Basics of project management

A Project is “a temporary endeavour designed to produce a unique product,?service or result with a defined beginning and end, undertaken to meet?unique goals and objectives” (A Guide to Project Management Body of?Knowledge, 2000, 4). The essential features of a project are that it is innovative, time-constrained and resource-constrained. Different from the routine plans, the project tasks are often used as a preparation for future routine activities....

A successful project must :

• Deliver the outcomes and benefits required by the stakeholders
• Create and implement deliverables that meet agreed requirements
• Meet time targets
• Stay within financial budgets
• Involve all the right people
• Make best use of resources in the organisation and elsewhere
• Take account of changes in the way the organisation operates
• Manage any risks that could jeopardise success
• Take into account the needs of staff and other stakeholders who will be impacted by the changes brought about by the project.

A successful Project Manager

A successful Project Manager must simultaneously manage the four basic elements of a project:

1. Resources
2. Time
3. Cost (Money), and most importantly Scope

All these elements are interrelated. Each must be managed effectively. All must be managed together if the project is to be a success. The resource that can be leveraged to the greatest extent in all projects is the people involved.

?A person with a diverse set of skills management, leadership, technical, conflict management, and customer relationship who is responsible for

initiating,planning,executing,controlling,monitoring, and closing down a project.?

?INITIATION :

The Initiation phase of the project is the most important phase.

The success of the entire project depends on how clearly and completely the Terms of References are established.

1. Project Sponsor
2. Lines of Authority
3. Participants
4. Objectives

Key Points:

• Define the project scope, objectives, and deliverables.
• Conduct a feasibility study to assess the project's viability.
• Identify key stakeholders and establish communication channels.
• Develop a project charter or initiation document outlining project details.
• Assemble a project team and define roles and responsibilities.
• Conduct an initial risk assessment and establish risk management strategies.

PLANNING:

A project plan expresses the objectives & requirements of the project in terms of?

• Project Scope
• Project Schedule
• Resource Requirement
• Project cost estimation
• Project Quality and
• Project Risk Management

Check Points :

• Define accountabilities, roles and responsibilities of each team member.
• Define deliverables, activities and milestones.
• Resource plan in detail
• Time plan in detail
• Identify risks/ constraints
• Monitoring and reporting plan
• Monitoring and reporting plan
• Documentation plan

The Key elements are : Scope, Time, Quality, Resources_ ect _____

A project planning enables project manager to translate project requirement into Work breakdown structure (WBS), tasks list, Gantt charts, resource assignment and risk register, etc

Project Scope Planning :

Any project is expected to provide its stakeholders with certain outcome, which is commonly termed as project deliverables. These project deliverables depends on the scope of the project. Analogically, defining a project scope is like drawing a map. In the map, the boundaries are drawn to indicate stretch/ extent of a given territory; similarly project scope outlines the extent of project deliverables.

Essentially project scope is the definition of what the project is expected to achieve and specify the budget of both time and cost that needs to be provisioned to create the project deliverables before the project gets closed. For the best result, one needs to take care of clearly carving out project definition & the budgetary requirements, More detailing & precision during project planning definitely help the team organize their work efficiently & deliver the project more effectively.

Without a project scope, project execution can go haywire.

Project Deliverables:

To define project scope, one needs to refer project requirements. The project planner needs to list down project deliverable items unambiguously stating whether they are ‘In Scope’ or ‘Not in Scope’. So, project scope is about outlining the project deliverables. Based on project scope, project planner(s) create(s) work break down structure (WBS).

Key points to check :

?1 Define Tasks/ Activities , 2 Tasks/ Activities Sequencing, 3 Resources Requirement Estimation , 4 ?Task Durations Estimation , 5 ?Schedule Development.

PROJECT EXECUTION :

?The third phase in the project lifecycle,

The main goal at this stage is to implement the planned activities in order to achieve the deliverables within the given time and resource frame.

However, no matter how precisely the project has been planned, in practice, it might take another route. This would not mean the failing of the project. Control at this stage is the one of the most challenging tasks for the project manager in order to manage changes and adjust the project plan accordingly.

• Assign tasks to team members and monitor progress.
• Conduct regular project status meetings and provide updates to stakeholders.
• Manage project risks and implement risk mitigation strategies.
• Coordinate with vendors and suppliers as needed.
• Ensure that project deliverables are being produced according to specifications.
• Track project expenses and manage the budget.
• Communicate and address any issues or roadblocks that arise.
• Perform regular quality checks and assure adherence to quality standards.
• Monitor and manage project scope to prevent scope creep.
• Collect and document project data for future reference.

To be continued soon ......

Regards : Arun