Operational: workflow guidelines, communication mechanisms, reporting rules, leadership, others. Time: start time, finish time, duration, breaks, others. Cost: funds invested, budget, allowance, salaries, others. Quality: acceptance criteria, control measures, quality levels, others. HR: employee availability, team composition, workload, others.
By using projects we can plan and do our activities, for example: build a garage, run a marketing campaign, develop a website, organize a party, go on vacation, graduate a university with honors, or whatever else we may wish to do. 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. In organizations, a project is defined as a piece of work that is planned for implementation within current business environment. This definition lets make a distinction between other pieces of work, such as:.
Projects along with programs, tasks, work packages and work units are the elements of work breakdown structure or WBS. The build phase in a project delivers the completed code whereas the test phase is about the completed testing for the deliverables.
Each phase of the project is associated with a certain milestone and the set of deliverables that each phase is expected to deliver is then tracked for compliance and closure. Each of these processes is necessary to ensure that the project stays on track and is completed according to the specifications. View All Articles. What is a Project? Similar Articles Under - Project Management.
To Know more, click on About Us. The use of this material is free for learning and education purpose. When are companies going to stop wasting billions of dollars on failed projects? The vast majority of this waste is completely avoidable: simply get the right business needs requirements understood early in the process and ensure that project management techniques are applied and followed, and the project activities are monitored.
Applying good project management discipline is the way to help reduce the risks. Having good project management skills does not completely eliminate problems, risks, or surprises. The value of good project management is that you have standard processes in place to deal with all contingencies. Project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques applied to project activities in order to meet the project requirements.
Project management is a process that includes planning, putting the project plan into action, and measuring progress and performance. What are the objectives for your project? Make sure you set goals that everyone agrees on to avoid team conflicts later on. Understanding and addressing the needs of everyone affected by the project means the end result of your project is far more likely to satisfy your stakeholders.
Last but not least, as project manager, you will also be balancing the many competing project constraints. 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.
These are the primary competing project constraints that you have to be most aware of. In this triangle, each side represents one of the constraints or related constraints wherein any changes to any one side cause a change in the other sides.
The best projects have a perfectly balanced triangle. Maintaining this balance is difficult because projects are prone to change. For example, if scope increases, cost and time may increase disproportionately.
Alternatively, if the amount of money you have for your project decreases, you may be able to do as much, but your time may increase. Your project may have additional constraints that you must face, and as the project manager, you have to balance the needs of these constraints against the needs of the stakeholders and your project goals. You get the idea; the constraints are all dependent on each other.
Think of all of these constraints as the classic carnival game of Whac-a-mole Figure 2. Each time you try to push one mole back in the hole, another one pops out. The best advice is to rely on your project team to keep these moles in place.
Here is an example of a project that cut quality because the project costs were fixed. The P oil platform Figure 2. In March , the P was producing around 84, barrels of oil and 1. The sinking is attributed to a complete failure in quality assurance, and pressure for increased production led to corners being cut on safety procedures. The following quotes are from a Petrobras executive, citing the benefits of cutting quality assurance and inspection costs on the project.
The dynamic trade-offs between the project constraint values have been humorously and accurately described in Figure 2. In order for you, as the project manager, to manage the competing project constraints and the project as a whole, there are some areas of expertise you should bring to the project team Figure 2. They are knowledge of the application area and the standards and regulations in your industry, understanding of the project environment, general management knowledge and skills, and interpersonal skills.
It should be noted that industry expertise is not in a certain field but the expertise to run the project. So while knowledge of the type of industry is important, you will have a project team supporting you in this endeavor.
For example, if you are managing a project that is building an oil platform, you would not be expected to have a detailed understanding of the engineering since your team will have mechanical and civil engineers who will provide the appropriate expertise; however, it would definitely help if you understood this type of work.
By standards, we mean guidelines or preferred approaches that are not necessarily mandatory. In contrast, when referring to regulations we mean mandatory rules that must be followed, such as government-imposed requirements through laws. Every industry has standards and regulations. Knowing which ones affect your project before you begin work will not only help the project to unfold smoothly, but will also allow for effective risk analysis.
Some projects require specific skills in certain application areas. Application areas are made up of categories of projects that have common elements. They can be defined by industry group pharmaceutical, financial, etc. These application areas are usually concerned with disciplines, regulations, and the specific needs of the project, the customer, or the industry.
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