Project Management Notes

PROJECT MANAGEMENT COURSE

LEGEND

• PM = Project Manager
• PMP = Project Management Plan
• Enterprise environmental factors = EEF
• Organizational Process Assets = OPA
• Work Performance Data = WPD
• Work Performance Information = WPI
• Work Performance Report = WPR
• Change Control Board = CCB
• Approved Change Requests = ACR
• Project Management Information Systems = PMIS
• Change Requests = CR
• Project Document Updates = PDU
• Scope Management Plan = SMP
• Requirements Management Plan = RMP
• Work Breakdown Structure = WBS
• Stakeholder Register = SR
• Stakeholder Management Plan = SHMP
• Schedule Management Plan = SCMP
• Requirements Documentation = RD
• Requirements Traceability Matrix = RTM
• Activity List = AL
• Activity Attributes = AA
• Milestone List = ML
• Risk Register = RR
• Risk Breakdown Structure = RBS
• Project Funding Requirements = PFR
• Earned Value Management = EVM
• Cost Management Plan = CMP
• Quality Management Plan = QMP
• Process Improvement Plan = PIP
• Human Resource Management Plan = HRMP
• Communication Management Plan = COMP
• Information Management Systems = IMS
• Risk Management Plan = RMP
• Procurement Management Plan = PRMP
• Procurement Statement of Work = PSOW
• Stakeholder Management Plan = STMP

What is a Project?

• Initiated by an organization for many reasons
• Fulfills business need, meets market demands, Attains strategic objectives
• Project – product, service, result
• Unique and not done before
• Temporary meaning all projects eventually come to an end but have an outcome that is long lasting
• Project is done through a series of sequential tasks
• Defined outcome also known as deliverable – final product, service, result
• Project

• Definite beginning and end
• Goals, constraints and resources
• Conform to timelines, budget and associated costs that are non-exhaustible, parameters that project must fall within = scope

• Operations

• Organization’s repetitive activities – payroll accounting, mass production of deliverable
• Daily work of an organization
• No set end point of the operation – continues to go on unless need to change, update or eliminate it

• Project and Operation

• Project have a definite end point, but not operation
• Need for organization to update process, bring a new item into production or bring to light beneficial knowledge may spawn a project
• Once deliverable is reached, project ends and operations begin

• Project may be handled by many or one person

• Could also be international projects with people from different parts of the world
• PMs coordinate resources to ensure project is completed on time and within budget
• Sometimes there may be repetitive elements – external and internal circumstances makes it a unique project

• Constraints:

• Scope
• Schedule
• Quality
• Resources
• Budget
• Risk

• Project – organize resources to bring together a group of people to perform different tasks on a common set of objectives for defined period of time

• Needs a PM and Leader who defines work objectives, manage skilled professionals and identifies criteria for success of the project

What is Project Management?

• History of Project Management

• Developed from many different fields – construction, engineering, national defense
• Acquiring, processing materials and organizing workers for Trans-continental railway

• Common accidents, circumstances arose
• Managers realized productivity was due to lack of efficiency

• Frederick Taylor studied ways to improve productivity through scientific reasoning

• Work Smarter not Harder

• Henry Gantt – mech engineer; studied order of operations

• Facilitate efficiency – GANTT chart documented flow of work from one task to another
• Outlines sequences and durations of all tasks in a process and gauges completion through task bars and milestone marks
• Powerful tool and remains in wide use today
• PERT charts and Critical path method were developed – more control of the flow and outcome of projects
• Integration of complex tasks into overall objective of project

• Wartime manufacturing and military – effective PM

• After war ended, this knowledge was passed into commercial manufacturing
• Modern Project Management became recognized

• 1969 – PMI formed in USA – not-for profit membership association

• What is Project Management?

