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Project Management is the discipline of planning, organizing, and managing resources to bring about the successful completion of specific project goals and objectives. An academic discipline or field of study is a branch of Knowledge which is taught or Researched at the college or university level A project is a finite endeavor—having specific start and completion dates—undertaken to create a unique product or service which brings about beneficial change or added value. For all other uses see Project (disambiguation. A project, as defined in the field of Project management, consists of a temporary This finite characteristic of projects stands in sharp contrast to processes, or operations, which are permanent or semi-permanent functional work to repetitively produce the same product or service. In practice, the management of these 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 philosophy, which is the subject of this article. Management (covering theory practice and scope of management and Manager' (covering the people who manage might help clarify and systematise

The primary challenge of project management is to achieve all of the project goals and objectives while adhering to classic project constraints—usually scope, quality, time and budget. The secondary—and more ambitious—challenge is to optimize the allocation and integration of inputs necessary to meet pre-defined objectives. Operations Research (OR in North America South Africa and Australia and Operational Research in Europe is an interdisciplinary branch of applied Mathematics and Resource allocation is used to assign the available Resources in an economic way A project is a carefully defined set of activities that use resources (money, people, materials, energy, space, provisions, communication, motivation, etc. For all other uses see Project (disambiguation. A project, as defined in the field of Project management, consists of a temporary In economic theory factors of production (or productive inputs) are the resources employed to produce goods and services Money is anything that is generally accepted as Payment for Goods and services and repayment of Debts. An English Noun The English noun people has two distinct fields of application as a countable noun, a group of Humans Materials are physical Substances used as inputs to production or Manufacturing. In Physics and other Sciences energy (from the Greek grc ἐνέργεια - Energeia, "activity operation" from grc ἐνεργός Space is the extent within which Matter is physically extended and objects and Events have positions relative to one another Communication is the process of conveying information from a sender to a receiver with the use of a medium in which the communicated information is understood the same way Motivation is the reason or reasons for engaging in a particular behavior especially Human behavior as studied in Philosophy, Conflict, Economics ) to achieve the project goals and objectives.

Contents

History of project management

As a discipline, project management developed from different fields of application including construction, engineering, and defense. In the fields of Architecture and Civil engineering, construction is a process that consists of the Building or assembling of Infrastructure Engineering is the Discipline and Profession of applying technical and scientific Knowledge and Defence In the United States, the forefather of project management is Henry Gantt, called the father of planning and control techniques, who is famously known for his use of the Gantt chart as a project management tool, for being an associate of Frederick Winslow Taylor's theories of scientific management[1], and for his study of the work and management of Navy ship building. Henry Laurence Gantt, AB ME ( 1861 - 23 November 1919) was a mechanical engineer and Management consultant who is most famous Frederick Winslow Taylor ( 20 March 1856 &ndash 21 March 1915) widely known as F His work is the forerunner to many modern project management tools including the work breakdown structure (WBS) and resource allocation. A work breakdown structure or WBS is a Tree structure, that permits summing of subordinate costs for tasks materials etc

The 1950s marked the beginning of the modern project management era. Again, in the United States, prior to the 1950s, projects were managed on an ad hoc basis using mostly Gantt Charts, and informal techniques and tools. At that time, two mathematical project scheduling models were developed: (1) the "Program Evaluation and Review Technique" or PERT, developed by Booz-Allen & Hamilton as part of the United States Navy's (in conjunction with the Lockheed Corporation) Polaris missile submarine program[2]; and (2) the "Critical Path Method" (CPM) developed in a joint venture by both DuPont Corporation and Remington Rand Corporation for managing plant maintenance projects. The Program (or Project) Evaluation and Review Technique, commonly abbreviated PERT, is a model for Project management designed to analyze The Lockheed Corporation (originally Loughead Aircraft Manufacturing Company was an American aerospace company founded in 1912 which merged with Martin Marietta The Polaris missile was a submarine-launched two-stage solid-fuel nuclear-armed ballistic missile ( SLBM) built during the Cold War by Lockheed for The Critical Path Method, abbreviated CPM, or critical path analysis, is a mathematically based Algorithm for scheduling a set of project activities E I du Pont de Nemours and Company (,) is an American chemical company that was founded in July 1802 as a Gunpowder mill by Eleuthère Irénée Remington Rand (1927–1955 was an early American Computer manufacturer best known as the original maker of the UNIVAC I, and now part of Unisys These mathematical techniques quickly spread into many private enterprises.

