What is Project Management?

To answer the question What is Project Management?, let us first understand

the project management definition. “A project is a temporary endeavour
undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result.” The project
management definition may also be given as, “the application of knowledge,
skills, tools and techniques to project activities to bring about successful
results and meet the project requirements.”

It is the responsibility of the project manager to ensure that project

management techniques are applied and followed. Project managers must not
only strive to meet specific scope, time, cost, and quality requirements of
projects, they must also facilitate the entire process to meet the needs and
expectations of the people involved in or affected by project activities. Project
management is a process that includes initiating a new project, planning,
putting the project plan into action, and measuring progress and performance.
It involves identifying the project requirements, establishing project objectives,
balancing constraints, and taking the needs and expectations of the key
stakeholders into consideration. Planning is one of the most important
functions you’ll perform during the course of a project. It sets the standard for
the remainder of the project’s life and is used to track future project
performance.

Managing a project typically includes, but is not limited to:

 Identifying requirements;
 Addressing the various needs, concerns, and expectations of the stakeholders in
planning and executing the project.
 Setting up, maintaining, and carrying out communications among stakeholders
that are active, effective, and collaborative in nature.
 Managing stakeholders towards meeting project requirements and creating
project deliverables.
Balancing the competing project constraints, which include, but are not limited
to:

 Time.
 Scope.
 Quality.
 Schedule.
 Budget.
 Resources.
 Risks.

Project Management Definition and Fundamental

Concepts
Consider the following scenario:

You work for a wireless phone provider and the VP of marketing approaches
you with a fabulous idea—“fabulous” because he’s the big boss and because
he thought it up. He wants to set up kiosks in local grocery and big-box stores
as mini-offices. These offices will offer customers the ability to sign up for new
wireless phone services, make their wireless phone bill payments, and
purchase equipment and accessories. He believes that the exposure in grocery
stores will increase awareness of the company’s offerings.

After all, everyone has to eat, right? He told you that the board of directors
has already cleared the project, and he’ll dedicate as many resources to this as
he can. He wants the new kiosks in place in 12 stores by the end of this year.
The best news is he has assigned you to head up this project. Your first
question should be “Is it a project?”

The temporary nature of projects indicates that a project has a definite

beginning and end. The end is reached when the project’s objectives have
been achieved or when the project is terminated because its objectives will not
or cannot be met, or when the need for the project no longer exists. A project
may also be terminated if the client (customer, sponsor, or champion) wishes
to terminate the project. Temporary does not necessarily mean the duration of
the project is short. It refers to the project’s engagement and its longevity.
Temporary does not typically apply to the product, service, or result created by
the project; most projects are undertaken to create a lasting outcome. For
example, a project to build a national monument will create a result expected
to last for centuries.

Every project creates a unique product, service, or result. The outcome of the
project may be tangible or intangible. Although repetitive elements may be
present in some project deliverables and activities, this repetition does not
change the fundamental, unique characteristics of the project work. For
example, office buildings can be constructed with the same or similar materials
 and by the same or different teams. However, each building project remains
unique with a different location, different design, different circumstances and
situations, different stakeholders, and so on.

Project Management - Understanding through Examples of

Projects:
Projects can be large or small and involve one person or thousands of people.
They can be done in one day or take years to complete. Examples of projects
include the following:

 A young couple hires a firm to design and build them a new house.
 A retail store manager works with employees to display a new clothing line.
 A college campus upgrades its technology infrastructure to provide wireless
Internet access.
 A construction company designs and constructs a new office building for a
client.
 A school implements new government standards for tracking student
achievement.
 A pharmaceutical company launches a new drug
 A television network develops a system to allow viewers to vote for contestants
and provide other feedback on programs.
 The auto-mobile industry develops standards to streamline procurement.
 Project Attributes
As you can see, projects come in all shapes and sizes. The following attributes
help to define a project further:

 A project has a unique purpose. Every project should have a well-defined

objective. For example, many people hire firms to design and build a new house,
but each house, like each person, is unique.
 A project is temporary. A project has a definite beginning and a definite end. For
a home construction project, owners usually have a date in mind when they’d
like to move into their new home.
 A project is developed using progressive elaboration or in an iterative fashion.
Projects are often defined broadly when they begin, and as time passes, the
specific details of the project become clearer. For example, there are many
decisions that must be made in planning and building a new house. It works
best to draft preliminary plans for owners to approve before more detailed plans
are developed.
 A project requires resources, often from various areas. Resources include people,
hardware, software, or other assets. Many different types of people, skill sets, and
resources are needed to build a home.
 A project should have a primary customer or sponsor. Most projects have many
interested parties or stakeholders, but someone must take the primary role of
sponsorship. The project sponsor usually provides the direction and funding for
the project.
 A project involves uncertainty. Because every project is unique, it is sometimes
difficult to define the project’s objectives clearly, estimate exactly how long it will
take to complete, or determine how much it will cost. External factors also cause
uncertainty, such as a supplier going out of business or a project team member
needing unplanned time off. Uncertainty is one of the main reasons project
management is so challenging, because uncertainty invokes risk.
The lecture giving project management definition and explaining What is
Project Management? is taken from the lectures that students study at
AIMS' project management academy. The programs offered by AIMS
includes project management degree, online diploma in project
management and certified project managerprograms.
 Program Management and Project Portfolio
Management :

In Program Management, groups of related projects are managed using the

same techniques in a coordinated fashion. Project Portfolio Management is a
collection of programs and projects that support a specific business goal or
objective.

What is Program Management?

Let us first understand, What is Program Management? Programs are groups
of related projects that are managed using the same techniques in a
coordinated fashion. When projects are managed collectively as programs, it’s
possible to capitalize on benefits that wouldn’t be achievable if the projects
were managed separately. As you can imagine, it is often more economical to
group projects together to help streamline management, staffing, purchasing,
and other work.

Example:
The topic What is Program Management may further be elaborated with the
following example. building a new shopping mall is a program. Many sub-
projects exist underneath this program management, such as excavation,
construction, interior design, store placement, marketing, facilities
management, and so on. Each of the sub-projects is really a project unto itself.
Each sub-project has its own project manager, who reports to a project
manager with responsibility over several of the areas, who in turn reports to
the head project manager who is responsible for the entire program. All the
projects are related and are managed together so that collective benefits are
realized and controls are implemented and managed in a coordinated fashion.

The following are some examples of programs, which help you understand
What is Program Management?

 A construction firm has programs for building single-family homes, apartment

buildings, and office buildings, as show in figure. Each home, apartment
building, and office building is a separate project for a specific sponsor, but each
type of building is part of a program. There would be several benefits to
 managing these projects under one program. For example, for the single family
homes, the program manager could try to get planning approvals for all the
homes at once, advertise them together, and purchase common materials in
bulk to earn discounts
 A clothing firm has a program to analyze customer-buying patterns. Projects
under this program might include one to send out and analyze electronic
surveys, one to conduct several focus groups in different geographic locations
with different types of buyers, and a project to develop an information system to
help collect and analyze current customers’ buying patterns
 A government agency has a program for children’s services, which includes a
project to provide pre-natal care for expectant mothers, a project to immunize
newborns and young children, and a project for developmental testing for
preschool children, to name a few

Roles of a Program Manager:

A program manager provides leadership and direction for the project
managers heading the projects within the program. Program managers also
coordinate the efforts of project teams, functional groups, suppliers, and
operations staff supporting the projects to ensure that project products and
processes are implemented to maximize benefits. Program managers are
responsible for more than the delivery of project results; they are change
agents responsible for the success of products and processes produced by
those projects.

Program managers often have review meetings with all their project managers
to share important information and coordinate important aspects of each
project. Many program managers worked as project managers earlier in their
careers, and they enjoy sharing their wisdom and expertise with their project
managers. Effective program managers recognize that managing a program is
much more complex than managing a single project. They recognize that
technical and project management skills are not enough. In addition to skills
required for project managers, program managers must also possess strong
business knowledge, leadership capability, and communication skills.
What is Project Portfolio Management?
After understanding What is Program Management?, let us elaborate What is
roject Portfolio Management? Project Portfolios are collections of programs
and projects that support a specific business goal or objective. Let’s say our
company is in the construction business. Our organization has several business
units: retail, single-family residential and multifamily residential. Collectively,
the projects within all of these business units make up the portfolio. The
program we talked about in the preceding section (the collection of projects
associated with building the new shopping mall) is a program within our
portfolio. Other programs and projects could be within this portfolio as well.
Programs and projects within a project portfolio are not necessarily related to
one another in a direct way. However, the overall objective of any program or
project in this portfolio is to meet the strategic objectives of the portfolio,
which in turn should meet the objectives of the department and ultimately the
business unit or corporation.

