Project Management Fundamentals

By Prof. B. L. Rajput Assistant Professor NICMAR, Pune

PM Fundamentals
What is a Project?
A Guide to Project Management Body of Knowledge (3rd Edition, Published by Project Management Institute, 2004) referred to as PMBOK defines project as, A temporary endeavor with an established beginning and end time, that has a set of defined tasks and assigned resources, undertaken to deliver a unique product, service or result.

PM Fundamentals
What is Project Management?
o The application of knowledge, skills, tools,

techniques, people, and systems focused on meeting or exceeding stakeholder needs.

o A discipline that will support the planning,

implementation, tracking, and control of projects.

PM Fundamentals
The Trilogy of Project Management Scope, Budget, Schedule 1. Scope Defines what the project will do and what it wont Scope Creep occurs when additional requirements are allowed to sneak in. PM must know how to say NO!

PM Fundamentals
Budget Highly visible measure of Project Managers Requires constant monitoring, immediate corrective action Vendor management is key 3. Schedule Most likely to change Unexpected events can and do occur
2.

Project Planning
Project Scope Project Deliverables Project Schedule

Project Supporting plans HR, Communication, Risk Management

Project Planning - Step by Step

Step 1 Project Scope
Identify the stakeholders of the project Stakeholder is any body impacted directly or indirectly by the project Establish their needs by interviewing or having

consolidated meetings Prioritize stakeholders needs Create a set of goals that can be easily measured (you may use the SMART technique for this)
S specific M measurable A achievable

R realistic
T timely

Project Scope
The purpose of project scope definition is to provide sufficient

information to identify the work to be performed, to allow the design to proceed without significant changes that may adversely affect the project budget and schedule.
Project scope identifies those items and activities that are

required to meet the needs of the owner. To assist the owner in this effort, a comprehensive check list of items should be prepared.
Project Scope statement should include Project Justification,

Project Description, Project Limitations, Project Assumptions, Project Deliverables, Project Objectives.

 Business conditions, design realities, budgets, time,

resource availability, and many other factors can make it necessary to change project scope midway through. Nonetheless, your scope document helps you manage those changes so that you change in the proper directionin line with your organizations overall strategy, the products reason for being, and the projects goals.
Experienced design and construction personnel can

provide valuable input to assist an owner in the development of a check list for project scope.

Project Planning - Step by Step

Step 2 Project Deliverables
Create a list of things that need to be delivered

to meet the defined goals

Specify when and how each item must be

delivered
Add deliverables to the project plan with an

estimated delivery date

Work Breakdown Structure

The most fundamental technique used for planning and

managing a project is to break down the scope of work into manageable pieces. This breakdown begins early in the project and is from the initial scope statement in a top down fashion, much like beginning at the top of a pyramid and expanding downward.
The arrangement of project into divisions, subdivisions,

and further sub divisions is known as the Work Breakdown structure (WBS).It is the means of dividing a large multi project program into its component projects, or a complex project into its components, which at the lowest level are called work packages.

 There are many ways to develop a WBS and work

packages. Subdivisions can be geographic regions, construction site areas, process components, building elements, engineering and process systems, trades, or departments. One or several work packages may form a contract package.
The WBS has another important function; it provides the

structural framework for managerial control. Division into work packages meets both the planning and control needs of the organization. It is therefore necessary to develop simultaneously an organizational tree and to relate the organizational units to work packages in order to determine the suitability of the WBS.

Creation of Task/Activity List

Brainstorming Sequential Phases

Milestones and deliverables

Team collaboration

Archived projects

Project Planning - Step by Step

Step 3 Project Schedule
Create a list of tasks that need to be carried out for each

deliverable identified previously

Identify the amount of effort needed (hours or days) Identify resource that will do the task

Organize all the above information using a scheduling

software or template
You may found that the project estimated deadline is not
Renegotiate the deadline (project delay) Employ additional resources (additional money) Reduce the scope of the project (less deliverables)

aligned with the imposed project deadline by the sponsor

Be firm and do not make commitments other than what your schedule

and budget dictate

Developing Reliable Task Durations

As the project manager, you can start by entering a broad

duration estimate based on your experience. Then, you can refine the estimate by soliciting input from others who are more directly involved or experienced with the sets of tasks. There are four possible sources for developing reliable task durations, as follows:

Team knowledge Expert judgment Project files Industry standards

You might use a combination of these methods to obtain

durations for all the tasks in your project. Its often very useful to have durations based on established metrics.

Project Planning - Step by Step

Step 4 Supporting plans Human resource plan
Identify by name the individuals with a leading role in the project

and describe roles and responsibilities

Describe the number and type of people needed to carryout the

project
Include SMEs (subject matter experts) and specific trades of the

market
Create a single sheet with the above information The above will help establishing the project budget

Organizational Breakdown Structure (OBS)

After

the preparatory work is complete, the project manager is responsible for organizing the project team to achieve project objectives. The project team consists of members from the various discipline departments (architectural, civil, structural, mechanical, electrical, etc.), project controls (estimating, planning and scheduling, quality control, etc.), and the owner's representative.