At the same time, technology for project cost estimating, cost management, and engineering economics was evolving, with pioneering work by Hans Lang and others. In 1956, the American Association of Cost Engineers (now AACE International; the Association for the Advancement of Cost Engineering) was formed by early practitioners of project management and the associated specialties of planning and scheduling, cost estimating, and cost/schedule control (project control). AACE International (the Association for the Advancement of Cost Engineering) was founded in 1956 by 59 cost estimators and cost engineers during the organizational meeting of The Association for the Advancement of Cost Engineering ( AACE International) defines Cost Engineering as "the area of engineering practice where engineering AACE has continued its pioneering work and in 2006 released the first ever integrated process for portfolio, program and project management(Total Cost Management Framework). Total cost management (TCM is the name given by AACE International to a process for applying the skills and knowledge of Cost engineering.

In 1969, the Project Management Institute (PMI) was formed to serve the interest of the project management industry. The Project Management Institute (PMI is a global member association and advocacy organization for the project management profession The premise of PMI is that the tools and techniques of project management are common even among the widespread application of projects from the software industry to the construction industry. The software industry comprises businesses involved in the development, maintenance and publication of Computer software. In 1981, the PMI Board of Directors authorized the development of what has become A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide), containing the standards and guidelines of practice that are widely used throughout the profession. The International Project Management Association (IPMA), founded in Europe in 1967, has undergone a similar development and instituted the IPMA Competence Baseline (ICB). The focus of the ICB also begins with knowledge as a foundation, and adds considerations about relevant experience, interpersonal skills, and competence. Both organizations are now participating in the development of an ISO project management standard.

Definitions

Job description

Project management is quite often the province and responsibility of an individual project manager. hiyaA project manager is a professional in the field of Project management. This individual seldom participates directly in the activities that produce the end result, but rather strives to maintain the progress and productive mutual interaction of various parties in such a way that overall risk of failure is reduced.

A project manager is often a client representative and has to determine and implement the exact needs of the client, based on knowledge of the firm they are representing. The ability to adapt to the various internal procedures of the contracting party, and to form close links with the nominated representatives, is essential in ensuring that the key issues of cost, time, quality, and above all, client satisfaction, can be realized.

In whatever field, a successful project manager must be able to envision the entire project from start to finish and to have the ability to ensure that this vision is realized.

Any type of product or service —buildings, vehicles, electronics, computer software, financial services, etc. — may have its implementation overseen by a project manager and its operations by a product manager. A product manager researches selects develops and places a company's products

The traditional triple constraints

Like any human undertaking, projects need to be performed and delivered under certain constraints. Traditionally, these constraints have been listed as scope, time, and cost. These are also referred to as the Project Management Triangle, where each side represents a constraint. One side of the triangle cannot be changed without impacting the others. A further refinement of the constraints separates product 'quality' or 'performance' from scope, and turns quality into a fourth constraint.

The Project Management Triangle
The Project Management Triangle

The time constraint refers to the amount of time available to complete a project. The cost constraint refers to the budgeted amount available for the project. The scope constraint refers to what must be done to produce the project's end result. These three constraints are often competing constraints: increased scope typically means increased time and increased cost, a tight time constraint could mean increased costs and reduced scope, and a tight budget could mean increased time and reduced scope.

The discipline of project management is about providing the tools and techniques that enable the project team (not just the project manager) to organize their work to meet these constraints.

Another approach to project management is to consider the three constraints as finance, time and human resources. If you need to finish a job in a shorter time, you can throw more people at the problem, which in turn will raise the cost of the project, unless by doing this task quicker we will reduce costs elsewhere in the project by an equal amount.