Pacific Edge Software’s product manager, Eric Burke, defines project portfolio
management as:

“The continuous process of selecting and managing the optimum set of

project initiatives that deliver maximum business value.”
 Manager responsible for Project Portfolio Management need to understand
how projects fit into the bigger picture of the organization, especially in terms
of corporate strategy, finances, and business risks. They create portfolios
based on meeting specific organizational goals, such as maximizing the value
of the portfolio or making effective use of limited resources. Portfolio
manager’s help their organizations make wise investment decisions by helping
to select and analyze projects from a strategic perspective. Portfolio managers
may or may not have previous experience as project or program managers. It
is most important that they have strong financial and analytical skills and
understand how projects and programs can contribute to meeting strategic
goals.

The main distinction between project or program management and project

portfolio management is a focus on meeting tactical versus strategic goals.
Tactical goals are generally more specific and short-term than strategic goals,
which emphasize long-term goals for an organization. Individual projects and
programs often address tactical goals, whereas portfolio management
addresses strategic goals.

Roles of a Project Portfolio Manager

Project and program management address questions like:

 Are we carrying out projects well?

 Are projects on time and budget?
 Do project stakeholders know what they should be doing?

Project portfolio management addresses questions like:

 Are we working on the right projects?

 Are we investing in the right areas?
 Do we have the right resources to be competitive?

There can be portfolios for all types of projects. For example:

 In a construction firm, strategic goals might include increasing profit margins on
large projects, decreasing costs on supplies, and improving skill levels of key
workers. Projects could be grouped into these three categories for portfolio
management purposes
 In a clothing firm, strategic goals might include improving the effectiveness of IT,
introducing new clothing lines, reducing inventory costs, and increasing
customer satisfaction. These might be the main categories for their portfolio of
projects. This concept can easily be understood if we have a clear understanding
of What is Program Management?
 A government agency for children’s services could group projects into a portfolio
based on key strategies such as improving health, providing education, and so
on to help make decisions on the best way to use available funds and resources.

In this lecture, you had an understanding of What is Program Management?

and What is Project Portfolio Management?. This lecture is a part of diploma
project management and online project management degreeprograms, which
are renowned qualifications offered by project management institute uk.
Project Scope Management:

What is Project Scope Management?

Let us first understand, what is project scope management? It refers to all the
work involved in creating the deliverables of the project and the processes
used to create them. Project Scope Management includes the processes
required to ensure that the project includes all the work required, and only the
work required, to complete the project successfully. Managing the project
scope is primarily concerned with defining and controlling what is and is not
included in the project.

In the project context, the term scope can refer to:

Product Scope

To understand what is project scope management, we describe product scope,

which describes the product to be delivered –”what does the customer wants
you to produce with the project?” The deliverables are products such as a new
system, a new car, a new process, etc. Completion of the product is measured
against product requirements that define the features or functions of the
products.

Project Scope:

Project scope describes the work required to produce the project deliverables.
The deliverables can be meetings, reports, analysis, design documents, etc.
and all the parts of the project management that become part of the scope
management plan. Completion is measured against the project scope
management plan that is a subsidiary to the project management plan.

Example to understand What is Project Scope Management:

The client comes and asks you to construct a school building for him. He gave
you his requirements like what would be the size of the school building, how
many rooms it will have, size of the playground, number of toilets, color of
painting, when he needs it, etc. You take the project and start working on it.
You make the plan, create the schedule, and estimate the budget.

Subsequently, you move on to the execution part. You bring workers to the
site and start constructing the school building. You complete the project and
verify with client that the school building is as per his requirements. Then you
hand over the school building to the client, get the payment, and the project is
closed.

In the above example, there are two parts: In the first part client asks you to
make a school building for him and gives you his requirements
(characteristics). This school building is the Product and the requirements for
this product are known as Scope. Therefore, in the first part, what he gave you
is the Product Scope. In the second part, you work to construct the school
building within the given time, and budget, meeting all the client’s
requirements by following the project management plans. Lastly, you deliver it
to the client. In this part, what you have done to construct the school building,
is the Project Scope.

Defining project scope is critical to the success of the project since it spells out
exactly what the product or service of the project looks like. Conversely, poor
scope definition, while finding what is project scope management, might lead
to cost increases, rework, schedule delays, and poor morale.

Project Scope Management - Collection Requirements

Collect Requirements is the first process in the Project Scope Management

Knowledge Area. The purpose of the Project Scope Management is to describe
and control what is and what is not work of the project. This is the first process
where we get into the meat of the Planning processes and get down to
defining what the final product or service of the project looks like—thus we’re
starting off defining what is included in the work of the project.

Requirements are typically conditions that must be met or criteria that the
product or service of the project must possess in order to satisfy the objectives
of the project. Requirements quantify and prioritize the wants, needs, and
expectations of the project sponsor and stakeholders. The primary purpose of
the Collect Requirements process is to define and document the project
sponsor, the customer, and the stakeholder’s expectations and needs for
meeting the project objective, as explained in the first para of the lecture what
is project scope management. Recording the requirements and attaining
stakeholder approval of the requirements will help you define and manage
their expectations throughout the project.

Inputs of Collect Requirements:

Scope Management Plan:

The scope management plan provides clarity as to how project teams will
determine which type of requirements need to be collected for the project.

Stakeholder Management Plan:

The stakeholder management plan is used to understand stakeholder

communication requirements and the level of stakeholder engagement in
order to assess and adapt to the level of stakeholder participation in
requirements activities.

Stakeholder Register:

The stakeholder register is used to identify stakeholders who can provide

information on the requirements. The stakeholder register also captures major
requirements and main expectations stakeholders may have for the project.

Tools and Techniques of Collect Requirements:

There are several tools and techniques in this process you can use to help
identify the requirements of the project. The following tools and techniques
are used for Collect Requirements:

Interviews:
Interviews are typically one-on-one conversations with stakeholders.
Interviews can be formal or informal and generally consist of questions
prepared ahead of time. The advantages to this tool are that subject matter
experts and experienced project participants can impart a lot of information in
a short amount of time and typically have a good understanding of the
features and functions needed from the project deliverables. You should
record the responses during the interviews and don’t be afraid to ask
spontaneous questions as they occur to you during the interview.

Focus groups:
Focus groups are usually conducted by a trained moderator. The key to this
tool lies in picking the subject matter experts and stakeholders to participate
in the focus group.

Facilitated workshops:
Cross-functional stakeholders come together in a facilitated work- shop to
discuss and define requirements that affect more than one department. For
example, if you’re implementing a software package that impacts several
business units, you’ll need representatives from each unit together in a
workshop so that each of their needs are represented and prioritized. This way
of explaining what is project scope management, all the participants
understand the various needs and have a facilitated forum to discuss and
resolve their issues.

Group creativity techniques:

Group creativity involves several techniques, like brainstorming, Nominal
group technique, the Delphi technique, and affinity diagrams. We will cover
each of these techniques in either the Risk Planning process or the Plan
Quality process.

Idea/mind mapping:
is a group creativity technique where participants first use brainstorming
techniques to record their ideas. White boards or flip charts are a great tool to
use with this process. The facilitator uses the white board to map ideas and,
using a mind-mapping layout, group similar topics together. There are a few
mind-mapping software packages available on the market that can greatly
assist with this process. Mind mapping allows the participants to get an
understanding of common ideas and themes, create new ideas, and
understand differences.
Group decision making techniques:
There are many methods groups can use to reach decisions. These methods
can also be used with the group creativity techniques. The four methods
mentioned include unanimity, where everyone agrees on the resolution or
course of action; majority, where more than 50 percent of the members
support the resolution; plurality, where the largest subgroup within the group
makes the decision if majority is not reached; and dictatorship, where one
person makes the decision on behalf of the group.