• Bringing together different components of a project to accomplish specific objective
• Initiating, Planning, Executing, Monitoring and Controlling, Closing resources to achieve specific goals
• All organizations (small or large) will undertake projects to

• improve operation,
• meet requirement or
• fulfill a need

• Challenge of project management is to achieve all objectives while staying within its constraints (triple constraints):

• Time to complete project
• Cost of project
• Scope of project

• Project planning process is most important

• Steps, guidelines, standards of proper project management to complete a successful project

• Process Groups – initiating, planning, executing, monitoring/controlling, closing
• Knowledge areas – integration, scope, time, cost, HR, quality, communication
  
  

• Different industries use variations of process groups and not all industries require every process or knowledge area
• It doesn’t matter if project is huge, complex, small, local, international – important for PM to follow processes within framework to ensure seamless flow of project implementation and successfully complete deliverable on time and in budget
• Successful Project Management holds project together

Portfolio, Program, Project Management

• Portfolio

• Collection of programs that may/may not be related but still are part of organization’s goals or plans
• Organization maintains portfolio of all programs it has undertaken to meet strategic goals
• Handles governance of project lifecycle
• Program standards, document repository for paperwork, portfolio management tools

• Program

• Group of related projects – grouped together because doing them together benefits the organization or it makes sense to the organization
• Program management – application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to a program in order to meet the program requirements and to obtain benefits and control not available by managing programs individually.
• Used to categorize work into smaller sets of related projects which may be done sequentially or may be completed in parallel at the same time

• Project

• Temporary enterprise that will produce deliverable, service or result
• Can be complex as writing software or building high rise office building or finding an answer to a question or making dinner – big or small
• Projects share resources and depend on the outcome of other projects

• Combining portfolio, program and project management – Organizational Project Management (OPM)

• Portfolio is a collection of programs and projects aligned to a specific goal or objective

• OPM – Highest level of Project Management and provides a systematic approach to projects, programs and portfolios to achieve organization’s overall strategic goals.         
• Portfolio Management, program management and project management are different and may require separate skill sets and authority roles

• They all use fundamental discipline of PM to meet business needs and objectives
• May be defined differently in different organizations.

• Project Management Office:

• Provide training and mentoring
• Support managers in planning, establishing risk management
• Managing shared resources across projects
• Develop, maintain, and ensure compliance with project management standards, policies, procedures and templates.
• Supportive PMO:

• Provide a consultative role to projects
• Low degree of control to projects

• Controlling PMO:

• Provide support and ensure compliance
• Moderate degree of control to projects

• Directive PMO:

• Directly manage the project
• High degree of control

Role of a Project Manager

• Regardless of the industry, PM is needed to develop project plans, define objectives, identify resources, control budget, determine timelines and tasks to complete successful project
• Role of Project Manager

• Different than functional manager or operational manager
• PM leads a team that is responsible for achieving project’s objectives
• Functional Manager – management oversight of distinct business unit like HR
• Operations Manager – make sure business of their business is operating smoothly on daily basis

• Project Manager

• Title used to describe anyone who I given responsibility to complete a project
• To successfully complete a project, PM should control all aspects of a project
• Main decision maker and success depends on him/her
• PM is responsible for rely and efficient completion of each task in the phase
• PM does not have to perform all the tasks but should know and control what to get done, who will do it, when it needs to be completed, amount of resources to accomplish the task
• PM – person with full responsibility and high level of authority to complete project
• All projects vary in time, cost, complexity – appoint project coordinators and expeditors; delegate responsibility – monitoring and controlling work performed
• PM may direct expeditor to perform administrative duties like analyzing reports, dispersing funds
• PM involved in delegating components and develop leadership ability to manage project team
• PM mitigates issues regarding team member participation, issues should be discussed with team member and be escalated, personal and leadership skills cannot be understated
• Skills – ability to negotiate, diffuse volatile situations, motivate a team are essential, building, teams, conflict management

• Functional organizational structure

• Functional manager – complete projects within same department
• Project may not be their priority so PM should get functional manager on their side
• How project completion will benefit their department
• Each employee has one clear supervisor
• Staff members are grouped by specialty and functional managers hold the decision making power

• PM works with functional manager when different departments are involved to provide support to all functional units about individual contributions toward successful completion of project
• Work Authorization – project schedule, budget information

Who is the Boss?

• PM is accountable to sponsor or stakeholder in senior management
• If project is part of contract, PM is also accountable to client for timely completion of deliverables and many stakeholders who are counting on project success
• PM makes final decisions, responsible for daily communication with client and senior management
• PM acts as client representative, implement needs of client, bridge between production team and client
• Capable of understanding needs or problems with either party
• Ability to adapt and form close links with representatives is essential to ensuring key issues of cost, time, quality and client satisfaction
• Project Management is a science that follows systematic process and art that uses skills/abilities to create something new
• PM has a lot of people to answer to – must have delegated authority to commit organization to matters within scope to ensure project’s success.

