material. Some
people get confused about how to effectively manage equipment or material, and how that falls into project management. Not only
will the project managers need the right people on the right jobs, but they need to make sure that they have the required equipment and
material to get the job done. Below are the ways about managing the three different types of resources.

IMPORTANCE OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT

1. Defines a plan and organizes chaos – projects are naturally chaotic. The primary business function of project management
is organizing and planning projects to tame this chaos. A clear path mapped out from start to finish ensures the outcome
meets the goals of your project.
2. Establishes a schedule and plan – Without a schedule, a project has a higher probability of delays and cost overruns. A
sound schedule is a key to a successful project.
3. Enforces and encourages teamwork – A project brings people together to share ideas and provide inspiration.
Collaboration is the cornerstone to effective project planning and management.
4. Maximizes resources – Resources, whether financial or human, are expensive. By enforcing project management disciplines
such as project tracking and risk management, all resources are used efficiently and economically.
5. Manages Integration – Projects don’t happen in a vacuum. They need to be integrated with business processes, systems and
organizations. You can’t build a sales system that doesn’t integrate with your sales process and sales organization. It
wouldn’t add much value. Integration is often a key to project value. Project management identifies and manages integration.
6. Controls cost – some projects can cost a significant amount of money so on budget performance is essential. Using project
management strategies greatly reduces the risk of budget overruns.
7. Manages change – projects always happen in an environment in which nothing is constant except change. Managing change
is a complex and daunting task. It is not optional. Project management manages change.
8. Managing quality – Quality is the value of what you produce. Project management identifies, manages and controls quality.
This results in a high-quality product or service and a happy client.
9. Retain and use knowledge – projects generate knowledge or at least they should. Knowledge represents a significant asset
for most businesses. Left unmanaged knowledge tends to quickly fade. Project management ensures that knowledge is
captured and managed.
10. Learning from failure – projects do fail. When they do, it is important to learn from the process. Project management
ensures that lessons are learned from project success and failure.

PROJECT PLANNING MODELS

Any successful project requires planning. The project manager or stakeholders plan small and simple projects on an ad-hoc basis using
the basic planning techniques. Using such basic methods, however, remains inadequate and causes inefficiency for large and complex
projects. Such large projects require formal project management methodologies or models, which contain a blueprint of processes and
steps to undertake the planning process.

A project planning model is a technical discipline in its own right, and the two most popular examples of project planning models are
PRINCE2 and PMBOK.

PRINCE2
PRINCE2 or “Projects in Controlled Environment” is a rigid and structured approach to project planning, detailing rigorous and
formalized roles, responsibilities, and channels of communication for each aspect of the project. The processes of PRINCE2 project
planning model include:
1. Starting Up (SU), which includes objective-setting, establishing an approach and constituting the project team.
2. Initiating a Project (IP) or determining the time and resources required for the entire project, or augmenting the project brief
into a business case.
3. Directing a Project (DP) or determining the authorized personnel for each component or stage of the project, developing
guidelines for authorizing stage plans and giving ad hoc directions when required, and detailing ways to confirm project
closure.
4. Controlling a Stage (CS) or monitoring and reporting the project component, including assessment and review of progress
based on plan, and details of escalating issues that arise or taking corrective action.
5. Managing Product Delivery (DP) or creating, delivering and reviewing project components.
6. Managing Stage Boundaries (SB) or reporting on the current management stage and planning for the next stage.
7. Closing a Project (CP), or de-commissioning the project and freeing up the resources tied up to the project, and identifying
follow-on actions

A planning component under runs all these stages.

PRINCE2 focus more on deliverables than the business case, and as such, works best as a project implementation tool rather than a
project-planning tool. It nevertheless finds widespread application in project planning and remains best suited to break down large and
complex projects spreading over a vast amount of time into small and manageable chunks.
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PMBOK
PMBOK, or “Project Management Body Of Knowledge” is an industry standard project planning model and the dominant
methodology in use in North America. The processes are described in terms of:
 Inputs such as documents, plans, and designs
 Tools and techniques used or the mechanisms applied to inputs, and
 Outputs such as documents or products

The ten knowledge areas are:

1. Integration Management
2. Scope Management
3. Time Management
4. Cost Management
5. Quality Management
6. Human Resource Management
7. Communications Management
8. Risk Management
9. Procurement Management
10. Stakeholder Management (added in the 5th edition)

Each knowledge area contains some or all of the project management processes. For example, Project Procurement Management
includes:
1. Plan Procurements
2. Conduct Procurements
3. Administer Procurements
4. Close Procurements
Much of PMBOK is unique to project management, for example, critical path and work breakdown structure (WBS). Some areas
overlap with other management disciplines. General management also includes planning, organizing, staffing, executing and
controlling the operations of an organization. Financial forecasting, organizational behavior and planning techniques are also similar.
Effective project management requires implementation of all the 42 processes.

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