Introduction to Project Management - Part 1

[arul_satish]

To understand project management one needs to understand the basics of project management and how it differs from operations management. I am going to present this article in a series of sub-topics. Let me begin with the first.

Introduction to project management:

According to some, project management was first used to manage projects in the late 50’s. Actually a number of projects have been planned and managed from time immemorial. People in their efforts to improve their society and standard of living undertook projects like erecting building, paving roads, writing laws and even conquered nations. All these were accomplished without the use of modern tools, techniques and methodologies. As said earlier it is prudent to assume the advent of modern project management should have flourished in the late 50’s.

Project: ”a project is a human activity that achieves a clear objective against a time scale” – (Reiss, 1992). The above statement is only an attempt to explain “project” briefly. A project has a clear objective, a fixed time scale, a team of people, and done without any rehearsal or practice to result in a change. There are not any fixed rules about it but only the trends. A project has a life cycle of four phases. They are definition, planning, execution and closure.

Project management: “project mangement is the application of knowledge, skills, tools and technique to a broad range of activities in order to meet the requirement of the particular project” – (PMI, 2000)

Project management is all about management and planning. Project management is like playing chess. You anticipate the opponent's moves or risks and plan your move accordingly. You cannot be absolutely sure what will happen until it really happens. Hence the emphasis is more on planning. Project management falls into five process groups namely initiating or kick off, planning, executing, controlling and closing. Expectedly, communication is a vital link across and throughout the process group.

Features:
Each project or project management is unique in its own way. It has one clear objective. There are fixed Start and End dates for objectives or project mangement. Project management is essentially managing a team of people. There is no possibility of practice or rehearsal in project management. It is generally a one-time affair. Project management is the management of charge. Project management is nothing but planning i.e. need for emphasis on planning and thinking ahead all the time.

Another common feature in project management is high levels of uncertainty. It is rightly said that what will go wrong will definitely go wrong. Projects will often undergo random variations in performance, inadequate or incomplete data and difficulty in accurately forecasting due to lack of prior experience. Technological uncertainties, cost uncertainties, and organizational political uncertainties lead to uncertainty in scheduling. These are the free nature of projects and its management.

Uses
Once project management people used to be industry oriented. They grow out of the industry they are affiliated with. It helps them understand the project better. Now-a-days project management is slowly becoming industry independent. At the same time it is being applied in fields out side the industry domain. The project management and its techniques are useful to varying fields and people regardless of what is being attempted.

According to a survey by Project Management Today in the early 1990 (Reiss, 1992), nearly 53.8% of the projects carried out comes from the industry segments construction (20.8%), engineering (16.8%) and information technology (16.2%). Building bridges, power stations, hotels, oil ridge or housing are typical projects of these types. Our day-to-day life simply depends on them. Construction engineering and information technology industries dominate the way we live and plan to live. No wonder the above mentioned industries dominate the project management world.

Project management principles and techniques are also applied in other industry sectors like communication (7.1%), banking and finance (5.1%), science and education (4.7%), government (4%), insurance (3.7%), aerospace and transport (3.4%), oil& gas (3%), civil engineering (2.7%), power and water (2.7%), defense (2.7%), manufacturing (2%) and others like charity event, marketing, publishing, entertainment and sport constitute nearly (5.1%). It is being used across all industries and fields. Name the industry you got it.

Project management is applied to develop new product or service or to design a new vehicle. It is also used for running a political campaign too. Project management is also successfully applied to downsize the organizations resulting in efficient and effective management of resources. It gives the organization the competitive advantage and the customers the choice of quality products. It also helps top management to understand the current position of the company, monitor the enterprise performance and plan and control their strategic initiative. Project management is used by many organizations to analyze and forecast the project's impact on the organization.

Today the projects are also created at all levels of organization. The project size may vary from a single person to thousands. The duration of the project may also vary. They may spread across many departments of organization. Still project management and its tools and techniques can be used to any project regardless of its size, timeline and budget.

Let us travel further in the next series...

[Srinivas_T]

Excellent post. Highly informative. Thanks a lot Arul.

[arul_satish]

Thanks Srinivas for your compliments.
I am going to continue from where I left on the topic "Introduction to Project Management - Part 1" ...

Project Management Vs General Operation Management:
The three main types of systems in operation and production management they are 1) mass production system 2) batch production system and 3) non-repetitive systems. All of these types are found in both manufacturing and services industries ( Shtub, 1994).

For industries with high demand product or service and high investment, mass production system is used. Mass production system centers on the important process that helps in producing a product or perform a service. It has limited application and fixed directions. Special purpose equipments are used to perform the functions needed for the product or the service. Information processing and material handling are a lot simple. Use of conveyors like automated system is extensive. The system is very efficient in producing large quantities of product or service. When there is a need to produce a different product or service, these systems are not easily adjustable and hence may prove to be ineffective under such circumstances. Managing such systems is quite straight forward and less complex. Planning and organizing is a lot simple as these are generally repeatable work. Management is mainly to do with machineries and raw materials and hence the complexity of human resource management is less.

