PM LESSON 1- PROJECT MNT IN CONTEMPORARY ORGS intro Concepts History 2023 students (1).ppsx

LESSON ONE
Introduction:
Projects in
Contemporary
Organizations
PROJECT MNT
FOR
INFORMATION
PROFESSIONALS
Prepared & delivered by Damaris Odero (PhD)
oderodjnclasswork@gmail.com

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
At the end of the this lesson you should be able to:
 Identify a project by its attributes
 Relate environmental influences to trends in project management
in the information sector
 Analyze the significance of project management in the context of
information sector
 Assess the competencies and skills of our institutional project
managers
 Determine the factors that may have led to the success or failure
of our institutional projects
1-2

Projects have been variably defined as:
 A temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product,
service, or result
 A unique, temporary endeavor intended to solve a problem,
seize an opportunity, or respond to a mandate.
 Unique process consisting of a set of coordinated and
controlled activities with start and finish dates, undertaken to
achieve an objective conforming to specific requirements,
including constraints of time, cost, quality and resources
WHAT IS A PROJECT?
1-3

ATTRIBUTES OF A PROJECT
 Importance- must be accorded sufficient significance to justify setting
up a special unit to coordinate it, attract management attention, accorded
specific resources
 Scope (performance) – projects are normally one-time activity divided
into subtasks with a well defined set of desired end results
 Life cycle with a finite due date – from slow beginning to buildup size,
then peak, then decline and finally termination
 Interdependencies – inter-project interaction with each other within an
org to compete for resources; interaction with parent organisations
standard on going operations
 Uniqueness – Each project has some unique elements as well as a well-
defined objectives
1-4

 Resources – including people, hardware, software etc. But projects
have limited resources and often have to share resources particularly
human resources
 Conflict – Projects compete with functional departments for resources
and personnel, sometimes project-versus project
 Progressive elaboration. Projects begin with broad definitions with
specific details emerging as time passes
 Primary customer or sponsor. The four parties-at-interest or
“stakeholders” are client, parent organization, project team, and the
public.
 Involves uncertainty. Projects cannot be generalized due to their
uniqueness which requires different project management methodology,
tools and resources 1-5
ATTRIBUTES OF A PROJECT…

PROJECTS
VARIATIONS
BY
DIMENSIONS.
1-6
Project Attributes Examples
Driver: Why are we doing
this?
- Solve a problem; seize an opportunity;
- Respond to a mandate or regulatory requirement
Source: Who decided we
should do this?
- A request or command from and upper level manager or
sponsor;
- A grass roots effort initiated by a lower level individual or team
Customer: Who will be the
ultimate beneficiary?
- A customer internal or external to the organization
Degree of Uncertainty/
certainty:
How much do we know at the
front end of the project about
how the end result will look?
- Customer or organizational expectations not clearly defined at
the beginning;
- Customer or organizational expectations defined at the
beginning but likely to change as the project evolves and more
information is available;
- Customer expectations clearly defined and unlikely to change
Expected Outcome
What deliverables will we see
at end? What will tell us if we
have achieved our objective?
- New/Revised product, service or process; Improved
information for decision making;
- An event that enhances the organization's public image;
- Recovery from a crisis; Increased market share; Increased
profit

PROJECTS
VARIATIONS
BY…
DIMENSIONS.
1-7
Project Attributes Examples
Organizational
Reach: Which function or
organizations will be
involved?
The project operates entirely within a functional unit or department;
The project spans several functional units or departments;
The project extends across several organisations e.g. suppliers,
partners, customers
Scope: How big is the
project?
Small versus large budget;
Short versus long timeline or life cycle
Degree of
complexity: To what
extent will it be necessary
to integrate interrelated
subsystems?
Low complexity: very little need to integrate or coordinate across
the project elements. Deliverables and work packages may be
completed independently;
High complexity: project subcomponents such as physical
elements, information technology, social systems, cultural
expectations, etc., must be carefully coordinated or integrated.
Strategic Level
Is this strategic or tactical?
Related to corporate-level strategy e.g. launching a new product;
Related to work-unit-level tactical goals that ultimately support
strategic goals e.g. changing the way an existing product is shipped
to customers as a means of supporting strategic objectives
associated with expanding market share through improved
customer service

