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• A project is a unique venture with a beginning and end, conducted by
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• Projects [are] goal-oriented, involve the coordinated undertaking of
interrelated activities, are of finite duration, and are all, to a degree,
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• A project can be considered to be any series of activities and tasks that:](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/chapter1-230513040343-2cff5912/85/Chapter-1-pptx-11-320.jpg)
Chapter 1.pptx
- 1. Chapter 1 - Introduction Why Project Management?
- 2. Chapter Objectives After completing this chapter, you should be able to: • Understand why project management is becoming such a powerful and popular practice in business. • Recognize the basic properties of projects, including their definition. • Understand why effective project management is such a challenge. • Understand and explain the project life cycle, its stages, and the activities that typically occur at each stage in the project.
- 3. Cont. • Understand the concept of project “success,” including various definitions of success, as well as the alternative models of success. • Understand the purpose of project management maturity models and the process of benchmarking in organizations. • Recognize how mastery of the discipline of project management enhances critical employability skills for university graduates.
- 4. The Need for Projects • Projects are one of the principal means by which we change our world. Whether the goal is to split the atom, build a bridge, introduce Windows 10, or plan the Winter Olympic Games, the means through which to achieve these challenges remains the same: project management. • Project management has become one of the most popular tools for organizations, both public and private, to improve internal operations, respond rapidly to external opportunities, achieve technological breakthroughs, streamline new product development, and more robustly manage the challenges arising from the business environment.
- 5. Cont. • One of the key features of modern business is the nature of the opportunities and threats posed by external events. As never before, companies face international competition and the need to rapidly pursue commercial opportunities. • They must modify and introduce products constantly, respond to customers as fast as possible, and maintain competitive cost and operating levels. Does performing all these tasks seem impossible? At one time, it was.
- 6. Cont. • Conventional wisdom held that a company could compete using a low-cost strategy or as a product innovator or with a focus on customer service. In short, companies had to pick their competitive niches and concede others their claim to market share. • In the past 20 years, however, everything turned upside down. Companies such as General Electric, Apple, Ericsson, Boeing, and Oracle became increasingly effective at realizing all of these goals rather than settling for just one.
- 7. Cont. • These companies seemed to be successful in every aspect of the competitive model: They were fast to market and efficient, cost- conscious, and customer-focused. How were they performing the impossible? • Obviously, there is no one answer to this complex question. There is no doubt, however, that these companies shared at least one characteristic: They had developed and committed themselves to project management as a competitive tool.
- 8. What is a Project? • Although there are a number of general definitions of the term project, we must recognize at the outset that projects are distinct from other organizational processes. • As a rule, a process refers to ongoing, day-to-day activities in which an organization engages while producing goods or services. Processes use existing systems, properties, and capabilities in a continuous, fairly repetitive manner.
- 9. Cont. • Projects, on the other hand, take place outside the normal, process- oriented world of the firm. Certainly, in some organizations, such as construction, day-to-day processes center on the creation and development of projects. • Nevertheless, for the majority of organizations project management activities remain unique and separate from the manner in which more routine, process-driven work is performed.
- 10. Cont. • Project work is continuously evolving, establishes its own work rules, and is the antithesis of repetition in the workplace. As a result, it represents an exciting alternative to “business as usual” for many companies. The challenges are great, but so are the rewards of success. • First, we need a clear understanding of the properties that make projects and project management so unique. Consider the following definitions of projects:
- 11. Cont. • A project is a unique venture with a beginning and end, conducted by people to meet established goals within parameters of cost, schedule, and quality. • Projects [are] goal-oriented, involve the coordinated undertaking of interrelated activities, are of finite duration, and are all, to a degree, unique. • A project can be considered to be any series of activities and tasks that:
- 12. Cont. • Have a specific objective to be completed within certain specifications • Have defined start and end dates • Have funding limits, if applicable • Consume human and nonhuman resources, such as money, people, equipment • Are multifunctional (i.e., cut across several functional lines)
- 13. Cont. • Probably the simplest definition is found in the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBoK) guide of the Project Management Institute (PMI). • The PMI is the world’s largest professional project management association, with more than 475,000 members worldwide as of 2017. In the PMBoK guide, a project is defined as • “a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result”
- 14. GENERAL PROJECT CHARACTERISTICS • Using these definitional elements, we can create a sense of the key attributes that all projects share. • These characteristics are not only useful for better understanding projects, but also offer the basis for seeing how project-based work differs from other activities most organizations undertake.
- 15. Cont. • Projects represent a special type of undertaking by any organization. Not surprisingly, the challenges in performing them right are sometimes daunting. • Nevertheless, given the manner in which business continues to evolve on a worldwide scale, becoming “project savvy” is no longer a luxury: it is rapidly becoming a necessity. • Projects are characterized by the following properties:
- 16. Cont. • Projects are ad hoc endeavors with a clear life cycle • Projects are building blocks in the design and execution of organizational strategies • Projects are responsible for the newest and most improved products, services, and organizational processes • Projects provide a philosophy and strategy for the management of change
- 17. Cont. • Project management entails crossing functional and organizational boundaries • The traditional management functions of planning, organizing, motivation, directing, and control apply to project management • The principal outcomes of a project are the satisfaction of customer requirements within the constraints of technical, cost, and schedule objectives • Projects are terminated upon successful completion of performance objectives
- 18. Differences Between Process and Project Mgt • Greater certainty of performance, cost, schedule • Part of line organization • Bastions of established practice • Supports status quo Process • Greater uncertainty of performance, cost, schedule • Outside of line organization • Violates established practice • Upsets status quo Project
- 19. Cont. • Repeat process or product • Several objectives • Ongoing • People are homogenous • Well-established systems in place to integrate efforts Process • Greater uncertainty of performance, cost, schedule • Outside of line organization • Violates established practice • Upsets status quo Project
- 20. Why are Projects Important? Shortened product life cycles Narrow product launch windows complex and technical Global markets An economic period marked by low inflation
- 21. Project Life Cycles • A project life cycle refers to the stages in a project’s development. Life cycles are important because they demonstrate the logic that governs a project. • They also help us develop our plans for carrying out the project. They help us decide, for example, when we should devote resources to the project, how we should evaluate its progress, and so forth. • Consider the simplified model of the project life cycle shown in Figure 1.4, which divides the life cycle into four distinct phases:
- 24. Cont. • These stages are the waypoints at which the project team can evaluate both the project’s performance and its overall status. Remember, however, that the life cycle is relevant only after the project has actually begun. • The life cycle is signaled by the actual kickoff of project development, the development of plans and schedules, the performance of necessary work, and the completion of the project and reassignment of personnel.