Questionnaires and surveys:

This technique involves querying a large group of participants via
questionnaires or surveys. These tools allow you to gather information quickly
and apply statistical analysis, if needed, to the results.

Observations:
This technique is typically a one-on-one experience where an observer sits
side by side with the participant to observe how the participant interacts with
the product or service. This technique is also known as job shadowing. For
example, you may use this technique to determine requirements for an
upgrade to a software product. Sitting with the user and watching their
interactions with the product enables the observer to uncover requirements
they would not have ordinarily discovered. This technique can also involve
participant observers who perform the job themselves in order to ascertain
requirements.

Prototypes:
Prototyping is a technique involving constructing a working model or mock-
up of the final product for participants to experiment with. The prototype does
not usually contain all the functionality the end product does, but it gives
participants enough information that they can provide feedback regarding the
mock-up. This is an iterative process where participants experiment and
provide feedback and the prototype is revised and the cycle starts again.
Below is one of the best way to explain what is project scope management
 Requirements Documentation:

You’re worked hard to gather and define requirements and you don’t want all
that effort going to waste. Now that you’ve employed the tools and
techniques of this process to gather requirements, you’ll want to record them
in a requirements document. This involves recording the requirements in a
requirements document.

The PMBOK® Guide does not dictate the format of this document and
acknowledges it can be formal with lots of detail or a simple list categorized
by stakeholder and priority. However, it does state that the requirements
document may include at least the following elements:

 Business need for the project and why it was undertaken.

 Objectives of the project and the business objectives the project hopes to fulfil.
 Functional requirements.
 Non-functional requirement.
 Quality requirements.
 Acceptance criteria.
 Organizational areas and outside entities impacted.
 Support and training requirements.
 Assumptions and constraints.

One of the most important elements of the requirements document that isn’t
in the preceding list is the signatures of the key stakeholders indicating their
acceptance of the requirements. Stakeholders sometimes have short
memories, particularly on long-term projects, so documenting requirements
and obtaining their approval is essential for project success.

Project Cost Management:

What is Project Cost Management ?

Let us start this lecture, with an understanding of What is Project Cost

Management? Cost management in project management allows a business to
predict impending expenditures to help reduce the chance of going over
budget. Project Cost Management includes the processes involved in
planning, estimating, budgeting, financing, funding, managing, and controlling
costs so that the project can be completed within the approved budget.

Two of the most important documents you’ll prepare for any project are the
project schedule and the project budget. You’ll use the schedule and budget
documents throughout the Executing and Monitoring and Controlling
processes to measure progress and determine if the project is on track.

There are two processes in the Planning group we’ll perform that will lead us
to the cost performance baseline output that is the authorized budget. They
are Estimate Costs and Determine Budget. There are several tools and
techniques to cover in these processes. There is one process in Monitoring &
controlling group, Control Costs that is used to manage the changes in the
cost baseline.

A brief overview of cost management processes are as follows:

 Estimate Costs—The process of developing an approximation of the monetary

resources needed to complete project activities.
 Determine Budget—The process of aggregating the estimated costs of individual
activities or work packages to establish an authorized cost baseline.
 Control Costs—The process of monitoring the status of the project to update the
project costs and managing changes to the cost baseline.

Estimate Costs

The Estimate Costs process in project cost management develops a cost

estimate for the resources (human and material) required for each schedule
activity. This includes weighing alternative options and examining risks and
trade-offs. Some alternatives you may consider are make-versus-buy, buy-
versus-lease, and sharing resources across either projects or departments.

Let’s look at an example of trade-offs. Many times software development

projects take on a life of their own. The requested project completion dates
are unrealistic; however, the project team commits to completing the project
on time and on budget anyway. How do they do this? They do this by cutting
things such as design, analysis, and documentation. In the end, the project
might get completed on time and on budget, but was it really? The costs
associated with the extended support period because of a lack of design and
documentation and the hours needed by the software programmers to fix the
reported bugs weren’t included in the original cost of the project (but they
should have been). Therefore, the costs actually exceed what was budgeted.
You should examine trade-offs such as these when determining cost
estimates.

Estimate Costs Inputs

Many of the inputs of the Estimate Costs process are already familiar to you.
However, we’ll look briefly at each one so you can see the key elements that
should be considered when creating the project budget. Cost management in
project management explains the inputs to this process, are as follows:

 Project baseline.
 Project schedule.
 Human resource plan.
 Risk register.
 Enterprise environmental factors.
 Organizational process assets.

Tools and Techniques to Estimate Costs

Estimate Costs has nine tools and techniques used to derive estimates:

 Expert judgement.
 Analogous estimating.
 Parametric estimating.
 Bottom-up estimating.
 Three-point estimate.
 Reserve analysis.
 Cost of quality.
 Project management estimating software.
 Vendor bid analysis.

Estimate Costs Process: Outputs

Activity Cost Estimates:

Activity cost estimates in project cost management are quantitative

assessments of the probable costs required to complete project work. Cost
estimates can be presented in summary form or in detail. Costs are estimated
for all resources that are applied to the activity cost estimate. This includes,
but is not limited to, direct labor, materials, equipment, services, facilities,
information technology, and special categories such as cost of financing
(including interest charges), an inflation allowance, exchange rates, or a cost
contingency reserve.

Basis of Estimates: Basis of estimates is the supporting detail for the activity
cost estimates and includes any information that describes how the estimates
were developed, what assumptions were made during the Estimate Costs
process, and any other details you think are needed. According to the
 PMBOK® Guide and as you can find details in project management
certification online and online diploma of project management(globally
recognized best project management qualifications). The basis of estimates
should include at least the following:

 A description of how the estimate was developed or the basis for the estimate.
 A description of the assumptions made about the estimates or the method used
to determine them.
 A description of the constraints
 A range of possible results. You should state the cost estimates within ranges
such as $5000 ± 10%.
 The confidence level regarding the final estimates.

Establishing Cost Budget Baseline

The next process in the project cost management concerns determining the
cost performance baseline, which is the primary output of the Determine
Budget process. The Determine Budget process aggregates the cost estimates
of activities and establishes a cost performance baseline for the project that is
used to measure performance of the project throughout the remaining
process groups. An important goal of cost baseline is to provide info for
project funding requirements –at what point(s) in time will the money be
needed Only the costs associated with the project become part of the
authorized project budget. For example, future period operating costs are not
project costs and therefore aren’t included in the project budget.

Determine Budget Inputs

In order to understand what is project cost management, let us first explain

the budget inputs. Outputs from other Planning processes, including the
Create WBS, Schedule Development, and Estimate Costs processes, must be
completed prior to working on Determine Budget because some of their
outputs become the inputs to this process. The inputs for Determine Budget
are as follows:
ACTIVITY COST ESTIMATES:

These are an output of the Estimate Costs process. Activity cost estimates are
determined for each activity within a work package and then summed to
determine the total estimate for a work package.

BASIS OF ESTIMATES:

This is also an output of the Estimate Costs process and contains all the
supporting detail regarding the estimates. You should consider assumptions
regarding indirect costs and whether they will be included in the project
budget. Indirect costs cannot be directly linked to any one project. They are
allocated among several projects, usually within the department or division in
which the project is being performed. Indirect costs can include items like
building leases, management and administrative salaries (those not directly
assigned full time to a specific project), and so on.

SCOPE BASELINE:

Scope baseline includes the scope statement, WBS, and WBS dictionary. The
scope statement describes the constraints of the project you should consider
when developing the budget. The WBS shows how the project deliverables are
related to their components, and the work package level typically contains
control account information (although control accounts can be assigned at
any level of the WBS).

PROJECT SCHEDULE:

Project cost management schedule contains information that is helpful in

developing the budget, such as start and end dates for activities, milestones,
and so on. Based on the information in the schedule, you can determine
budget expenditures for calendar periods.

RESOURCE CALENDERS:
 Resource calendars help you determine costs in calendar periods and over the
length of the project because they describe what resources are needed when
on the project.

CONTRACTS:

Contracts include cost information you should include in the overall project
budget. We’ll talk more about contracts in Procurement Management.
Organizational process assets: The organization process assets that will assist
you with the work of this process include cost budgeting tools, the policies
and procedures your organization (or PMO) may have regarding budgeting
exercises, and reporting methods.

