The nature of project

working
• Projects are efforts to achieve objectives
•Projects have a start, a middle and an
end
•Thus projects are different from
operational activities which are performed
regularly over time e.g. payroll
•However, there can be some overlap
between project management and
operational management
•There are core skills involved in project
management including identifying and
agreeing on project objectives, scheduling
and estimating
•In addition other issues such as
A temporary and one-time endeavor
undertaken to create a unique product
or service, which brings about beneficial
change or added value
 A Project is a temporary, unique and
progressive attempt or endeavor made to
produce some kind of a tangible or intangible
result (a unique product, service, benefit,
competitive advantage, etc.). It usually
includes a series of interrelated tasks that are
planned for execution over a fixed period of
time and within certain requirements and
limitations such as cost, quality, performance,
others.
 A single definable purpose, end-item or result. This is usually
specified in terms of cost, schedule and performance
requirements.
 Every project is unique. It requires the doing of something
different, something that was not done previously. Even in what
are often called “routine” projects such as home construction, the
variables such as terrain, access, zoning laws, labour market,
public services and local utilities make each project different. A
project is a one-time, once-off activity, never to be repeated
exactly the same way again.
 Projects are temporary activities. A project is an ad hoc organization
of staff, material, equipment and facilities that is put together to
accomplish a goal. This goal is within a specific time-frame. Once the
goal is achieved, the organization created for it is disbanded or
sometimes it is reconstituted to begin work on a new goal (project).
 Projects cut across organizational lines. Projects always cut across
the regular organizational lines and structures within a firm. They do
this because the project needs to draw from the skills and the talents of
multiple professions and departments within the firm and sometimes
even from other organizations. The complexity of advanced technology
often leads to additional project difficulties, as they create task
interdependencies that may introduce new and unique problems
 Projects involve unfamiliarity. Because a project differs from what
was previously done, it also involves unfamiliarity. And oft time a
project also encompasses new technology and, for the organization/firm
undertaking the project, these bring into play significant elements of
uncertainty and risk.
 The organization usually has something at stake when undertaking
a project. The unique project “activity” may call for special scrutiny or
effort because failure would jeopardize the organization/firm or its
goals.
 A project is the process of working to achieve a goal. During the
process, projects pass through several distinct phases, which form and
are called the project life cycle. The tasks, people, organizations, and
other resources will change as the project moves from one phase to the
next. The organizational structure and the resource expenditures build
with each succeeding phase; peak; and then decline as the project nears
completion.
 On any project, you will have a number of project constraints that are competing
for your attention. They are cost, scope, quality, risk, resources, and time.
 Cost is the budget approved for the project including all necessary expenses
needed to deliver the project. Within organizations, project managers have to
balance between not running out of money and not underspending because
many projects receive funds or grants that have contract clauses with a “use it
or lose it” approach to project funds. Poorly executed budget plans can result in
a last-minute rush to spend the allocated funds. For virtually all projects, cost is
ultimately a limiting constraint; few projects can go over budget without
eventually requiring a corrective action.
 Scope is what the project is trying to achieve. It entails all the work involved in
delivering the project outcomes and the processes used to produce them. It is
the reason and the purpose of the project.
 Quality is a combination of the standards and criteria to which the project’s
products must be delivered for them to perform effectively. The product must
perform to provide the functionality expected, solve the identified problem, and
deliver the benefit and value expected. It must also meet other performance
requirements, or service levels, such as availability, reliability, and
maintainability, and have acceptable finish and polish. Quality on a project is
controlled through quality assurance (QA), which is the process of evaluating
overall project performance on a regular basis to provide confidence that the
 Risk is defined by potential external events that will have a
negative impact on your project if they occur. Risk refers to the
combination of the probability the event will occur and the
impact on the project if the event occurs. If the combination of
the probability of the occurrence and the impact on the project
is too high, you should identify the potential event as a risk and
put a proactive plan in place to manage the risk.
 Resources are required to carry out the project tasks. They can
be people, equipment, facilities, funding, or anything else
capable of definition (usually other than labor) required for the
completion of a project activity.
 Time is defined as the time to complete the project. Time is
often the most frequent project oversight in developing projects.
This is reflected in missed deadlines and incomplete
deliverables. Proper control of the schedule requires the careful
identification of tasks to be performed and accurate estimations
of their durations, the sequence in which they are going to be
done, and how people and other resources are to be allocated.
Any schedule should take into account vacations and holidays.
 The term “triple constraint,” which traditionally consisted of only time,
cost, and scope. These are the primary competing project constraints
that you have to be most aware of. The triple constraint is illustrated in
the form of a triangle to visualize the project work and see the
relationship between the scope/quality, schedule/time, and
cost/resource
 Time

