Project Management 102

You should already know that you have a project and you can do some planning to get things done – From the previous post – Project Management 101.

Now moving swiftly along…

There are many standards and approaches available to manage projects: (From wikipedia)

Approaches

• The traditional approach
  
• PRINCE2
  
• PRiSM (Projects integrating Sustainable Methods)
  
• Critical chain project management
  
• Event chain methodology
  
• Process-based management
  
• Agile project management
  
• Lean project management
  
• Extreme project management
  

International Standards

There have been several attempts to develop project management standards, such as:

• Capability Maturity Model from the Software Engineering Institute.
• GAPPS, Global Alliance for Project Performance Standards – an open source standard describing COMPETENCIES for project and program managers.
• A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge from the Project Management Institute (PMI)
• HERMES method, Swiss general project management method, selected for use in Luxembourg and international organizations.
• The ISO standards ISO 9000, a family of standards for quality management systems, and the ISO 10006:2003, for Quality management systems and guidelines for quality management in projects.
• PRINCE2, PRojects IN Controlled Environments.
• Association for Project Management Body of Knowledge
• Team Software Process (TSP) from the Software Engineering Institute.
• Total Cost Management Framework, AACE International’s Methodology for Integrated Portfolio, Program and Project Management.
• V-Model, an original systems development method.
• The Logical framework approach, which is popular in international development organizations.
• IAPPM, The International Association of Project & Program Management, guide to project auditing and rescuing troubled projects.

For clarity sake we will only delve into one of these “flavours” of project management – Project Management Institute (PMI). The most important next step in your discovery of what project management is revolves around phases.

Phases

The phases are intended to allow us mortal beings to group things together logically that will allow us the greatest chance of succeeding. We have to remember that some learning and bitter experiences have contributed to the knowledge that constitutes the groupings.

Initiation

You have to know a few things before you really start to attack a project. These things are absolutely vital to the success of the project.

• What MUST the project achieve (not from the project’s view, but from the client’s view).
• How much funds is available to achieve what (and how will you be able to get it – what does the project have to do)?
• Who are the people involved (probably the list of stakeholders already identified in Project Management 101)?
• Get written signed approval of your understanding of what the project has to achieve (project charter).

New Team – Fresh Young…

Planning and Design

We have discussed planning before, why again now? In Project Management 101 we explained planning to give you enough detail to define the project. In this phase you will have to plan to achieve the results… You have to plan to an “appropriate level of detail” to allow you to manage project risk by estimating the time, resources, cost and other factors that will affect the chances of delivering the project successfully. (more on project planning)

Planning Discussions….

Executing

Do the work that you said that you were going to do in the planning phase. This is where the tyre hits tar, things get serious and things will have to happen…

• People will have to know who does what when, why and for how long…
• They have to work hard (I can almost guarantee you that you will not have enough time or people to get all the stuff done),
• They will have to be accurate and precise (cannot re-do stuff here),
• You will have to do it cheaply (yes, I know – haha).

Getting it Done….

Monitoring and Controlling

You have to constantly evaluate what people are doing…

• Is it in line with what has been specified?
• How do we overcome this unanticipated problem?
• If we lose time doing this, how do we get it back?
• If that thing now cost more than what we were told, how do we recover the extra expenditure?
• If we pay more for a better person, will we save enough time to make it worth our while?
• How does the client perceive all the activity?

Insider View…

Closing

One of three things will cause a project to close:

• Achieved all of the project deliverables (YAY….. )
• Stopped due to requirements shift (the reason why the project existed has changed or disappeared)
• Will never reach the project deliverables (many reasons within and external to project can cause this)

Remember any project you can walk away from…

Project Team – Older Wiser…

To give you some idea of how projects will tax you as they move through the phases, the line drawing below is a good approximation of how most projects behave.

Phase – Consumption

Phew… Glad that’s over with… So I’m a fully-fledged project manager now?

Well yes and no…

To be a project manager you have to know a little bit of each of these:

The nine knowledge areas are:

• Project Integration Management
• Project Scope Management
• Project Time Management
• Project Cost Management
• Project Quality Management
• Project Human Resource Management
• Project Communications Management
• Project Risk Management
• Project Procurement Management

We will look at this next time…

Have to wait… for… more…

Have a fantastic day…

Related articles

• Project Management Templates Review Released to Help Professionals… (prweb.com)
• Is it Possible to Do More Project Management with Less? (fearnoproject.com)

About Anton van den Berg

Dedicated father, family man and all round good person with boundless energy and joy to share. My biggest wish in life is to set people free from their past, present and inhibited future and allow them to experience life on a different plain. Information Specialist, Engineer and Program Manager

‹ Project Management – 101

Portfolio, Program and Project Management ›

Tagged with: A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, Agile, Business, Critical chain, Education and Training, Event chain, Extreme, Lean, Management, PRINCE2, PRiSM, Process-based, Project and Program Management, Project management, Project Management Body of Knowledge
Posted in Business Management, Project Management