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Project management

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Project management is the discipline of defining and achieving finite objectives. The challenge of project management is the optimized integration and allocation of the inputs needed to meet those pre-defined objectives. The project, therefore, is a carefully selected set of activities chosen to use resources (time, money, people, materials, energy, space, provisions, communication, quality, risk, etc.) to meet the pre-defined objectives.

Project Management is quite often the province and responsibility of an individual project manager. This individual seldom participates directly in the activities that produce the end result, but rather strives to maintain the progress and productive mutual interaction of various parties in such a way that overall risk of failure is reduced.

Projects, which are a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product or service, contrast with processes, which are permanent or semi-permanent functional work to create the same product or service over-and-over again. The management of these two systems is often very different.

Projects, typically, are various types of public or consumer products, including buildings, vehicles, electronic devices, computer software, etc.

Contents

Project Management activities

Project Management is composed of several different types of activities such as:

  1. Planning the work or objectives
  2. Analysis & Design of objectives
  3. Assessing and mitigating risk
  4. Estimating resources
  5. Allocation of resources
  6. Organizing the work
  7. Acquiring human and material resources
  8. Assigning tasks
  9. Directing activities
  10. Controlling project execution
  11. Tracking and Reporting progress
  12. Analyzing the results based on the facts achieved

Project control variables

Project Management tries to gain control over four variables:
time
The amount of time required to complete the project. Typically broken down for analytical purposes into the time required to complete the components of the project, which is then further broken down into the time required to complete each task contributing to the completion of each component.
cost
Cost to develop a project depends on several variables including (chiefly)
scope
Requirements specified for the end result. The overall definition of what the project is supposed to accomplish, and a specific description of what the end result should be or accomplish. A major component of scope is the quality of the final product. The amount of time put into individual tasks determines the overall quality of the project. Some tasks may require a given amount of time to complete adequately, but given more time could be completed exceptionally. Over the course of a large project, quality can have a significant impact on time and cost (or vice versa).
risk
Potential points of failure. Most risks or potential failures can be overcome or resolved, given enough time and resources. According to some definitions risk can also be negative, meaning that there is an opportunity to e.g. complete the project faster than expected.
Customers (either internal or external project sponsors) dictate the extent of three variables: time, cost, and scope. The remaining variable (risk) is set by project management, ideally based on solid estimation techniques. Through a negotiation process among project stakeholders, an agreement defines the final objectives, in terms of time, cost, scope, and risk, usually in the form of a charter or contract.

To properly control these variables a good project manager has a depth of knowledge and experience in these four areas (time, cost, scope, and risk), and in five other areas as well: integration, communication, human resources, quality, and procurement.

History of Project Management

As a discipline, Project Management developed from several different fields of application, including construction, mechanical engineering, military projects, etc. In the United States, the forefather of project management is Henry Gantt, called the father of planning and control techniques, who is famously known for his use of the "bar" chart as a project management tool, as an associate of Frederick Winslow Taylor's theories of scientific management, and for his study of the work and management of Navy ship building. His work is the forerunner to many modern project managment tools, including the work breakdown structure (WBS) and resource allocation.

The 1950's mark the beginning of the modern project management era. Again, in the United States, prior to the 1950's, projects were managed on an ad hoc basis using mostly Gantt Charts, and informal techniques and tools. At that time, two mathematical project scheduling models were developed: (1) the "Program Evaluation and Review Technique" or PERT, developed as part of the United States Navy's (in conjuction with the Lockheed Corporation) Polaris missile submarine program; and (2) the "Critical Path Method" (CPM) developed in a joint venture by both DuPont Corporation and Remington Rand Corporation for managing plant maintenance projects. These mathematical techniques quickly spread into many private enterprises.

In 1969, the Project Management Institute (PMI) was formed to serve the interest of the project management industry. The premise of PMI is that the tools and techniques of project management are common even among the widespread application of projects from the software industry to the construction industry. In 1981, the PMI Board of Directors authorized the development of what has become the Project Management Body of Knowledge, containing the standards and guidelines of practice that are widely used throughout the profession.

Approaches

There are several approaches that can be taken to managing project activities including agile, iterative, incremental, and phased approaches.

Regardless of the approach employed, careful consideration needs to be given to clarify surrounding project objectives, goals, and importantly, the roles and responsibilities of all participants and stakeholders.

The traditional approach

A traditional phased approach identifies a sequence of steps to be completed. In the traditional approach, we can distinguish 5 components of a project (4 stages plus control) in the development of a project:

  1. project initiation stage;
  2. project planning and design stage;
  3. project production or execution stage;
  4. project completion stage;
  5. project monitoring or controlling systems.
Not all projects will visit every stage as projects can be terminated before they reach completion. Some projects probably don't have the planning and/or the monitoring. Some projects will go through steps 2, 3 and 4 multiple times.

Many industries utilize variations on these stages. For example, in bricks and mortar architectural design, projects typically progress through stages like Pre-Planning, Conceptual Design, Schematic Design, Design Development, Construction Drawings (or Contract Documents), and Construction Administration. While the names may differ from industry to industry, the actual stages typically follow common steps to problem solving--defining the problem, weighing options, choosing a path, implementation and evaluation.

Critical chain

Critical chain is an extension to the traditional critical path method.