 Cost

 Scope

Manage these or they will

manage you!
 A project life cycle is a collection of project
phases
 Project phases vary by project or industry,

but some general phases include

◦ concept
◦ development
◦ implementation
◦ support

Course Technology 2001 14

Course Technology 2001 15
 Communication skills: listening,
persuading
 Organizational skills: planning, goal-
setting, analyzing
 Team Building skills: empathy,
motivation, esprit de corps
 Leadership skills: sets example,
energetic, vision (big picture), delegates,
positive
 Coping skills: flexibility, creativity,
patience, persistence
 Technological skills: experience, project
knowledge

Course Technology 2001 16

 Effective Project Managers Ineffective Project Managers

 Leadership by example
 Visionary  Sets bad example
 Technically competent  Not self-assured
 Decisive  Lacks technical expertise
 Good communicator
 Good motivator  Poor communicator
 Stands up to upper

management when Poor motivator
necessary
 Supports team members

Encourages new ideas
The very first thing you learn in
project management is..

that the focus of a Project

Manager is always…
 Project scope is all of the work that needs to
be done to provide the product or service your
project is delivering.
 Now that you know what project management
scope is, there are three areas that you will
need to focus on to make sure you are
managing your project's scope effectively...
 Scope Planning
 Scope Control
 Scope Verification
 The purpose of scope planning is to clearly define what
is included in the project. Just as importantly, in the process of
defining what's included you will also explicitly state what
is excluded from the project.
 Scope planning has three steps...
 Step 1: Collect Requirements
 The first step in scope planning is to determine the needs and
expectations of the key project stakeholders in order to meet the
project objectives. These are the requirements that your project
will need to fulfill in order for your stakeholders to consider your
project a success.
 Some approaches you can use to collect requirements are...
 Interviews
 Focus Groups
 Workshops
 Using these approaches, you will be able to capture the
requirements from the different project stakeholders that the
project will need to meet.
 Step 2: Define Scope
 Once you've collected the requirements, you can use them to
develop your Project Scope Statement. The Project Scope
Statement provides a detailed description of everything included
in the project.
 Some of the critical items addressed in the Project Scope
Statement are...
 Product Scope Description
 Product Acceptance Criteria
 Project Deliverables
 Project Exclusions
 Project Constraints
 Project Assumptions
 Once agreed with the key stakeholders, the Project Scope
Statement becomes a basis for project decisions.
 Step 3: Create the Work Breakdown Structure
 The final step in Scope Planning is to create the work breakdown structure (WBS) for
the project. A WBS is used to breakdown each project deliverable identified in the
Project Scope Statement into smaller, more manageable components.
 For example, if you are responsible for setting up a conference for a new product your
company is launching, one of the deliverables you would need to handle would be
"Venue." Venue as a deliverable is quite large, so it should be broken down...
 Book Venue
◦ Identify potential venues
◦ Decide venue
 Power
 Sound & Lighting
 Tables & Chairs
 Catering
 If needed, each component can be broken down further just as how "Book Venue"
was.
 A work breakdown structure will help you estimate your project's cost, understand
what skills you will need your team to have, and determine how many people you will
need to deliver the project. The WBS will also help when you start building your
 Scope control is the process of managing the scope of your
project so that any changes to the project scope are handled in
a controlled way. This implies that you will need to set up
a change control process.
 It would be great if once the scope was agreed during the scope
planning, that it wouldn't change. But in the real world,
unforeseen events can make a change in scope necessary. As
long as changes are handled in a controlled way, it isn't a bad
thing. When changes are uncontrolled, it is known as scope
creep.
 A controlled change would come via a formal change request.
The request would be analyzed to determine the impact to the
projects schedule, cost, and quality. The stakeholders involved
in the change control process can then decide whether they can
accept the impacts to the original plan. If it is accepted, then
the project manager adjusts the plans and baselines
 Scope verification is where the project
deliverables are reviewed by the customer to
make sure they have been completed
according to the acceptance criteria defined
during scope planning.
 Your ability to effectively perform project

management scope planning, control, and

verification is important for ensuring your
project is successful. You can find more articles
about project scope management below.
 Understanding the Project Environment

There are many factors that need to be understood within your project environment. At
one level, you need to think in terms of the cultural and social
environments (i.e., people, demographics, and education). The international and
political environment is where you need to understand about different countries’
cultural influences. Then we move to the physical environment; here we think about
time zones. Think about different countries and how differently your project will be
executed whether it is just in your country or if it involves an international project team
that is distributed throughout the world in five different countries.