Determine Budget Tools and Techniques:

The Determine Budget process has five tools and techniques, including two
you haven’t seen before:

 Cost aggregation.
 Reserve analysis.
 Expert judgement.
 Historical relationships.
 Funding limit reconciliation.

Determine Budget: Outputs

In context for cost management in project management, the goal of

Determine Budget is to develop a cost performance baseline for the project
that you can use in the Executing and Monitoring and Controlling processes to
measure performance. You now have all the information you need to create
the cost performance baseline. In addition, you’ll establish the project funding
requirements.

The following are the outputs of the Determine Budget process:

 Cost performance baseline
 Project funding requirements
 Project document updates
We have covered the project cost management document updates in other
processes. For Determine Budget, you may need to update the risk register,
cost estimates, and/or the project schedule.

Control Costs

Control Costs is the process of monitoring the status of the project to update
the project costs and managing changes to the cost baseline. The key benefit
of this process is that it provides the means to recognize variance from the
plan in order to take corrective action and minimize risk.

The key to effective cost control is the management of the approved cost
baseline and the changes to that baseline. Project cost control includes:

 Influencing the factors that create changes to the authorized cost baseline.
 Ensuring that all change requests are acted on in a timely manner.
 Ensuring that cost expenditures do not exceed the authorized funding.
 Monitoring cost performance to isolate and understand variances from the
approved cost baseline.
 Monitoring work performance against funds expended.
 Bringing expected cost overruns within acceptable limits.

Control Costs: Inputs

COST BASELINE:

The cost baseline is compared with actual results to determine if a change,

corrective action, or preventive action is necessary.

PROJECT FUNDING REQUIREMENTS

The project funding requirements include projected expenditures plus

anticipated liabilities.

WORK PERFORMANCE DATA:

Work performance data includes information about project progress, such as

which activities have started, their progress, and which deliverables have
finished. Information also includes costs that have been authorized and
incurred.

ORGANIZATIONAL PROCESS ASSETS:

Existing formal and informal cost control-related policies, procedures, and

guidelines; Cost control tools; and Monitoring and reporting methods to be
used.

Control Costs: Tools and Techniques:

The tools and techniques of the Control Costs process are as follows:

 Earned value measurement (EVM)

 Forecasting
 To-complete performance index (TCPI)
 Performance reviews
 Variance analysis
 Project management software

We’ll look at each of these next with the exception of project cost
management software. This output has been discussed previously, but you
should know that in this process it can help automate and calculate the
formulas we’re going to examine next. It can also display the results in
graphical form for status reporting purposes.

Earned Value Management:

You can accomplish performance measurement analysis using a technique

called earned value measurement (EVM). Simply stated, EVM compares what
you’ve received or produced to what you’ve spent. The EVM continuously
monitors the planned value, earned value, and actual costs expended to
produce the work of the project. When variances that result in cost changes
are discovered (including schedule variances and cost variances), those
changes are managed using the project change control system. The primary
function of this analysis technique is to determine and document the cause of
the variance, to determine the impact of the variance, and to determine
whether a corrective action should be implemented as a result.

FORECASTING:

Forecasting uses the information you’ve gathered to date and estimates the
future conditions or performance of the project based on what you know
when the calculation is performed. Forecasts are based on work performance
information (an output from the Executing process group) and your
predictions of future performance.

Control Costs: Outputs

WORK PERFORMANCE INFORMATION

The calculated CV, SV, CPI, SPI, TCPI, and VAC values for WBS components, in
particular the work packages and control accounts, are documented and
communicated to stakeholders.

COST FORECASTS

Either a calculated EAC value or a bottom-up EAC value is documented and

communicated to stakeholders.

CHANGE REQUESTS

Analysis of project performance may result in a change request to the cost

baseline or other components of the project cost management plan. Change
requests may include preventive or corrective actions, and are processed for
review and disposition through the Perform Integrated Change Control
process.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT PLAN UPDATES:

Elements of the project management plan that may be updated include, but
are not limited to; Changes to the cost baseline are incorporated in response
to approved changes in scope, activity resources, or cost estimates. Changes
to the cost management plan, such as changes to control thresholds or
specified levels of accuracy.

PROJECT DOCUMENT UPDATES:

Project cost management documents that may be updated include, but are
not limited to: Cost estimates, and Basis of estimates.

Project Management Organizational Structure:

 Project Organizational Structure Definition

The Project Organization Structure is an enterprise environmental factor that

plays an important role in determining the way, in which the organization and
Project Manager perform. Organizations have their own styles and cultures
that influence how project work is performed. One of the keys to determining
the type of organization you work in is measuring how much authority senior
management is willing to delegate to project managers. Project Management
Organizational Structure helpful to know and understand the organizational
structure and the culture of the entity in which you’re working. Although
uniqueness abounds in business cultures, all organizations are structured in
one of three ways:

 Functional.
 Projectized.
 Matrix.
We’ll now take a look at each of these types of organizations individually to
better understand how the project management role works in each one.

Functional Organizations:

A Functional Project Organization structure is a hierarchical type of

organizational structure wherein people are grouped as per their area of
specialization and supervised by the functional manager with expertise in the
same field, so that their skills can be effectively utilized and the organization’s
objective can be achieved.

Here, all authority, budget allocation, and decision making power stays with
the functional manager. A project manager has no role in this type of
structure. Even if he exists, his role will be very limited and he has to ask the
functional manager for his requirements. Here, a project manager may have
the title of a coordinator or an expediter.

The Functional Organizational structure, is a project management

organizational structure, which is suitable for an organization which has
ongoing operations such as manufacturing and production operations. In
functional organizations, the organization is divided into various specific
departments; e.g. human resource, marketing, finance, operations, etc. Each
department will have its own department head and he will be responsible for
 the performance of his section. This helps control the quality and uniformity of
performance.

Advantages of the Functional Organization Structure:

Following are a few advantages of functional organizations:

 Employees are grouped as per their knowledge and skills.

 Job responsibilities and reporting are straight to the functional head, and the
hierarchy path is clear.
 Employees have a clear career growth path.
 Within the functional department communication, cooperation and coordination
is excellent.

Disadvantages of the Functional Organization Structure:

Following are a few disadvantages of functional organizations:

 The employee may become lazy due to repeating the same type of work.
 Conflicts may arise due to the promotion of another employee.
 The functional manager pays attention to only his department; he usually
doesn’t care for other teams or sections.
 Poor communications and poor inter-department coordination.
 Delays in decision making due to bureaucratic hierarchy.
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Projectized Organizational Structure:

Projectized organizations are nearly the opposite of functional organizations.

The focus of this type of organization is the project itself. The idea behind a
projectized organization is to develop loyalty to the project, not to a functional
manager. In projectized organization, for project management organizational
structure, the project manager has all the power and authority and everybody
 directly report to the project manager. Here, either no functional manager
exists, or if he exists, he will have a very limited role.

Advantages of the Projectized Organizational Structure:

A few advantages of this in project management organizational structure are

as follows:

o Clear line of authority.

o Strong communication with single reporting system.
o Flexibility in trade-offs and decision making.
o Fast decision making.

Disadvantages of the Projectized Organizational Structure:

A few disadvantages if in project organizational structure are as follows:

o Authority and power can make project manager arrogant.

o The work environment can be stressful because there is always a deadline
(milestones).
o Team members have sense of insecurity because once the project finishes, they
may lose their jobs.
o If the project gets elongated, cost of employee and equipment can go higher.
Matrix Organizations:

Matrix organizations came about to minimize the differences between, and

take advantage of, the strengths and weaknesses of functional and projectized
organizations. The idea at play here is that the best of both organizational
structures can be realized by combining them into one. The project objectives
are fulfilled and good project management techniques are utilized while still
maintaining a hierarchical structure in the organization.

In matrix organization structure in the project management organizational

structure, the knowledge and skills of the talented employees could be shared
between the functional departments and the project management teams, as
needed. Here, the employee generally works under two bosses. The authority
of the functional manager flows vertically downwards and the authority of the
project manager flows sideways. Since, the authorities flow downward and
sideways, this structure is called the Matrix Organization Structure. In matrix
organization structure, usually employees have two bosses to whom they may
have to report. Which boss is more powerful depends upon the type of matrix
structure.