When several products or services are required in the same factory then batch production system serves as a good alternative. If the demand is not high and the investment is low, and variety of products or services are to be processed more flexible and adjustable system called batch-oriented system is adopted. The system will be adjusted when production is changed from one product to another. Using more general-purpose resources attains flexibility. The complexity in planning, scheduling and controlling is much greater than mass production system. Here the complexity of management increases over batch production system. The batch production system is process oriented and mass production system is product oriented.

On the other hand, systems pertaining to low demands are very much different from the other two types. Past experience may prove to be less advantageous as these systems are non repetitive in nature. The systems put more emphasis on planning, monitoring and controlling of the activities of the product and or services. The requirements of these systems resulted in the growth of project management.

It is evident from above that the difference among product oriented, process oriented or project oriented management is very thin and hard to define. To understand it better - planning and designing a new car model is a project whereas running a factory that produces cars from the model is mass product oriented and when a need arises to change the model of the car to another you may go for a more flexible and adjustable process oriented system.

As given earlier, the very fact that the role of a project manager is temporary and the team is basically a short-term association, brings forth various differences and problems between project management and other managements. In a fixed team as in general operations management the team members are directly reporting to the manager who is clearly leading the team. The member's stay in the team will be generally long term. Manager will be generally for creating good team working and setting the norms and behaviors of the team. The manager needs to build trust and respect in the team. He/she will also encourage the sharing of information, opinions and feelings for the benefit of the team. He/she will be setting targets and also will appraise the performance of the team members apart from creating the team identity.

On the contrary, in projects, the team will be made of people from different divisions across different sites of the organization. Though the project managers job is similar to the one described in the previous paragraph, he needs to encounter or counter the following problems:

The team members may often report to the manager of his department apart from reporting to current project manager. As the priority of the other departmental managers change the project team’s stability becomes questionable. It will be difficult to maintain the teamwork as the team membership may change every now and then to accommodate the priorities of the departments. For the same reason the team members do not know each other well and hence it will take some time to establish team norms. Again in a changing team, the team members who do not know each other may find it difficult to share information, opinions and feelings openly. As the member is often reporting to more than one manager, appraisal of his or her work may pose a problem or two. Also, it requires an additional effort on the part of project manger to create the team identity.

[sahasumit@gmail.com]

Good one. helpful. please carry on to your next level.

sumit saha

[arul_satish]

I going to continue from where I left with Project Management - Part 1 - series III.

The following table 1.1, attempts to explain the main difference between general management and project management.

S NO General management ---- Project management
1 Continuous process ---- One time affair
2 Single state ---- Moves from one state to another i.e. results in change
3 No clear (single) objective --- Single clear objective
4 No real start and end points --- Definable start and end points
5 Not much of emphasis on planning --- Greater need and emphasis on planning as one has to think ahead all the time
6 Resource and machine related --- More human resource related
7 Product or process oriented --- Project oriented
8 Repetitive and non unique --- Non repetitive and unique
9 Simple team building --- Complex team building
10 Role of manager and team membership --- Role of manager and team membership is temporary
is permanent or long term
Table 1.1 Differences PM Vs Other

To put it simply, project management is unique, highly planned yet unpredictable, managing and resulting in change with definable start and end dates with the help of a team of skilled and knowledgeable people. The principal difference is project manager has a temporary role. This leads to some specific differences and difficulty in the case of team building effort.

To be continued...

[arul_satish]

Continuation...

Ten Commandments of Project Management...

Success of a Project:
If a project meets its desired objective against a stipulated time frame that project can be termed as successful. Three main points that are most important for a successful project are:
1. A project must meet its customer’s requirements
2. A project must be under the specified budget.
3. A project must be in time.
However, there is no tool or measurement so as to determine how successful a project has been or to conclude one project is superior to the other. As discussed earlier each project is unique in its own way. Hence there is no hierarchical level among projects in the way it is planned or based on the field of the project.