Time

For analytical purposes, the time required to produce a deliverable is estimated using several techniques. In Project Management terms a deliverable is a tangible or intangible object produced as a result of project execution as part of an obligation One method is to identify tasks needed to produce the deliverables documented in a work breakdown structure or WBS. A work breakdown structure or WBS is a Tree structure, that permits summing of subordinate costs for tasks materials etc The work effort for each task is estimated and those estimates are rolled up into the final deliverable estimate.

The tasks are also prioritized, dependencies between tasks are identified, and this information is documented in a project schedule. The dependencies between the tasks can affect the length of the overall project (dependency constrained), as can the availability of resources (resource constrained). Time is not considered a cost nor a resource since the project manager cannot control the rate at which it is expended. This makes it different from all other resources and cost categories. It should be remembered that no effort expended will have any higher quality than that of the effort- expenders.

Cost

Cost to develop a project depends on several variables including (chiefly): resource costs, labor rates, material rates, risk management (i. For non-business risks see Risk or the disambiguation page Risk analysis. e. cost contingency), Earned value management, plant (buildings, machines, etc. When estimating the cost for a Project, product or other item or investment there is always Uncertainty as to precise content of all items in the estimate how work will be Earned Value Management ( EVM) is a Project management technique for measuring project progress in an objective manner ), equipment, cost escalation, indirect costs, and profit. Cost escalation is defined in the field of Cost engineering as changes in the cost or price of specific goods or services in a given economy over a period of time But beyond this basic accounting approach to fixed and variable costs, the economic cost that must be considered includes worker skill and productivity which is calculated by variation to project cost estimates. This is important when companies hire temporary or contract employees or outsource work.

Scope

Requirements specified for the end result. The overall definition of what the project is supposed to accomplish, and a specific description of what the end result should be or accomplish. A major component of scope is the quality of the final product. In the vernacular quality can mean a high degree of excellence (“a quality product” a degree of excellence or the lack of it (“work of average quality” or a property of The amount of time put into individual tasks determines the overall quality of the project. Some tasks may require a given amount of time to complete adequately, but given more time could be completed exceptionally. Over the course of a large project, quality can have a significant impact on time and cost (or vice versa).

Together, these three constraints have given rise to the phrase "On Time, On Spec, On Budget". In this case, the term "scope" is substituted with "spec(ification)".

Project management activities

Project management is composed of several different types of activities such as:

  1. Analysis & design of objectives and events
  2. Planning the work according to the objectives
  3. Assessing and controlling risk (or Risk Management)
  4. Estimating resources
  5. Allocation of resources
  6. Organizing the work
  7. Acquiring human and material resources
  8. Assigning tasks
  9. Directing activities
  10. Controlling project execution
  11. Tracking and reporting progress (Management information system)
  12. Analyzing the results based on the facts achieved
  13. Defining the products of the project
  14. Forecasting future trends in the project
  15. Quality Management
  16. Issues management
  17. Issue solving
  18. Defect prevention
  19. Identifying, managing & controlling changes
  20. Project closure (and project debrief)
  21. Communicating to stakeholders
  22. Increasing/ decreasing a company's workers

Project objectives

Project objectives define target status at the end of the project, reaching of which is considered necessary for the achievement of planned benefits. Strategic planning is an Organization 's process of defining its Strategy, or direction and making decisions on allocating its resources to pursue this strategy Planning in Organizations and Public policy is both the organizational process of creating and maintaining a Plan; and the psychological process of For non-business risks see Risk or the disambiguation page Risk analysis. Estimation is the calculated Approximation of a result which is usable even if Input data may be incomplete or uncertain. Management Information System ( MIS) is a subset of the overall Internal controls of a business covering the application of people documents technologies and procedures Quality management is a method for ensuring that all the activities necessary to design develop and implement a product or service are effective and efficient with respect to the system A corporate stakeholder is a party who affects or can be affected by the company's actions Strategic planning is an Organization 's process of defining its Strategy, or direction and making decisions on allocating its resources to pursue this strategy They can be formulated as S.M.A.R.T.

The evaluation (measurement) occurs at the project closure. However a continuous guard on the project progress should be kept by monitoring and evaluating.

