The basics of project management are the fundamentals of managing projects which must be handy for projects to be successfully completed. They are the theories, knowledge areas and tools which have evolved over time and which have been tested on different projects and found useful. These basics have been documented in variuos bodies of knowledge and are:
1. Concept of project management: "A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK (2003), issued by the Project Management Institute (PMI) defined a project as "a temporary endeavour undertaken to create a unique product or service". The critical issue with this definition among a school of thought is that it does not say how the 'temporary endeavour' which creates the 'unique product' is done. A project therefore, can be defined as a one-off task that has a start and finish time and in which resources have been commited to undertake it. Management is the planning, organising, controlling, directing, coordinating and supervising activities.
Project management is the planning, controlling, organising, supervising and directing of one-off task in order to create value. A project manager should be able to add finesse and quality to the process of project development which would not be there has his or her service not sought. His or her service is made easier because of changes in quality-definition, changes in trend of construction, changes in method of contruction, changes in materials for construction and changes in technology of construiction.
Before globalisation which turned the whole world into a small vlllage and before the advent of information technology, projects scope are peculiar to certain areas and project concepts are myopic. With globalisation and use of information technology in business, project owners are now more informed about their projects than ever. Glass and steel structure are no more the building materials of the Aussies, they have been used for contruction in China, Thailand, United Kingdom etc. The highrises, which started in United States of America are now the mode of construction of houses in Mid-East.
A project manager is the member of a project team that is in charge of planning, organising, supervising, coordinating and controlling a project. His mission is to coordinate the project development process so that its objectives will be met. He must be able to analyse the project charter, a document detailing the objectives, and which provides an overview of the project and its goals. The Project Charter details the project purpose, overview, and its deliverables.
In developing a project charter, there are several inputs to the process. These are:
Contract terms - The contract that is used as an input is the contract between your organization and the organization you are asking to provide a product or service.
Statement of Work (SOW) - An SOW is a written description of products, services, or results to be provided. The SOW indicates a business need, a product scope description, or a strategic plan. Enterprise Environmental Factors Enterprise environmental factors are any external environmental factors and internal organizational environmental factors that surround or influence the project's success. These factors include organizational culture and structure, infrastructure, existing resources, industry databases, and market conditions. Organisational Process Assets Organisational process assets are any or all process-related assets, from any or all of the organizations involved in the project, that can be or are used to influence the project's success. These include processes and procedures as well as the organization's lessons learned and other historical information,
The inputs for creating a Project Charter are contracts, Statements of Work, enterprise environmental factors, and organizational process assets. You may not use all of these inputs for every Project Charter, but using some of these inputs is a good place to start before chartering.
A project manager requires an appropriate set of tools and techniques to build a Project Charter. With these tools and techniques, the project manager and project team can act on the inputs to create outputs. Creating a good charter often requires relying on appropriate tools and techniques, apart from the above inputs, like:
Project Selection Methods - Project selection methods are used by the project owners to evaluate which projects to develop. Such methods include benefit measurement methods, constrained optimization (mathematical and simulation models), and decision-making models.
Project Management Methodology - The project management methodology describes a collection of processes, project process groups, and control functions that include formal and informal methods to help a team develop a charter. One such methodology is called the agile development lifecycle another could be ITIL release management.
Project Management Information Systems (PMIS) - A PMIS is a set of automated tools accessible within an organization and integrated into a system. It is used by a team to create a Project Charter, elicit feedback, manage changes, and submit the approved document. Some organizations successfully use project central and sharepoint as their PMIS.
Expert judgment - Expert judgement is used to determine the inputs needed for the development of Project Charter. Project team members specialised knowledge apply professionalism to project details during the Project Charter development process.
By applying these tools and techniques to the Project Charter inputs, the project manager and project team will develop the Project Charter successfully.
