Understanding Projects and Project Management

Larson & Gray (Project Management - The managerial process) defined project – “A project is a complex, non-routine, one-time effort limited by time, budget, resources, and performance specifications designed to meet customer needs”

 

PMI (Project Management Book of Knowledge): defines project as – “A project is a temporary endeavor to create a unique product, service, or result”


In broad sense and in too many words; a project can create:

• A product that can either be a component of another item or an end item in itself
• A capability to perform a service (i.e. A business function that supports production)
• A result such as an outcome or a document (i.e. a research project that develops knowledge)

Example of Projects management process have been observed since time immemorial, as in recent past, and an example of - The royal city Jaipur was founded in 1727 by the great statesman and astronomer Maharaja Jai Singh II, built The Hawa Mahal (palace of the winds) is a component of the city palace and impresses by its cheerful architecture. The 953 windows allowed the Queens of the court to watch the activities on the street. Some other notable examples are construction of “Taj Mahal” in Agra and “Pyramids” in Egypt.

In the classical PM hierarchy, projects are at the very bottom, programs above them and portfolios are at the top of the pyramidal structure. Comparative Overview of these as described as.

A project is a unique process consisting of a set of coordinated and controlled activities with start and finish dates, undertaken to achieve an objective conforming to specific requirements including the constraints of time, cost and resources

  

A program consists of group of related projects managed in a coordinated way to obtain benefits and control not available from managing them individually.

 

The effective, centralized management; including identifying, prioritizing, authorizing and controlling of a collection of projects or programs and other work that are grouped together to meet strategic business objectives. The projects or programs of the portfolio may not necessarily be interdependent or directly related. The Project Life cycle generally consists of several project phases that have a distinct focus areas. To understand the complex working of the project, a special understanding of dependencies of the project task is required. 

  

A project phase is a division within the project where extra control is needed to manage the completion of a deliverable. The work covered by a single phase has a distinct focus e.g. plan, monitor. The phase structure allows the project to be segmented into logical subsets for ease of management, planning and control. Project phases can be sequential or they can overlap. There is no “ideal” structure for a project. Industry specific standards apply.

 Projects and project management are carried out in a context broader than that of the project itself. Project stakeholders are actively involved in the project, or their interests are affected, because of project execution or project completion. They may also have influence on the project‘s objectives

  

In order to make the project a success, the project management team has to identify all stakeholders and their expectations. In order to identify and manage the client’s expectation, teams should hold regularly QA session with top management

At the very beginning of the project, it is key to identify all relevant stakeholders and their expectations. Simple 4 steps can be used to achieve high level of client satisfaction and manage their expectations they are viz. 

  

I. Identify all parties involved in the project

II. Identify, analyze and understand all expectations from all relevant stakeholders

  

III. Document all expectations together with the client.

IV. Continuously check expectations and adjust accordingly

Examples for expectations

• The application has an availability of at least 99%
• A minimum of 50 transactions per minute can be processed
• The project does include the definition of new business processes in section A

 Project Management has nine practice areas that every Project Manager has to observe; they are as listed in the diagram below. We will cover them one by one in latter works.

Figure : Project Management Processes