Project management artifacts

The following documents serve to clarify objectives and deliverables and to align sponsors, clients, and project team's expectations.

  1. Project Charter
  2. Preliminary Scope Statement / Statement of work
  3. Business case / Feasibility Study
  4. Scope Statement / Terms of reference
  5. Project management plan / Project Initiation Document
  6. Work Breakdown Structure
  7. Change Control Plan
  8. Risk Management Plan
  9. Risk Breakdown Structure
  10. Communications Plan
  11. Governance Model
  12. Risk Register
  13. Issue Log
  14. Action Item List
  15. Resource Management Plan
  16. Project Schedule
  17. Status Report
  18. Responsibility assignment matrix
  19. Database of lessons learned
  20. Stakeholder Analysis

These documents are normally hosted on a shared resource (i. In Project management, a project charter or project definition (sometimes called the Terms of reference) is a statement of the scope objectives and participants The purpose of a business case is to capture the reasoning for initiating a project or task " Feasibility Study " is also the title of an episode from The Outer Limits television show Scope statements may take many forms depending on the type of Project being implemented and the nature of the organization Terms of reference, abbreviated as TOR describe the purpose and structure of a Project, Committee, Meeting, Negotiation, etc The project management plan is a document that describes the Project management System used by a project team A Project initiation document is a logical document whose purpose is to bring together the key information needed to start the project on a sound basis and to convey that information to A work breakdown structure or WBS is a Tree structure, that permits summing of subordinate costs for tasks materials etc Change control is a general term describing the procedures used to ensure that changes (normally but not necessarily to IT systems are introduced in a controlled and coordinated A Risk Management Plan is a document prepared by a Project manager to foresee risks to estimate the effectiveness and to create response plans to Mitigate them A risk register is a tool commonly used in Project planning and organisational risk assessments In Organizational studies, resource management is the efficient and effective deployment of an organization's resources when they are needed See also Project management In Project management, a schedule consists of a list of a Project 's Terminal elements with intended start and Responsibility assignment matrix (RAM is typically used to link activities to resources to ensure that the scope's components are each assigned to an individual or team ( Source Introduction A stakeholder is any person or Organization who can be positively or negatively impacted by or cause an impact on the actions of a company e. , intranet web page) and are available for review by the project's stakeholders (except for the Stakeholder Analysis, since this document comprises personal information regarding certain stakeholders. Only the Project Manager has access to this analysis). Changes or updates to these documents are explicitly outlined in the project's configuration management (or change control plan).

Project control variables

Project Management tries to gain control over variables such as risk:

Risk 
Potential points of failure: Most negative risks (or potential failures) can be overcome or resolved, given enough planning capabilities, time, and resources. Risk is a Concept that denotes the precise probability of specific eventualities According to some definitions (including PMBOK Third Edition) risk can also be categorized as "positive--" meaning that there is a potential opportunity, e. g. , complete the project faster than expected.

Customers (either internal or external project sponsors) and external organizations (such as government agencies and regulators) can dictate the extent of three variables: time, cost, and scope. The remaining variable (risk) is managed by the project team, ideally based on solid estimation and response planning techniques. Through a negotiation process among project stakeholders, an agreement defines the final objectives, in terms of time, cost, scope, and risk, usually in the form of a charter or contract.

To properly control these variables a good project manager has a depth of knowledge and experience in these four areas (time, cost, scope, and risk), and in six other areas as well: integration, communication, human resources, quality assurance, schedule development, and procurement.

Approaches

There are several approaches that can be taken to managing project activities including agile, interactive, incremental, and phased approaches.

Regardless of the approach employed, careful consideration needs to be given to clarify surrounding project objectives, goals, and importantly, the roles and responsibilities of all participants and stakeholders.

