Essential Management Skills

1. Introduction Welcome! Welcome to “Basics of Project Management”! This course provides a practical approach to what many consider a complex process: the management of projects. This course is designed to simplify the management processes required to manage a project successfully from start to end. It defines Project Management in simple terms and provides you with all of the tools required to make your project a success.

What is a Project? A project is “a unique endeavor to produce a set of deliverables within clearly specified time, cost and qualityconstraints”. Projects are different from standard business operational activities as they: 

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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.

What is Project Management?

“Project Management is the skills, tools and management processes required to undertake a project successfully”. Project Management comprises: 1. A set of skills. Specialist knowledge, skills and experience are required to reduce the level of risk within a project and thereby enhance its likelihood of success. 2. A suite of tools. Various types of tools are used by project managers to improve their chances of success. Examples include document templates, registers, planning software, modeling software, audit checklists and review forms. 3. A series of processes. Various management techniques and processes are required to monitor and control time, cost, quality and scope on projects. Examples include time management, cost management, quality management, change management, risk management and issue management.

2. Project Lifecycle A standard project typically has four major phases. Taken together, these phases represent the path a project takes from the beginning to its end and are generally referred to as the project “life cycle.”. The following diagram outlines the four phases of the Project life-cycle: 1. Initiation Phase The first phase in the project is the Initiation Phase. In this phase a business problem (or opportunity) is identified and a business case which provides various solution options is defined. A feasibility study investigates the likelihood of each solution option and a final recommended solution is put forward. Once the recommended solution is approved, a project is initiated to deliver the approved solution. The Project Manager begins setting up a project team and a project office. 2. Planning Phase Once the scope of the project has been defined, the project enters the detailed planning phase. This involves the creation of a Project Plan (outlining the activities, tasks, dependencies and timeframes), a Resource Plan (listing the labor, equipment and materials required), a Financial Plan (identifying the labor, equipment and materials

costs), Quality & Risk Analyses, and a Communication Plan. At this point the project has been planned in detail and is ready to be executed. 3. Execution Phase This phase involves the execution of each activity and task listed in the Project Plan. While the activities and tasks are being executed, a series of management processes are undertaken to monitor and control the deliverables being output by the project. Once all of the deliverables have been produced and the customer has accepted the final solution, the project is ready for closure. 4. Closure Phase Project Closure involves releasing the final deliverables to the customer, handing over project documentation, terminating supplier contracts, releasing project resources and communicating the closure of the project to all stakeholders. The last remaining step is to undertake a review to quantify the overall success of the project. The following sections provide a more detailed description of each phase and list tools which provide the Project Manager with guidance on how to complete each phase successfully.

3. The Initiation Phase The Initiation Phase essentially involves the project ‘start-up’. It is the phase within which the business problem or opportunity is identified, the solution is agreed, a project formed and a project team appointed.

Business Case & Feasibility Once a business problem or opportunity has been identified, a Business Case is prepared. This includes a detailed definition of the problem or opportunity and an analysis of the potential solution options available. For each option, the potential benefits, costs, risks and issues are documented. The Business Case also includes the recommended solution and a generic implementation plan. The Business Case is approved by the Project Sponsor and the required funding is allocated to proceed with the project. At any stage during (or after) the development of a Business Case, a formal Feasibility Study may be commissioned. The purpose is to

assess the likelihood of a particular solution option’s achieving the benefits outlined in the Business Case. The Feasibility Study will also investigate whether the forecast costs are reasonable, the solution is achievable, the risks are acceptable and/or any likely issues are avoidable. After the solution has been agreed and funding allocated, a project is formed. The Terms of Reference defines the vision, objectives, scope and deliverables for the project. It also provides the organization structure (roles and responsibilities) and a summarized plan of the activities, resources and funding required to undertake the project. Finally, any risks, issues, planning assumptions and constraints are listed.

Team & Office At this point the scope of the project has been defined in detail and the Project Team is ready to be appointed. Although a Project Manager can be appointed at any stage of the project, he/she will need to be appointed prior to the establishment of the project team. The Project Manager documents a detailed Job Description for each project role and appoints a human resource to each role based on his/her relevant skills and experience. Once the team are ‘fully resourced’, the Project Office is ready to be set-up. The Project Office is the physical environment within which the team will be based. Although it is usual to have one central project office, it is possible to have a ‘virtual project office’ environment, with project team members in various locations around the world. Regardless of the location, a successful project office environment will comprise the following components:    

Location (either physical or virtual) Communications (telephones, computer network, file storage, database storage) Documentation (methodology, processes, forms and registers) Tools (for accounting, project planning and risk modeling).

