Introduction to Project Management

Project Lifecycle:
What are the Stages called?
- Stage 1: Project Conception.
- Stage 2: Project Planning.
- Stage 3: Executing.
- Stage 4: Closing.
What happens in each?
- Stage 1: Project Conception – Ideation.
o Should we do it?
o Can we do it?
- Stage 2: Project Planning – Definition (plan) and initiation (team).
o Review the reasons for the project.
o Identify and define the roles of the project’s team members.
o Describe in detail what results are to be produced.
o Create a list of all the work to be performed.
o Produce a detailed project schedule.
o Calculate budget estimates.
o Identify any assumptions about the project.
o Describe how risk is to be management.
o Planning process:
I. Develop the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS).
II. Allocate resources to each activity & tasks.
III. Estimate duration for each activity & tasks.
IV. Input the WBS into project management software.
V. Develop a network diagram.
VI. Identify dependencies (predecessors & successors).
VII. Identify milestone dates.
VIII. Input Network Diagram into project software.
IX. Allocate costs to the project plan.
X. Review the critical path.
XI. Baseline project.
- Stage 3: Executing – Work (monitor and control).
- Stage 4: Closing – Evaluation, review and learn (wrap up).
Who does what? In what order?
- Project sponsor – is paying for it.
- Project champion – wants to see it happen.
- Project manager – will ensure it happens (is responsible).
- Project team – will make it happen.
- Stakeholders – are affected by it and have an interest in it but not necessarily part of it
Who creates which documents, chooses people, holds what meetings, signs off on what decisions,
etc.? Their responsibilities.
- Project sponsor:
o Prepare the Project Charter.
▪ Authorizes work to be started.
▪ Formally identifies the creation of a project.
o Identify the project manager (and sometimes the project team).
o Clarify the business vision and needs.
o Help provide information and resources.
o Clarify critical issues.
o Key communication link between stakeholders and costumers.
o Ongoing evaluation of the project and its team members.
- Project manager:
o Forms a project team.
o Kick-off meeting is held.
▪ Explain the project planning process to the project team.
▪ Develop the project team member roles and responsibilities.
▪ Identify stakeholders and customers.
• Define team roles & responsibilities.
• Establish rules.
• Develop the Scope Statement.
• The participants work through the Self-Evaluation process.
• The main outcome is the RRSP.
o Develop the Scope Statement.
▪ Project justification.
▪ Project objectives.
▪ In Scope and Out of Scope.
▪ Project requirements.
▪ Process flowchart.
▪ Benefits.
▪ Assumptions.
▪ Constraints & dependencies.
▪ Organization.
▪ Stakeholders analysis.
o Accept and take responsibility for the project’s success.
o Spend time with and motivate the team.
o Develop an environment where information is freely available to all and issues are
instantly known about.
o Negotiate good outcomes with suppliers, partners, team members, costumers and
even seniors in their own firms.
o Integrator – pulling everything together, advising the team how to operate.
o Communicator – interface with the team, the Sponsor, costumers & stakeholders.
o Team leader & motivator – creating an environment where people feel motivated.
o Decision-maker – balanced approached – use authority or reach consensus?
o Expectations manager – focus on goals and outcomes, avoid getting off-track.
- Team members:
o Make a significant contribution to the success of the project.
o Perform assigned tasks.
- Construction manager: someone who is responsible for a building project.
- Contractee: someone who buys work and services from someone else.
- Contractor: someone who has a contract to do work or provide services.
 - Senior consultant: someone who advises people working on a project.
- Subcontractor: someone hired to perform a specific task on a larger project.
Vocabulary & Abbreviations – RRSP, SWOT, 6Ps, etc.
- RRSP: Roles / Rules / Self-Evaluation / Project Scope Statement.
- SWOT: Strengths / Weaknesses / Opportunities / Threads.
- 6Ps: Proper Planning Prevent Poor Project Performance.
Planning:

• Stakeholder Analysis.
Why is it done?
- As assessment of their interests and the ways in which these interests affect the project and
its viability.
- Helps provide an overall picture.
- Identifies (potential) conflicts of interest.
- Identifies viability and impact other than in purely financial terms.
- Helps identify relationships between different stakeholders and helps to build possible
coalitions.
Quad Chart, CASS.
- Quad Chart:
o Enables you to define what you do before you start.
o Clarifies what your project is all about.
o Understand and manage the different relationships that matter to the project.