The traditional approach

Typical development phases of a project
Typical development phases of a project

A traditional phased approach identifies a sequence of steps to be completed. In the traditional approach, we can distinguish 5 components of a project (4 stages plus control) in the development of a project:

  1. project initiation stage;
  2. project planning or design stage;
  3. project execution or production stage;
  4. project monitoring and controlling systems;
  5. project completion stage. Project planning is part of Project management, which relates to the use of schedules such as Gantt charts to plan and subsequently report progress within

Not all the projects will visit every stage as projects can be terminated before they reach completion. Some projects probably don't have the planning and/or the monitoring. Some projects will go through steps 2, 3 and 4 multiple times.

Many industries utilize variations on these stages. For example, in bricks and mortar architectural design, projects typically progress through stages like Pre-Planning, Conceptual Design, Schematic Design, Design Development, Construction Drawings (or Contract Documents), and Construction Administration. In software development, this approach is often known as 'waterfall development' i. Software development is the translation of a user need or marketing goal into a Software product The waterfall model is a sequential Software development process (a process for the creation of software in which development is seen as flowing steadily downwards e. one series of tasks after another in linear sequence. In software development many organizations have adapted the Rational Unified Process (RUP) to fit this methodology, although RUP does not require or explicitly recommend this practice. Waterfall development can work for small tightly defined projects, but for larger projects of undefined or unknowable scope, it is less suited. The Cone of Uncertainty explains some of this as the planning made on the initial phase of the project suffers from a high degree of uncertainty. The Cone of Uncertainty describes the change of uncertainties during a Project. This becomes specially true as software development is often the realization of a new or novel product, this method has been widely accepted as ineffective for software projects where requirements are largely unknowable up front and susceptible to change. While the names may differ from industry to industry, the actual stages typically follow common steps to problem solving--defining the problem, weighing options, choosing a path, implementation and evaluation. Problem solving forms part of thinking. Considered the most complex of all intellectual functions problem solving has been defined as higher-order Cognitive

Rational Unified Process

The Rational Unified Process (RUP) is an iterative software development process framework created by the Rational Software Corporation, a division of IBM since 2003. The Rational Unified Process ( RUP) is an Iterative Software development process framework created by the Rational Software Corporation a division RUP is not a single concrete prescriptive process, but rather an adaptable process framework, intended to be tailored by the development organizations and software project teams that will select the elements of the process that are appropriate for their needs. The following are phases of RUP, which align to business activities intended to drive successful delivery and deployment of projects. It also provide the taxonomy for blue printing and producing enterprise architecture artifacts across it's different domains.

  1. Inception - Identify the initial scope of the project, a potential architecture for the system, and obtain initial project funding and stakeholder acceptance.
  2. Elaboration - Prove the architecture of the system.
  3. Construction - Build working software on a regular, incremental basis which meets the highest-priority needs of project stakeholders.
  4. Transition - Validate and deploy the system into the production environment

The open source version of RUP is OpenUP. The Open Unified Process (OpenUP is a part of the Eclipse Process Framework (EPF an Open source process framework developed within the Eclipse Foundation

Temporary organization sequencing concepts

  1. Action-based entrepreneurship
  2. Fragmentation for commitment-building
  3. Planned isolation
  4. Institutionalised termination

Critical Chain

Critical chain is the application of the Theory of Constraints (TOC) to projects. Theory of Constraints (TOC is an overall Management philosophy. The goal is to increase the rate of throughput (or completion rates) of projects in an organization. Applying the first three of the five focusing steps of TOC, the system constraint for all projects is identified as resources. To exploit the constraint, tasks on the critical chain are given priority over all other activities. Finally, projects are planned and managed to ensure that the critical chain tasks are ready to start as soon as the needed resources are available, subordinating all other resources to the critical chain.

For specific projects, the project plan should undergo Resource Leveling, and the longest sequence of resource-constrained tasks is identified as the critical chain. Resource Leveling is a Project management process used to examine a project for an unbalanced use of resources (usually people over time and for resolving over-allocations In multi-project environments, resource leveling should be performed across projects. However, it is often enough to identify (or simply select) a single "drum" resource—a resource that acts as a constraint across projects—and stagger projects based on the availability of that single resource.