The elements of a Project Charter include:
The project overview - A project overview gives the description of the project scope, that is, the objectives (requirement/s), purpose, and product or service that is to be produced. Project team roles and responsibilities - This section describes the duties of the project team. This includes people who should be involved and why and how they might be involved. This might include customers, stakeholders, and the project team. Identification of the project manager - The project manager identification designates the project manager who has primary project oversight responsibility. A description of the project manager's authority - The description of the project manager's authority states the degreel of authority given to the project manager. This would include financial management, methods and types of decision making.
Sign-off page - This is the page, usually at the end of the project charter, showing the approval required from the project's sponsor to give the go-ahead to the project.
When the sponsor or sponsors sign off the project charter, it siginifies the beginning of the planning phase and the begining of a project.
2. Project life cycle management: Project life cycle are the stages that a project must pass through during gestation, from start (the begining) to finish (end). It is the life span of a project. No matter the number of stages a span or cycle is divided into it must have initiation, execution and completion. The traditional life cycle stages are: (1) Conception (2) Inception (3) Execution and (4) Completion. PMBOK (2003) and APMBOK (2006) have: (1) Initiation (2) Planning (3) Execution (4) Monitoring and Control (5) Closure.
3. Project management tools and techniques: Tools and techniques are used for project execution. The project management tools and techniques are the essential instruments which are used to manage projects successfully. These include:
(a) Templates: These are reusable project tools that allows projects to be completed on time.
(b) Leadership: A leader is a person who can adapt principles to circumstances; a coach that can give correction without causing resentment and a motivator who knows how to move people without extravagance. His greatest asset is integrity. The qualities of a leader include authoritative, assertiveness, communication ability, trustworthiness, negotiation skills, passionate, persuasiveness, team-building, analytical and problem solving skills, organisation ability, confidence, intiative, influential, inspiring, perseverance etc.
(c) Teamwork: Teamwork is the result of a cohesive team. Teamwork is the ability to work together towards a common vision. It is the ability to direct individual accomplishment toward organisational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to achieve uncommon results. According to (Katzenbach and Smith, 1993) a team is "a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals, and approach for which thay are mutually accountable". When there is teamwork in an organisation, there will be 'team dynamics, understanding and cohesiveness in the team, improved productivity, improved quality and innovation, improved employee motivation and commitment, increased technological advances and increased competitiveness.
(d) Communication: Communication is the act of imparting or interchange of thoughts, opinions, or information by speech, writing, or signs. Communication is more than just sending message. There are different kinds of communication means and barriers which must be noted for effective communication to take place.
(e) Resource management: This include management of people, financial management including cash flow management, bankruptcy and insolvency and material management like FIFO (first in, first out), LIFO (last in, last out), mishandling and double-handling etc.
(f) SWOT Analysis (analysis of strenght, weaknesses, opportunities and threats).
(g) PESTLES Analysis: Analysis of the environment of the project are: political, economic, social, technology, legal, environmental and safety. Political environment has to do with the political stability, policy formulation and politics of the project environment both within and without. Economic environment deals with issues like interest rate, inflation, currency exchange rate, price fluctuation etc. Social environment has to do with workforce diversity including cultural difference, age difference etc. Technology environment deals with the machineries which are used for the execution of projects. Physical nvironmental issues like site topography, geology and climatology is also essential. Safety issues have to do with health and safety and security of resources on site, that is, human, material and financial.
(h) PARETO Analysis: Pareto analysis is a statistical method in decision making that is used for the identification of a specific number of tasks that produce major impact. It uses the Pareto Principle (which is also called the 80/20 rule). It originated the idea that by doing specific 20% of the work, you can generate 80% of the benefits of doing the whole job. In terms of quality improvement, a large majority of defects (80%) are produced by a few key causes (20%). This is also known as as the vital few and the trivial many. In project management, 80% of project delays are caused by 20% of tasks etc.
(i) Risk management methods includes risk identification, risk reduction and risk transfer.
(j) Gantt chart
(k) SMART Analysis: Project must be specific, measurable, achieveable, realistic and timely).