In critical studies of project management, it has been noted that several of these fundamentally PERT-based models are not well suited for the multi-project company environment of today. Most of them are aimed at very large-scale, one-time, non-routine projects, and nowadays all kinds of management are expressed in terms of projects. Using complex models for "projects" (or rather "tasks") spanning a few weeks has been proven to cause unnecessary costs and low maneuverability in several cases. Instead, project management experts try to identify different "lightweight" models, such as, for example Extreme Programming for software development and Scrum techniques. The generalization of Extreme Programming to other kinds of projects is extreme project management, which may be used in combination with the process modeling and management principles of human interaction management.

Process-based (agile) management

Also furthering the concept of project control is the incorporation of process-based management. This area has been driven by the use of Maturity models such as the CMMI (Capability Maturity Model Integration) and ISO/IEC15504 (SPICE - Software Process Improvement and Capability dEtermination), which have been far more successful.

Agile project management approaches based on the principles of human interaction management are founded on a process view of human collaboration. This contrasts sharply with traditional approach. In the agile software development or flexible product development approach, the project is seen as a series of relatively small tasks conceived and executed as the situation demands in an adaptive manner, rather than as a completely pre-planned process.

Project systems

As mentioned above, traditionally, project development includes five elements: control systems and four stages.

Project control systems

Project monitoring and controlling begins with planning and ends with the post-implementation review, having a thorough involvement of each step in the process. Each project should be assessed for the appropriate level of control needed, too much control is too time consuming, too little control is too costly. Clarifying the cost to the business if the control is not implemented in terms of errors, fixes, and additional audit fees.

Control systems are needed for cost, risk, quality, communication, time, change, procurement, and human resources. In addition, auditors should consider how important the projects are to the financial statements, how reliant the stakeholders are on controls, and how many controls exist. Auditors should review the development process and procedures how they are implemented. The process of development and the quality of the final product may also be assessed if needed or requested. A business may want the auditing firm to be involved throughout the process to catch problems earlier on so that they can be fixed more easily. An auditor can serve as a controls consultant as part of the development team or as an independent auditor as part of an audit.

Businesses sometimes use formal systems development processes. These help assure that systems are developed successfully. A formal process is more effective in creating strong controls, and auditors should review this process to confirm that it is well designed and is followed in practice. A good formal systems development plan outlines:

Project development stages

Regardless of the methodology used, the project development process will have the same major stages: initiation, development, production or execution, and closing/maintenance.

Initiation

The initiation phase determines the nature and scope of the development. If this stage is not performed well, it is unlikely that the project will be successful in meeting the business’s needs. The key project controls needed here is an understanding of the business environment and making sure that all necessary controls are incorporated into the project. Any deficiencies should be reported and a recommendation should be made to fix them.

The initiation stage should include a cohesive plan that encompasses the following areas:

Planning and design

After the initiation stage, the system is designed, occasionally a small prototype of the final product is built and tested. Testing is generally performed by a combination of testers and end users, and can occur after the prototype is built or concurrently. Controls should be in place that ensures that the final product will meet the specifications of the project charter. The results of the design stage should include:

Production or execution

The execution stage includes the actual implementation of the design or plan. In software systems, this includes conversion (transfer of data from an old system to a new system), documentation, and training. From an auditor's perspective, training is also important because it helps users use the software correctly.

Closing and Maintenance

Closing includes the formal acceptance of the project and the ending thereof. Administrative activities include the archiving of the files and documenting lessons learned.

Maintenance is an ongoing process, and it includes:

In this stage, auditors should pay attention to how effectively and quickly user problems are resolved.

Project management and professional certification

There have been several attempts to develop project management standards, such as: See also: [An exhaustive list of standards (maturity models)]

So far, there is no known attempt to develop a project management standard available under the GNU Free Documentation License. There was a proposed [Project Management XML Schema].

There is an effort by PMI to develop The Practice Standard for Scheduling. (This document is currently (May 2006) in exposure draft, which is near the end of the standards development process.)

Case Studies

Salvage of the Port of Massawa, Eritrea, 1942
The port was a chaotic mess. Access had been blocked with scuttled ships and port facilities had been wrecked. Captain Edward Ellsberg, a US Navy salvage expert, rapidly salvaged scuttled ships for service in the Allied merchant fleets. He also salvaged a large floating dry dock and returned port shops and facilities to operation. Ellsberg had very limited resources. Ellsberg's efforts show that a project oriented expert can accomplish a nearly insurmountable task. Interestingly, Ellsberg had virtually no support staff and few skilled workers. He planned and managed the entire project by himself. Ellsberg, an accomplished author, documented this case in Under the Red Sea Sun (New York
Operation Mincemeat, 1943
A highly successful deception operation which confused the German High Command about Allied intentions in the Mediterranean. British Intelligence created a "Major William Martin" by dressing and outfitting a dead body so that it would look like the victim of a plane crash into the ocean. They launched the body from a submarine so that it floated ashore in Spain. The Germans were allowed to examine Major Martin and his effects. They believed the body and the secret documents found with it to be authentic and made troop deployments accordingly. Ewen Montagu, the officer in charge, wrote a book describing Operation Mincemeat called, The Man Who Never Was (Philadelphia
The Great Escape, 1944
The escape from Stalag Luft III in 1944 is documented in The Great Escape (New York

See also

Literature

External links

 

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.

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