Title: Name of the project.

Purpose (Aims & Objectives): Stakeholders (Customers, and (Drivers,
• Why is the project being done? Supporters, Audience))
• What for? • Who is the project for?
• What is the result? • Who will benefit (or not)?
• Who will it involve?
Critical Success Factors (Desired End Results) Measures of Success (Standard / Criteria)
• Goals! • When are we finished?
• What makes the project a success? • What can be measured?
Secondary benefits • How do I measure success?
Quantitative
Qualitative
- CASS – Customers (Clients or Users) / Audience (Observer) / Sponsor (Supporter) / Supplier
(Partner).
Ways to define stakeholders.
- Drivers: Those who have a say in defining the goal of your project.
- Supporters: Those who help you perform your project.
- Audience (Observers): Are interested in the end result.
Writing good objectives – KISS, SMART.
- KISS – Keep / It / Simple & / Short.
- SMART – Specific / Measurable / Achievable / Resourced / Time-bound.
Other people to mention? Drivers, champions, etc. – When and how heavily are they involved?
- Project champion:
o Person in high position in the organization who strongly support the project.
o Very important to have one.
o Likely to be your line manager.
- Drivers: highest involvement at the conception, definition and evaluation stages.
- Supporters: moderate involvement at the conception stage. Higher involvement during the
rest of the project.
- Observers (audience): minimal involvement during the whole project.
• Risk Analysis.
Constraint Triangle.

RESOURCE
(COST)

SCOPE SCHEDULE
(Objectives) (TIME)
- Cost: Over budget.
- Time: Late.
- Scope: Didn’t meet the needs or objectives.
What increases risk?
- The longer the project runs.
- The longer the time span between completion of the project schedule and actually starting
work.
- The less experience you, your team, your organization has of carrying out similar projects.
- The newer the technology or work approach.
How to categorize risk? What different charts were used?
- Risk can be categorized in the following ways:
o Internal vs External.
o What you can control, what you can influence, and those outside your control.
- Boston chart.
 o Risk vs Return.

High risk High risk

Low return High return
(Common worker gets sick) (Inaccurate estimates)
Risk
Low risk Low risk
Low return Low return
(Black out) (Application rejected for not meeting buildings codes)
Return
- Project Familiarity Grid.
o Task vs Setting.

Both task and setting familiar. Task familiar and setting unfamiliar.
SHOULD BE OKAY. BE CAREFUL.
Task
Task unfamiliar and setting familiar. Task and setting unfamiliar.
BE CAREFUL. BE VERY WARY!
Setting
- Risk Assessment Grid.

Risk name Impact (H/M/L) Likelihood Control (Yes/No) Action to take if it

(H/M/L) happens.

• WBS vs Project Plan.