Ten commandments of successful project management:
1. Thou shall clearly define the project mission and goals: Well-defined goals and mission of project and clarity in understanding them as well as clearly communicating them to the team members, sponsors and stakeholders are very important for a successful project.
2. Thou shall gain the support of the top management: As the ultimate decision with regard to project, starting from getting the project approved to getting the needed resources to budgeting, depends on the top management. Therefore project manager’s ability to communicate clearly and getting the continued solid support is very important for the project’s success.
3. Thou shall prepare the plan: A detailed plan that covers all aspects of the project like technical, financial, organizational, scheduling, communication and control is the project managers secret to success.
4. Thou shall always consult your customer: Even though a project is completed on time meeting all the objectives but user rejects it, the project may still be considered a failure. Here again a project manger’s communication skills will be put to test.
5. Thou shall resolve the personnel issues: Again merely achieving the goals set forth without violating the budget and schedule constraints may not necessarily be a successful project. Even if the customer accepts but the relationship among the members, clients and the stakeholders, and the management is sullied, still the project may be termed as a failure.
6. Thou shall resolve the technical issues: Technical incompatibility and inappropriate technologies could affect the budget, schedule, performance and team's spirit and morale. Therefore resolving both technical and personnel issues before they deteriorate further is very important for the total success of a project.
7. Thou shall get the client acceptance: An otherwise successful project, if rejected by the client (the last hurdle), may still be considered a failed project. Frequent consultation with the client at appropriate steps will definitely increase the probability of client acceptance and there by the success of the project.
8. Thou shall take control of the project and the situation: As discussed earlier, projects by nature involve risks and uncertainties. Regularly monitoring the actual progress and comparing it to the plan allows the manager to anticipate the difficulties and problems and thereby to initiate preventive and corrective actions. Therefore such activities give the project manager the much needed control and power leading to the success of a project.
9. Thou shall be a great communicator: Communication within the team, with other divisions of the organization and between the project manger and the client, can be dramatically improved planning and defining the communication channel before hand and by controlling the information flow. Each and every phase and activities of the project requires efficient and effective communication for the successful completion of the project.
10. Thou shall learn to troubleshoot effectively: The individual nature of the project presents itself with unique set of problems and problems means troubles. Therefore, the control system should be designed in a way that identifying and tracking the source of problems is easy. Having plans and procedures for handling such situations may prove to be handy and result in reducing the time to troubleshoot the problem.

To be continued...

[arul_satish]

Having said enough about the success of the project it is now equally important to discuss the things that may go wrong in a project or the barriers of the project management. The following are the areas where caution must be exercised to avoid pitfalls:

1. Poor time management
2. Ambiguous objectives or lack of well defined goals and objectives
3. De-motivated team or bad team morale
4. Weak management
5. Difficult and unpredictable weather conditions
6. Non-compliance with standards and procedure
7. Strike and inter-personality conflicts
8. Unable to satisfy client or disagreement with the client
9. Poor communication
10. Poor planning and lack of honesty in reporting the progress

Many projects failed because the team was not properly informed about what to do and what has been achieved so far. Also, when the projects don’t meet the desired objectives agreed upon with the client, the projects fail.

To be continued...

[arul_satish]

Ethical, moral and legal issues of project management:

Ethics is the science that explains the valuing process. It provides a theory for explaining why conduct is considered good or bad. It attempts to answer the questions "Why is this good?" and "Why is that bad?" The whole spectrum of moral approach is found in a typical construction project--to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, whether in correspondence, meetings, or in the courtroom. It is useful to differentiate between personal morals and the ethics of an industry, a profession, and a process such as arbitration. These practices vary among different professions.

The legal authority of the project manager and his/her role as a leader require proper understanding of the legal moral and ethical issues of project mangement. Project managers directly or indirectly affect the quality of life of all people in our society. Hence it is important that they observe proper ethical manners to earn and maintain the confidence of their team member, colleagues, employees, clients and the public. The following paragraph briefs about code of ethics formulated by Ireland et al .,(Shtub, 1994).

Article one of the code of ethics addresses the personal and professional standards of project managers. It calls for taking responsibilities for their actions and undertake projects only if the one is qualified by training or experience. It also asks him/her to maintain their professional skills by recognizing the importance of continued personal development and education. Further, it says, encouraging colleagues and co-workers to follow these codes by practicing in a dignified manner is also essential. Above all obeying the laws of country in which work is being performed is also vital.

Article two discuss about the key points in the way a project manager should work. Providing needed leadership and applying proved and tested project mangement tools and techniques to maximize productivity and to ensure schedules are met are very important according to this article. One should also treat his/her team members equally regardless of race, religion, sex, age or nationality. A project manager should aim to protect his/her team members from physical and mental harm and provide them proper work condition and opportunities. Must accept and offer honest criticism or appreciation of work.

Article three deals with the relationships between employers and client. Project manager should be faithful to his employers and clients in business matters. Must maintain confidentiality of business information. He/she should avoid the conflict of interests by informing the involved party as when required. Neither give nor accept directly or indirectly, any gift payment or services of more than normal value to or from those having business relationship with employers or clients. Should be honest and realistic in reporting cost, schedule and performance of the project.

Article four is about project manager's responsibilities to his community. He should attempt to protect the safety, health and welfare of the public and the environment.

The above code abstract gives the guidelines for the moral and ethical responsibility of a project manager. Guidelines for legal responsibilities depend on the organization, the contract and the country. The legal aspects of a) contractual issues related to clients, suppliers and subcontractor, b) government laws and regulations, and c) labor relations legislations are common to all projects. A project manager should always consult his legal staff in his organization for any clarifications related to the above.

