Project Management

What is a Project?

A project is definied as “a unique endeavor to produce a set of

deliverables within clearly specified time, cost and quality constraints”.
Projects are different from standard business operational activities as
they:

 Are unique in nature. They do not involve repetitive processes.

Every project undertaken is different from the last, whereas
operational activities often involve undertaking repetitive
(identical) processes.
 Have a defined timescale. Projects have a clearly specified
start and end date within which the deliverables must be
produced to meet a specified customer requirement.
 Have an approved budget. Projects are allocated a level of
financial expenditure within which the deliverables must be
produced to meet a specified customer requirement.
 Have limited resources. At the start of a project an agreed
amount of labor, equipment and materials is allocated to the
project.
 Involve an element of risk. Projects entail a level of uncertainty
and therefore carry business risk.
 Achieve beneficial change. The purpose of a project, typically,
is to improve an organization through the implementation of
business change.

And what is Project Management?

Project Management is all the skills, tools and management processes

required to undertake a project successfully. Project Management
comprises:

 A set of skills. Specialist knowledge, skills and experience are

required to reduce the level of risk within a project and thereby
enhance its likelihood of success.
 A suite of tools. Various types of tools are used by project
managers to improve their chances of success. Examples
 include document templates, registers, planning software,
modeling software, audit checklists and review forms.
 A series of processes. Various management techniques and
processes are required to monitor and control time, cost, quality
and scope on projects. Examples include time management,
cost management, quality management, change management,
risk management and issue management.

2. Project Lifecycle
A standard project typically has four major phases. Taken together,
these phases represent the path a project takes from the beginning to its
end and are generally referred to as the project “life-cycle.” The following
diagram outlines the four phases of the Project Life-cycle:

1. Initiation Phase
The first phase in the project is the Initiation Phase. In this phase a
business problem (or opportunity) is identified and a business case
which provides various solution options is defined. A feasibility study
investigates the likelihood of each solution option and a final
recommended solution is put forward. Once the recommended solution
is approved, a project is initiated to deliver the approved solution. The
Project Manager begins setting up a project team and a project office.
2. Planning Phase
Once the scope of the project has been defined, the project enters the
detailed planning phase. This involves the creation of a Project Plan
(outlining the activities, tasks, dependencies and timeframes),
a Resource Plan (listing the labor, equipment and materials required),
a Financial Plan (identifying the labor, equipment and materials
costs), Quality & Risk Analyses, and a Communication Plan. At this point
the project has been planned in detail and is ready to be executed.

3. Execution Phase
This phase involves the execution of each activity and task listed in the
Project Plan. While the activities and tasks are being executed, a series
of management processes are undertaken to monitor and control the
deliverables being output by the project. Once all of the deliverables
have been produced and the customer has accepted the final solution,
the project is ready for closure.

4. Closure Phase
Project Closure involves releasing the final deliverables to the customer,
handing over project documentation, terminating supplier contracts,
releasing project resources and communicating the closure of the project
to all stakeholders. The last remaining step is to undertake a review to
quantify the overall success of the project.

A project typically features the following four major phases:

1. Initiation > 2. Planning > 3. Implementation > 4. Closure

The following sections provide a more detailed description of each

phase and list tools which provide the Project Manager with guidance on
how to complete each phase successfully.

3. The Initiation Phase

 The Initiation Phase is the first phase within the project management
life cycle, as it involves starting up a new project.

Within the initiation phase, the business problem or opportunity is

identified, a solution is defined, and a project team is appointed to build
and deliver the solution to the customer. A business case is created to
define the problem and identify a preferred solution.

Lesson Topics

 Business Case & Feasibility

 Team & Office

Business Case & Feasibility

Once a business problem or opportunity has been identified,
a Business Case is prepared. This includes a detailed definition of the
problem or opportunity and an analysis of the potential solution options
available. For each option, the potential benefits, costs, risks and issues
are documented. The Business Case also includes the recommended
solution and a generic implementation plan. The Business Case is
approved by the Project Sponsor and the required funding is allocated to
proceed with the project.

At any stage during (or after) the development of a Business Case, a

formal Feasibility Study may be commissioned. The purpose is to
assess the likelihood of a particular solution option’s achieving the
benefits outlined in the Business Case. The Feasibility Study will also
investigate whether the forecast costs are reasonable, the solution is
achievable, the risks are acceptable and/or any likely issues are
avoidable.
After the solution has been agreed and funding allocated, a project is
formed. The Terms of Reference defines the vision, objectives, scope
and deliverables for the project. It also provides the organization
structure (roles and responsibilities) and a summarized plan of the
activities, resources and funding required to undertake the
project. Finally, any risks, issues, planning assumptions and constraints
are listed.