Matrix organization structure can be further divided into three categories:

o Strong Matrix.
o Balanced Matrix.
o Weak Matrix.

Project Manager and Project Manager Roles and

Responsibilities:

It is important to understand What is Project Manager? and project manager

roles and responsibilities. The project manager is the person assigned by the
performing organization to lead the team that is responsible for achieving the
project objectives. They are the people responsible for managing the project
processes and applying the tools and techniques used to carry out the project
activities. Good project managers should have a variety of skills. In general,
project manager roles and responsibilities are to satisfy the needs. They
includes task needs, team needs, and individual needs.

Roles and Responsibilities

Effective project management requires that the project manager possess the
following competencies:

 Knowledge — Refers to what the project manager knows about project

management.
 Performance — Refers to what the project manager is able to do or accomplish
while applying his or her project management knowledge.
 Personal — Refers to how the project manager behaves when performing the
project or related activity. Personal effectiveness encompasses attitudes, core
personality characteristics, and leadership, which provides the ability to guide
the project team while achieving project objectives and balancing the project
constraints.

A project manager's typical responsibilities include:

 Planning and organizing the work.

 Managing the day-to-day activities of a project.
 Delivering the project deliverables to the client.
 Identifying potential stakeholders.

What is a Project Manager?

Project managers accomplish work through the project team and other
stakeholders. Effective project managers require a balance of ethical,
interpersonal, and conceptual skills that help them analyze situations and
interact appropriately. Some highly desirable interpersonal skills of a project
manager are:

 Leadership.
 Team building.
 Motivation.
 Communication.
 Influencing.
 Decision making.
 Political and cultural awareness.
 Negotiation.
 Trust building.
 Conflict management, and
 Coaching.
Project managers must lead their project teams by providing vision, delegating
work, creating an energetic and positive environment, and setting an example
of appropriate and effective behavior. Project managers must focus on
teamwork skills in order to use their people effectively. They need to be able
to motivate different types of people and develop esprit de corps within the
project team and with other project stakeholders.

What is Agile Project Management?

Let us first understand, What is Agile Project Management? It is the process by

which projects can be managed and implemented in small chunks of work.
Agile projects deliver value to the business in frequent small deliveries of
product called features. Projects during Agile Project Management are
managed in five stages, called the Agile Life Cycle. The stages are:

 Envision.
 Speculate.
 Explore.
 Adapt.
 Close.
 In the traditional waterfall methodology the requirements for the project
would be documented up front. Then the design of the whole solution would
be completed. Followed by the development, testing and finally,
implementation of the product. If this whole process takes a year to complete,
the business does not see any tangible value until the very end of that project.

Waterfall and Agile Methodologies

Waterfall Methodology
The waterfall model is the oldest and mostly widely used model in the field of
software development. This model had many advantages like being a linear
model. It is very simple to implement. The amount of resources required to
implement this model are minimal. Documentation is produced at every stage
of the software’s development. This makes understanding the product
designing procedure similar but ironically it has many disadvantages. One of
the biggest disadvantages being client is not very clear on what exactly they
want from the software.

Agile Methodology
While Traditional methodologies require the user to provide a detailed idea of
the exact requirements with respect to the intended software, Agile
developers, who truly understand that what is agile project management, are
more flexible through their iterative style of work. With Agile Development,
the user is constantly in the loop suggesting improvements and reviewing
every phase. This increased customer involvement works on two levels. One is
that it makes reflective changes easy as opposed to Traditional Development
where chunks of system might have to be dismantled to improve a small part
and the second being that it increase the customer satisfaction drastically. To
sum it up, we now know the difference between Traditional and Agile, to truly
understand What is Agile Project Management?.

 In Traditional Project Management, it focuses on plans and artefacts while in

agile project management, it focuses on customer interaction and satisfaction.
 In Traditional Project Management, there is a response to change that it is either
corrective or preventative but while in Agile Project Management, changes
controlled through adaptive actions.
 In Traditional Project Management, it is typically up-from planning while in
Agile Project Management it is progressive elaboration with release and iterative
planning.
 In Traditional Project Management, there is a top-down control while in Agile
Project Management it has self-organizing and cross-functional teams.
 In Traditional Project Management, there is a scope based delivery while Agile
Project Management has time-boxed delivery.
 In Traditional Project Management, it is contract oriented while in Agile Project
Management, there is customer orientation.

Agile Project Management - Agile Manifesto

To answer what is agile project management, first we need to know that agile
follows the following 12 principles, which form a set of guiding concepts that
support project teams in implementing Agile projects. These concepts are
used to implement Agile methodologies in projects.
 Satisfying customers is top priority: Rather than a big bang delivery after months
or even years of work subsets the functionality are delivered within weeks of the
start of the project. Early continuous deliver of useful software promotes
customer confidence and satisfaction.
 Welcome changing requirements, even late in development: The whole point of
delivery is meeting the customer’s needs thereby giving them a competitive
edge. Rather than blocking necessary changes to the products as requirements
change, Agile software development is designed to cope with the evolving
requirements.
 Deliver working software frequently: Again Agile development emphasizes fast,
iterative deliveries rather than the big bang delivery of software after a lengthy
development process.
 Development and business work together: Rather than working for a customer
Agile Development encourages development teams to work with customers. In
this way a better working relationship can be established. Problems can be
spotted and corrected more quickly and customers can see progress on a daily
basis.
 The primary measure of success is working software: In Agile Software
Development, working software is the measure of progress and success, which in
waterfall is nothing but little.
 The team regularly reflects on work and then tunes and adjusts its behaviour,
rather than waiting for the end of the project to conduct a post project review.
The Agile team is constantly reviewing the progress and processes to ensure they
are working efficiently and effectively.
 Build projects around motivated people: Agile software development recognizes
the importance of the team, the working environment and stresses, the need for
support and trust in the team, which are as critical for the projects as software’s
success.
 The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within
development teams is face-to-face communication: While documentation status
reports and memos are necessary evils in most businesses, discussing a project
in person can eliminate many misunderstandings and omissions.
 Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design: While Agile
methods improve customer’s satisfaction and the quality of the product, it
technically also promotes development agility.
 Simplicity: The art of maximizing the amount of work not done is essential. Agile
says eliminate low importance and low urgency issues and put them on the not
to do list, keeping processes as simple as possible without the end product losing
its desired functionality. Ask teams if they are producing something that is most
useful with the least amount of time.
 Best architectures requirements and designs emerge from self-organizing teams,
artificially organized teams. When a team’s structure is fixed by upper
management with little knowledge of the requirements, customer or the
personalities of the team itself can create situations where personal are
underutilized. In the worst case, projects fails simply because of poorly organized
teams. In an Agile Development Environment, the team is empowered to
organize themselves in a way, which allows them to be most effective and
efficient.
 Agile processes promote a sustainable development – The sponsors, developers
and users should be able to maintain a constant pace continuously. Agile
Development proceeds at a more consistent pace rather than suffering from
lows while waiting for decisions or approvals followed by a flurry of activity to
meet arbitrary deadlines. These principles are fairly simple in concept but are
profoundly deep in practice. For transition to an Agile work style or as a way to
improve the current Agile practice principles espoused here are a good start.

Agile Scrum
Scrum is an Agile way to manage a project. Scrum is often perceived as a
methodology but rather than viewing scrum as methodology, think of it as a
framework for managing a process. Scrum provides a small set of rules that
create just enough structure for teams to be able to focus their innovation on
solving what might otherwise be an insurmountable challenge. Scrum occurs
in small pieces with each piece building upon previous created pieces. Scrum
emphasizes empirical feedback, team self management and strives to build
properly tested product increments within short iterations. This emphasis on
an ongoing assessment of completed work is largely responsible for its
popularity with managers and developers alike, but what allows the scrum
methodology to really work is a set of roles, responsibilities and meetings that
never change. If scrum’s capacity for adaption and flexibility makes it an
appealing option the stability of its practices give teams something to lean on
when development gets chaotic. Scrum provides structure to allow teams to
deal with that difficulty. However, the fundamental process is incredibly simple
and at its core is governed by three primary roles. Product owners determine
what needs to be built in the next 30 days or less. Development team build,
who have a good understanding of what is agile project management, and
what is needed in 30 days or less and then demonstrate what they have built.
Based on this demonstration, the product owner determines what to build
next. Scrum masters ensure this process happens as smoothly as possible and
continually help improve the process, the team and the product being created.
The scrum model cease daily stand ups as a way to synchronize the work of
team members as they discuss the work of the sprint. At the end of the sprint,
the team conducts a sprint review during which the team demonstrates the
new functionality to the PO or any other stakeholder who wishes to provide
feedback that could influence the next sprint. This feedback loop within scrum
software development may result in changes to the freshly delivered
functionality but it may just as likely result in revising or adding items to the
product Backlog. Another activity in scrum project management is the Sprint
Retrospective at the end of each sprint. The whole team participates in this
meeting including the scrum master and PO. The meeting is an opportunity to
reflect on the sprint that has ended and identify opportunities to improve.