When an organization contracts or uses subcontractors, legalities come into action. The contract types are commonly classified into fixed cost and cost reimbursable contracts. In fixed-cost contracts the contractor assumes total responsibilities for cost, schedule and technical aspects of projects. Sometimes incentives linked to performance are given to improve performance. In cost reimbursable contracts the risk is borne by the customer. Sometimes apart from guaranteeing minimum profit, incentive for performance is also paid to boost their performance. Within these two types there are many variants. The proper contract for the project depends on the levels of risk involved, the ability of each party to assume part of risk and the negotiating power of the participants. Here, project manager's ability to communicate clearly and establish good working relationship with parties involved are vital.

Further, the project manager should be familiar with government laws and regulations involving labor, safety, environment, patent and trade. Each country has its own regulations on minimum wages, benefits, work condition, equal employment opportunity, employment of handicapped and occupational safety and health. Therefore, project manager should not assume that these regulations are same everywhere. Caution should be exercised particularly when handling international projects.

To be continued...

[arul_satish]

Technology, project and management:
Defining projects by type provides useful information on the role of existing technology in their development and how resources should be allocated. Five project types have been identified. They are: 1. Derivative, 2. Break through, 3. Platform, 4. Research and development, and 5. Precede commercialization. The first three are associated with market place (Shtub, 1994)

Each of these five project types requires unique combination of development resources and management styles. Understanding the difference among these categories help managers predict the distribution of resources accurately and allows for better planning and sequencing of projects.

Derivative projects range from less expensive versions of existing products to add-ons or enhancements. On the other hand break through projects involve significant changes to existing products and process. They differ fundamentally from previous generations. Platform projects are a crossbreed of the first two project types. They result in more product or process change than derivatives but they do not introduce new technologies or materials as in break through products. Platforms offer considerable competitive leverage and potential market penetration. On the contrary, research and development projects may or may not result in a product. The market potential of the resultant product is also doubtful -yet it is one of the important strategies of the organization. Precede commercialization is basically a forerunner project to the new products or processes.

The aspects of project management of these technological projects are the link between engineering, science and management discipline. The understanding of these links and the connection between product design, process design, support design, cost, schedule, resources and project success are the main contributions that the project manger makes to the technological aspects of a project.

The need for a new product or service or system results in need for technological management. If the feasibility study of the project results in positive economic gains, the project is undertaken. The organization aspect must be addressed during the conceptual design phase. The structure of the change control board is very critical. Engineering and quality assurance should be included. The role of each change control member and procedures adopted for change request evaluations are very important to the technological management process. Because each phase of the project ends with an updated more complete and more detailed configuration, time management is also essential. The baselines and the corresponding design reviews become key milestones in the project life cycle from the technological point of view. Reviews and configuration management plan form the foundation of the project. Due to continuing stream of engineering change requests, ongoing technological management is required for many products. Technology management should also include cost of technological decisions and risk analysis. Project cost and success are directly related to the design decisions. The ability to integrate all the different factors affected by technological decisions and consequently to produce the best design based on all these factors is the essence of technological management.

To be continued...

[arul_satish]

With this article we conclude Part 1 and soon we will start our next series...

Conclusion - A technological perspective:

Management of technology in projects should ensure that the organization maintains command over the technologies relevant to its purposes, supports the organization's business strategy and stakeholder’s value. Abraham Shtub et al 1994, point out the following three steps in strategic management of technology in projects. The first step is to find out what mix of products and markets will best sustain and enhance the cash flow of the organization. The next step is to test how well the organization's technologies support the ideal product and market mix. The final step is to focus technology investments so that they better support the strategy of their organization.

In spite of the technological implications and skepticism over its success rate, project management is used globally by multi-billion-dollar companies, governments, and small non-profit organizations alike. As the global competition heats up and need for projects to be completed on time and under budget rises up, the demand for project management skills has also picked up over a period of time. To say the least, project management is changing the very face of life and the way we live, think and feel, and people behind the project management will lead the development of exciting new business enterprises in the current century and for centuries to come.


References:

• SHTUB, A., BARD, J. F., and Globerson, S. 1994. Project Management – Engineering, Technology, and Implementing. New Jersey, the USA. Prentice Hall.
• YOUNG, T.L. 1998. Handbook of Project Management – A practical guide to effective policies and procedures. London. Kogan Pase Limited.
• REISS, G.1992. Project Management Demystified – Today’s tools and techniques, E & FN SPON.
• Author not specified, 2000. A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge – Project management Institute, http://www.pmi.org/publictn/download/2000welcome.htm
• McNamara, C. Project Management, 1999. http://www.mapnp.org/library/plan_dec/p ... roject.htm