Which of the Following Is Not Part of the Art of Project Management?
Master Body
2. Project Management Overview
The starting point in discussing how projects should be properly managed is to first understand what a project is and, but as importantly, what it is not.
People have been undertaking projects since the earliest days of organized man activity. The hunting parties of our prehistoric ancestors were projects, for example; they were temporary undertakings directed at the goal of obtaining meat for the community. Large complex projects accept too been with the states for a long fourth dimension. The pyramids and the Neat Wall of Prc were in their twenty-four hour period of roughly the same dimensions as the Apollo projection to ship men to the moon. Nosotros use the term "project" ofttimes in our daily conversations. A husband, for example may tell his wife, "My chief project for this weekend is to straighten out the garage." Going hunting, building pyramids, and fixing faucets all share sure features that brand them projects.
Project Attributes
A projection has distinctive attributes that distinguish it from ongoing work or business operations. Projects are temporary in nature. They are not an everyday business process and take definitive kickoff dates and end dates. This characteristic is important because a big part of the project endeavour is defended to ensuring that the project is completed at the appointed fourth dimension. To practice this, schedules are created showing when tasks should brainstorm and finish. Projects tin last minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, or years.
Projects exist to bring about a product or service that hasn't existed before. In this sense, a project is unique. Unique ways that this is new; this has never been washed earlier. Maybe it's been done in a very similar fashion earlier but never exactly in this fashion. For example, Ford Motor Visitor is in the business organization of designing and assembling cars. Each model that Ford designs and produces tin be considered a project. The models differ from each other in their features and are marketed to people with diverse needs. An SUV serves a dissimilar purpose and clientele than a luxury car. The design and marketing of these two models are unique projects. Nevertheless, the actual associates of the cars is considered an operation (i.east., a repetitive process that is followed for most makes and models).
In contrast with projects, operations are ongoing and repetitive. They involve work that is continuous without an catastrophe date and with the same processes repeated to produce the same results. The purpose of operations is to proceed the organisation operation while the purpose of a project is to run across its goals and conclude. Therefore, operations are ongoing while projects are unique and temporary.
A project is completed when its goals and objectives are accomplished. It is these goals that drive the projection, and all the planning and implementation efforts undertaken to accomplish them. Sometimes projects end when it is determined that the goals and objectives cannot be accomplished or when the product or service of the project is no longer needed and the project is cancelled.
Definition of a Project
There are many written definitions of a project. All of them contain the cardinal elements described above. For those looking for a formal definition of a project, the Project Management Plant (PMI) defines a project as a temporary try undertaken to create a unique product, service, or outcome. The temporary nature of projects indicates a definite commencement and cease. The end is reached when the project's objectives have been achieved or when the project is terminated because its objectives will non or cannot be met, or when the demand for the project no longer exists.
Project Characteristics
When considering whether or not you accept a project on your hands, there are some things to continue in heed. First, is information technology a project or an ongoing operation? Second, if information technology is a project, who are the stakeholders? And 3rd, what characteristics distinguish this endeavor every bit a project?
Projects have several characteristics:
- Projects are unique.
- Projects are temporary in nature and have a definite beginning and ending date.
- Projects are completed when the project goals are achieved or information technology's determined the project is no longer feasible.
A successful projection is 1 that meets or exceeds the expectations of the stakeholders.
Consider the post-obit scenario: The vice-president (VP) of marketing approaches y'all with a fabled idea. (Obviously it must exist "fabulous" because he thought of it.) He wants to prepare up kiosks in local grocery stores as mini-offices. These offices volition offer customers the ability to sign up for car and home insurance services every bit well as make their bill payments. He believes that the exposure in grocery stores volition increment awareness of the visitor's offerings. He told you that senior management has already cleared the project, and he'll dedicate equally many resources to this as he tin. He wants the new kiosks in place in 12 selected stores in a major city by the finish of the year. Finally, he has assigned you lot to head upward this project.