Team & Office

At this point the scope of the project has been defined in detail and
the Project Team is ready to be appointed. Although a Project Manager
can be appointed at any stage of the project, he/she will need to be
appointed prior to the establishment of the project team. The Project
Manager documents a detailed Job Description for each project role and
appoints a human resource to each role based on his/her relevant skills
and experience. Once the team are ‘fully resourced’, the Project Office is
ready to be set-up.

The Project Office is the physical environment within which the team
will be based. Although it is usual to have one central project office, it is
possible to have a ‘virtual project office’ environment, with project team
members in various locations around the world. Regardless of the
location, a successful project office environment will comprise the
following components:

 Location (either physical or virtual)

 Communications (telephones, computer network, file storage,
database storage)
 Documentation (methodology, processes, forms and registers)
 Tools (for accounting, project planning and risk modeling)

4. The Planning Phase

 The Planning Phase is the second phase in the project life cycle. It
involves creating of a set of plans to help guide your team through the
next phases of the project.

The plans created during this phase will help you to manage time, cost,
quality, change, risk and issues. They will also help you manage staff
and external suppliers, to ensure that you deliver the project on time and
within budget.

Lesson Topics

 Project Plan & Resources

 Quality & Risk
 Communication

Project Plan & Resources

The first step is to document the Project Plan. In most cases a Work
Breakdown Structure (WBS) is identified, which includes a hierarchical
set of phases, activities and tasks to be undertaken on the project:
After the WBS has been agreed, an assessment of the effort required to
undertake the activities and tasks is made. The activities and tasks are
sequenced, resources are allocated and a detailed project schedule is
formed. This project schedule will become the primary tool for the
Project Manager to assess the progress of the project.

A work breakdown structure (WBS) is a deliverable-oriented breakdown

of a project into smaller components.
Immediately after the Project Plan is formed, it is necessary to develop
a Resource Plan to allocate the resources required to undertake each
of the activities and tasks within the Project Plan. Although general
groups of resources may have already been allocated to the Project
Plan, a detailed resource assessment is required to identify the:

 Types of resources (labor, equipment and materials)

 Total quantities of each resource type
 Roles, responsibilities and skill-sets of all human resources
 Items, purposes and specifications of all equipment resource
 Items and quantities of material resource

Similar to the Resource Plan, a Financial Plan is prepared to identify

the quantity of money required for each stage in the project. The total
cost of labor, equipment and materials is quantified and an expense
schedule is defined which provides the Project Manager with an
understanding of the forecast spending vs. the actual spending
throughout the project. Preparing a detailed Financial Plan is extremely
important as the project’s success will depend on whether or not it is
delivered within the ‘time, cost and quality’ estimates for this project.

Quality & Risk

Meeting the quality expectations of the customer is critical to the
success of the project. To ensure that the quality expectations are
clearly defined and can reasonably be achieved, aQuality Plan is
documented. The Quality Plan defines what quality means in terms of
this project, lists clear quality targets for each deliverable, and identifies
the techniques used to control the actual level of quality.

Finally, it is important to review the quality not only of the deliverables

produced by the project but also of the management processes which
produce them. A summary of each of the management processes
undertaken during the execution phase is identified, including Time,
Cost, Quality, Change, Risk, Issue, Procurement, Acceptance and
Communications Management.

The foreseeable project risks are then documented within a Risk

Plan and a set of actions to be taken formulated to both prevent each
risk from occurring and reduce the impact of the risk should it eventuate.
Developing a clear Risk Plan is an important activity within the planning
phase as it is necessary to mitigate all critical project risks prior to
entering the Execution Phase of the project.
 Communication
Prior to the Execution phase, it is necessary to identify how each of the
stakeholders will be kept informed of the progress of the project.
The Communications Plan identifies the types of information to be
distributed, the methods of distributing information to stakeholders, the
frequency of distribution and responsibilities of each person in the
project team for distributing information regularly to stakeholders.