Extreme Project Management

In critical studies of project management, it has been noted that several of these fundamentally PERT-based models are not well suited for the multi-project company environment of today. The Program (or Project) Evaluation and Review Technique, commonly abbreviated PERT, is a model for Project management designed to analyze Most of them are aimed at very large-scale, one-time, non-routine projects, and nowadays all kinds of management are expressed in terms of projects. Using complex models for "projects" (or rather "tasks") spanning a few weeks has been proven to cause unnecessary costs and low maneuverability in several cases. Instead, project management experts try to identify different "lightweight" models, such as Agile Project Management methods including Extreme Programming for software development and Scrum techniques. Agile software development refers to a group of Software development methodologies that are based on similar principles Extreme Programming (or XP) is a Software engineering methodology (and a form of Agile software development) Proponents of Extreme Programming and agile Scrum is an iterative incremental process of software development commonly used with Agile software development. The generalization of Extreme Programming to other kinds of projects is extreme project management, which may be used in combination with the process modeling and management principles of human interaction management. Extreme project management ( XPM) refers to a method of managing very complex and very uncertain Projects Extreme project management differs from The term process model is used in different contexts For example in business process modeling the enterprise process model is often referred to as the business process model Human Interaction Management ( HIM) is a set of management principles patterns and techniques complementary to Business process management.

Event chain methodology

Event chain methodology is the next advance beyond critical path method and critical chain project management. Event chain methodology is an uncertainty modeling and schedule Network analysis technique that is focused on identifying and managing events and event chains that affect The Critical Path Method, abbreviated CPM, or critical path analysis, is a mathematically based Algorithm for scheduling a set of project activities

Event chain methodology is an uncertainty modeling and schedule network analysis technique that is focused on identifying and managing events and event chains that affect project schedules. Event chain methodology helps to mitigate the negative impact of psychological heuristics and biases, as well as to allow for easy modeling of uncertainties in the project schedules. Event chain methodology is based on the following major principles.

Process-based management

Also furthering the concept of project control is the incorporation of process-based management. Process-based management is a Management approach that governs the mindset and actions in an organization This area has been driven by the use of Maturity models such as the CMMI (Capability Maturity Model Integration) and ISO/IEC15504 (SPICE - Software Process Improvement and Capability Determination), which have been far more successful. Capability Maturity Model Integration ( CMMI) is a Process improvement approach that provides organizations with the essential elements of effective processes ISO/IEC 15504 also known as SPICE (Software Process Improvement and Capability dEtermination is a "framework for the assessment of processes" developed by the Joint

Agile project management approaches based on the principles of human interaction management are founded on a process view of human collaboration. Human Interaction Management ( HIM) is a set of management principles patterns and techniques complementary to Business process management. This contrasts sharply with traditional approach. In the agile software development or flexible product development approach, the project is seen as a series of relatively small tasks conceived and executed as the situation demands in an adaptive manner, rather than as a completely pre-planned process. Agile software development refers to a group of Software development methodologies that are based on similar principles Flexible product development is the ability to make changes in the product being developed or in how it is developed even relatively late in development without being too disruptive

Project systems

As mentioned above, traditionally, project development includes five elements: control systems and four stages.

Project control systems

Project control is that element of a project that keeps it on-track, on-time, and within budget. Project control begins early in the project with planning and ends late in the project with post-implementation review, having a thorough involvement of each step in the process. Each project should be assessed for the appropriate level of control needed: too much control is too time consuming, too little control is very risky. If project control is not implemented correctly, the cost to the business should be clarified in terms of errors, fixes, and additional audit fees. The most general definition of an audit is an evaluation of a person organization system process project or product

Control systems are needed for cost, risk, quality, communication, time, change, procurement, and human resources. Risk is a Concept that denotes the precise probability of specific eventualities In addition, auditors should consider how important the projects are to the financial statements, how reliant the stakeholders are on controls, and how many controls exist. The most general definition of an audit is an evaluation of a person organization system process project or product Financial statements (or financial reports) are formal records of a business' financial Auditors should review the development process and procedures for how they are implemented. The most general definition of an audit is an evaluation of a person organization system process project or product The process of development and the quality of the final product may also be assessed if needed or requested. A business may want the auditing firm to be involved throughout the process to catch problems earlier on so that they can be fixed more easily. The most general definition of an audit is an evaluation of a person organization system process project or product An auditor can serve as a controls consultant as part of the development team or as an independent auditor as part of an audit. The most general definition of an audit is an evaluation of a person organization system process project or product A consultant (from the Latin consultare means "to discuss" from which we also derive words such as consul and counsel) is a Professional The most general definition of an audit is an evaluation of a person organization system process project or product The most general definition of an audit is an evaluation of a person organization system process project or product

