Chapter No 1

Project Management
 Chapter Objectives

 Define a Project
 List a project’s characteristics
 Distinguish a project from a program, activity and
task.
 Understand the three parameters that constrains
a project
 Know the importance of defining and using a
project classification rule.
 Understand the issues around scope creep, hope
creep, effort creep and feature creep.
 Define a Project

 “A Project is a sequence of unique, complex

and connected activities having one goal or
purpose and that must be completed by a
specific time, within budget and according to
specification”.( Taken from Robert K. Wysocki).
 Now lets take each part of the Definition
separately.
 Charactertistics
Sequence of Activities
 A project comprises a number of activities
that must be completed in some specified
order, or sequence.(An activity is a defined as
chunk of Work).
 In order to get the desired objective we have
to think in terms of inputs and outputs.
 What is needed as input in order to begin
working on this activity.
 What activities produce those as outputs.
 Unique Activities

 The activities in a project must be unique.

 For each and every project the outputs can be
different.
 Like in doing of one activity we can have
different result and when we repeat the same
activity the result can be totally changed.
 Now this thing becomes a challenge for the
project manager.
 Complex Activities

 The activities that make up the project are

not simple, repetitive acts, such as mowing
the lawn, painting the house, washing the
car, or loading the delivery truck.
 They are complex.
 For example, designing an intuitive use
interface to an application system is a
complex activity.
 Connected Activities

 Connectedness implies that there is a logical

or technical relationship between pairs of
activities.
 There is an order to the sequence in which
the activities that makeup the project must
be completed.
 They are considered connected because the
output from one activity is the input to
another.
 Connected Activities

 For example, we must design the computer

program before we can program it.
 One Goal

 Projects must have a single goal, for example,

to design an inner city play ground for
families.
 However, very large or complex projects may
be divided into several subprojects, each of
which is a project in its own right.
 This division for better management control.
For example, subprojects can be defined at the
department , division or geographic level.
 Specified Time

 Projects have a specified completion date.

 This date can be self imposed by
management or externally specified by a
customer or government agency.
 The deadline is beyond the control of anyone
working on the project.
 The project is over on the specified
completion date whether or not the project
work has been completed.
 Within Budget

 Projects also have resources limits, such as a

limited amount of people, money or machines
that are dedicated to the project.
 While these resources can be adjusted up or down
by management, they are considered fixed
resources to the project manager.
 For example, suppose a company has only one
web designer at the moment.
 That is the fixed resources that is available to
project managers.
 Project And Program

 A Program is a collection of projects.

 A Project is a to be completed within specific
time and in specific order to make it
complete.
 Cause program comprises of multiple
projects, they are larger in scope than a single
project.
 For example a space program can that
includes several projects.
 Project And Program

 Unlike projects, program can have many

goals.
 The NASA space program is such that every
launch of a new mission includes several
dozen projects in form of scientific
experiments.
 Project Parameters

 Five constraints operate on every project.

1) Scope
2) Quality
3) Cost
4) Time
5) Resources
 These constraints are an interdependent set.
 A change in one can cause a change in another
constraint to restore the equilibrium of the
project.
 Project Parameters

 These all constraints or five parameters form

a system that must remain in balance for the
project to be in balance.
 They are so important to success or failure of
the project.
 1) Scope

 Scope is a statement that defines the

boundaries of the project.
 It tells not only what will be done but also what
will not be done.
 Scope may also be referred to as a document of
understanding , a scoping statement, a project
initiation document and a project request form.
 Beginning a project on the right is important
and so staying on the right foot.
 1) Scope

 It is no secret that scope can change at any

time.
 Detecting that change and deciding how to
accommodate it in the project plan are major
challenges for the project manager.
 2) Quality

 Two types of quality are part of every

product.
 The first is product quality.
 This refers to the quality of the deliverable
form the project.
 The traditional tools of quality control are
used to ensure product quality.
 2) Quality

 The second type of quality is the process

quality, which is the quality of the project
management process itself.
 The focus is on how well the project
management process works and how can it
be improved.
 Continuous quality improvement and process
quality management are the tools used to
measure process quality.
 2) Quality