Project Management influences

• Structure an culture in an organization that influences how it does business
• PM must analyze culture and style and deconstruct management framework in which management decisions are made
• Influences of organization form:

• Vision
• Values
• Beliefs

• Become character of organization and develop over time
• Mission statement share vision, values, beliefs – guide influences within organization

• Present vision, values, beliefs to customer, clients, public

• The environment the organization operates in influences work ethic, code of conduct, mission statement
• Enterprise environmental factors (EEF) – first and most important inputs a PM will consider while developing project management plan

• Affect every process of a project and affect outcome of deliverable and overall success

• EEF – crucial to effective communication + project success

• Organizational structure: functional, matrix or projectized organization
• PM can have little or a lot of control

• Functional: PM report to functional manager (runs functional department, i.e. HR)

• Organizational departments grouped by areas of specialization within different functions – projects occur in silo organizations.
• Advantages:

• Team members report to one supervisor and clearly defined career paths
• Easier management specialists

• Disadvantages:

• No career path in PM
• People place more emphasis on their functional specialty to the determent of the project

• Projectized organization: PM has high degree of authority and are responsible for objectives and completion of project – full authority to assign priorities, apply resources and direct the work of persons assigned to the project

• Entire company organized by projects and once project is over, the PM assigns employees to another project or they are released
• Communication occurs within the same project
• Advantages:

• Efficient project organization
• More effective communication than functional
• Loyalty of the project

• Disadvantages:

• No “Home” when project is completed
• Duplication of facilities and job functions
• Lesser efficient use of resources as few roles are repeated in the project

• Matrix organization: PM’s authority and influence may vary

• Team members report to two bosses – functional and project manager
• Communication goes through team members from both managers
• Best of both worlds – projectized and functional but power of authority varies
• In PMP exam, if 6rganizational structure is not defined, assume it is a matrix
• If we see “type matrix organization” – it has nothing to do with matrix organization but rather locating offices of project team in one room
• Strong

• Many characteristics of projectized organization
• Full time PM with high authority, full time administrative staff

• Weak

• Maintain many characteristics of a functional organization
• Role of PM is more of a coordinator or expeditor
• Has to report back to the functional manager
• Power remains with functional manager

• Balanced

• Recognized the need for a PM
• Does not provide PM with full authority over the project and funding
• Power equally balanced between functional and project manager.

• Advantages:

• Highly visible project objectives
• Better project manager control over resources
• Better coordination

• Disadvantages:

• Not cost effective because of extra administrative personnel
• More than one boss for project teams
• More complex to monitor and control
• Higher potential for conflict and duplication of effort and functional managers have different priorities

• Hierarchy of responsibilities of PM – outlined in company’s org chart

• Organizational Process Assets (OPA)

• What company uses to conduct business
• Hard assets – computer systems and programs, documents and forms
• Equipment, offices, office furniture

• Project Governance

• Development of projects
• Organizational chart – who is responsible for activities
• Project Governance is for project development activities
• Framework that is logical and repeatable that governs projects and capital investments
• Projects require flexibility – hierarchy and mechanisms within policies don’t allow for speedy decision making
• Project Governance draws out key decision makers and provides a structured approach to complete business as usual and project activities
• Project governance framework should remain separate from organizational structure

• Avoid serial decision making process with hierarchies

• Business changing projects are being initiated by functional, projectized and matrix organizations

• EEF, OPA, Culture, Style, Governance – needed for successful completion of project

The Stakeholders

• Project is for Stakeholder – vested interest in the project
• Anyone who has interest or concern with project or with outcome of project
• All levels inside or outside organization
• May not be actively involved but can be people who will affect or be affected by organization’s policies
• Groups and organizations that can positively or negatively affect project success
• Stakeholder can be an individual, group, organization who may affect, be affected by or perceive itself to be affected by a decision, activity or outcome of a project
• Sponsor – key stakeholder who authorizes, promotes and finances the project, adheres to policies
• Financial institutions, Environmental groups
• All stakeholders can exert their influence and can make planning and executing a project a challenge
• Since there are many stakeholders, managing them is a major aspect of project management
• PM must identify these stakeholders in the beginning, manage stakeholder expectations
• Not all stakeholders are equal – some are more involved than others
• PM must identify the stakeholders, determine requirements, meet expectations and manage influence