Scrum Values

Courage

The SM needs the courage to protect and guide the team, standing up to the
PO and stakeholders at the right time, really takes guts. The PO must have the
courage to entrust the sprint Backlog to the team, a giant leap of faith as it is
the PO who answers to the stakeholders at the end of the sprint. Finally the
team must have the courage to aggressively commit to as much work as they
think they can do in each sprint.

Respect

In scrum, the limits and boundaries of the scrum roles really need to be
transparent and respected. Everyone on a scrum project needs to be aware
that the PO is in-charge of what the team works on but not how they do their
work and that the team is responsible for getting the work done but not
questioning what work gets done.

Feedback

Get feedback quickly and often to undercover defects early. Many Agile
Development Practices focus on decreasing the time taken to get feedback.
This helps eliminate waste build quality in.

Communications:

They are small teams. The optimal size for effective collaboration is 5 to 9
people, not too large, so that the communication becomes an issue and not
too small that the overhead is excessive. Effective communications reduce the
amount of noise between communication parties.

Simplicity:

This principle should be obvious enough. With a clear knowledge of what is

agile project management? and having unnecessarily complex processes
creates waste and in Agile we focus on eliminating waste.

Agile Lean
The core idea is to maximize customer value while minimizing waste. Simply
lean means creating more value for customers with fewer resources. A Lean
Organization understands customer value and focuses its key processes on
continuously increasing it. The ultimate goal is to provide perfect value to the
customer through a perfect value creation process that has zero waste. To
accomplish this Lean thinking changes the focus of management from
optimizing separate technologies assets and vertical departments to
optimizing the flow of products and services through entire value streams that
flow horizontally across technologies, assets and departments to customers.
Eliminating waste along entire value streams instead of at isolated points
creates processes that need less human effort, less space, less capital and less
time to make products and services at far less costs and with much fewer
defects compared with traditional business systems. Companies are able to
respond to changing customer desires with high variety, high quality, low cost
and with very fast throughput times. Also information management becomes
much simpler and more accurate. Lean is a translation of Lean manufacturing
to the software development domain adapted from Toyota Production System
and focuses on seven principles.

Elimination of Waste:

Anything which is not adding value to customers is waste like insufficiently

tested modules, unnecessary code and functionality.

Amplify Learning:
The best approach for improving a software development environment is to
amplify learning. The learning process is sped up by usage of short iteration
cycles. Each one is coupled with refactoring and integration testing, increasing
feedback via short feedback sessions with customers helps when determining
the current phase of development and the adjusting efforts for future
improvements.

Decide as late as Possible:

As software development is always associated with some uncertainty. Better

results should be achieved with an option based approach, delaying decisions
as much as possible until they can be made based on facts and not on
uncertain assumptions and predictions.

Deliver as fast as Possible:

It is not the biggest that survives but the fastest. The sooner the end product
is delivered without major defects the sooner feedback can be received and
incorporated into the next iteration.

Project Initiation - How to Start a Project?

Project Initiation

Project Initiation is the formal recognition on how to start a project? It may

apply on a new project, or the next phase in an existing project. It includes that
 how should begin, and resources should be committed to the project. A
project may come about as a result of a need, demand, opportunity, or
problem. Once those needs and demands are identified, the next logical step
may include performing a feasibility study to determine the viability of the
project.

The business might drive the need for a project, customers might demand
changes to products, or legal requirements might create the need for a new
project. According to the PMBOK® Guide, projects come about as a result of
one of seven needs or demands. Once those needs and demands are
identified, the next logical step might include performing a feasibility study to
determine the viability of the project.

Needs and Demands for Project Initiation

Before understanding that how to start a project, it is important to know the
needs and demands required for project initiation. Needs and demands
represent opportunities, business requirements, or problems that need to be
solved. Management must decide how to respond to these needs and
demands, which will more often than not initiate new projects. According to
the PMBOK® Guide, projects come about as a result of one of the following
seven needs or demands:

 Market Demand.
 Strategic Opportunity/Business Need.
 Customer Request.
 Technological Advance.
 Legal Requirement.
 Ecological Impact.
 Social Need.

Market Demand:

The demands of the marketplace can drive the need for a project. For example,
project initiation in a bank to offer customers the ability to apply for mortgage
loans over the Internet because of a drop in interest rates and an increase in
demand for refinancing and new home loans.
Strategic opportunity/Business Need:

An organization may respond to an internal need that could eventually affect

the bottom line. For example, this may include addressing company growth, or
even the need to downsize.

Customer Request:

Customer requests run the gamut. Generally speaking, most companies have
customers, and their requests can drive new projects. Customers can be
internal or external to the organization.

Technological Advance:

New technology often requires companies to revamp their products as a way

of taking advantage of the latest technology. The introduction of satellite
communications is an example of a technological advance. Because of this
introduction, cell phone manufacturers revamped their products to take
advantage of this new technology.

Legal Requirement:

Both private industry and government agencies generate new projects as a

result of laws passed during every legislative season.

Ecological Impacts:

Many organizations today are undergoing a “greening” effort to reduce

energy consumption, save fuel, reduce their carbon footprint, and so on. These
are examples of ecological impacts that result in projects.

Social Need:

The last need is a result of social demands. For example, manufacturing or

processing plants that voluntarily remove their waste products from water
prior to putting the water back into a local river or stream to prevent
contamination.

All of these needs and demands represent opportunities, business

requirements, or problems that need to be solved. Management must decide
 how to respond to these needs and demands, which will more often than not
new project initiation.

Feasibility Study -How to Start a Project?

Some organizations require that a feasibility study take place prior to making a
final decision about starting a project. Feasibility studies may be conducted as
separate projects, subprojects, or as the first phase of a project.

Feasibility studies might be conducted as separate projects, as subprojects, or

as the first phase of a project. When you don’t know the outcome of the study,
it’s best to treat it as a separate project. The group of people conducting the
feasibility study should not be the same people who will work on the project.
Project team members might have built-in biases toward the project and will
tend to influence the feasibility outcome toward those biases.

Project Selection Methods

There are a variety of selection methods an organization may choose to utilize.

Selection methods help organizations decide among alternative projects and
determine the tangible benefits to the company of choosing or not choosing a
project. Project selection methods are also used to evaluate and choose
between alternative ways to implement the project.

There are generally two categories of selection methods:

 Mathematical Models (also known as constrained optimization methods).

 Benefit Measurement Methods (also known as decision models).
Decision models examine different criteria used in making decisions regarding
project selection, while calculation methods provide a way to calculate the
value of the project, which is then used in project selection decision making.

Mathematical Models

Mathematical models, also known as constrained optimization methods uses

linear, dynamic, integer, nonlinear, and/or multi-objective programming in the
form of algorithms—or in other words, a specific set of steps to solve a
particular problem. These are complicated mathematical formulas and
algorithms that are beyond the scope of this course and require an
engineering, statistical, or mathematical background to fully understand.
Organizations considering undertaking projects of enormous complexity
might use mathematical modeling techniques to make decisions regarding
these projects. The vast majority of project selection techniques will use the
benefit measurement methods to make project selection decisions.

Benefit Measurement Methods

Benefit measurement methods employ various forms of analysis and

comparative approaches to make project decisions. These methods include
comparative approaches such as cost-benefit analysis, scoring models, and
benefit contribution methods that include various cash flow techniques and
economic models.