 When we are going to make a sound

management process plan so just one job
gets left over there and that is to monitor the
project.
 Because if you have a sound plan so
everything automatically get adjusted and
running smoothly.
 3) Cost

 The Dollar cost of the project is another

variable that defines the project.
 The second name can be budget that has
been established for the project.
 It works like an input when we do project to
deliver.
 It is the major consideration throughout the
project management life cycle.
 3) Cost

 The customer can simply offer a figure about

equal to what customer he or she had in mind
for the project.
 The figure should be close to the estimate
that is already made for the project.
 In more formal situations the project
managers prepares a proposal for the
projected work.
 3) Cost

 That proposal includes an estimate (perhaps

even a quote) of the total cost of the project.
 It makes it easy for the customer to decide
whether to work on the project with
proposed budget or not.
 4) Time

 The customer specifies a timeframe or

deadline date within which the project must
be completed.
 Basically the time and cost are inversely
proportion with each other.
 The time a project takes to be completed can
be reduced but cost increases as a result.
 Time is an interesting resource, it is
consumed whether we use it or not.
 4) Time

 The objective for the project manager is to use the

future time allotted to the project in the most
effective and productive ways possible.
 Future time (time that has not occurred) can be
resource to be traded within a project or across
projects.
 Once a project has begun, the prime resource
available to the project manager to keep the
project on schedule or get it back on schedule is
time.
 5) Resources

 Resources are assets, such as people,

equipment, physical facilities, or inventory, that
have limited availabilities, can be scheduled, or
can be leased from an outside party.
 Some are fixed others are variable only in the
long term.
 In any case they are central to the scheduling of
project activities and the orderly completion of
the project.
 5) Resources

 For system development projects, people are

the major resource.
 Another valuable resource for systems
project is the availability of the computer
processing time (mostly for testing
purposes), which can present significant
problems to the project manager with regard
to project scheduling.
Classification By Project
Characteristics
 Many organizations have chosen to define a
classification of projects based on such project
characteristics as these:
 Risk Establish levels of risk (high, medium
,low)
 Business Value Establish levels (High,
Medium ,low)
 Length  Establish several categories (i.e , 3
Months, 3 to 6 Months, 6 to 12 Months , etc.)
Classification By Project
Characteristics
 Complexity  Establish categories (High,
Medium, Low)
 Technology Used Establish several
categories (well Established, Used
Somewhat, Basic familiarity, unknown, etc)
 Number of Departments Affected 
Establish some categories (One, Few,
Several, all).
 Cost 
Classification By Project
Characteristics
 The project profile determines the
classification of the project.
 The classification defines the extent to which
the project management methodology is to
be used.
 Types of Projects
 Types A Project: Project of Type A are the high business
value, high complexity project.
 They are the most challenging projects the
organization undertakes.
 Type A projects use the latest technology, which, when
coupled with high complexity, causes risk to be high
also.
 To maximize the probability of success, the
organization requires that these projects utilize all the
methods and tools available in their project
management methodology.
 Types of Projects

 Types A Project:
 An example of a Type A project is the
introduction of a new technology into an
existing product that has been very profitable
for the company.
 Types of Projects

 Type B Projects:
 Projects of Type B are shorter in length, yet
they still are significant projects for the
organization.
 All of the methods and tools in the project
management process are probably required.
 The projects generally have good business
value and are technologically challenging.
 Types of Projects

 Type B Projects:
 Many product development projects fall in
this category.
 Types of Projects

 Type C Projects:
 Projects of Type C are the projects occurring most
frequently in an organization.
 They are short by comparison and use establish
technology.
 Many are projects that deal with the
infrastructure of the organization.
 A typical project team consists of five people, the
project lasts six month, and the project is based on
a less than adequate scope statement.
 Types of Projects

 Type C Projects:
 Many of the methods and tools are not
required for these projects.
 The project manager uses those tools, which
are optional, if he or she sees value in their
use.
 Types of Project