The last planning activity within the Planning phase is to identify the
elements of the Project which will be acquired from external suppliers to
the project. The Procurement Plan provides a detailed description of
the Products (i.e. goods and services) to be procured from suppliers, the
justification for procuring each product externally, as opposed to from
within the business, and the schedule for procurement. It also references
the process for the selection of a preferred supplier (“Tender Process”)
and the process for the actual order and delivery of the procured
products (“Procurement Process”).

At the end of the Planning phase, a Phase Review is performed. This is

basically a checkpoint to ensure that the project has achieved its stated
objectives as planned.

5. The Execution Phase

The Execution Phase is usually the longest phase in the project life
cycle and it typically consumes the most energy and the most resources.
 In this phase, you will build the physical project deliverables and present
them to your customer for acceptance. The Project Manager monitors
and controls the activities, resources and expenditure required to build
each deliverable.

Lesson Topics

 Build Deliverables
 Monitor and Control

Build Deliverables
This phase requires the physical construction of each deliverable for
acceptance by the customer. The actual activities undertaken to
construct each deliverable will vary, depending on the type of project
(e.g. engineering, building development, computer infrastructure or
business process re-engineering projects).

Deliverables may be constructed in

 a waterfall fashion (where each activity is undertaken in

sequence until the deliverable is finished) or
 an iterative/agile fashion (where iterations of each deliverable
are constructed until the deliverable meets the requirements of
the customer).
Most software projects use an iterative approach in order to reduce risk
and include more customer feedback. Regular iterations of work, which
includes the testing and reviews by stakeholders every two weeks (often
referred to as “sprints”) do help to keep a project on track.

Regardless of the method used to construct each deliverable, careful

monitoring and control processes should be employed to ensure that the
quality of the final deliverable meets the acceptance criteria set by the
customer.

Building deliverables is an essential part of the execution phase.

Monitor and Control

Whilst the Project Team are physically producing each deliverable, the
Project Manager implements a series of management processes to
monitor and control the activities being undertaken. An overview of each
management process follows:
 Time Management is the process within which time spent by
staff undertaking project tasks is recorded against the project.
As time is a scarce resource on projects, it is important to record
the time spent by each member of the team on a time sheet to
enable the Project Manager to control the level of resource
allocated to a particular activity.
 Cost Management is the process by which costs (or expenses)
incurred on the project are formally identified, approved and
paid. Expense Forms are completed for each set of related
project expenses such as labor, equipment and materials costs.
 Quality Management is the process by which the quality of the
deliverables is assured and controlled for the project,
using Quality Assurance and Quality Control techniques. Quality
reviews are frequently undertaken.
 Change Management is the process by which changes to the
project’s scope, deliverables, timescales or resources are
formally defined, evaluated and approved prior to
implementation. A core aspect of the Project Manager’s role is
to manage change within the project successfully. This is
achieved by understanding the business and system drivers
requiring the change, documenting the benefits and costs of
adopting the change and formulating a structured plan for
implementing the change.
 Risk Management is the process by which risks to the project
(e.g. to the scope, deliverables, timescales or resources) are
identified, quantified and managed at any time during the
project.
 Procurement Management is the process by which a product
is sourced from an external supplier. To request the delivery of
product from a supplier, a Purchase Order must be approved by
the Project Manager and sent to the supplier for confirmation.
 Communications Management is the process by which formal
communications messages are identified, created, reviewed and
 communicated within a project. The most common method
of communicating the status of the project is via a Project Status
Report.

At the end of the Execution Phase, a Phase Review is performed. This

is basically a checkpoint to ensure that the project has achieved its
stated objectives as planned.

6. The Closure Phase

The Closure Phase is the last phase in the project life cycle. In this
phase, you will formally close your project and then report its overall
level of success to your sponsor.

Project Closure involves handing over the deliverables to your customer,

passing the documentation to the business, cancelling supplier
contracts, releasing staff and equipment, and informing stakeholders of
the closure of the project.

Lesson Topics

 Project Closure
 Completion Review

Project Closure
Project Closure involves undertaking a series of activities to wind up
the project, including:

 Assessing whether the project completion criteria have been

met
 Identifying any outstanding items (activities, risks or issues)
 Producing a hand-over plan to transfer the deliverables to the
customer environment
 Communicating closure to all stakeholders and interested
parties

A Project Closure Report is submitted to the Customer and/or Project

Sponsor for approval. The Project Manager is then responsible for
undertaking each of the activities identified within the Project Closure
Report on time and according to budget. The project is closed only when
all activities identified in the Project Closure Report have been
completed.