4. The Planning Phase

By reaching the Planning Phase, the benefits as well as the costs of the project have been clearly documented and the scope has been defined. It is now time to undertake detailed planning to ensure that the activities performed in the execution phase of the project are properly sequenced, resourced, executed and controlled

Project Plan & Resources The first step is to document the Project Plan. In most cases a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is identified, which includes a hierarchical set of phases, activities and tasks to be undertaken on the project:

After the WBS has been agreed, an assessment of the effort required to undertake the activities and tasks is made. The activities and tasks are sequenced, resources are allocated and a detailed project schedule is formed. This project schedule will become the primary tool for the Project Manager to assess the progress of the project. Immediately after the Project Plan is formed, it is necessary to develop a Resource Plan to allocate the resources required to undertake each of the activities and tasks within the Project Plan. Although general groups of resources may have already been allocated to the Project Plan, a detailed resource assessment is required to identify the:

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Types of resources (labor, equipment and materials) Total quantities of each resource type Roles, responsibilities and skill-sets of all human resources Items, purposes and specifications of all equipment resource Items and quantities of material resource.

Similar to the Resource Plan, a Financial Plan is prepared to identify the quantity of money required for each stage in the project. The total cost of labor, equipment and materials is quantified and an expense schedule is defined which provides the Project Manager with an understanding of the forecast spending vs. the actual spending throughout the project. Preparing a detailed Financial Plan is extremely important as the project’s success will depend on whether or not it is delivered within the ‘time, cost and quality’ estimates for this project.

Quality & Risk Meeting the quality expectations of the customer is critical to the success of the project. To ensure that the quality expectations are clearly defined and can reasonably be achieved, a Quality Plan is documented. The Quality Plan defines what quality means in terms of this project, lists clear quality targets for each deliverable, and identifies the techniques used to control the actual level of quality. Finally, it is important to review the quality not only of the deliverables produced by the project but also of the management processes which produce them. A summary of each of the management processes undertaken during the execution phase is identified, including Time, Cost, Quality, Change, Risk, Issue, Procurement, Acceptance and Communications Management. The foreseeable project risks are then documented within a Risk Plan and a set of actions to be taken formulated to both prevent each risk from occurring and reduce the impact of the risk should it eventuate. Developing a clear Risk Plan is an important activity within the planning phase as it is necessary to mitigate all critical project risks prior to entering the Execution Phase of the project.

Communication

Prior to the Execution phase, it is necessary to identify how each of the stakeholders will be kept informed of the progress of the project. The Communications Plan identifies the types of information to be distributed, the methods of distributing information to stakeholders, the frequency of distribution and responsibilities of each person in the project team for distributing information regularly to stakeholders. The last planning activity within the Planning phase is to identify the elements of the Project which will be acquired from external suppliers to the project. The Procurement Plan provides a detailed description of the Products (i.e. goods and services) to be procured from suppliers, the justiication for procuring each product externally, as opposed to from within the business, and the schedule for procurement. It also references the process for the selection of a preferred supplier (“Tender Process”) and the process for the actual order and delivery of the procured products (“Procurement Process”). At the end of the Planning phase, a Phase Review is performed. This is basically a checkpoint to ensure that the project has achieved its stated objectives as planned.

5. The Execution Phase The Execution Phase is typically the longest phase of the project (in terms of duration). It is the phase within which the deliverables are constructed and presented to the customer for acceptance. The Project Manager monitors and controls the activities, resources and expenditure required to build each deliverable.

Build Deliverables This phase requires the physical construction of each deliverable for acceptance by the customer. The actual activities undertaken to construct each deliverable will vary, depending on the type of project (e.g. engineering, building development, computer infrastructure or business process re-engineering projects). Deliverables may be constructed in

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a waterfall fashion (where each activity is undertaken in sequence until the deliverable is inished) or an iterative fashion (where iterations of each deliverable are constructed until the deliverable meets the requirements of the customer).

Regardless of the method used to construct each deliverable, careful monitoring and control processes should be employed to ensure that the quality of the final deliverable meets the acceptance criteria set by the customer.

Monitor and Control Whilst the Project Team are physically producing each deliverable, the Project Manager implements a series of management processes to monitor and control the activities being undertaken. An overview of each management process follows: 

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Time Management is the process within which time spent by staff undertaking project tasks is recorded against the project. As time is a scarce resource on projects, it is important to record the time spent by each member of the team on a Timesheet to enable the Project Manager to control the level of resource allocated to a particular activity. Cost Management is the process by which costs (or expenses) incurred on the project are formally identified, approved and paid. Expense Forms are completed for each set of related project expenses such as labor, equipment and materials costs. Quality Management is the process by which the quality of the deliverables is assured and controlled for the project, using Quality Assurance and Quality Control techniques. Quality reviews are frequently undertaken. Change Management is the process by which changes to the project’s scope, deliverables, timescales or resources are formally defined, evaluated and approved prior to implementation. A core aspect of the Project Manager’s role is to manage change within the project successfully. This is achieved by understanding the business and system drivers requiring the change, documenting the benefits and costs of

