Project
management is a carefully planned and organized effort
to accomplish a specific (and usually) one-time objective,
for example, construct a building or implement a major
new computer system. Project management includes developing
a project plan, which includes defining and confirming
the project goals and objectives, identifying tasks and
how goals will be achieved, quantifying the resources
needed, and determining budgets and timelines for completion.
It also includes managing the implementation of the project
plan, along with operating regular 'controls' to ensure
that there is accurate and objective information on 'performance'
relative to the plan, and the mechanisms to implement
recovery actions where necessary. Projects usually follow
major phases or stages (with various titles for these),
including feasibility, definition, project planning, implementation,
evaluation and support/maintenance.
A successful Project
Manager must simultaneously manage the four basic elements
of a project: resources, time, money, and most importantly,
scope. All these elements are interrelated. Each must
be managed effectively. All must be managed together if
the project, and the project manager, is to be a success.
| * Resources |
: People,
equipment, material |
| * Time |
: Task durations, dependencies, critical
path |
| * Money |
: Costs, contingencies, profit |
| * Scope |
: Project size, goals, and requirements |
Benefits :
The scenarios are worked out with the following assumptions:
1. The PM is handling a project of this nature (size,
complexity, distribution) for the first time
2. The project is critical
3. No special training on professional
project management is provided to the project manager
4. The organization
do not have documented project guidelines for the project
manager to refer to
Step 1 –project initiation :
You are selected as the project manager for a prestigious
project. It is your dream job, and you have never handled
a project of this size and nature. You are chosen to manage
this project, because you have a successful track record
as a project manager , which were smaller than this and
the management believes that you can handle this. You
want to be successful at any cost and at the same time,
do not know where to start, due to the geographical spread
of the team and the large number of project stakeholders,
it seems very complex. There are multiple ways to execute
the same project. Which one to choose? Whom all should
I consult? What should be the team hierarchy? These kind
of questions plagues you and you are not confident?
If you are a non Project Management Professional , the
chances for failure in the initial phases itself is very
high. If the organization do not have a documented process
/ guideline for managing such projects do not exist (and
that is the case, when the projects are first of it's
kind in the organization), you will be in a most un-enviable
position. The chances of you projecting yourself as in
adequate or in experienced is very high. Can you afford
to take such a big risk?. Once the credibility is lost
at this stage, it is very difficult to recover. Project
Management Professional credential will give you enough
knowledge on the tasks (best practices from industry),
to be performed during the project starting (project initiation)
and they are;
*Conduct Project Selection Methods
*Define Scope
*Document Project Risks, Assumptions, and Constraints
*Identify and Perform Stakeholder Analysis
*Develop Project Charter
*Obtain Project Charter Approval
Step-2 - project
planning :
You are planning for the project. You came out with a good schedule which is done to the best of your ability. With this schedule you go to meet the project sponsor. During the discussion the project sponsor asked for details such as;
* What are the major tasks on the critical path?
* What are
the major risks and how you are going to manage them?
* What
is the planned tracking mechanism of cost, scope, and schedule?
* What are the billing milestones?
* Month wise resource requirement All you have is a schedule?
You feel miserable. A Project
Management Professional is equipped with enough knowledge
to get these rights and knows upfront that the following
tasks are required to be performed during the project planning
stage.
Planning the Project Tasks :
* Define and Record Requirements, Constraints and Assumptions
* Identify Project Team and Define Roles and Responsibilities
* Create the WBS
* Develop Change Management Plan
* Identify Risks and Define Risk Strategies
* Obtain Plan Approval
* Conduct Kick-off Meeting
This not only helps to do the project plans
professionally but provides enough knowledge to provide
guidance and suggestions to senior management on critical
project planning aspects. |