What is it? Why should it be done (benefits)?
- The Work Breakdown Structure, which helps you define the scope of the project, is a tool that
does the following:
o Takes the major project objectives, and
o Breaks them down into smaller, more manageable components.
- Benefits of doing a WBS:
o Helps both you and others to understand what needs to be done.
o Ensures that a task is not missed.
o Ensures that a task is not duplicated.
o Provides a contingency should a key supporter be:
▪ Taken off project.
▪ Long term ill.
▪ Resign/quit.
How do you write the tasks properly?
- A complete thought:
o Start with an action verb.
- Assignable.
- Independent.
- Measurable (completed or not, start & finish dates).
- Sequenced accurately to help determine a realistic schedule.
Network Diagram vs Gantt Chart.
- Network Diagram: a graphical representation of the linkages between the tasks in the project
and the milestones.
o The Network Diagram is a type of flowchart.
 o It helps the team to control the schedule and align resources.
o It is a form of activity sequencing that involves identifying and documenting interactivity
dependencies.
o It shows the logical relationships of project activities and related tasks.
o It represents a visual summary of the project.
o The real challenge is keeping several activities on track at the same time.
o This is done by understanding their dependencies and clarifying critical dates.
o Sometimes it is called a Precedence Diagram
o Benefits:
▪ Sequences activities (puts them in order).
▪ Shows their dependencies.
▪ Shows parallel activity flow.
▪ Provides the PM and team a quick visual of which project activities and related
tasks each resource is working on.
▪ Identifies critical milestone project dates.
▪ Helps communicate project updates.
- The Gantt Chart:
o Named after its originator, Henry Gantt.
o A Gantt chart is a bar graph which illustrates on a timeline when each activity will start,
finish and end.
o It gives a picture of each stage of the project.
o It shows individual task subdivided into work units according to the length of time they
will take.
o A Gantt chart show activity start and finish dates, as well as expected durations.
o It doesn’t usually show dependencies.
o If we were to cut the length of each sticky note to scale and lay them out from start to
finish, then we basically have a Gantt chart.
What is the difference between the WBS and the Project Plan?
- Work Breakdown Structure:
o The WBS is a list of tasks that must be done in order to meet all the requirements of
the project scope as detailed in the Scope Statement.
o The task list may include an estimation of duration for each task and resource assigned
to complete it.
- Project Plan:
o A project plan takes the WBS and identifies the task dependencies so that it is clear
what every task predecessor and successor will be.
o A project plan includes all projects milestones.
o A critical path can be identified in a project plan, but not in a WBS.
Vocabulary! – Tasks, critical path, milestones, dependencies, flow chart, bar graph, duration / span
time, slack / lag time, sequence, work effort, Hofstadter’s Law, etc.
- Milestone (Event): is a marker in a project that signifies a change or stage in development,
such as start and end dates, a need for external review, submission of deliverable, or input
and budget checks.
o Takes no time and consumes no resources – they occur instantaneously.
- Duration (Span Time):
o How long each activity will take.
o Calculated either in days or hours.
 o Put into the lowest level.
o It’s the actual time required to complete an activity within the project (aka span time
or elapsed time)
- Sequence: the order in which you perform activities.
- Hofstadter’s Law: “It takes always longer than you expect, even when you take into account
Hofstadter’s Law”.
- Optimism bias: People tend to be over-optimistic about the outcome of planned actions.
o We over-estimate the likelihood of positive events.
o We under-estimate the likelihood of negative events.
- Unforeseen delays:
o The problem with unforeseen delays is that you can’t foresee them.
o When people ask for realistic estimate of how long something will take, they envision
everything going as planned, with no unexpected delays or unforeseen catastrophes.
- Work Effort: the number of person days it would take to complete a task if only one person
were responsible for doing it.
o Work Effort is the total amount of resources and their duration of time required to
complete a task.
- Activity: takes time and consumes resources.
- Critical path: a sequence of activities in your project that takes the longest time to complete.
- Slack time: the maximum amount of time that you can delay an activity and still finish your
project in time (aka lag).
- Noncritical path: a sequence of activities you can delay by some amount & still finish your
project in the shortest time possible.
Executing & Closing:
Reports:
- Levels & Categories.
o Levels:
▪ Team reports.
▪ Management report.
• A brief description of the project and its final deadline.
• The current status (schedule and budget).
• Explanations, where needed, especially of the time and budget
variances.
• Expectations for the near future – the completion of the project as
compared to the deadline.
▪ Various stakeholders’ communications.
o Categories:
▪ Status reports – describe where the project now stands.
▪ Progress reports – describes what the project team has accomplished.
▪ Forecasting – predicts future project status and progress.
- How is the best way to increase accuracy in future projects?
Personality types.

