What is Project Management?
Project Management is how the resources are managed to accomplish all the activities.
There are projects to be completed. The Project Manager has to use the resources to complete the tasks for the project. It is the way the project is organized by the project manager.
Let’s look at what is a Project.
Project is something that we try to accomplish. It may be a product, service, or result. It has a beginning and end. It has resources that are involved in doing the work.
Project is
- Unique
- Temporary
- Has a specified start date and end date.
- NOT a routine operation.
Example: Construction of a Bridge, Creating a software application, building a house…
Project Management is a set of operations to complete a Project or accomplish a goal. It’s a practice.
It has defined resources.
It should be delivered on time and within budget
When we have a project with a goal, it needs to be planned well to complete successfully. It requires a team of people, to who we can assign different types of tasks and deliverables. The team members work collaboratively to finish the defined product. There will be a project manager, who coordinates all the activities.
Project Management is to manage all the resources to complete the project in time and within the budget. To complete a project the project activities has to be planned and completed in an orderly manner.
These activities are planned by the project team and scheduled with start date and finish date. When executing the activities, there may be hindrances, which will delay the activities. However, the project team identifies the potential risks during the initiation of the project and creates risk mitigation plan.
The mitigation plan is implemented to overcome the risks. The activities are completed to meet the project requirements.
Project Managers coordinate the team meetings. Communicate to the stakeholders with the progress of the project. Get the budget approvals for the project. Interact with the Vendors to resolve any pending issues.
PMI’s A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide) clearly mentions about the recurring elements;
What are Five phases of the Project Management ?
- Initiating
- Planning
- Executing
- Monitory and Controlling
- Closing
What are the Knowledge areas defined in PMBOK ?
- Integration
- Scope
- Time
- Cost
- Quality
- Procurement
- Human resources
- Communications
- Risk management
- Stakeholder management
All the above knowledge areas are combined together in implementing a Project successfully.
Who are Project Managers?
They are the leaders of the project team who are on the front lines of the projects. They create the project plan, project schedule, allocate resources, and maintain budgets.
They communicate between all the team members to make sure all the team members are on the same page. They have to balance between the administrations details of the project and the project team. They are part of the bigger strategic project teams.
The tasks are arranged in a way that they are completed in an orderly manner. The delays between deliverables are planned well so that there is no wastage of time between tasks. Some tasks are planned to execute in parallels to reduce the overall project completion time.
The Project Manager is supposed to have a combination of skills including people management, general management, resolve conflicts, identifying risks, documentation and communication.
Project Manager must be able to control risks and reduce the uncertainty. They are responsible to make decisions and they should make sure those decisions are benefiting the project progress.
What are the core components of Project Management ?
The following are the 9 major components of Project Management
Business Case: This will define why this project is needed. What is the benefit from this project? What is the project going to solve? What is the value that we get out of this project?
Scope: What is the scope of the project? What are ‘In Scope’ and ‘Out of Scope’ statements? This will prevent scope creep later on.
Requirements: What are project requirements? Requirement document will assign numerical IDs to each requirement and finalize with all stakeholders with their signature. This will also help in avoiding scope creep.
Quality Document: The quality of the deliverables is mentioned in this document. What are the acceptance criteria for the deliverables is covered here. This will avoid any conflict later on.
Work Breakdown Structure (WBS): Collect the team and create Work Breakdown Structure till it reaches to a point where the work packages cannot be decomposed further. Identify the risks and create mitigation plan. Estimate Resources from the WBS and allocate budget for all the work packages and deliverables.
Project Plan: Create Project plan with schedules and assign resources
Team Lead: Lead the team and coordinate all the activities for project success
Risk and Mitigation: Monitor the risk and implement the mitigation plan when necessary
Communication: Create a communication plan and maintain communication with all stakeholders
Conclusion
Project Management practice is getting refined on a daily basis. Every team leader should know about project management and how to govern it. The project manager should be aware of the latest updates in project management and implement in the project.
