Project management
- 2. A project is a group of unique, interrelated activities that are planned and executed in a certain sequence to create a unique product or service, within a specific time frame, budget and the client’s specifications. Projects are carried out under many resource constraints and their success depends on the ability of the manager to manage these constraints effectively. Project management is the application of the knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to project activities in order to meet or exceed stakeholder needs and expectations.
- 3. hence requiring the development of project management first challenge of project management is ensuring that a project is delivered within the defined constraints. The second, more ambitious, challenge is the optimized allocation and integration of the inputs needed to meet those predefined objectives. The project, therefore, is a carefully selected set of activities chosen to use resources to meet the predefined objectives.
- 4. In the United States, the forefather of project management is Henry Gantt, called the father of planning and control techniques, who is famously known for his use of the “bar” chart as a project management tool, for being an associate of Frederick Winslow Taylor’s theories of scientific management, and for his study of the work and management of Navy ship building.
- 5. His work is the forerunner to many modern project management tools, including the work breakdown structure and resource allocation. The 1950’s mark the beginning of the modern project management era. Again, in the United States, prior to the 1950s, projects were managed on an ad hoc basis using mostly Gantt Charts, and informal techniques and tools
- 6. At that time, two mathematical project scheduling models were developed: The “Program Evaluation and Review Technique” or PERT, developed as part of the United States Navy’s Polaris missile submarine program; and The “Critical Path Method” (CPM) developed in a joint venture by both DuPont Corporation and Remington Rand Corporation for managing plant maintenance projects.
- 7. The successful project management is all about structure, control, sufficient attention to detail and continuously driving action. The role of the project manager is to understand enough project management to apply its structure and ensure that project is successfully completed within the time and cost required. The things you must do as a project manager are: Ensure there is a clear understanding why a project is being done, and what it will produce.
- 8. Plan the project – to understand how long it will take and how much it will cost. Manage the project – to ensure that as the project progresses, it achieves the objectives you have defined within the time and cost specified. Complete the project properly – to make sure everything produced by the project is of the quality expected and works as required.
- 9. The functions are as follows: Developing a unique product or process and manage change. Identification of the need for project. Finding different alternatives of the project. Developing a plan of action. Training operators.
- 10. Establishment of quality assurance cell to control quality. Incorporation of changes as and when needed while implementing project. Selection of suitable equipment. Finding suitable financial resources. Assessment of alternatives and obtaining approval to proceed. Measuring performance of the project.
- 11. Transfer of material, funds and settling all accounts after completion of project. Monitoring progress and reporting to higher authorities. Closing all records, submission of final report and transfer of responsibility after completion of specified project.
- 12. Problem Solving Skills Does this person have a history of being able to solve complex problems? Does this person have the attitude that a problem is an opportunity to learn? Personal Leadership Style Does this person have the communications and people skills appropriate for the mix of people who will be required on this project? Will this person encourage project team members to bring up problems rather than play the blame game?
- 13. Dividing a project into phases makes it possible to lead it in the best possible direction. The total work load of a project is divided into smaller Components, thus making it easier to monitor. It includes six phases:
- 14. Initiation phase: Idea Development phase: How to implement? Design phase: How? Definition phase: What? Implementation phase: Implementation Follow-up phase: maintenance
- 15. Why this project? Is it feasible? Who are possible partners in this project? What should the results be? What are the boundaries of this project (what is outside the scope of the project)?
- 16. The initiation phase is the beginning of the project. In this phase, the idea for the project is explored and elaborated. The goal of this phase is to examine the feasibility of the project. In addition, decisions are made concerning who is to carry out the project, which party (or parties) will be involved and whether the project has an adequate base of support among those who are involved. The project officially begins at the time of approval.
- 17. During the development phase, everything that will be needed to implement the project is arranged. Potential suppliers or subcontractors are brought in, a schedule is made, materials and tools are ordered, and instructions are given to the personnel and so forth. The development phase is complete when implementation is ready to start. All matters must be clear for the parties that will carry out the implementation.
- 18. After the project plan (which was developed in the initiation phase) has been approved, the project enters the second phase: the definition phase. In this phase, the requirements that are associated with a project result are specified as clearly as possible. This involves identifying the expectations that all of the involved parties have with regard to the project result.
- 19. The list of requirements that is developed in the definition phase can be used to make design choices. In the design phase, one or more designs are developed, with which the project result can apparently be achieved. Depending on the subject of the project, the products of the design phase can include dioramas, sketches, flow charts, site trees, HTML screen designs, prototypes, photo impressions and UML schemas. .