Your get-go question should be, "Is it a projection?" This may seem elementary, but confusing projects with ongoing operations happens oft. Projects are temporary in nature, take definite start and cease dates, result in the cosmos of a unique product or service, and are completed when their goals and objectives have been met and signed off by the stakeholders.
Using these criteria, allow's examine the assignment from the VP of marketing to determine if it is a projection:
- Is it unique? Yep, because the kiosks don't exist in the local grocery stores. This is a new manner of offering the company's services to its customer base. While the service the company is offering isn't new, the way it is presenting its services is.
- Does the product have a limited timeframe? Yep, the start date of this project is today, and the end date is the end of next year. It is a temporary endeavor.
- Is there a mode to determine when the project is completed? Yeah, the kiosks will be installed and the services volition be offered from them. Once all the kiosks are installed and operating, the project will come up to a close.
- Is there a fashion to determine stakeholder satisfaction? Yeah, the expectations of the stakeholders will be documented in the grade of requirements during the planning processes. These requirements will be compared to the finished product to determine if it meets the expectations of the stakeholder.
If the answer is yep to all these questions, and then we accept a project.
The Process of Project Management
You've determined that yous have a project. What now? The notes you scribbled downward on the dorsum of the napkin at lunch are a start, simply not exactly proficient project management exercise. As well often, organizations follow Nike'southward communication when it comes to managing projects when they "merely do it." An assignment is made, and the project team members jump straight into the development of the product or service requested. In the stop, the delivered product doesn't meet the expectations of the client. Unfortunately, many projects follow this poorly constructed path, and that is a primary correspondent to a large percentage of projects non coming together their original objectives, equally defined past performance, schedule, and upkeep.
In the United States, more $250 billion is spent each year on information engineering (Information technology) awarding development in approximately 175,000 projects. The Standish Group (a Boston-based leader in project and value performance research) released the summary version of their 2009 CHAOS Report that tracks project failure rates across a broad range of companies and industries (Figure 2.1).
Jim Johnson, chairman of the Standish Group, has stated that "this year's results show a marked decrease in project success rates, with 32% of all projects succeeding which are delivered on fourth dimension, on budget, with required features and functions, 44% were challenged-which are late, over budget, and/or with less than the required features and functions and 24% failed which are cancelled prior to completion or delivered and never used."
When are companies going to cease wasting billions of dollars on failed projects? The vast majority of this waste is completely avoidable: simply go the right business needs (requirements) understood early on in the process and ensure that project management techniques are applied and followed, and the project activities are monitored.
Applying good project management discipline is the way to help reduce the risks. Having practiced project management skills does non completely eliminate problems, risks, or surprises. The value of skillful projection management is that you have standard processes in place to deal with all contingencies.
Project management is the application of noesis, skills, tools, and techniques applied to project activities in order to see the projection requirements. Project management is a procedure that includes planning, putting the project plan into action, and measuring progress and performance.
Managing a projection includes identifying your project's requirements and writing down what everyone needs from the projection. What are the objectives for your project? When everyone understands the goal, information technology's much easier to keep them all on the right path. Make sure you set goals that everyone agrees on to avoid squad conflicts after on. Understanding and addressing the needs of everyone afflicted by the projection means the end issue of your project is far more likely to satisfy your stakeholders. Last but not least, as project manager, y'all will besides be balancing the many competing project constraints.
On any project, you volition have a number of project constraints that are competing for your attention. They are toll, scope, quality, run a risk, resources, and time.
- Price is the upkeep canonical for the project including all necessary expenses needed to deliver the projection. Within organizations, projection managers have to residual between not running out of coin and non underspending because many projects receive funds or grants that have contract clauses with a "use information technology or lose it" approach to project funds. Poorly executed upkeep plans tin can result in a terminal-minute rush to spend the allocated funds. For almost all projects, cost is ultimately a limiting constraint; few projects can go over budget without somewhen requiring a corrective action.
- Scope is what the projection is trying to achieve. It entails all the work involved in delivering the projection outcomes and the processes used to produce them. Information technology is the reason and the purpose of the project.