Personality Type Indicator Key Concept

Belbin Team roles:
• Thinking.
• Action.
 • People.
9 team roles.
Best performance = no team work,
Honey and Mumford’s Learning styles:
• Reflector.
• Theorist.
• Pragmatist.
• Activist.
How they work best?
Different stages.
Myers-Briggs Personality types.
8 categories:
• Favorite world.
• Information.
• Decisions.
• Structure.
Keirsey Temperament sorter.
How people behave.
Communication.
Action.
NEO Personality Indicator-Revised Big 5 personality traits.
• Neuroticism.
• Extraversion.
• Openness.
• Agreeableness.
• Conscientiousness – BEST.

Cultural comparisons – be able to explain the differences.

High-context Low-context
• Big picture (why?) • Details (what & how?)
• Body Lang, tone of voice. • Language.
• Unwritten rules. • Explicit rules.
• Pictures, music. • Words.

Person-oriented culture Task-oriented

• Want to get to know you personally, meet face-to-face.
• Want to be involved in discussions & decisions.
• Team builders.

Future-oriented Past-oriented
• Future results / needs. • Past accomplishments.
• Innovation. • Traditions.

High uncertainty avoidance Low uncertainty avoidance

• Adjust, on-the-fly. • Planning, well thought-out.
• Tolerant to imperfections. • Disturbed by details.
• Unstructured situations. • Highly structured.
• Shades of gray. • Black and white.
 High power-distance Low power-distance
• Hierarchy, formal. • Casual.
o Affects communication styles.
o High power distance can be cold and impersonal, or warm and trusting like a family.
- Direct vs Indirect Communication style.

Collectivism Individualism
• Harmony. • Individual goals & promotions.
• Affects decision-making, private. • Open-office space.
- Masculinity vs Feminism.
- Long-term orientation (high-low)
- Indulgence (high-low).
Managing change – chart.

Vision (Strategy Alignment Incentives Resources Action Plan Result

& (Strategy & (Marketing & (Program (Deployment) (Positive
Implementation) Implementation) Communication) Management Change)
& Strategic
Integration)
X Alignment Incentives Resources Action Plan Confusion
Vision X Incentives Resources Action Plan Anxiety
Vision Alignment X Resources Action Plan Gradual
change
Vision Alignment Incentives X Action Plan Frustration
Vision Alignment Incentives Resources X False start

Project evaluations.
- Objects vs Subjects.

Objective Subjective
• Much better, but more time • Useful for a quick and simple review, but
consuming and more data required. remember, you are biased!
• Hard. • Soft.
• Measurable. • People.
• Solid visible outcome. • Process.
• Numbers and figures. • Change in attitude and feeling.
• Accountability. • Reaction: What did you find good about it?
• Ratings. • Insights: What has been most useful?
• Scores. • Learning: What skills have improved?
• Profit. • Behavior/Attitude: How do they act
differently?
• Aims for improvement: How will this
affect…?
• Statements of empowerment and self-
motivation: “I hope, I want, I will…”

- + / Delta:
 o Review your QUAD chart, Stakeholder Analysis, Risk Analysis, etc. (ALL relevant paper
work).
o Involve the project’s champion, main fund provider and audience / stakeholder.
o Then ask yourself a series of questions…
▪ Did the project achieve what it was supposed to do? (Did it meet the scope and
objectives as per the QUAD?).
▪ What went right?
▪ Did the project deliver on time? Why, why not?
▪ Did the project deliver within budget? Why, why not?
▪ What did we learn for the next project?
▪ What will we do differently next time?
▪ Did we make a profit?
▪ Did we meet all (Health and Safety) and other legislative requirements?
▪ Was the project accident free?
▪ Were our assumptions about risk correct?
▪ Were our assumptions about the project correct?
- 6 Whys.
o Simply ask the question “why?” up to six times until the root of the problem or an
appropriate explanation is found.
o E.g. “Why did you do it that way?”
o Useful for finding out real reason why something went wrong.
Examples given in class:

• Project vs Operations – Auto industry.

• Stakeholder Analysis & Quad chart – Making tea, pharmaceutical company.
• Risk Analysis – Newspaper, health care, new product vs product upgrades, motorcycle rider.
• WBS – Jigsaw puzzle, dinner party, book project, building a garden shed, baking a cake,
making breakfast, washing a car.
• Evaluation – 6 Whys.