WHAT IS PROJECT
MANAGEMENT?
PM IS:
- The application of
knowledge, skills, tools,
and techniques to
project activities to meet
project requirements
- The art of organising,
leading, reporting and
completing a project
through people
1-8

PROJECT MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK
1-9

WHY PROJECT MANAGEMENT?
 The main purpose for initiating a project is to accomplish
some goal
 Project management increases the likelihood of
accomplishing that goal
 Project management gives us someone (the project
manager) to spearhead the project and to hold
accountable for its completion
1-10

PROJECT OBJECTIVES: THE THREE
“TRIPLE CONSTRAINT”
Scope - defining the
performance/Product
Time - at which the outcome is
available
Cost - entailed in achieving an
outcome
*recently
- Client expectation
- Quality
- Risk
- Benefits 1-11
WHY PROJECT
MANAGEMENT?...

OTHER PROJECT
OBJECTIVES
 Project efficiency
 Impact on the customer
 Business impact on the organization
 Opening new opportunities for the future
Other ancillary goals include:
 Improving organization's project management competency and
methods;
 increase individual’s managerial experience etc.
1-12
Direct objectives
direct goals

OTHER RELATED CONCEPTS
Program
Project portfolio
Project management
Project management
framework
1-13

A program encompasses a group of similar projects
oriented toward a specific goal and managed in a
coordinated way to obtain benefits and control not
available from managing them individually e.g.
projects for ICT infrastructure, application
developments or user support projects
WHAT IS A PROGRAM?
1-14

A project portfolio is the set of projects an organization is
undertaking at any given time.
WHAT IS PROJECT PORTFOLIO?
1-15
PROJECT
PORTFOLIO
MANAGEMENT

COMPARISON OF
PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND PROJECT
PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT
1-16
Strategic
goas
Tactical
goals
Project portfolio management
 Are we working on the right projects?
 Are we investing in the right areas?
 Do we have the right resources to be
competitive
Project Management
 Are we carrying out project well?
 Are projects on time and on budget?
 Do project stakeholders know what they
should be doing?

LINK BETWEEN PROJECTS STRATEGIC GOALS
AND ORGANIZATIONAL MISSION
Here, the
organization’s
project portfolio
supports its
mission and
strategic goals.
Here, the organization
has not properly aligned
its project portfolio with
its strategic goals.
1-17

PROJECT SUCCESS FACTOR AND THEIR DESCRIPTION
 Clear and shared purpose and goals
An agreed upon the purpose or mission of the project – why it is
being done? – and its measurable goals – what it intends to achieve?
 Motivated project team and stakeholders
Project given significance and appreciated by all team members, the
organization, client and other stakeholders.
 Unfailing customer orientation
A clear understanding by the team members of what are the
customers needs
18

PROJECT SUCCESS FACTOR AND THEIR DESCRIPTION…
 Adequate support and resources
Top management support and facilitation of required resources
 Clear roles and responsibilities
Well defined and understood roles of all team members and
stakeholder which must be structured to complement each other and
occur at required time
 Attention to planning
Team members involvement in Initial and continuous revision of
plans which must be commensurate with the size and complexity of
the project
19

PROJECT SUCCESS FACTOR AND THEIR DESCRIPTION…
 Effective management of uncertainty
Potential risks/threats, their root causes and mitigation strategies
clearly defined
 Continuous effective communication
Effective communication of project activities and progress to all
stakeholders
 Effective scope management and scope control
Appropriate change control protocols
 Leadership
Careful selection of project leader based on the scope, complexity,
strategic importance of the project as well as the culture of the
organisation
20