Cost-Benefit Analysis

One common benefit measurement method is the cost-benefit analysis. The

name of this method implies what it does—it compares the cost to produce
the product, service, or result of the project to the benefit (usually financial in
the form of savings or revenue generation) that the organization will receive as
a result of executing the project. Obviously, a sound project choice is one
where the costs to implement or produce the product of the project are less
than the financial benefits. How much less is the organization’s decision?
 Some companies are comfortable with a small margin, while others are
comfortable with a much larger margin between the two figures.

Scoring Models

Another project selection technique in the benefit measurement category is a

scoring model, or weighted scoring model. Many organization uses weighted
scoring models not only to choose between projects but also as a method to
choose between competing bids on outsourced projects.

Weighted scoring models are quite simple. The project selection committee
decides on the criteria that will be used on the scoring model—for example,
profit potential, marketability of the product or service, ability of the company
to quickly and easily produce the product or service, and so on. Each of these
criteria is assigned a weight depending on its importance to the project
committee. More important criteria should carry a higher weight than less
important criteria.

Then each project is rated on a scale from 1 to 5 (or some such assignment),
with the higher number being the more desirable outcome to the company
and the lower number having the opposite effect. This rating is then multiplied
by the weight of the criteria factor and added to other weighted criteria scores
for a total weighted score. The project with the highest overall weighted score
is the best choice.

What is Project Time Management?

Project Time Management

This lecture is designed for you to understand What is Project Time

Management? Time management is defined as the act or process of planning
and exercising conscious control over the amount of time spent on specific
activities. Time Management increases the effectiveness, efficiency or
productivity of a person, organization or a project. Time management in
project management includes the processes required to manage the timely
completion of the project. An overview of the Project Time Management
processes are as follows:

 Define Activities.
 Sequence Activities.
 Estimate Activity Resources.
 Estimate Activity Durations.
 Develop Schedule.
 Control Schedule.

Time Management in Project Management - Processes

On some projects, especially those of smaller scope, defining activities,

sequencing activities, estimating activity resources, estimating activity
durations, and developing the schedule model are so tightly linked that they
are viewed as a single process that can be performed by a person over a
relatively short period of time. Project time management in these processes are
presented here as distinct elements because the tools and techniques for each
process are different.

Define Activities

The Define Activities process is a further breakdown of the work package

elements of the WBS. It documents the specific activities needed to fulfill the
deliverables detailed on the WBS and the project scope statement. The key
benefit of this process is to break down work packages into activities that
provide a basis for estimating, scheduling, executing, monitoring, and
controlling the project work.

Define Activities Process Inputs

The following are inputs to the Define Activities process:

 Scope baseline (deliverables, constraints, and assumptions).

 Enterprise environmental factors (project management information systems).
 Organizational process assets (existing guidelines and policies, lessons learned
knowledge base).

Tools and Techniques for Defining Activities

The tools and techniques of the Define Activities process are as follows:
 Decomposition:

Decomposition involves breaking the work packages into smaller, more

manageable units of work called activities. These are not deliverables but the
individual units of work that must be completed to fulfill the deliverables listed
in the WBS. Time management in project management activities will help in
later planning processes to define estimates and create the project schedule.

Rolling wave planning:

Rolling wave planning is an iterative planning technique in which the work to

be accomplished in the near term is planned in detail, while the work in the
future is planned at a higher level. It is a form of progressive elaboration.
Therefore, work can exist at various levels of detail depending on where it is in
the project life cycle. During early strategic planning, when information is less
defined, work packages may be decomposed to the known level of detail. As
more is known about the upcoming events in the near term, work packages
can be decomposed into activities.

Expert Judgement:

Expert judgement, in the form of project team members with prior experience
developing project scope statements and WBSs, can help you define activities.

Define Activities Outputs

Define Activities in project time management has three outputs:

 Activity list
 Activity attributes
 Milestone list

Activity List:

One primary output of the Define Activities process is an activity list. The
activity list should contain all the schedule activities that will be performed for
the project, with a scope of work description of each activity and an identifier
(such as a code or number) so that team members understand what the work
is and how it is to be completed.
Activity Attributes:

Activity attributes describe the characteristics of the activities and are an

extension of the activity list. Activity attributes will change over the life of the
project as more information is known. In the early stages of the project,
activity attributes might include the activity ID, the WBS identification code it’s
associated with, and the activity name. As you progress through the project
and complete other Planning processes, you might add predecessor and
successor activities, logical relationships, leads and lags, resource
requirements, and constraints and assumptions associated with the activity.

Milestone List:

Milestones are typically major accomplishments of the project and mark the
completion of major deliverables or some other key event in the project. For
example, approval and sign-off on project charter might be considered as
milestone. The milestone list records these accomplishments and documents
whether the milestone is mandatory or optional. Milestones are similar to
regular schedule activities, with the same structure and attributes, but they
have zero duration because milestones represent a moment in time.

Sequence Activities:

Now that you’ve identified the schedule activities, you need to sequence them
in a logical order and find out whether dependencies exist among the
activities. During Sequence Activities, you will use a host of inputs and tools
and techniques to produce the primary output, project schedule network
diagrams.
 Sequence Activities: Inputs

 Activity List.
 Activity Attributes.
 Milestone List.
 Project Scope Statement.
You’ve already seen all the inputs to this process. They are activity list, activity
attributes, milestone list, project scope statement, and organizational process
assets. We’ll look at several new tools and techniques next.

Sequence Activities Tools and Techniques

Sequence Activities in project time management has three tools and

techniques, all of which are new to you:

 Dependency determination.
 Precedence diagramming method (PDM).
 Applying leads and lags.

Dependency Determination

Dependencies are relationships between the activities in which one activity is

dependent on another to complete an action, or perhaps an activity is
dependent on another to start an action before it can proceed.

Consider a classic example. Let’s say you’re going to paint your house, but
unfortunately, it’s fallen into a little disrepair. The old paint is peeling and
chipping and will need to be scraped before a coat of primer can be sprayed
on the house. After the primer dries, the painting can commence. In this
example, the primer activity depends on the scraping. You can’t prime the
house before scraping off the peeling paint. The painting activity depends on
the primer activity in the same way. You really shouldn’t start painting until the
primer has dried.

Dependencies may be characterized by the following attributes: mandatory or

discretionary, internal or external, as described below.
Mandatory dependencies:

Mandatory dependencies are those that are legally or contractually required or

inherent in the nature of the work. Mandatory dependencies often involve
physical limitations, such as on a construction project, where it is impossible to
erect the superstructure until after the foundation has been built, or on an
electronics project, where a prototype has to be built before it can be tested.
Mandatory dependencies are also sometimes referred to as hard logic or hard
dependencies. The scraping, primer, and painting sequence is an example of
mandatory dependencies.

Discretionary dependencies:

Discretionary dependencies are defined by the project team. Discretionary

dependencies are also known as preferred logic, soft logic, or preferential
logic. These are usually process- or procedure-driven or “best-practice”
techniques based on past experience. For example, both past experience and
best practices on house painting projects have shown that all trim work should
be hand-painted while the bulk of the main painting work should be done
with a sprayer.

External dependencies:

External dependencies are, well, external to the project. This might seem
obvious, but the PMBOK® Guide points out that even though the dependency
is external to the project (and therefore a non-project activity), it impacts
project activities. For example, perhaps your project is researching and
marketing a new drug. The FDA must approve the drug before your company
can market it. This is not a project activity, but the project cannot move
forward until approval occurs. That means FDA approval is an external
dependency.

Once you’ve identified the dependencies and assembled all the other inputs
for the Sequence Activities process in project time management, you’ll take
this information and produce a diagram—or schematic display—of the project
activities. The project schedule network diagram shows the dependencies—or
logical relationships—that exist among the activities. You can use one of the
other tools and techniques of this process to produce this output. You’ll now
examine each in detail.
What is Project Quality Management?

Project Quality Management

Quality is the degree to which the project fulfils requirements. Let us now
understand What is Project Quality Management? Project Quality
Management is the process for ensuring that all project activities necessary to
design, plan and implement a project are effective and efficient with respect to
the purpose of the objective and its performance. Project Quality Management
(QM) is not a separate, independent process that occurs at the end of an
activity to measure the level of quality of the output. Quality Management in
project management includes creating and following policies and procedures
in order to ensure that a project meets the defined needs it was intended to
meet from the customer’s perspective.