(l) Critical Path Analysis
(m) Flow chart or algorithm
(n) Project management planning and schedulling software
(o) Technical knowledge of the project
(p) Basic computer especially, Microsoft word, excel and PowerPoint.
(q) Project Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT): Project blue print, for example, master plan of a city, business strategic plan and building plan; job schedule; project charter etc and performance measurement methods like milestones, interim valuation and benchmarking with percentage of tasks; project processes etc.
(r) Reprot writing ability: Report is an essential part of a project management. A good project can be marred by bad reporting. Everybody can learn to write good reports by planning, thinking and revising. Project report should be concise, clear and coherent. It should follow sequence. The best way is to write down issues that occured during project development as soon as possible and not anytime longer than necessary. Issues should be written down first in 'site diary' as they occur before been collated into a report, periodically. Report should say as much as possible with as little words as you can. By revising what has been written before producing final report, a lot of improvements will be achieved in project reports by project managers.
4. Project scope management: Scope management is the set of processes that ensure that the requirements of the customer are captured in a specification of work that ensures its delivery, that all the project work is done, and that only the work required to complete the project is done. "In other words, scope management makes sure that the project is completed without expending any unnecessary effort" (Solomon, 2005). "Project scope management includes all the processes required to ensure that project includes all the works required, to complete the project successfully. Project scope management is primarily about controlling what is and what is not in the scheme of work of the project" (PMBOK, 2003).
5. Project integration management: "Integration management consists of coordinating all of the project management knowledge area tasks and products throughout the project life cycle" (Schwalbe, 2006). This knowledge area ensures that all elements of a project are within the boundaries established by the project scope as authorized by the project charter" (PMBOK, 2003). Project integration management helps to chose where to focus resources, anticipating issues, resolving those issues, and coordinating the work for the entire project (PMBOK, 2003). This effort involves making trade-offs among competing objectives and alternatives.
6. Project methodology: Project methodology is the route through which a project is carried out. It is a guide which can be followed based on principles to achieve results. There is Association of Project Management (APM) Body of Knowledge widely adopted in the UK (APM Body of Knowledge, 2006). There is Project Management Institute (PMI) Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) commonly used in the North America and some part of Europe, and there is Project in Controlled Environment tools (PRINCE2) developed by Office of Government Commerce (OGC). Prince2 is commonly used in United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, Asia and some other European countries. Organisations and governments have developed different methodologies which are quite different from the three above based on their own needs. For example, the Office of Information Technology (OIT) in America developed her own Project Management Methodology adapted from PMBOK and called it Project Management Office (PMO).
An effective project manager should acquaint himself or herself with all knowledge areas required for project management to be successful. Emphasis on any knowledge area that will enhance his or her competence on the following will be profitable:
1. Cost Management,
2. Time management,
3. Quality management,
4. Risk management,
5. Resource allocation,
6. Client interaction and feedback
7. Conflict handling,
8. Project integration and closure.
References
APM Body of Knowledge (2006) Association of Project Managers Body of Knowledge, 5th edition. Buckinghamshire: APM Publishing.
Katzenbach, J. R. and Smith, D. K. (1993) The Wisdom of Teams: Creating the High-performance Organisation. Boston: Harvard Business School.
Muller, R. and Turner, J. R. (2003) Communication and Cooperation on Projects between the Project Owner as a Principal and the Project Manager as Agent. European Management Journal, Volume 22, Issue 3, June 2004, pp. 327-336.
PMBOK (2003) A Guide to Project Management Body of Knowledge, 3rd edition. Newtown Square, PA: PMI Press.
Schwalbe, K. (2006) Introduction to Project Management, 4th edition. Dublin: Course Technology Publisher.
Solomon, M. R. (2005) Understanding the Project Management Institute's Project Planning Process Group. Novemenr 11, 2005, Available at www.examcram2.com/articles/ar ticle.asp?p. Accessed on February 8, 2009.