Businesses sometimes use formal systems development processes. These help assure that systems are developed successfully. A formal process is more effective in creating strong controls, and auditors should review this process to confirm that it is well designed and is followed in practice. The most general definition of an audit is an evaluation of a person organization system process project or product A good formal systems development plan outlines:

Project development stages

Regardless of the methodology used, the project development process will have the same major stages: initiation, planning or development, production or execution, maintenance and controlling, and closing. A Strategy is a long term plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal, most often "winning Budget (from French bougette, purse generally refers to a list of all planned expenses and revenues

Initiation

The initiation stage determines the nature and scope of the development. If this stage is not performed well, it is unlikely that the project will be successful in meeting the business’s needs. The key project controls needed here are an understanding of the business environment and making sure that all necessary controls are incorporated into the project. Any deficiencies should be reported and a recommendation should be made to fix them.

The initiation stage should include a cohesive plan that encompasses the following areas:

Planning and design

After the initiation stage, the system is designed. Occasionally, a small prototype of the final product is built and tested. Testing is generally performed by a combination of testers and end users, and can occur after the prototype is built or concurrently. Controls should be in place that ensure that the final product will meet the specifications of the project charter. The results of the design stage should include a product design that:

Executing

Executing consists of the processes used to complete the work defined in the project management plan to accomplish the project's requirements. Execution process involves coordinating people and resources, as well as integrating and performing the activities of the project in accordance with the project management plan. The deliverables are produced as outputs from the processes performed as defined in the project management plan.

Monitoring and Controlling

Monitoring and Controlling consists of those processes performed to observe project execution so that potential problems can be identified in a timely manner and corrective action can be taken, when necessary, to control the execution of the project. The key benefit is that project performance is observed and measured regularly to identify variances from the project management plan.

Monitoring and Controlling cycle
Monitoring and Controlling cycle

Monitoring and Controlling includes:

In multi-phase projects, the Monitoring and Controlling process also provides feedback between project phases, in order to implement corrective or preventive actions to bring the project into compliance with the project management plan.

Project Maintenance is an ongoing process, and it includes:

In this stage, auditors should pay attention to how effectively and quickly user problems are resolved. The most general definition of an audit is an evaluation of a person organization system process project or product

Over the course of any construction project, the work scope changes. Change is a normal and expected part of the construction process. Changes can be the result of necessary design modifications, differing site conditions, material availability, contractor-requested changes, value engineering and impacts from third parties, to name a few. Beyond executing the change in the field, the change normally needs to be documented to show what was actually constructed. Hence, the owner usually requires a final record to show all changes or, more specifically, any change that modifies the tangible portions of the finished work. The record is made on the contract documents – usually, but not necessarily limited to, the design drawings. The end product of this effort is what the industry terms as-built drawings, or more simply, “asbuilts. ” The requirement for providing them is a norm in construction contracts.

Closing

Closing includes the formal acceptance of the project and the ending thereof. Administrative activities include the archiving of the files and documenting lessons learned. Closing phase consist of two parts:

Project management tools

Project management tools include

International standards

There have been several attempts to develop project management standards, such as:

See also

References

  1. ^ The Principles of Scientific Management
  2. ^ Booz Allen Hamilton - History of Booz Allen 1950s
  3. ^ http://www.pmi.org/info/PP_OPM3ExecGuide.pdf
  4. ^ The PRINCE2 Guide - A to Z, FAQ and 1000+ Exam Questions

Literature

External links

Dictionary

project management

-noun

  1. The discipline of organizing and managing resources (e.g. people) in such a way that the project is completed within defined scope, quality, time and cost constraints.
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