Important Points to remember that are as follows:

Customer Satisfaction:
Quality is all about meeting the expectations and requirements of the
customer and stakeholders and creating a product that fulfil those needs and
is fit for its intended use.

Prevention over Inspection:

Quality is achieved by planning, designing, and building it into a product or
process from the inception. Quality is planned in, not inspected in.

Management Responsibility:
It’s up to the project team to ensure the success of quality efforts but it is up
to organizational management to provide the financial resources needed for
quality efforts to succeed.
Continuous Improvement:
Quality management and process improvement relies on the ongoing plan-
do-check-act cycle. This can be done using quality management improvement
initiatives e.g. TQM, 6 sigma and using process improvement models; e.g.
OPM3, CMMI, Malcolm Baldrige.

Grade versus Quality – Definitions and Differences:

Quality:
Quality is conformance to the requirements. It includes the product and the
customer’s requirements. PMP Quality Management is defined as “the degree
to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfils the requirements.”

Grade:
Grade can be defined as “the category assigned to products or services having
the same functional use but different technical characteristics.”

Many people get confused with these two terms and assume that they are
similar; however, they are not the same. There is a big difference between the
Quality and the Grade. A product can be a high grade (high-end) or a low
grade (low-end). It is perfectly acceptable for a product to be a low grade as
long as it fulfil its stated requirements. On the other hand, a low quality
product is always a problem. Every product must be of high quality regardless
of its grade. A low quality product is never desired.

Accuracy and Precision in Quality Management:

The project management team should determine the appropriate levels of
accuracy and precision for use in the quality management plan.

Accuracy:
It is an assessment of correctness. Accuracy means the measured values are
very close to the true value. If somebody says that measurements are accurate,
then you should know that those measurements are very near the target, or
true value. Scatter doesn’t have any significant role here. The scatter of
accurate measurements may, or may not be dense.
Precision:
It is a measure of exactness. Precision in project quality management means
the values of repeated measurements are clustered and have little scatter.
Precision doesn’t mean that the measurements are close to the target value –
it means that the measurements are close to one another. They may or may
not be near the target value. Precision is about how the measured values are
close to one another. If the scatter is lesser, measurements are said to have a
high precision.

Quality Management in Project Management:

Project Quality Management includes the processes and activities of the
performing organization that determine quality policies, objectives, and
responsibilities so that the project will satisfy the needs for which it was
undertaken. Project Quality Management uses policies and procedures to
implement, within the project’s context, the organization’s quality
management system and, as appropriate, it supports continuous process
improvement activities as undertaken on behalf of the performing
organization. Project Quality Management works to ensure that the project
requirements, including product requirements, are met and validated.

Project Cost Management Processes:

An overview of the Project Cost Management processes are as follows:
1. Plan the Project Quality Management.
2. Determine Budget.
3. Control Costs.

Plan Quality Management:

Plan the Project Quality Management is the process of identifying quality
requirements and/or standards for the project and its deliverables, and
documenting how the project will demonstrate compliance with relevant
quality requirements. The key benefit of this process is that it provides
guidance and direction on how quality will be managed and validated
throughout the project.

Perform Quality Assurance:

Perform Quality Assurance is the process of auditing the quality requirements
and the results from quality control measurements to ensure that appropriate
quality standards and operational definitions are used. The key benefit of this
process is that it facilitates the improvement of project quality management
processes.

Control Quality:

Control Quality is the process of monitoring and recording results of executing

the quality activities to assess performance and recommend necessary
changes. The key benefits of this process quality management include:

(1) identifying the causes of poor process or product quality and

recommending and/or taking action to eliminate them; and

(2) validating that project deliverables and work meet the requirements
specified by key stakeholders necessary for final acceptance.

Quality Management Tools and Techniques:

The Seven basic tools of project quality management is a designation given to
a fixed set of graphical techniques identified as being most helpful in
troubleshooting issues related to quality. Kaoru Ishikawa developed seven
basic visual tools of quality. They are called basic because they are suitable for
people with little formal training in statistics. And because they can be used to
solve the vast majority of quality-related issues. The seven tools are:

Cause-and-effect diagrams:

It is also known as fishbone diagrams or as Ishikawa diagrams. This tool helps

you explore the causes that might be producing the problem. It is very
important for you to know the real cause of the problem before you start
thinking about any possible solution. The fish-bone diagram gives you a
comprehensive list of possible causes to identify the root cause of the
problem. The fish-bone diagram uses a brainstorming technique to collect the
causes and come up with a kind of mind map which shows you all identified
causes graphically. Sometimes it happens that the most obvious cause turns
out to be minor and the cause thought to be a minor one was causing the
issue. This diagram gives you an opportunity to think more thoroughly about
the root cause of the problem, which leads to a robust resolution. The
fishbone diagram forces you to consider all possible causes of a problem
instead of focusing on the most obvious one (as it is explained in the online
project management courses, which are a part of project management
diploma and online mba project management programs offered by AIMS, UK).
Here causes are grouped into several categories to easily identify the correct
source of the variation.

Flow Charts:

A flowchart graphically depicts the relationships between and among steps.

They typically show activities, decision points, and the flow or order of steps in
a process. Flowcharts may prove useful in understanding and estimating the
cost of quality in a process. This is obtained by using the workflow branching
logic and associated relative frequencies to estimate expected monetary value
for the conformance and non-conformance work required to deliver the
expected conforming output.

Check Sheets:
It is also known as tally sheets and may be used as a checklist when gathering
data. Checksheets are used to organize facts in a manner that will facilitate the
effective collection of useful data about a potential quality problem. In project
quality management, they are especially useful for gathering attributes data
while performing inspections to identify defects. For example, data about the
frequencies or consequences of defects collected in check-sheets are often
displayed using Pareto diagrams.

Control Charts:

Control charts measure the results of processes over time and display the
results in graph form. Control charts are a way to measure variances to
determine whether process variances are in control or out of control. A control
chart is based on sample variance measurements. From the samples chosen
and measured, the mean and standard deviation are determined. In control
chart, there is a centre line called the mean or goal which is surrounded by
other lines called limits. These lines are the upper control limit and lower
control limit (UCL and LCL). These lines are again surrounded by two another
lines known as the upper specification limit and lower specification limit.
Upper and lower specification limits are provided in the contract and you
cannot cross them. This is your final limit. The upper and lower control limit
are determined by the project manager so that specific limits are not crossed,
and if the process goes above this limit, a corrective action must be taken. If
the 99.73% (3-sigma) of all the points fall between the upper and lower
control limits, you will say that the process is under control.

Pareto Chart:
Pareto charts are used to identify and prioritize problems to be solved. They
are actually histograms aided by the 80/20 rule introduced by Vilfredo Pareto.
The 80/20 rule as it applies to quality says that a small number of causes (20
percent) create the majority of the problems (80 percent). His theory is that
you get the most benefit if you spend the majority of your time fixing the
most important problems. Pareto charts are displayed as histograms that rank-
order the most important factors—such as delays, costs, and defects, for
example—by their frequency over time.

Histograms:
It is a special form of bar chart and are used to describe the central tendency,
dispersion, and shape of a statistical distribution. A histogram is a bar graph
that shows frequency data. Histograms provide the easiest way to evaluate the
distribution of data. Histograms can be used to determine distribution of
errors.

Scatter diagrams:

Scatter diagrams in project quality management use two variables, one called
an independent variable, which is an input, and one called a dependent
variable, which is an output. Scatter diagrams display the relationship between
these two elements as points on a graph. This relationship is typically analyzed
to prove or disprove cause-and-effect relationships. As an example, maybe
your scatter diagram plots the ability of your employees to perform a certain
task. The length of time (in months) they have performed this task is plotted as
the independent variable on the X axis, and the accuracy they achieve in
performing this task, which is expressed as a score—the dependent variable—
is plotted on the Y axis. The scatter diagram can then help you determine
whether cause-and-effect (in this case, increased experience over time versus
accuracy) can be proved. Scatter diagrams can also help you look for and
analyze root causes of problems. The important point to remember about
scatter diagrams is that they plot the dependent and independent variables,
and the closer the points resemble a diagonal line, the closer these variables
are related.