- Quality is a combination of the standards and criteria to which the project's products must be delivered for them to perform effectively. The production must perform to provide the functionality expected, solve the identified problem, and deliver the benefit and value expected. It must also meet other performance requirements, or service levels, such every bit availability, reliability, and maintainability, and accept acceptable end and smoothen. Quality on a projection is controlled through quality assurance (QA), which is the process of evaluating overall project performance on a regular ground to provide confidence that the projection will satisfy the relevant quality standards.
- Risk is divers by potential external events that volition take a negative impact on your project if they occur. Risk refers to the combination of the probability the event will occur and the impact on the project if the event occurs. If the combination of the probability of the occurrence and the impact on the projection is too high, y'all should identify the potential consequence equally a adventure and put a proactive program in place to manage the gamble.
- Resources are required to behave out the projection tasks. They can be people, equipment, facilities, funding, or annihilation else capable of definition (usually other than labour) required for the completion of a project activity.
- Time is divers equally the time to complete the project. Time is oft the most frequent project oversight in developing projects. This is reflected in missed deadlines and incomplete deliverables. Proper command of the schedule requires the careful identification of tasks to be performed and authentic estimations of their durations, the sequence in which they are going to be done, and how people and other resources are to be allocated. Any schedule should take into business relationship vacations and holidays.
You may have heard of the term "triple constraint," which traditionally consisted of but fourth dimension, toll, and scope. These are the main competing project constraints that you have to be most aware of. The triple constraint is illustrated in the form of a triangle to visualize the project piece of work and encounter the relationship between the scope/quality, schedule/time, and toll/resource (Effigy 2.2). In this triangle, each side represents one of the constraints (or related constraints) wherein whatever changes to whatever ane side crusade a change in the other sides. The best projects have a perfectly counterbalanced triangle. Maintaining this balance is difficult because projects are prone to change. For example, if scope increases, toll and fourth dimension may increase disproportionately. Alternatively, if the amount of money you accept for your project decreases, yous may be able to do as much, but your time may increase.
Your projection may have additional constraints that y'all must face, and every bit the projection manager, y'all have to balance the needs of these constraints against the needs of the stakeholders and your project goals. For instance, if your sponsor wants to add together functionality to the original scope, yous will very probable demand more than money to end the project, or if they cut the budget, you will have to reduce the quality of your scope, and if you don't get the appropriate resources to work on your project tasks, yous will have to extend your schedule because the resources you accept take much longer to cease the work.
You get the idea; the constraints are all dependent on each other. Think of all of these constraints as the classic carnival game of Whac-a-mole (Effigy 2.3). Each time you try to push button one mole back in the pigsty, another 1 pops out. The best advice is to rely on your project team to go on these moles in place.
Here is an case of a projection that cut quality because the project costs were stock-still. The P-36 oil platform (Figure 2.4) was the largest footing production platform in the world capable of processing 180,000 barrels of oil per twenty-four hours and 5.2 1000000 cubic metres of gas per day. Located in the Roncador Field, Campos Bowl, Brazil, the P-36 was operated by Petrobras.
In March 2001, the P-36 was producing around 84,000 barrels of oil and 1.iii million cubic metres of gas per day when it became destabilized by two explosions and afterward sank in 3,900 feet of water with 1,650 short tons of crude oil remaining on lath, killing xi people. The sinking is attributed to a complete failure in quality assurance, and pressure for increased product led to corners being cut on safety procedures. It is listed as one of the most expensive accidents with a price tag of $515,000,000.
The following quotes are from a Petrobras executive, citing the benefits of cutting quality assurance and inspection costs on the project.
"Petrobras has established new global benchmarks for the generation of exceptional shareholder wealth through an aggressive and innovative program of cost cutting on its P36 product facility."
"Conventional constraints accept been successfully challenged and replaced with new paradigms appropriate to the globalized corporate marketplace place."