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adopting the change and formulating a structured plan for implementing the change. Risk Management is the process by which risks to the project (e.g. to the scope, deliverables, timescales or resources) are identified, quantified and managed at any time during the project. Procurement Management is the process by which a product is sourced from an external supplier. To request the delivery of product from a supplier, a Purchase Order must be approved by the Project Manager and sent to the supplier for confirmation. Communications Management is the process by which formal communications messages are identified, created, reviewed and communicated within a project. The most common method of communicating the status of the project is via a Project Status Report.

At the end of the Execution Phase, a Phase Review is performed. This is basically a checkpoint to ensure that the project has achieved its stated objectives as planned.

6. The Closure Phase Following the completion of all project deliverables and acceptance by the customer, a successful project will have met its objectives and be ready for formal closure. Project Closure is the last phase in the project and must be conducted formally so that the business benefits delivered by the project are fully realized by the customer.

Project Closure Project Closure involves undertaking a series of activities to wind up the project, including:   

Assessing whether the project completion criteria have been met Identifying any outstanding items (activities, risks or issues) Producing a hand-over plan to transfer the deliverables to the customer environment

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Communicating closure to all stakeholders and interested parties.

A Project Closure Report is submitted to the Customer and/or Project Sponsor for approval. The Project Manager is then responsible for undertaking each of the activities identified within the Project Closure Report on time and according to budget. The project is closed only when all activities identified in the Project Closure Report have been completed.

Completion Review The final activity undertaken on any project is a review of its overall success by an independent resource. Success is determined by how well it performed against the defined objectives and conformed to the management processes outlined in the planning phase. To determine performance a number of questions are posed. For example:     

Did it result in the benefits defined in the Business Case? Did it achieve the objectives outlined in the Terms of Reference? Did the deliverables meet the criteria defined in the Quality Plan? Was it delivered within the schedule outlined in the Project Plan? Was it delivered within the budget outlined in the Financial Plan?

To determine conformance, a review is undertaken of the level of conformity of the project activities to the management processes outlined in the Quality Plan. The above results, key achievements and lessons learnt are documented within a Post Implementation Review report and presented to the Project Sponsor for approval.

7. Successful Managing To manage complex projects successfully, it is important that you understand the different Project Management Roles along with their

responsibilities as well as the famous “Project Management Triangle” and the derived “Triple Constraint”:

PM Roles Irrespective of how the organization is structured, there are certain roles and responsibilities that are required in all projects. Different organizations may use different names for these roles but the responsibilities of each one will be the same. 1. The Project Stakeholders

Stakeholders are individuals and organizations that are actively involved in the project, or whose interests may be positively or negatively affected by execution of the project. They may also exert influence over the project and its deliverables. The project management team must identify the stakeholders, determine their requirements and expectations, and manage their influence in relation to the requirements to ensure a successful project. 2. The Project Sponsor

The project sponsor is responsible for securing the financing and overall resource budget approval and owns the opportunities and risks related to the financial outcome of the project. An effective sponsor will be someone with the authority and personal drive to overcome major obstacles to completing the project. The role of the project sponsor is to approve and fund the project, but not to get involved in day-to-day management. 3. The Project Manager

The project manager is the person assigned by the performing organization to achieve the project objectives. The project manager has the authority to use cash and other resources up to the limit set in the project charter. A project manager should have experience in the project domain and should also be familiar with the processes that make up project management.

PM Triangle

The Project Management Triangle (PM Triangle) is used by managers to analyze or understand the difficulties that may arise due to implementing and executing a project. All projects irrespective of their size will have many constraints. There are three main interdependent constraints for every project: time, cost and scope. This is also known as Project Management Triangle.

1. Time A project’s activities can either take shorter or longer amount of time to complete. Completion of tasks depends on a number of factors such as the number of people working on the project, experience, skills, etc. Time is a crucial factor which is uncontrollable. On the other hand, failure to meet the deadlines in a project can create adverse effects. Most often, the main reason for organizations to fail in terms of time is due to lack of resources. 2. Cost It’s imperative for both the project manager and the organization to have an estimated cost when undertaking a project. Budgets will ensure that project is developed or implemented below a certain cost. Sometimes, project managers have to allocate additional resources in order to meet the deadlines with a penalty of additional project costs. 3. Scope Scope looks at the outcome of the project undertaken. This consists of a list of deliverables, which need to be addressed by the project team. A successful project manager will know to manage both the scope of the project and any change in scope which impacts time and cost.

