What is a Project?

The PMBOK® organized in two major ways:

1. Project Management Framework

• Project Management Context
• Project Management Processes

2. Project Management Knowledge Areas

• Project Integration Management
• Project Scope Management
• Project Time Management
• Project Cost Management
• Project Quality Management
• Project Human Resource Management
• Project Communications Management
• Project Risk Management
• Project Procurement Management

Program – a group of projects managed in a coordinated way to obtain benefits not available from managing them individually.

• Project Phases (collectively are known as project lifecycle)

1. Each phase marked by completion of one or more deliverables.
2. Phase end review to determine if should continue to next phase and to detect and correct errors = phase exits, stage gates, kill points.

• Project Life Cycle

1. Defines beginning and end of project
2. Phase sequences generally involve technology transfer or handoff
3. Fast tracking – practice of overlapping phases
4. Defines what technical work should be done in each phase
5. Defines who should be involved in each phase

2. Project Stakeholders

• Project Manager
• Customer
• Performing organization
• Sponsor

3. Organizational Influences

• Organizational Systems

1. Project-based organizations – derive revenue primarily by performing projects for others (architects, engineering firms, consultants, contractors)
2. Organizations that have adopted "management by projects" – Treats many aspects of ongoing ops as projects.
3. Non-project based organizations – manufacturers, financial services firms. Seldom have systems designed to support project needs effectively. Sometimes have departments or subunits that operate as project-based orgs with systems to match.

• Organizational Cultures and Style
• Organizational Structure – spectrum from functional to projectized

1. Functional Organization – Hierarchy where individual has one clear superior. Staff grouped by specialty. Projects perceived as within boundaries of specialty
2. Projectized Organization – Team members often collocated. Most resources involved in project work, PMs have independence and authority. Departments often report to PMs and provide services to various projects
3. Matrix Organization -

• Weak Matrix – PM role more of coordinator, expediter. Not full time
• Strong Matrix – PM role full time, authority
• Key General Management Skills – essential for PMs

1. Leading
2. Communicating
3. Negotiating
4. Problem solving
5. Influencing the organization

• Socioeconomic Influences

1. Standards & Regulations
2. Internationalization
3. Cultural influences

Project Management Processes

1. Project Processes

• Process – A series of actions bringing about a result
• Project Management Processes – concerned with describing and organizing the work of the project
• Product-oriented processes – concerned with specifying and creating the project product. Typically defined by the product life cycle and vary by application area

2. Process Groups

• Initiating – recognizing that a project or phase should begin and committing to doing so
• Planning – devising and maintaining a workable scheme to accomplish the business need that the project was undertaken to address
• Executing – Coordinating people and other resources to carry out plan
• Controlling – ensuring project objectives are met by monitoring and measuring progress and taking corrective action when necessary
• Closing – formalizing acceptance of the project or phase and bring it to an orderly end
• Process groups linked by results they produce. Output of one becomes input to another
• Links are iterative
• Process groups are not discrete one-time events. Overlap and occur at varying levels of intensity throughout each phase of project
• Rolling Wave Planning – progressive detailing of the project plan
  

3. Process Interactions

• Within each process group, individual processes are linked by their inputs and outputs
• Input – documents or document able items that were acted upon
• Tools & Techniques – mechanisms applied to the inputs to create the outputs
• Outputs – documents or document able item that are a result of the process
• Initiating Processes – Committing the organization to begin the next phase of the project

• Planning Processes – Core processes may be iterated several times during any one phase of the project

• Scope Planning – Developing a written scope statement as the basis for future project decisions
• Scope Definition – Subdividing the major project deliverables into smaller, more manageable components
• Activity Definition – Identifying specific activities that must be performed to produce project deliverables
• Activity Sequencing – Identifying and documenting interactivity dependencies
• Activity Duration Estimating – Estimating the number of work periods which will be needed to complete individual activities
• Schedule Development – analyzing activity sequences, activity durations and resource requirements to create project schedule
• Resource Planning – determining what resources (people, equipment, materials) and what quantities should be used to perform project activities.
• Cost Estimating – developing an approximation of the costs of the resources needed to complete project activities

• Cost Budgeting – allocating the overall cost estimate to individual work items
• Project Plan Development – taking results of other planning processes and putting them into a consistent, coherent document

• Facilitating Processes – performed intermittently and as needed during project planning. Not optional.

• Quality Planning – identifying which quality standards are relevant to project and determining how to satisfy them
• Organizational Planning – identifying, documenting and assigning project roles, responsibilities and reporting relationships
• Staff Acquisition – getting heads needed and assigned to project
• Communications Planning – determining the information needs of stakeholders. Who needs what, when and how to give it
• Risk identification – Determining risks and documenting characteristics of each
• Risk Quantification – Evaluating risks and risk interactions to asses the range of possible project outcomes
• Risk Response Development – defining enhancement steps for opportunities and responses to threats
• Procurement Planning
• Solicitation Planning – Documenting project requirements and identifying potential sources

• Executing Processes
• Project Plan Execution
• Scope Verification – formalizing acceptance of project scope
• Quality Assurance – evaluating project performance on regular basis to provide confidence project will satisfy relevant quality standards
• Team Development – developing individual & group skills to enhance project performance
• Information Distribution
• Solicitation – obtaining quotes, bids, offers or proposals as appropriate
• Source Selection – choosing between vendors
• Contract Administration – managing vendors
• Controlling Processes
• Overall Change Control
• Scope Change Control
• Schedule Control
• Cost Control
• Quality Control
• Performance Reporting – collecting and disseminating performance information. Includes status reports, progress measurement, forecasting
• Risk Response Control – responding to changes in risk over course of project
• Closing Processes
• Administrative Closure – generating, gathering and disseminating information to formalize phase or project completion
• Contract Closeout – Completion, resolution of contract including resolution of open items

4. Customizing Process Interactions

• Not all interactions will apply on all projects