THE ROLE OF THE PROJECT MANAGER…
Ten most important skills
and competencies for
project managers
Therefore a good project manager:
1. People skills
2. Leadership
3. Listening
4. Integrity, ethical behaviour,
consistency
5. Strength at building trust
6. Verbal communication
7. Strength at building teams
8. Conflict resolution & management
9. Critical thinking and problem
solving
10. Understanding and balancing of
priorities
11. Takes ownership of the whole project
12. Is proactive not reactive
13. Adequately plans the project
14. Is Authoritative (NOT Authoritarian)
15. Is Decisive
16. Is a Good Communicator
17. Manages by data and facts not uniformed
optimism
18. Leads by example
19. Has sound Judgement
20. Is a Motivator
21. Is Diplomatic
22. Can Delegate
1-21
what
do
project
managers
do?
What
skills
do
they
need
to
do
a
good
job

Essential Skills Required by Type of Project
There are
variations in
skills and
competencies
in various
projects
• Large projects: Leadership, relevant experience,
planning, people skills, verbal communication, and team-
building skills.
• High-uncertainty projects: Risk management,
expectation management, leadership, people skills, and
planning skills.
• Very novel projects: Leadership, people skills, vision and
goals, self-confidence, expectations management, and
listening skills
1-22

THE ROLE OF THE PROJECT MANAGER…
A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge - the PMBOK
recommends that the project management team understand and use
expertise in the following areas:
 Application area knowledge, standards, and regulations
 Project environment knowledge
 General management knowledge and skills
 Soft skills or human relations skills
 The 10 Project Management Body of Knowledge areas
1-23

FRAMEWORK FOR SUCCESSFUL ORGANISATIONAL PROJECT
PERFORMANCE
1. USE AN INTEGRATED TOOLBOX. Such organisations clearly define what
needs to be done in a project, by whom, when, and how.
2. GROW PROJECT LEADERS. They recognise that project leaders are crucial
to project success thus grow or develop their project leaders internally.
3. DEVELOP A STREAMLINED PROJECT DELIVERY PROCESS. They have a
culture of examining every step in the project delivery process, analyzing
fluctuations in workloads, searching for ways to reduce variation, and
eliminated bottlenecks to create a repeatable delivery process.
4. USE MEASURABLE PROJECT METRICS. to quantify progress such as
customer satisfaction, return on investment, and percentage of schedule
buffer consumed.
1-24

1-25
SUCCESSFUL PROJECT MANAGER NEEDS TO…:
1. Understand the context of their project management
2. Recognize project team conflict or progress
3. Understand who the stakeholders are and what they want
4. Accept and use the political nature of their organizations
CHARACTERISTICS OF POLITICAL BEHAVIOUR
CHARACTERISTICS NAIVE SENSIBLE SHARKS
Underlying Attitude Politics is unpleasant Politics is necessary Politics is an opportunity
Intent Avoid at all costs Further departmental goals Self serving and predatory
Techniques Tell it like it is Network, expand
connections, use systems
to give and receive favours
Manipulate, use fraud and
deceit when necessary
Favorite tactics None – the truth will win
out
Negotiate, bargain Bully, misuse information,
cultivate and use ‘friends’
and other contacts
How do project leaders known to you fair in relation to these characteristics and what impact has it had
on the projects?

1-26
SUCCESSFUL PROJECT MANAGER NEEDS
TO…:
5. Lead from the front
6. Understand what success means
7. Build and sustain a cohesive team
“No man will make a great leader who wants to do
it all himself, or get all the credit for doing it.”
Andrew Carnegie

1-27
SUCCESSFUL PROJECT MANAGER NEEDS TO…:
8. Understand that enthusiasm and despair are both infectious
9. Forward looking & Never loose sight of their goal
10. Use time carefully,
11. Above all, plan, plan

PROJECT MANAGEMENT
HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT OF
1-28

BACKGROUND OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT
RECAP
 Rapid growth in project management in the last decade with many
organizations today displaying new or renewed interest in project
management to meet orgs objectives
 In the past, most projects were external to the organizations
Growth lately is in internal projects applications e.g.
 Developing a new product
 Opening a new branch
 Improving the services provided
 Achieving strategic objectives
1-31