"Elimination of these unnecessary straitjackets has empowered the projection's suppliers and contractors to propose highly economical solutions, with the win-win bonus of enhanced profitability margins for themselves."
"The P36 platform shows the shape of things to come up in the unregulated global market economic system of the 21st century."
The dynamic trade-offs between the projection constraint values have been humorously and accurately described in Figure ii.5.
Project Management Expertise
In order for you, as the project manager, to manage the competing project constraints and the project as a whole, there are some areas of expertise you should bring to the projection team (Effigy 2.11). They are knowledge of the application expanse and the standards and regulations in your manufacture, understanding of the project surround, general management noesis and skills, and interpersonal skills. It should be noted that industry expertise is not in a certain field only the expertise to run the projection. So while knowledge of the type of industry is important, y'all will take a project team supporting you in this endeavour. For case, if yous are managing a projection that is building an oil platform, y'all would non exist expected to have a detailed understanding of the engineering since your team will have mechanical and civil engineers who will provide the appropriate expertise; however, information technology would definitely help if you understood this type of work.
Let's take a look at each of these areas in more detail.
Application knowledge
By standards, we mean guidelines or preferred approaches that are non necessarily mandatory. In dissimilarity, when referring to regulations we mean mandatory rules that must be followed, such every bit government-imposed requirements through laws. It should go without saying that as a professional, you're required to follow all applicable laws and rules that apply to your industry, organization, or project. Every industry has standards and regulations. Knowing which ones affect your project earlier y'all begin work will not only help the project to unfold smoothly, but will also allow for effective risk analysis.
Some projects require specific skills in certain application areas. Awarding areas are made up of categories of projects that have mutual elements. They can be defined by industry grouping (pharmaceutical, financial, etc.), department (bookkeeping, marketing, legal, etc.), technology (software evolution, engineering, etc), or management specialties (procurement, research and development, etc.). These application areas are normally concerned with disciplines, regulations, and the specific needs of the projection, the customer, or the industry. For example, virtually government agencies accept specific procurement rules that utilise to their projects that wouldn't exist applicative in the construction industry. The pharmaceutical industry is interested in regulations set forth by government regulators, whereas the automotive industry has little or no concern for either of these types of regulations. You need to stay up-to-date regarding your industry so that you lot tin can apply your knowledge effectively. Today's fast-paced advances tin can exit you behind adequately quickly if you don't stay abreast of current trends.
Having some level of experience in the application area y'all're working in will requite you an reward when information technology comes to project direction. While you can call in experts who have the application area knowledge, it doesn't hurt for you to understand the specific aspects of the application areas of your project.
Understanding the Project Environs
There are many factors that need to exist understood inside your project environment (Figure 2.7). At one level, you lot need to think in terms of the cultural and social environments (i.e., people, demographics, and educational activity). The international and political environment is where you demand to empathize nigh different countries' cultural influences. And then nosotros move to the concrete environment; here we think about fourth dimension zones. Think well-nigh dissimilar countries and how differently your project will exist executed whether it is simply in your country or if it involves an international project team that is distributed throughout the earth in five unlike countries.
Of all the factors, the physical ones are the easiest to understand, and it is the cultural and international factors that are ofttimes misunderstood or ignored. How nosotros deal with clients, customers, or project members from other countries tin be critical to the success of the project. For example, the culture of the United States values accomplishments and individualism. Americans tend to be informal and call each other by kickoff names, even if having but met. Europeans tend to exist more formal, using surnames instead of first names in a business setting, even if they know each other well. In addition, their communication style is more formal than in the United states of america, and while they tend to value individualism, they also value history, hierarchy, and loyalty. The Japanese, on the other mitt, tend to communicate indirectly and consider themselves part of a group, not as individuals. The Japanese value hard work and success, as most of united states of america do.
How a product is received can be very dependent on the international cultural differences. For example, in the 1990s, when many large American and European telecommunication companies were cultivating new markets in Asia, their customer's cultural differences often produced unexpected situations. Western companies planned their telephone systems to work the same manner in Asia as they did in Europe and the United states. Merely the protocol of conversation was different. Call-waiting, a pop feature in the West, is considered impolite in some parts of Asia. This cultural blunder could have been avoided had the team captured the project surroundings requirements and involved the customer.
