Important Terms
Project - is a temporary endeavor with a start and end time frame.
Progressive Elaboration - finer details of a project are uncovered and understood better as the project progresses.
Program - group of projects, whose management is coordinated because they use the same resources, or the results of one feed into another or they are part of a larger project which has been broken down. The coordination provides decreased risk, economies of scale, improved management - which would not have been possible otherwise.
Organizational Process Assets - records or historical information of all previous projects which include work packages, package costs, risk registers, risk mitigation strategies, etc.
Enterprise Environmental Factors - existing systems, processes and culture of the company.
Project Management Plan - is approved by all stakeholders, is realistic and everyone believes that it is achievable.
Triple Constraint - Scope, Cost & Risk. A change in one constraint will cause a change in others. Quality, Time (Cost) and Customer Satisfaction are additional equally important constraints.
Constraint Impact - a change in scope must be evaluated for its impact on time, cost, quality, risk and customer satisfaction.
Gold Plating - adding additional features which haven't been asked for and are not in the plan.
Quality Management Cycle - Plan, Do, Check, Act
Rolling Wave Planning - planning each phase of a project only when the previous phase is almost complete. Everyone is involved in planning.
Total Float (Slack) - total amount of time that an activity can be delayed from its early start without delaying the project finish date or violating a schedule constraint.
Free Float - the amount of time that an activity can be delayed without delaying the start date of any immediately following scheduled activity.
Critical Path - where there is no float i.e. no activity can be delayed without causing a delay in subsequent activities and to the overall project.
Program/Project Manager
Ideally PM is assigned when the project is initiated.
PM is proactive, identifies problems early, looks for changes and prevents problem. The job is to prevent problems instead of dealing with them.
PM is responsible for ensuring the project is completed on time, within budget and meets any other project objectives.
PM needs to identify all stakeholders early in the project planning. They need to be involved in identifying and managing risks, team building and their needs should be addressed in the project plan.
PM should identify and clearly assign all roles and responsibilities. These include attending meetings, working on tasks, updating status, etc.
9 Knowledge Areas
Integration
Scope
Time
Cost
Quality
Human Resources
Risk
Communication
Procurement
5 Process Groups
Initiation
Planning
Execution
Monitor & Control
Closure
Project Management Office
PMO is a group that centralizes the management of projects and takes one of these roles -
Project - is a temporary endeavor with a start and end time frame.
Progressive Elaboration - finer details of a project are uncovered and understood better as the project progresses.
Program - group of projects, whose management is coordinated because they use the same resources, or the results of one feed into another or they are part of a larger project which has been broken down. The coordination provides decreased risk, economies of scale, improved management - which would not have been possible otherwise.
Organizational Process Assets - records or historical information of all previous projects which include work packages, package costs, risk registers, risk mitigation strategies, etc.
Enterprise Environmental Factors - existing systems, processes and culture of the company.
Project Management Plan - is approved by all stakeholders, is realistic and everyone believes that it is achievable.
Triple Constraint - Scope, Cost & Risk. A change in one constraint will cause a change in others. Quality, Time (Cost) and Customer Satisfaction are additional equally important constraints.
Constraint Impact - a change in scope must be evaluated for its impact on time, cost, quality, risk and customer satisfaction.
Gold Plating - adding additional features which haven't been asked for and are not in the plan.
Quality Management Cycle - Plan, Do, Check, Act
Rolling Wave Planning - planning each phase of a project only when the previous phase is almost complete. Everyone is involved in planning.
Total Float (Slack) - total amount of time that an activity can be delayed from its early start without delaying the project finish date or violating a schedule constraint.
Free Float - the amount of time that an activity can be delayed without delaying the start date of any immediately following scheduled activity.
Critical Path - where there is no float i.e. no activity can be delayed without causing a delay in subsequent activities and to the overall project.
Program/Project Manager
Ideally PM is assigned when the project is initiated.
PM is proactive, identifies problems early, looks for changes and prevents problem. The job is to prevent problems instead of dealing with them.
PM is responsible for ensuring the project is completed on time, within budget and meets any other project objectives.
PM needs to identify all stakeholders early in the project planning. They need to be involved in identifying and managing risks, team building and their needs should be addressed in the project plan.
PM should identify and clearly assign all roles and responsibilities. These include attending meetings, working on tasks, updating status, etc.
9 Knowledge Areas
Integration
Scope
Time
Cost
Quality
Human Resources
Risk
Communication
Procurement
5 Process Groups
Initiation
Planning
Execution
Monitor & Control
Closure
Project Management Office
PMO is a group that centralizes the management of projects and takes one of these roles -
- provides policies, methodology and templates for managing projects within the organization.
- provides support and guidance to others in the organization on managing projects, training in project management and tools.
- provides project managers for various projects and becomes responsible for the result of those projects.
Project Objectives
These are contained in the preliminary project scope statement (initial project discussion/email/wiki).
Projects are considered complete when the objectives have been met. The Project Manager is responsible for meeting these objectives. Projects can be terminated if its determined that the objectives cannot be met.
Complete understanding of objectives is achieved over the length of the project.
Stakeholders
Any person, team, business unit, etc whose interest may be positively or negatively impacted by the project.
Identify - all of them early on in the project. Involve them in creating the project plan.
Determine their Requirements - use different techniques to suit their personality, formal vs informal, interviews, questionnaire, brain storming, etc.
Determine their Expectations - generally hidden or unspoken, find out what they expect to happen to/for their team or the company.
Communication - identify their requirements on being involved or updated in the project.
Influence - manage their influence, enhance the positive affects and control their negative impact to the project.
Organizational Structure & PM Influence
Functional < Weak Matrix < Strong Matrix < Projectized
Life Cycles
Project - Requirement, Design, Implementation, Testing, Installation, Handover to Ops
Product - Conception, Growth, Maturity, Decline, Withdrawal
One or more project life cycles can be executed in one phase of a product life cycle.
Functional < Weak Matrix < Strong Matrix < Projectized
Life Cycles
Project - Requirement, Design, Implementation, Testing, Installation, Handover to Ops
Product - Conception, Growth, Maturity, Decline, Withdrawal
One or more project life cycles can be executed in one phase of a product life cycle.