 Type D Project:
 Projects of type D just meet the definition of
a project and may require only a scope
statement and a few scheduling pieces of
information.
 A typical type D project involves making a
minor change in an exclusive process or
procedure or revising a course in the trianing
curriculum.
 Table Supporting Types of Project

 The figure lists the methods and tools that

are required and optional given the the type
of project
 Table Supporting Types of Project
Project Management Process Project Classification
A B C D
Define
Conditions of Satisfaction R R O O
Project Overview Statement R R R R
Approval for Request R R R R
Plan
Conduct Planning Session R R O O
Prepare Project Proposal R R R R
Approval of Proposal R R R R
 Table Supporting Types of
Project
Project Management Process Project Classification
A B C D
Launch
Kick Off Meeting R R O O
Activity Schedule R R R R
Resource Assignment R R R O
Statement of Working R O O O
Monitor/Control
Status Reporting R R R R
Project Team Meeting R R O O
Approval of Deliverables R R R R
 Table Supporting Types of
Project
Project Management Process Project Classification
A B C D
Closure
Post Implementation Audit R R R R
Project Notebook R R O O
R=REQUIRED O=OPTIONAL
 Examples Project Classes And
Definitions
CLASS DURATION RISK COMPLEXITY TECHNOLOGY LIKELIHOOD
OF PROBLEMS

Type A >18 months High High Breakthrough Certain

Type B 9-18 Months Medium Medium Current Likely

Type C 3-9 Months Low Low Best of Breed Some

Type D <3 Months Very low Very Low Practical None

 Creeps

 Scope Creep:
 Scope creep is the term that has come to
mean any change in the project that was not
in the original plan.
 Change is constant.
 Changes occur for several reasons that have
nothing to do with the ability or foresight of
the customer or the project manager.
 Creeps

 Scope Creep:
 Market conditions are dynamic.
 The competition can introduce or announce
an upcoming new version of its product.
 Your management might decide that getting
to the market before the competition is
necessary.
 Your job as project manager is to figure out
how these changes can be accommodated.
 Creeps

 Scope Creep:
 Tough job, but somebody has to do it.
 Regardless of how these changes occur, it is
your job as project manager to figure out
how, if at all, you can accommodate the
change.
 Creeps

 Hope Creep:
 Hope creep is the result of a project team
member’s getting behind schedule, reporting that
he or she is on schedule, but hoping to get on
schedule by the next report date.
 Hope creep is a real problem for the present
manager.
 There will be several activity managers within
your project, team members who manage a
chunk of work.
 Creeps

 Hope Creep:
 They don’t want to give you bad news, so
they are prone to tell you that their work is
proceeding according to schedule when, in
fact, it is not.
 It is their hope that they will catch up by the
next report period, so they mislead you into
thinking that they are on schedule.
 Creeps

 Hope Creep:
 The activity managers hope that they will
catch up by completing some work ahead of
schedule to make up the slippage.
 The project manager must verify the
accuracy of the status reports received from
the team members.
 This does not mean that the project manager
has to check into the details of every report.
 Creeps

 Random checks can be used effectively.

 Creeps

 Effort Creep:
 Effort creep is the result of the team
member’s working but not making progress
proportionate to the expended.
 Everyone of us has worked on a project that
always seems to be 95 percent complete no
matter how much effort is expended to
complete it.
 Creeps

 Effort Creep:
 Each week the status report records progress,
but the amount of work remaining doesn’t
seem to decrease proportionately.
 Other than random checks, the only effective
thing that the project manager can do is to
increase the frequency of status reporting by
those team members who seem to suffer
from effort creep.
 Creeps

 Features Creep:
 Closely related to scope creep is feature
creep.
 Feature creep results when the team
members arbitrarily add features and
functions to the deliverable that they think
the customer would want to have.
 The problem is that the customer didn’t
specify the feature, probably for good reason.
 Creeps

 Features Creep:
 If the team members has strong feelings
about the need for this new feature, formal
change management procedures can be
employed.