- 20. The project supervisors use these designs to choose the definitive design that will be produced in the project. This is followed by the development phase
- 21. The project takes shape during the implementation phase. This phase involves the construction of the actual project result. Programmers are occupied with encoding, designers are involved in developing graphic material, contractors are building, and the actual reorganization takes place. It is during this phase that the project becomes visible to outsiders, to whom it may appear that the project has just begun. The implementation phase is the doing phase, and it is important to maintain the momentum.
- 22. Although it is extremely important, the follow-up phase is often neglected. During this phase, everything is arranged that is necessary to bring the project to a successful completion. Examples of activities in the follow-up phase include writing handbooks, providing instruction and training for users, setting up a help desk, maintaining the result, evaluating the project itself, writing the project report, holding a party to celebrate the result that has been achieved, transferring to the directors and dismantling the project team.
- 23. Today, there is a growing awareness and concern for the impact of infrastructure and facility construction on the physical environment. Fortunately, today’s technological disciplines responsible for such work are becoming attuned to the idea of mitigating the adverse impacts of their projects. Certainly the project manager needs to be similarly concerned about the project’s technology, and manage accordingly
- 24. This applies to both the implementation and shorter term practical construction impacts of the project as well as its conceptual development and consequent long term impacts However, today’s project manager also needs to be attuned to the cultural, organizational and social environments of the project. Understanding this environment includes identifying the project stakeholders and their ability to affect its successful outcome.
- 25. This means working with people to achieve the best results, especially in the highly technical and complex environments such as those involving modern day construction projects. Therefore, it is essential that the project manager and his or her project team are comfortable with, and sympathetic towards, their cultural, organizational and social surroundings.
- 26. For convenience, and working outwards, the project environment may be thought of in terms of the project time environment, the internal project culture, the original corporate culture, and the external social surroundings. For those who have not had experience of a construction project “in the trenches” so to speak, it is sometimes difficult to capture the feeling of pressure, stress and ultimate satisfaction of a project well.
- 27. Specifying in detail what the project is for. Planning the project and working out how it will be done. Doing the project and creating the deliverables according to the plan. Checking that the deliverables are as you originally wanted and meet the needs. Closing the project down.
- 28. These five steps defined are a simple project lifecycle. The lifecycle is a skeleton framework which you can build your project around. From a slow beginning, they progress to a buildup of size, then peak, after that a decline, and finally they are terminated. Some projects end up by being phased out into the normal, ongoing operations of the parent organization.
- 29. Like organic entities, projects have life cycles. From a slow beginning they progress to a buildup of size, then peak, begin a decline, and finally must be terminated. Some projects end by being phased into the normal, ongoing operations of the parent organization.
- 30. Projects often interact with other projects being carried out simultaneously by their parent organization; but projects always interact with the parent organization’s standard, ongoing operations. Although the functional departments of an organization (marketing, finance, manufacturing, and the like) interact with one another in regular, patterned ways, the patterns of interaction between projects and these departments tend to be changeable..
- 31. Marketing may be involved at the beginning and end of a project, but not in the middle. Manufacturing may have major involvement throughout. Finance is often involved at the beginning and accounting at the end, as well as at periodic reporting times
- 32. Every project has some elements that are unique. No two construction or R&D projects are precisely alike. Though it is clear that construction projects are usually more routine than R&D projects, some degree of customization is a characteristic of projects. In addition to the presence of risk, as noted earlier, this characteristic means that projects, by their nature, cannot be completely reduced to routine. The PM’s importance is emphasized because, as a devotee of management by exception, the PM will find there are a great many exceptions to manage by.
- 33. A project is usually a one time activity with a well- defined set of desired end results. It can be divided into subtasks that must be accomplished in order to achieve the project goals. The project is complex enough that the subtasks require careful coordination and control in terms of timing, precedence, cost, and performance. Often, the project itself must be coordinated with other projects being carried out by the same parent organization.
- 34. More than most managers, the PM lives in a world characterized by conflict. Projects compete with functional departments for resources and personnel. More serious, with the growing proliferation of projects, is the project versus project conflict for resources within multi-project organizations. The members of the project team are in almost constant conflict for the project’s resources and for leadership roles in solving project problems.
- 35. If the characteristics listed above define a project, it is appropriate to ask if there are non-projects. There are. The use of a manufacturing line to produce a flow of standard products is a non-project. The production of weekly employment reports, the preparation of school lunches, the delivery of mail, the flight of Delta, 1288 from Dallas to Dulles, checking your e-mail, all are non-projects.
- 36. THANK YOU