All team members represent their respective discipline's

area of expertise and are responsible for early detection of potential problems that can have an adverse effect on the projects objectives, cost, or schedule.

 A cooperative working relationship is necessary between all

team members. Although the project manager is the normal contact person for all discipline departments involved in the project, he or she may delegate contact responsibility to lead members of the team.
The project manager must organize, coordinate, and

monitor the progress of team members to ensure the work is completed in an orderly manner. And this can be easily done by preparing OBS.
The major reason for the preparation of OBS is to establish

the communication and reporting links as well as the authority structure within the project.

Project Planning - Step by Step

Step 4 Supporting Plans
Communications plan
Who needs to be informed about the

Project
How will they receive the information

Weekly/monthly progress reports to include performance, status, milestones achieved, work planned for next periods, etc.

Project Planning - Step by Step

Step 4 Supporting Plans
Risk Management Plan Identify as many risks to your project as possible
Be prepared if something bad happens Common project risks

time and costs estimates too optimistic Unexpected budget cuts Scope changes Atmospheric events

Write down a mitigation plan for every risk; how to

address each risk

Project Planning - Step by Step

The Plan is a living document There will be changes along the

project execution phase, therefore

Update your plan as project progresses

and measure progress against the plan

Essential elements for project planning

Aim of project what do we want to produce? Outputs what do we actually need to get there?; need to be

clearly defined
Quality criteria what quality the outputs need to be of? we

need the completed output to be of certain quality and we need to define what that quality is (define using the SMART principle: specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, timely); inputs from customer and stakeholders are critical here
Resources include staff time, particular knowledge or skill

sets, money, time

Continued..
Management structure how are we going to manage

the work?; decision makers?; how to share project progress and to whom?
Milestones how to break up the project?; break up the

project into discrete chunks (WBS); a defined milestone will help to identify when each section is completed
Tolerances how far can you let the project stray from

the defined targets before sounding the alarm; will help manage the project without continually seeking guidance from the top executives as to whether you should carry on

Continued..
Dependencies what need to happen before something

else? Understanding dependencies will help understand the impact of changes in any part of the project; internal (within your control); external (outside of your control)
Scheduling There is something you need to understand

about the schedule: it will be wrong; there is no perfect schedule; Get your executives to know that the schedule is not engraved on stone; they should expect changes
Risks what could go wrong?; what could happen that may

affect your ability to deliver the project on time?; what can you do to avoid.

With a good project management system in place

What tasks must be done to produce the deliverable of the

project?
Who will complete these tasks? Whats the best way to communicate project details to

people who have an interest in the project?

When should each task be performed?

How much will it cost?

What if some tasks are not completed as scheduled?

 Microsoft Project is a specialized database that stores and

Microsoft ProjectAn Overview

presents thousands of pieces of data related to your project. Under-lying this project database is the scheduling engine, which crunches the raw project data you enter and presents the calculated results to you. Examples of such calculated results include the start and finish dates of a task, the resource availability, the finish date of the entire project, and the total cost for a resource or for the project. You can then manipulate and display this calculated data in various views to analyze the planning and progress of your project. This information helps you make decisions vital to the projects success. You can also communicate your progress and provide the feedback necessary to keep your team and other stakeholders informed of essential project information, create and print reports for status meetings or distribution

Microsoft Project 2003 Editions

Microsoft Office Project 2003 Standard edition, a Windows-based desktop

application for project management. The Standard edition is designed for the single project manager and does not interact with Project Server. The previous version, Project Standard 2002, could be used with Project Server for some collaborative functions, but Project Standard 2003 is a stand-alone product.
Microsoft Office Project 2003 Professional edition, a Windows-based

desktop application that includes the full feature set of the Standard edition, pluswhen used with Project Serveradditional project team planning and communications features. Project Professional plus Project Server represents Microsofts enterprise project management (EPM) product offering.
Microsoft Office Project 2003 Server, an intranet-based solution that

enables enterprise-level project collaboration, timesheet reporting, and status reporting when used in conjunction with Project Professional.
Microsoft Office Project 2003 Web Access, the Internet Explorerbased

interface for working with Project Server.

Microsoft Project 2007 Editions

Microsoft Office Project 2007 Standard edition, a Windows-based desktop

application for project management. The Standard edition is designed for the single project manager and does not interact with Project Server.
Microsoft Office Project 2007 Professional edition, a Windows-based

desktop application that includes the full feature set of the Standard edition, pluswhen used with Project Serveradditional project team planning and communications features. Project Professional plus Project Server represents Microsofts enterprise project management (EPM) product offering.
Microsoft Office Project 2007 Server, an intranet-based solution that

enables enterprise-level project collaboration, timesheet reporting, and status reporting when used in conjunction with Project Professional.
Microsoft Office Project 2007 Web Access, the Internet Explorerbased

interface for working with Project Server.

Microsoft Office Project Portfolio Server 2007, Portfolio management

solution