- 25. Cont. • Thus, as we plan the project’s life cycle we acquire important information regarding the resources that we will need. The life cycle model, then, serves the twofold function of project timing (schedule) and project requirements (resources), allowing team members to better focus on what and when resources are needed. • The project life cycle is also a useful means of visualizing the activities required and challenges to be faced during the life of a project.
- 26. Cont. • Figure 1.5 indicates some of these characteristics as they evolve during the course of completing a project. • As you can see, five components of a project may change over the course of its life cycle:
- 27. Cont. Client interest Project stake Resources Creativity Uncertainty
- 28. Determinants of Project Success • Definitions of successful projects can be surprisingly elusive. How do we know when a project is successful? When it is profitable? If it comes in on budget? On time? When the developed product works or sells? When we achieve our long-term payback goals? • Generally speaking, any definition of project success must take into consideration the elements that define the very nature of a project:
- 29. Cont. Time Budget Performance Client acceptance
- 30. Cont. • More recently, however, the traditional triple-constraint model has come under increasing criticism as a measure of project success. • The final product, for example, could be a failure, but if it has been delivered in time and on budget and satisfies its original specifications (however flawed), the project itself could still be declared a success. • Adding the external criterion of client acceptance corrects such obvious shortcomings in the assessment process.
- 32. Cont. • An additional approach to project assessment argues that another factor must always be taken into consideration: the promise that the delivered product can generate future opportunities, whether commercial or technical, for the organization. • In other words, it is not enough to assess a project according to its immediate success. We must also evaluate it in terms of its commercial success as well as its potential for generating new business and new opportunities. Figure 1.8 illustrates this scheme, which proposes four relevant dimensions of success:
- 34. Cont. • A final model, offered recently, also argues against the triple-constraint model as a measure of project success. All groups that are affected by a project (stakeholders) should have a hand in assessing its success. The context and type of a project may also be relevant in specifying the criteria that will most clearly define its success or failure. • Table 1.2 shows the Atkinson model, which views the traditional “iron triangle” of cost, quality, and time as merely one set of components in a comprehensive set of measures.
- 36. Developing Project Management Maturity • With the tremendous increase in project management practices among global organizations, a recent phenomenon has been the rise of project maturity models for project management organizations. • Project management maturity models are used to allow organizations to benchmark the best practices of successful project management firms. Project management maturity models recognize that different organizations are currently at different levels of sophistication in their best practices for managing projects.
- 37. Cont. • The purpose of benchmarking is to systematically manage the process improvements of project delivery by a single organization over a period of time. • Because there are many diverse dimensions of project management practice, it is common for a new organization just introducing project management to its operations to ask, “Where do we start?” That is, “Which of the multiple project management processes should we investigate, model, and apply to our organization?” • Maturity models provide the necessary framework to:
- 38. Cont. First, analyze and critically evaluate current practices as they pertain to managing projects Second, compare those practices against those of chief competitors or some general industry standard Third, define a systematic route for improving these practices.
- 39. Cont. • If we accept the fact that the development of better project management practices is an evolutionary process, involving not a sudden leap to top performance but rather a systematic commitment to continuous improvement, maturity models offer the template for defining and then achieving such progressive improvement. • As a result, most effective project maturity models chart a set of standards that are currently accepted as state-of-the-art as well as a process for achieving significant movement toward these benchmarks.
- 40. Cont. • Figure 1.9 illustrates one approach to defining current project management practices a firm is using. • It employs a “spider web” methodology in which a set of significant project management practices have first been identified for organizations within a specific industry.
- 41. Cont. • In this example, a firm may identify eight components of project management practice that are key for success, based on an analysis of the firm’s own needs as well as through benchmarking against competing firms in the industry. • Note that each of the rings in the diagram represents a critical evaluation of the manner in which the organization matches up with industry standards. Suppose we assigned the following meanings to the different ratings:
- 42. Ring 0 1 2 3 Level Meaning Not defined or poor Defined but substandard Standardized Industry leader or cutting edge
- 43. Cont. • Figure 1.10 shows an example of the same spider web diagram with our relative skill levels assigned across the eight key elements of project management which we have defined. • This exercise helps us to form the basis for where we currently are in terms of project management sophistication, a key stage in any maturity model in which we seek to move to a higher level.
- 44. • Once we have established a sense of our present project management abilities, as well as our shortcomings, the next step in the maturity model process is to begin charting a step-by- step, incremental path to our desired goal.
- 45. Cont. • Once we have an accurate picture of where we fit into the maturity process, we can begin to determine a reasonable course of action to progress to our desired level. • In this manner, any organization, no matter how initially unskilled in project management, can begin to chart a course toward the type of project organization it hopes to become.
- 46. Employability Skills • Pearson identified a set of “employability skills” that businesses deem crucial for their new hires. • Let us consider them in turn and then briefly address how this text supports developing skills in these critical areas.