1.1 What is a Project?
In our individual and organizational lives, we do our work in the form of tasks, assignments, and activities. Which of these can be performed as a project? In other words, where do projects fit into our work? To answer these questions, we need to define a project…
A project is a work effort made over a finite period of time with a start and a finish to create a unique product, result, or capability to offer a service. Because a project has a start and a finish, it is also called a temporary effort or endeavor. So, a project has two defining characteristics: It is temporary, and it creates a unique product….
Projects are different from standard business operational activities as they:
▪ Are unique in nature. They do not involve repetitive processes. Every project undertaken is different from the last, whereas operational activities often involve undertaking repetitive (identical) processes
▪ Have a defined timescale. Projects have a clearly specified start and end date within which the deliverables must be produced to meet a specified customer requirement
▪ Have an approved budget. Projects are allocated a level of financial expenditure within which the deliverables must be produced to meet a specified customer requirement
▪ Have limited resources. At the start of a project an agreed amount of labor, equipment and materials is allocated to the project
▪ Involve an element of risk. Projects entail a level of uncertainty and therefore carry business risk
▪ Achieve beneficial change. The purpose of a project, typically, is to improve an organization through the implementation of business change…
1.2 What is Project Management?
The practice of managing projects is called project management. To be more specific, project management is the usage of knowledge, skills, and tools to manage a project from start to finish with the goal of meeting the project requirements. Project management is not a fashion or a belief system;…
1.3 Project Lifecycle
From authorization to completion, a project goes through a whole lifecycle or lifetime that includes defining the project objectives, Planning the work to achieve those objectives, performing the work, monitoring and controlling various aspects of the project (such as the progress), and closing the project after receiving product acceptance.
The different stages of the project life are shown in Figure 1.1, where the arrows indicate the flow of information.
For example, an arrow from planning to executing means the project is executed as it is planned. The back-and forth arrows between executing and monitoring and controlling mean that both stages can use info from each other—that is, they can overlap.
constraints, a summary of the milestone schedule, and a business case for the project. The processes used to perform this stage fall into a group called the initiating process group…
1.4 Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK)
As you must have figured out by now, managing projects is applying management knowledge and skills to project activities at the right time during the project time in order to meet the project objectives.
It boils down to performing some processes at various stages of the project discussed in the previous section. This also means processes are part of the knowledge required to manage projects.
Each aspect of a project is managed by using the corresponding knowledge area. For example, each project has a scope that need to be managed, and the knowledge required to manage scope is in the knowledge area called project scope management.