PROJECT MANAGEMENT DEVELOPMENT
 Credit for the development of project management
techniques and practices goes to the military activities e.g.
 NASA’s Apollo space program
 Development of “smart bombs” and “missiles”
 In the recent past project management has found wide
acceptance in other industries and has many applications.
1-32

FORCES FOSTERING PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Main forces in driving the acceptance of project management include:
1. Exponential growth of human knowledge
2. Growing demand for a broad range of complex goods and services
3. Increased worldwide competition
4. Increase in size, complexity, and multidisciplinary nature of projects
5. Economic systems demanding for ‘total quality control’
6. More people are seeing the advantages of project management
techniques
7. The tools have become cheaper
8. The techniques are becoming more widely taught and written about
1-33

FORCES FOSTERING PROJECT MANAGEMENT …
9. Recent Changes in organizations Management:
 Consensual management replacing traditional hierarchical
management
 Systems approach adoption to deal with technological problems
thus organizations have to respect its sub-systems
 Projects are established as the preferred way of accomplishing set
goals by more and more organisations
1-34

RECENT TRENDS IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT
 Desire to achieving strategic goals -greater push to achieve more
strategic goals, and assessing existing projects to ensure they align with
the organisational strategy and mission
 Desire to achieving routine goals – PM is increasing used for this
routine tasks as the realization of their potential in assisting
performance objectives are realised within budget and deadline
 Improving project effectiveness –done with intention of improving
the results of the PM, evaluate the PM maturity i.e. skills and
experience in managing projects, educating the project managers about
the ancillary goals of the organization, and achieving better control over
each project
1-35

RECENT TRENDS IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT…
 Virtual projects – projects are increasingly PM involves
teams operating in different regions thus the term virtual
projects.
 Dynamic and quasi-projects – PM is today increasingly being
extended to areas with ill-defined scope, unknown time
deadlines and under determined budgets (quasi projects)
thus necessitating prototyping tools, phase-gating etc.
1-36

WHAT ORGANIZATIONS CAN GAIN BY
MANAGING PROJECTS
SYSTEMATICALLY?
IN SUMMARY
 Project management maturity, a term that describes
management processes in organizations is increasingly
becoming desirable to organisations today
 Organizations with the level of maturity and
sophistication of systematic project management
processes are more effective and successful than those
lower on the scale of project management maturity.
1-37

MANAGING PROJECTS
SYSTEMATICALLY?
KERZNER’S 16 POINTS TO PROJECT MANAGEMENT
MATURITY
1. Adopt a project management methodology and use it consistently.
2. Implement a philosophy that drives the company toward project
management maturity and communicate it to everyone.
3. Commit to developing effective plans at the beginning of each
project.
4. Minimize scope changes by committing to realistic objectives.
5. Recognize that cost and schedule management are inseparable.
1-38

MANAGING PROJECTS
SYSTEMATICALLY?
6. Select the right person as the project manager.
7. Provide executives with project sponsor information, not project
management information.
8. Strengthen involvement and support of line management.
9. Focus on deliverables rather than resources.
10. Cultivate effective communications, cooperation, and trust to
achieve rapid project management maturity.
11. Share recognition for project success with the entire project team
and line management.
1-39

MANAGING PROJECTS
SYSTEMATICALLY?
12. Eliminate nonproductive meetings.
13. Focus on identifying and solving problems early, quickly, and cost
effectively.
14. Measure progress periodically.
15. Use project management software as a tool, not as a substitute for
effective planning or interpersonal skills.
16. Institute an all-employee training program with periodic updates
based on documented lessons learned.
1-40

PM LESSON 1- PROJECT MNT IN CONTEMPORARY ORGS intro Concepts History 2023 students (1).ppsx

More Related Content

What's hot (20)

Similar to PM LESSON 1- PROJECT MNT IN CONTEMPORARY ORGS intro Concepts History 2023 students (1).ppsx (20)

Recently uploaded (20)

PM LESSON 1- PROJECT MNT IN CONTEMPORARY ORGS intro Concepts History 2023 students (1).ppsx