Introduction to Project Management. Project management is the process of planning, budgeting, co-ordinating and monitoring a series of steps required to achieve a particular goal. It was used to build the Pyramids, Great Wall of China and Stonehenge, and today it is used. As a business imperative, forty percent. For revenue generation, thirty percent. To reduce costs, ten percent. To comply with regulations, eight percent. To refresh obsolete technology, six percent. Other reasons, six percent. What is a Successful Project. One that achieves its objectives within an agreed timescale and budget. By those standards, there are plenty of high profile projects that have performed poorly. Columbia Space Shuttle exploded. London Olympics over-budget. Channel Tunnel over-budget, behind schedule, under-used. In fact, according to PricewaterhouseCooper’s twenty twelve Project Management survey, thirty percent of projects miss schedule and budget objectives. [1] Why. From most common to least, the reasons are. Poor estimates missed deadlines. Lack of executive sponsorship. Poorly defined goals objectives. Changes in scope mid-project. Insufficient resources. Poor communication. Lack of stakeholder involvement. Keep these reasons in mind during the Project Management Process to help you anticipate problems that could come up. The Project Management Process. The project management process varies from Organization to Organization, but there are two basic models. Waterfall, Traditional. This method is best suited to construction and manufacturing. Resources and time are estimated to achieve a set objective. Agile, Extreme. This method is best suited to software design and creative industries. Resources and time are fixed and the final product tends to evolve through a cycle of design, build and test stages. A Waterfall process is sequential, moving from one stage to the next. An Agile process will frequently double back on itself in response to new developments. One. Project scope. Underestimation of complexity is listed as a challenge in thirty five percent of projects, have you done an adequate scope. [2] At the outset, the project is scoped to consider. The project’s overall aim objective. Information on what is considered out of scope for the project. An outline of the business case the benefits it will bring. Details of external dependencies market circumstances, technology, etc. Details of key project team members recruit mix of skills, knowledge and Behaviors. Confirmation that the scope has been signed off by key stakeholders project sponsor, responsible team members. Two. Planning and design. The team plan their project using tools like. Taskboarding. Used to identify what needs to be done in a project and in what order, including blocks of work that must be done before others can start. Gantt Charts help the project team to. Prioritize the tasks. Determine when particular tasks must be completed. Identify necessary resources. Calculate the quickest possible time in which a project can be completed. Determine the project’s critical path the order of essential tasks. Three. Implementing. On average, large IT projects run forty five percent over budget, seven percent over schedule and deliver fifty six percent less value than predicted. How realistic are your estimations. [3] Once the project has been designed and signed off, it can then be implemented. Effective implementation requires. Quality control, to ensure that the standard of work meets pre-agreed expectations. Human Resource Management, to assess the impact of the project on those involved and assign duties correctly. Communication, to ensure that all involved are clear about what is required. Risk assessment, to identify risk and manage it where possible. During an Agile process, the team might return to the design stage at this time, or even run both stages concurrently. Four. Monitoring and controlling. Once the plan has been implemented, it is important to monitor the project to ensure that work is being completed on time and to budget. One in six IT projects is a black swan, with a cost overrun of two hundred percent and schedule overrun of seventy percent, have you communicated your progress to manage stakeholder expectations. [4] It is helpful to ask. What stage are scheduled tasks at. How many hours days have been spent so far on tasks. How many hours are needed to complete the tasks. Don’t forget to provide progress reports to everybody involved. Five. Close and evaluate. Ensure that. The intended outputs are delivered. Customers are satisfied. Outstanding tasks or activities are handed over. Lessons are learned for future projects. Conclusion. Ultimately, a successful project depends on a strong project manager who can deliver the desired objectives within an agreed timescale and budget.
References
[1] http://www.pwc.com/en_US/us/public-sector/assets/pwc-global-project-management-report-2012.pdf (2012)
[2] http://www-935.ibm.com/services/us/gbs/bus/pdf/gbe03100-usen-03-making-change-work.pdf (2008)
[3] http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/business_technology/delivering_large-scale_it_projects_on_time_on_budget_and_on_value (2012)
[4] http://hbr.org/2011/09/why-your-it-project-may-be-riskier-than-you-think/ar/1 (2011)

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