Information technology is oftentimes the simplest things that can cause trouble since, unsurprisingly, in dissimilar countries, people exercise things differently. 1 of the most notorious examples of this is likewise one of the nigh simple: date formats. What day and calendar month is 2/viii/2009? Of grade it depends where y'all come from; in Northward America information technology is Feb eighth while in Europe (and much of the rest of the earth) it is 2nd Baronial. Clearly, when schedules and deadlines are existence defined information technology is of import that everyone is clear on the format used.
The diverseness of practices and cultures and its touch on on products in full general and on software in particular goes well beyond the date upshot. You may be managing a projection to create a new website for a visitor that sells products worldwide. There are language and presentation style issues to take into consideration; converting the site into different languages isn't enough. It is obvious that you need to ensure the translation is correct; however, the presentation layer will have its own ready of requirements for different cultures. The left side of a website may be the first focus of attention for a Canadian; the right side would be the initial focus for anyone from the Heart Eastward, as both Arabic and Hebrew are written from right to left. Colors also have dissimilar meanings in different cultures. White, which is a sign of purity in Due north America (e.g., a helpmate's wedding ceremony dress), and thus would be a favoured background color in North America, signifies death in Nippon (e.thou., a burial shroud). Table 2.i summarizes different meanings of common colours.
| Colour | United states of america | China | Japan | Arab republic of egypt | France |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ruddy | Danger, stop | Happiness | Anger, danger | Decease | Aristocracy |
| Blue | Sadness, melancholy | Heavens, clouds | Villainy | Virtue, faith, truth | Liberty, peace |
| Green | Novice, amateur | Ming dynasty, heavens | Future, youth, energy | Fertility, forcefulness | Criminality |
| Yellow | Cowardice | Birth, wealth | Grace, nobility | Happiness, prosperity | Temporary |
| White | Purity | Decease, purity | Death | Joy | Naturality |
Project managers in multicultural projects must appreciate the civilisation dimensions and try to acquire relevant customs, courtesies, and business concern protocols earlier taking responsibility for managing an international project. A projection manager must have into consideration these various cultural influences and how they may affect the projection's completion, schedule, telescopic, and cost.
Management Knowledge and Skills
As the project managing director, yous have to rely on your project management knowledge and your general management skills. Hither, we are thinking of items like your ability to plan the project, execute it properly, and of course control it and bring it to a successful determination, along with your ability to guide the projection team to achieve projection objectives and balance project constraints.
There is more to projection management than just getting the work washed. Inherent in the process of project direction are the full general management skills that allow the project director to consummate the project with some level of efficiency and control. In some respects, managing a project is similar to running a business: there are risk and rewards, finance and accounting activities, human being resources bug, time management, stress management, and a purpose for the project to exist. General management skills are needed in every project.
Interpersonal Skills
Concluding but non least you besides take to bring the power into the project to manage personal relationships and deal with personnel issues as they arise. Here were talking well-nigh your interpersonal skills as shown in Figure two.8.
Advice
Project managers spend 90% of their time communicating. Therefore they must exist adept communicators, promoting clear, unambiguous commutation of information. As a project manager, it is your chore to keep a number of people well informed. It is essential that your projection staff know what is expected of them: what they have to practise, when they have to do information technology, and what budget and time constraints and quality specifications they are working toward. If project staff members practise not know what their tasks are, or how to accomplish them, and so the entire project will grind to a halt. If you exercise not know what the project staff is (or oft is non) doing, then you will exist unable to monitor projection progress. Finally, if you are uncertain of what the client expects of you, then the project volition non even become off the footing. Project communication can thus exist summed up as knowing "who needs what data and when" and making sure they take it.
