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Project Management Concepts

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 Outline
• Project Manager Actions
• The Concepts of “Project”, “Program” and “Portfolio”
• The Project Life Cycle
• Elements of the Project Management Process
• Identification and Engagement of Stakeholders
• Global Project Management
• Project Management Associations
• Critical Success Factors
• Summary

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 Concepts in this chapter support:
Project Management
Knowledge Areas from
-Project Integration
PMBOK® Guide Management

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 Project Manager Actions

• Prevent, anticipate, overcome

• problems and limitations in order to complete the project
scope on schedule, within budget, and to the customer’s
satisfaction
• Have good planning and communication
• essential to preventing problems from occurring and to
minimize their impact
• Be responsible
• requires ongoing communication with the customer

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 Strategic Goals

Portfolio

Program Program Project Project

Project
Projects

Project
Project Project
Project
Projects Projects

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 The Project Life Cycle*

*The series of phases that a project passes through from its start to its completion.
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 The Project Life Cycle
• The PLC has four general
phases: initiating, planning,
performing, and closing the
project
• The time span of each phase
and the associated level of
effort will vary depending on
the project
• PLCs can vary in length from
a few weeks to several years,
depending on the complexity
of the project
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 Initiating Phase (first phase)
• In the initiating phase, projects are identified and
selected and then authorized using a document
referred to as a project charter
• Identify need, problem, or opportunity
• Determine if select project
• Develop project charter (Rationale; Project objective;
Expected benefits; General requirements & conditions)
• If organization decides to use external resources, then
it develops a request for proposals (RFP), asking
contractors to submit proposals describing how to
address the need, associated costs, and schedule
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 Planning Phase (second phase)
• It includes defining the project scope, identifying
resources, developing a schedule and budget, and
identifying risks, all of which make up the baseline
plan for doing the project work
• Plan the work (via actual resources) and work the plan
• The detailed plan results in a baseline plan
• What needs to be done -- scope, deliverable
• How it will get done -- activities, sequence
• Who will do it -- resources, responsibilities
• How long it will take -- durations, schedule
• How much it will cost -- budget
• What the risks are
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 Performing Phase (third phase)
• In the performing phase, the project plan is executed
and tasks are carried out to produce all the project
deliverables and to accomplish the project objective
• The project manager leads the project team to
complete the project
• Increase pace as more resources are added
• Monitor and control progress
• Take corrective action as needed
• Manage and control changes with sponsor approval
• Achieve customer satisfaction with acceptance of
deliverable
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 Closing Phase (fourth phase)
• In the closing phase, project evaluations are conducted,
lessons learned are identified and documented to help
improve performance on future projects, and project
documents are organized and archived
• It includes a variety of actions such as:
• Collect and make final payments
• Recognize and evaluate staff
• Conduct post project evaluation
• Document and record lessons learned
• Archive project documents
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 • The customer should be
Class Discussion involved throughout the
• What role does a project life cycle.
customer have during the • The customer is the one who
project life cycle? is paying for the project.
• Why is it important to Unsatisfied customers have
satisfy the customer? been known to withhold
payments, to deny repeat
business, and to spread the
word of their dissatisfaction.
On the other hand, a satisfied
customer will do the opposite
of those things.

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 Project Planning Process
• Establish project objective
• Define scope
• Create WBS
• Assign responsibility
• Define specific activities
• Sequence activities
• Estimate activity resources
• Estimate activity durations
• Develop project schedule
• Estimate activity costs
• Determine budget
• Remember the 5 P’s*
*Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance
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 • Many aspects can have some
Class Discussion degree of uncertainty, such as
the schedule or the budget.
• What aspects of a project • An unexpected snowstorm may
might involve some delay a highway construction
degree of uncertainty? project
Why? • Increased lumber rates may
increase the cost of building a
new home
• Not everything in a project can
be planned, scheduled, or
budgeted.
• VUCA world*
(ex.techn.progress)
*Volatile / Uncertain / Complex /
Ambiguous

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 Create WBS and Assign Responsibility

Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) - a hierarchical (from general to

specific) decomposition of the project scope into work elements to be
executed by the project team and produce the project deliverables
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 Developing a WBS
What tasks must be completed?
• Brainstorming – Who do you involve? How should the process
happen? Who facilitates? Who makes eventual decisions?
Task List
• Look for related tasks (use post-in notes/pin boards)
• Is there a hierarchy? (plan sub-levels)
Key questions:
• Are these all the tasks you need to produce deliverables? (i.e.
what’s missing?)
• Right amount of detail? If not, further breakdown needed
• Is everything really necessary? Reject anything not fit for purpose.
(Brainstorming can be too creative!) If tasks overlap, remove them
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 Developing a WBS
• Sequencing: once you have all the tasks, put them in order >>
Allocate TASK NUMBER and WBS NUMBER
Task number WBS number Description
1 1 Select coffee supplier
2 1.1 Document desired quality
3 1.2 Write RFP
4 1.3 Select possible suppliers
5 1.4 Send to possible suppliers
6 1.5 Wait for responses
7 1.6 Review responses
8 1.7 Select supplier
9 2 Prepare packaging
10 2.1 Choose colour scheme
11 2.2 Create design
12 3 Marketing campaign
13 3.1 Decide on name
14 3.2 Design brochure
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15 May not be scanned, copied
3.3or duplicated, orSelect launch
posted to a publicly date
accessible website, in whole or in part.
Activity: Developing a WBS