Quality? Quality is not a part of the project management triangle, but it is the ultimate objective of every delivery. Hence, the project management triangle implies quality. Many project managers are under the notion that ‘high quality comes with high cost’, which to some extent is true. By using low quality resources to accomplish project deadlines does not ensure success of the overall project. Like with the scope, quality will also be an important deliverable for the project. The major take-away from the Triple Constraint, being that it is a triangle, is that one cannot adjust or alter one side of it without in effect, altering the other sides. So for example, if there is a request for a scope change mid-way through the execution of the project, the other two attribues (cost and time) will be affected in some manner. How much or how little is dictated by the nature and complexity of the scope change. As an added example, if the schedule appears to be tight and the project manager determines that the scoped requirements cannot be accomplished within the allotted time, both cost AND time are affected.

PM Triple Constraint Example: “Pick Two” To provide an easy example, we change the dimensions of the triangle into the options of Fast, Good, and Cheap, and tell to pick any two. Here Fast refers to the time required to deliver the product, Good is the quality of the final product, and Cheap refers to the total cost of designing and building the product.

This triangle reflects the fact that the three properties of a project are interrelated, and it is not possible to optimize all three – one will always suffer. In other words you have three options: 1. Design something quickly and to a high standard, but then it will not be cheap. 2. Design something quickly and cheaply, but it will not be of high quality. 3. Design something with high quality and cheaply, but it will take a relatively long time.

What to learn from the PM Triangle? As the project manager, making sure that you stay on top of all the key attributes of the triple constraint will make the likelihood of project success that much higher. So be cognizant of any fluctuations to the key attributes, whether they be unexpected or requested. Never assume that other attributes can be left un-changed if one attribute is known to be changing or fluctuating. As noted earlier, one cannot simply dismiss

a change to one without being fully aware of the fact that it WILL affect the other two. The Triple Constraint is one of the most well known and well respected mechanisms for signifying the interaction of the key attributes of a project. Being fully aware of its function and implications is an important aspect of the project manager’s role and responsibility. The triple constraint is meant to be an asset to the project manager’s arsenal and should not be viewed as a hindrance.

8. Conclusion Project management in its simplest form of understanding is all about planning. Proper planning can be somewhat complicated, and to do it well requires delving into what needs to be done from the very beginning. Although the practice of project management has been around for centuries, scholars and project management professionals are still studying how to make project management better. The value of face-toface interaction does not deteriorate, even with the deployment of virtual project management teams. Projects require leaders who are trained in both business and technology and have teams with qualified project management professionals when possible. There are various preferences and cultural values that weigh different communication techniques and interpersonal skills differently. Perceptions of communication techniques will have an impact on the end user and the end result of the project, so it is important to clarify preferences at the beginning.

QUIZ: 1. 1. Question Which statement is not true for defining a project? o

Projects are unique in nature.

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Projects have a defined timescale.

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Projects involve repetitive processes.

Projects have limited resources. Incorrect 2. 2. Question What is the first phase of the project life-cycle? o

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Kick-Off-Phase

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Planning Phase

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Starting Phase

Initiation Phase Correct 3. 3. Question Which of the following steps is part of the Execution Phase? o

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Developing a Project Plan.

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Building Deliverables.

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Conducting Quality and Risk Analyses.

Appointing the Project Team. Correct 4. 4. Question What does “WBS” stand for? (Hint: Chapter 4 – The Planning Phase) o

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Work Breakdown Structure

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Work Balance System

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Work Breakdown Software

Work Balance Schedule Correct 5. 5. Question What is typically the longest phase of the project (in terms of duration)? o

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Initiation Phase

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Planning Phase

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Execution Phase

Closure Phase Correct 6. 6. Question Which of the following steps is not part of the Planning Phase? o

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Project Plan

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Feasibility Study

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Resource Plan

Financial Plan Correct 7. 7. Question Complete the following sentence: “Cost Management is…” o

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… the process by which time spent by staff undertaking project tasks is measured in money.

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… the process by which benefits incurred on the project are set off against the costs.

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… the process by which the project management team minimizes overall expenses.

… the process by which costs (or expenses) incurred on the project are formally identified, approved and paid. Correct 8. 8. Question Which processes can be used to monitor and control project management activities? o

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Time Management

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Quality Management

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Risk Management

All three answer options are correct. Correct 9. 9. Question Who is responsible for securing the financing and overall resource budget approval of the project? o

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The Project Manager

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The Project Stakeholders

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The Project Accountant

The Project Sponsor Correct 10. 10. Question What are the three parts of the Project Management Triangle? o

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Benefits, Costs, and Risks

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Time, Cost, and Scope

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Unfreeze, Move, and Refreeze

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Monitoring, Controlling, and Evaluating Correct