Enterprise Environmental Factors

• Internal and external factors that surround or influence a project’s success – tells you how your company does business
• Include but not limited to:

• Organizational culture, structure and governance
• Government or industry standards (code of conduct, quality standards, product standards)
• Stakeholder risk tolerances
• Political climate
• Company work authorization systems
• Marketplace conditions
• Organization’s established communication channels
• Project Management Information Systems

Organizational Process Assets

• Broadly categorized into two categories

• Processes and Procedures:

• Plans
• Processes
• Policies
• Procedures – code of conduct, standards

• Corporate Knowledge Base

• Lessons Learned
• Historical information – complete schedules, risk data, earned value

The Project Team

• Project Team: group of people who perform the various functions of a project and assigned to different activities in the project

• Inside organization or outside the organization (consultants, contractors)
• Project teams require involvement from more than one department

• Cross-functional teams – some team members dedicated elsewhere in the organization and contribute to project on a temporary basis
• Teams can vary widely depending on structure – many disciplines from over the world
• PM’s leadership role is the same – skills, abilities and personality types to achieve collaborative cohesion
• Effective team:

• Right people – skills to complete project tasks, level of influence, access to resources, ability to participate effectively, maturity and emotional intelligence

• Results oriented, skilled individuals

• Sound decisions on who will perform well on project team
• PM must rely on organizational knowledge, enterprise environmental factors and knowledge of the project
• PM don’t get to have luxury of choosing team members – must establish relationship with team members to ensure they feel connected/committed

• Project teams used for set period of time
• Define roles and responsibilities of each team member – PM to draft
• PM should also discuss with project team members
• Managing a team can create special challenges and manager has to use interpersonal skills when dealing with managers

The Project Lifecycle

• Initiated
• Carried Out
• Closed
• Start and end point and the activities between those points vary in complexity and duration
• Projects go through sequential phases with milestones.

• These phases are bound by time and documented with methodology

• Outcome of predicted lifecycle is determined at the beginning of the lifecycle
• Some lifecycles are adaptive – outcome of adaptive lifecycle is developed over multiple iterations throughout lifecycle and is defined before next iteration begins
• Big picture objectives to stakeholders- high level objectives

• Processes are actual activities to be completed throughout lifecycle

• Phases

• Many logical sequences; can be sequential or overlap
• Elements of each phase may be distinct but can have similar characteristics, own focus, milestone
• End of a phase is a natural point to reassess activities completed until that point
• After each phase is completed, authorization is needed to begin the next phase of the project.
• The outputs of one phase become the inputs of the next phase.

• Adaptive project cycle is more renound: agile methodology

• Iterative, incremental
• Project may go through repeated cycles and each cycle adds some functionality, knowledge or value to project
• Work on next phase is planned while working on current phase
• Preferred in IT because of rapid changes in software and microchip development

• Every lifecycle must come to an end but productive lifecycle will have produced deliverable that met objectives of project

• No single ideology for every lifecycle but preferred lifecycles that will work better for a project lifecycle

Process Group Interactions

• Process Group organizes individual project management processes into logical and manageable flow starting from left to right – outlines things to be accomplished by PM from beginning to end of project
• Table or matrix form
• Each process gets its own column which provides high level view of the work that needs to be completed to meet objectives
• Work is broken down into individual processes of project management
• 47 processes of project management are organized, defined and described from start to finish under 5 process groups
• Each process group is organized logically and sequentially:

• Initiating
• Planning
• Executing
• Controlling and Monitoring
• Closing

• Processes are independent of each other but interdependent on each other as they overlap and loop back on each other
• Each process is developed by:

• inputs to create the process;
• analyzed by tools and techniques that can be used and applied; and
• characterized by outputs the process will deliver

• Inputs, tools and techniques, outputs – important elements of project management and used in each of the 47 processes even if not explicitly listed
• Most important inputs: EEF and OPA
• Processes of project management fall under two categories

• Project Management processes – guide project and ensure effective flow of other processes – planning and monitoring or project scope as it progresses
• Product management processes – used to produce project deliverables, interact and affect each other in many ways even though the industry they are applied is different, the processes are not

• Depending on complexity, processes may not be needed but its upto PM

• Larger the project, more likely the PM will use most if not all of the 47 processes

• Process groups provide big picture work that needs to be done to create deliverable

• Logical, flow sequentially, interact in many ways throughout lifecycle

The Process Groups