Completion Review

The final activity undertaken on any project is a review of its overall

success by an independent resource. Success is determined by how
well it performed against the defined objectives and conformed to the
management processes outlined in the planning phase. To determine
performance a number of questions are posed. For example:

 Did the project result in the benefits defined in the Business

Case?
 Did it achieve the objectives outlined in the Terms of
Reference?
 Did the deliverables meet the criteria defined in the Quality
Plan?
 Was it delivered within the schedule outlined in the Project
Plan?
  Was it delivered within the budget outlined in the Financial
Plan?

To determine conformance, a review is undertaken of the level of

conformity of the project activities to the management processes
outlined in the Quality Plan. The above results, key achievements and
lessons learnt are documented within a Post Implementation Review
report and presented to the Project Sponsor for approval.

7. The Book Example

Let’s take a simple example project to run us through all four project
phases, in the form of creating and publishing a new book.

1. Project Initiation
In the initiation phase, we need to get a rough idea of how long it will
take to make, how much it will cost, and the effect it will have. If the CEO
of the publishing company decides that the value is worth the perceived
difficulty, it’s time to move onto planning.

2. Project Planning
The planning stage would involve meeting with the marketing team and
stamping out a timeframe for each chapter of the book to be completed.
Once the topic has been set and assessed (for the difficulty of writing),
these dates will become more solid.

The person responsible for writing each chapter will be assigned, along
with the task of designing and creating the book itself. Furthermore, risks
such as hidden topic depth or difficulty in securing a designer for the
book would be assessed.

3. Project Execution
The execution stage would involve figuring out what each chapter will
consist of, assigning various team members to complete said chapters,
giving a deadline for each chapter, and carving out a regular meeting
time during which your team’s progress and problems will be relayed.
Everyone should know what they are working on, why they are working
on it, when it should be complete by, and what everyone else is
responsible for.

For our book, let’s say that you’ve set out a two-month deadline for the
final product, and you meet twice a week with your marketing team to
check on their progress.

If problems arise, such as a chapter being more complex than originally

thought or team members having to take time off for one reason or
another, you may have to bring in someone who wasn’t already working
on the project, or shift the responsibilities of the current workforce on the
project to better suit the new situation.

4. Project Closure
The project closing step would be after the book’s public launch. Once
complete, the benefits would be tracked (eg, increased conversion
rates), any expenses on items such as the design of the book would be
totaled, and contracts with freelancers terminated.

8. Successful Managing

To manage complex projects successfully, it is important to understand

the different project management roles along with their responsibilities.

The last lessons will introduce the Project Management Triangle, the
derived Triple Constraint, and the Gantt Chart.

Lesson Topics
 PM Roles
 PM Triangle
 PM Triple Constraint
 The Gantt Chart

PM Roles
Irrespective of how the organization is structured, there are certain roles
and responsibilities that are required in all projects. Different
organizations may use different names for these roles but the
responsibilities of each one will be the same.

1. The Project Stakeholders

Stakeholders are individuals and organizations that are actively involved
in the project, or whose interests may be positively or negatively affected
by execution of the project. They may also exert influence over the
project and its deliverables. The project management team must identify
the stakeholders, determine their requirements and expectations, and
manage their influence in relation to the requirements to ensure a
successful project.

2. The Project Sponsor

The project sponsor is responsible for securing the financing and overall
resource budget approval and owns the opportunities and risks related
to the financial outcome of the project. An effective sponsor will be
someone with the authority and personal drive to overcome major
obstacles to completing the project. The role of the project sponsor is to
approve and fund the project, but not to get involved in day-to-day
management.

3. The Project Manager

The project manager is the person assigned by the performing
organization to achieve the project objectives. The project manager has
the authority to use cash and other resources up to the limit set in the
project charter. A project manager should have experience in the project
domain and should also be familiar with the processes that make up
project management.

There are typically three different project management roles:

1. Project stakeholders – 2. Project sponsor – 3. Project manager

 PM Triangle
The Project Management Triangle (PM Triangle) is used by managers
to analyze or understand the difficulties that may arise due to
implementing and executing a project. All projects irrespective of their
size will have many constraints. There are three main interdependent
constraints for every project: time, cost and scope. This is also known
as Project Management Triangle.

