Energy Project

Management

Class 2
23-02-2010

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Definition – Project Management
 Project management is the disciplin of
 Planning
 Organizing and
 Managing resources
 A project is a temporary endeavor, having a
defined beginning and end (usually constrained
by date, but can be by funding or deliverables,
undertaken to meet particular goals and
objectives, usually to bring about beneficial
change or added value.

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Difference in General Management &
Project Management
 In practice, the management of the two systems is
often found to be quite different, and as such requires
the development of distinct technical skills and the
adoption of separate management.
 The primary challenge of project management is to
achieve all of the project goals and objectives while
honoring the preconceived project constraints.
 Typical constraints are scope, time, and budget.
 The secondary—and more ambitious—challenge is to
optimize the allocation and integration of inputs
necessary to meet pre-defined objectives
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Difference in General Management & Project
Management Difference (contd…)

 There is a clear overlap in skills between general management

and project management. There are skills that project managers
must have that distinguish project management from general
management.
 Difference between General Management and Project
management is the later's emphasis on scheduling. Project
managers are more specialists and focus on a particular
projects (could be both strategic and tactical).
 General Managers on the other hand may not have tight
deadlines and are generalized and tend to focus on operations
(though they can overlook/manage individual projects).

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Difference in General Management & Project
Management Difference (contd…)

 Macro and micro management. That is, a good general

manager macro manages, empowers and delegates, and
demonstrates situational leadership skills. A good project
manager micro manages, plans and controls, and demonstrates
process and best practice leadership skills.
 The differences between a General Manager and a Project
Manager have to do with role. However, these people should
always have overlapping responsibilities.
 In a matrix organization the role of a project manager is to focus
on the needs of the project and the role of the General Manager
is to focus on the capability of the team.

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Difference in General Management & Project
Management (contd…)

 Basically, the two disciplines overlap with each other.

General management also encompasses planning,
organizing, staffing, executing and controlling but it is
more applicable to operations of the ongoing
enterprise.
 Project management principles are more specific to
implementation of a change, a project, which is a
unique and temporary with a finite start and finish
time and has all the attendant problems and risks
associated with it.

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Specific skills for a Project Manager
 Human Resources: no line manager will ever need to assemble
an efficient team, deliver a product and disband the team
sometimes in weeks. The leadership and influencing skills
required from a PM are so much greater, especially that usually
the PM lacks punishment authority
 Procurement: line managers do not usually handle procurement
(they have access to specialized departments), but project
managers do.
 Cost: line managers have people assigned to them 8 hours per
day no matter what, so they only have to give them something
to do. Project Managers need to make efficient use of all
material and human resources, as everything becomes a
project cost.

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Specific skills for a Project Manager (contd…)

 Risk: not completely different, but the risks from

departmental perspective are very different from
project risk, same as mitigation strategies.
 Communication: the line manager has predefined
communication channels with a life on their own,
the project manager needs to define and
maintain communication channels for each
project, based on its specifics.

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Steps to become Master in Project
Management
 Understand PM’s role
 Build a solid team
 Understand the true need
 Perform a financial analysis
 Conduct a formal kickoff meeting
 Reality check
 Terminate un-worthy project
 Develop a logical plan
 Leave room for learning
 Understand team dynamics
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 Develop a configuration plan
 Manage all project stakeholders
 Measure against baseline
 Be objective about threats
 Actively manage communication channel
 Optimize project excellence
 Consider post project issues
 Manage interface
 Practice self management
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 Recognize multiple success matrices
 Use documentation wisely
 Reward excellent term behavior
 Maximize learning from closer
 Test your lesson learned.

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