All projects require sound communication plans, but not all projects will take the aforementioned types of communication or the aforementioned methods for distributing the data. For case, volition data be distributed via post or e-mail, is there a shared website, or are contiguous meetings required? The communication direction program documents how the advice needs of the stakeholders volition be met, including the types of information that will be communicated, who will communicate them, and who will receive them; the methods used to communicate; the timing and frequency of communication; the method for updating the program as the project progresses, including the escalation procedure; and a glossary of mutual terms.
Influence
Project management is about getting things washed. Every organization is different in its policies, modes of operations, and underlying culture. In that location are political alliances, differing motivations, alien interests, and power struggles. A project manager must understand all of the unspoken influences at work within an organization.
Leadership
Leadership is the ability to motivate and inspire individuals to work toward expected results. Leaders inspire vision and rally people effectually common goals. A good project director tin motivate and inspire the project team to run across the vision and value of the project. The project managing director as a leader can inspire the project team to find a solution to overcome perceived obstacles to get the work done.
Motivation
Motivation helps people piece of work more than efficiently and produce ameliorate results. Motivation is a constant process that the projection managing director must guide to help the team move toward completion with passion and a profound reason to complete the work. Motivating the team is achieved by using a variety of team-building techniques and exercises. Squad building is merely getting a diverse group of people to piece of work together in the well-nigh efficient and effective manner possible. This may involve management events as well equally individual deportment designed to improve team performance.
Recognition and rewards are an important part of team motivations. They are formal ways of recognizing and promoting desirable behaviour and are well-nigh effective when carried out by the management team and the project director. Consider private preferences and cultural differences when using rewards and recognition. Some people don't like to be recognized in front of a group; others thrive on information technology.
Negotiation
Projection managers must negotiate for the good of the projection. In whatsoever projection, the project manager, the project sponsor, and the project team will have to negotiate with stakeholders, vendors, and customers to accomplish a level of understanding acceptable to all parties involved in the negotiation procedure.
Trouble Solving
Trouble solving is the ability to understand the center of a problem, wait for a feasible solution, and so brand a decision to implement that solution. The starting point for problem solving is trouble definition. Problem definition is the ability to understand the cause and upshot of the problem; this centres on root-cause assay. If a projection manager treats merely the symptoms of a problem rather than its cause, the symptoms will perpetuate and continue through the project life. Even worse, treating a symptom may result in a greater problem. For example, increasing the ampere rating of a fuse in your car because the onetime one keeps bravado does not solve the problem of an electrical short that could effect in a burn down. Root-cause analysis looks across the immediate symptoms to the cause of the symptoms, which then affords opportunities for solutions. One time the root of a problem has been identified, a determination must exist fabricated to effectively address the trouble.
Solutions can exist presented from vendors, the projection team, the project managing director, or diverse stakeholders. A viable solution focuses on more than than merely the problem; information technology looks at the cause and effect of the solution itself. In addition, a timely decision is needed or the window of opportunity may pass and and so a new conclusion will be needed to accost the trouble. As in nearly cases, the worst thing you tin can do is nothing.
All of these interpersonal skills volition exist used in all areas of project management. Get-go practicing now because it'south guaranteed that you lot'll need these skills on your adjacent project.
Image Descriptions
Figure 2.5 image description: The sign says, "We can practice practiced, quick, and inexpensive work. You can take whatever two simply not all iii. 1. Expert, quick work won't exist cheap. 2. Good, cheap work won't be quick. 3. Quick, cheap work won't be practiced." [Return to Figure ii.5]
Text Attributions
- This chapter of Projection Management is a derivative of Projection Direction by Merrie Barron and Andrew Barron. © CC Past (Attribution).
- Table ii.1: Adjusted from P. Russo and Due south. Churl, How Fluent is Your Interface? Designing for International Users, Proceedings of the INTERACT '93 and CHI '93, Association for Computing Mechanism, Inc. (1993). Table from Barron & Barron Project Direction for Scientists and Engineers, Source: Project Direction for Scientists and Engineers by Merrie Barron; Andrew R. Barron
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