1. Time
A project’s activities can either take shorter or longer amount of time to
complete. Completion of tasks depends on a number of factors such as
the number of people working on the project, experience, skills,
etc. Time is a crucial factor which is uncontrollable. On the other hand,
failure to meet the deadlines in a project can create adverse effects.
Most often, the main reason for organizations to fail in terms of time is
due to lack of resources.

2. Cost
It’s imperative for both the project manager and the organization to have
an estimated cost when undertaking a project. Budgets will ensure that
project is developed or implemented below a certain cost. Sometimes,
project managers have to allocate additional resources in order to meet
the deadlines with a penalty of additional project costs.
3. Scope
Scope looks at the outcome of the project undertaken. This consists of a
list of deliverables, which need to be addressed by the project team. A
successful project manager will know to manage both the scope of the
project and any change in scope which impacts time and cost.

What about Quality?

Quality is not a part of the project management triangle, but it is the
ultimate objective of every delivery. Hence, the project management
triangle implies quality. Many project managers are under the notion that
‘high quality comes with high cost’, which to some extent is true. By
using low quality resources to accomplish project deadlines does not
ensure success of the overall project. Like with the scope, quality will
also be an important deliverable for the project.

The major take-away from the Triple Constraint, being that it is a

triangle, is that one cannot adjust or alter one side of it without in effect,
altering the other sides. So for example, if there is a request for a scope
change mid-way through the execution of the project, the other two
attributes (cost and time) will be affected in some manner. How much or
how little is dictated by the nature and complexity of the scope change.
As an added example, if the schedule appears to be tight and the project
manager determines that the scoped requirements cannot be
accomplished within the allotted time, both cost and time are affected.

PM Triple Constraint
Example: “Pick Two”
To provide an easy example, we change the dimensions of the triangle
into the options of Fast,Good, and Cheap, and tell to pick any two.
Here Fast refers to the time required to deliver the product, Good is the
quality of the final product, and Cheap refers to the total cost of
designing and building the product.
This triangle reflects the fact that the three properties of a project are
interrelated, and it is not possible to optimize all three – one will always
suffer. In other words you have three options:

1. Design something quickly and to a high standard, but then it will not
be cheap.
2. Design something quickly and cheaply, but it will not be of high
quality.
3. Design something with high quality and cheaply, but it will take a
relatively long time.

What to learn from the PM Triangle?

As the project manager, making sure that you stay on top of all the key
attributes of the triple constraint will make the likelihood of project
success that much higher. So be cognizant of any fluctuations to the key
attributes, whether they be unexpected or requested. Never assume that
other attributes can be left un-changed if one attribute is known to be
changing or fluctuating. As noted earlier, one cannot simply dismiss a
change to one without being fully aware of the fact that it WILL affect the
other two.

The Triple Constraint is one of the most well known and well respected
mechanisms for signifying the interaction of the key attributes of a
project. Being fully aware of its function and implications is an important
aspect of the project manager’s role and responsibility. The triple
constraint is meant to be an asset to the project manager’s arsenal and
should not be viewed as a hindrance.

The project triangle expresses the “triple constraint” of time, cost, and
scope.
 The Gantt Chart
A Gantt chart, commonly used in project management, is one of the most
popular and useful ways of showing activities (tasks or events) displayed
against time. On the left of the chart is a list of the activities and along the top is
a suitable time scale. Each activity is represented by a bar; the position and
length of the bar reflects the start date, duration and end date of the activity.

This allows you to see at a glance:

 What the various activities are

 When each activity begins and ends
 How long each activity is scheduled to last
 Where activities overlap with other activities, and by how much
 The start and end date of the whole project

In the following picture you can see a Gantt chart for building a house. Note
that two activities (the plumbing and electrical work) can be executed
simultaneously.

A Gantt chart shows you what has to be done (the activities) and when (the
schedule).
 9. Conclusion

Project management in its simplest form of understanding is all about

planning. Proper planning can be somewhat complicated, and to do it
well requires delving into what needs to be done from the very
beginning.

Although the practice of project management has been around for

centuries, scholars and project management professionals are still
studying how to make project management better. The value of face-
to-face interaction does not deteriorate, even with the deployment of
virtual project management teams. Projects require leaders who are
trained in both business and technology and have teams with qualified
project management professionals when possible.

There are various preferences and cultural values that weigh different
communication techniques and interpersonal skills
differently. Perceptions of communication techniques will have an
impact on the end user and the end result of the project, so it is
important to clarify preferences at the beginning.