Project Management#
Basics#
project management provides control of financial, physical, and human resources
lowers costs with shorter development time, but produces higher quality, and increased
reliability with higher profit margins * improves customer relations, and productivity with better internal coordination * knowledge, skills, and tools are applied to project activities to meet project requirements * Initiate -> Plan -> Execute -> Monitor & Control -> Close
Project#
a temporary attempt to create a unique product, service, or result
has a start time and end time, and operations work is done to sustain the business
project ends when objectives are reached, or it has been terminated
- Attributes
temporary, but has a unique purpose
compel changes and enable value creation, but involve uncertainty
developed with progressive elaboration or iterative
need a primary customer or project sponsor to provide the direction and funding
- Constraints
some project managers focus on the triple constraint
Scope: work to do as part of the project, a unique product, service, or result
expected from customer - Time: timeline of the project and how long it should take to complete - Cost: project’s budget, and resources needed - Quality, Risk, Resources
- Stakeholders
people involved or affected by project activities
e.g. sponsor, project manager and team, support staff, customers, suppliers, and
opponents
Project Management Knowledge Areas#
Integration Management
Time Management
Scope Management
Cost Management
Quality Management
Resource Management
Risk Management
Procurement Management
Communications Management
Stakeholder Management
Team Management#
Team Performance Plan#
team leaders require planning, organising, training, communication, consultation, and
conflict resolution skills * a team needs to have appropriate skills, defined purpose, common approach, and joint accountability * Functional Team: report to a single point, and may or may not have to work together to meet group goals * Cross-functional Team: members from different functions working for the team and other functional duties * can conduct meetings, interviews, brainstorming sessions, and email communication methods for feedback and consultation * Team Charter
document of purpose and structure of group or organisation, made in negotiation with
a team sponsor, leader and relevant members - establish when a team is formed, or is in trouble to see the big picture - a general format includes context, mission and objectives, composition and roles, support framework
performance plan contains KPIs, goals and actions required, schedule for each goal, and
methods to monitor, evaluate and reward performance * define expectations, determine milestones to assist in monitoring progress, and agree on a set of terms * KPIs
collaborate with stakeholders when developing KPIs, concise KPIs are less likely to
be misunderstood - need to be SMART: Specific, Measureable, Attainable, Realistic and Time-framed
provide encouragement when poor performance, and praise for exemplary behaviour
- Performance Deficiency
do not let a performance problem become bigger or affect other areas
gather information, meet with relevant team member, develop and improvement plan,
and monitor the performance - Performance Improvement Plan contains area to improve, actions to be taken, necessary support, follow-up by team leader, deadline for improvement, and assessment for improvement