• WBS for conducting a survey with consumers on

• Debrief

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 WBS

• Graphic Chart

• Indentured List

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 Sequence Activities

Sequencing activities involves creating a network diagram that shows

the necessary sequence and dependent relationships in a project

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 Develop the Project Schedule

Developing project schedule involves determining the start & finish times for
each activity in order to complete the project by its required completion date
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 Determine Budget

Determining the budget involves aggregating all the costs associated

with each activity and each work package and adding indirect costs
and profits to determine the costs of completing the project
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 • Many projects overrun their
Class Discussion budgets or miss completion
dates
• Why is it critical to
develop a baseline • A baseline plan helps to
compare progress
plan?
• The graphical or tabular
display shows the start and
finish dates for each activity
• The amounts of resources
are known
• The budget is displayed for
each time period and the
project

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 Execute the Project Plan

• Perform the work

• Monitor and control
progress (to see if
progress is going
according to plan)
• Control changes

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 Identification and Engagement of Stakeholders
Who are Stakeholders? What to Create?
• Individuals and entities • Stakeholder register
involved in, or who may • Created as stakeholders are
influence, or may be affected identified
by a project • Include
• Customer/sponsor • Key contact information
• Project team including • Role or specific topics of
interest
subcontractors and suppliers
• Expectations
• End users or consumers • Any known issues
• Organizations or groups who • Areas of potential influence
may want to be kept informed • Issue log (to follow up & response)
because of potential impact
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 Global Project Management
Globalization Helpful Competencies
• Adds a dimension of • Foreign language skills
complexity • Knowledge of
• Changes project dynamics • Cultures
• Requires awareness of • Geography
factors • World history and
§ Cultural differences contemporary events
§ Currency fluctuations and • International economics
exchange rates • Awareness of
§ Codes and regulations • Customs and etiquette
§ Business organization • Geopolitical environment
§ Political relations
• Technology adoption and
§ Workforce availability translation software
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 Project Management Associations

Project Management Institute (PMI)

• Worldwide not-for-profit association of practitioners
§ Founded in 1969
§ ~500,000 members in nearly 200 countries
§ ~270 chapters in >80 countries
• >30 online communities for collaboration
• PMBOK® Guide
• PMI Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct
• Certifications
• www.pmi.org

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 Project Management Associations

Organization Headquarter Members

PMI
USA 500,000+
(Project Management Institute)
IPMA
(International Project Europe 250,000+
Management Association)
APM
(Association for Project United Kingdom 22,000+
Management)
AIPM
(Australian Institute of Project Australia 7,000+
Management)

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 Critical Success Factors
• Planning and communication are critical to successful project
management. They prevent problems from occurring or minimize
their impact on the achievement of the project objective when
they do occur.
• Taking the time to develop a well thought-out plan before the
start of the project is critical to the successful accomplishment of
any project.
• A project must have a clear objective of what is to be
accomplished and defined in terms of end product or deliverable,
schedule, and budget; and is agreed upon by the customer.
• Involve the sponsor (or customer) as a partner in the successful
outcome of the project through active participation during the
project.
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 Critical Success Factors
• Achieving customer satisfaction requires ongoing
communication with the customer to keep the customer
informed and to determine whether expectations have changed.
• The key to effective project control is measuring actual progress
and comparing it to planned progress on a timely and regular
basis and taking any needed corrective action immediately.
• After the conclusion of a project, the project performance should
be evaluated to learn what could be improved if a similar project
were to be done in the future. Feedback should be obtained
from the sponsor or customer and the project team.
• Learning and understanding the culture and customs of other
project participants will demonstrate respect, help build trust,
and aid in developing an effective project team; and it is critical
for successful global project management.
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 Summary
• Project Manager Actions
• The Concepts of “Project”, “Program” and “Portfolio”
• The Project Life Cycle (Initiating, Planning, Performing, Closing)
• Elements of the Project Management Process
(WBS/ND/Schedule/Budget)
• Identification and Engagement of Stakeholders
• Global Project Management (awareness of..)
• Project Management Associations
• Critical Success Factors

A© 2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
 Let’s give
ourselves a
project!

A© 2015 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.