Learning unit 1 – Chapter 1
Introduction to project management
1.2 UNDERSTANDING PROJECT MANAGEMENT
DEFINITION OF A PROJECT
“a temporary endeavour undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result”.
DEFINITION OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT
the application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to project activities to meet the
project requirements.
The major goal of a project is to satisfy a customer’s need and help differentiate it from other
endeavours of the organisation. The major characteristics of a project are as follows:
1. An established objective:
Projects obviously need to have a clearly understood objective (defined objective), whether it is
building your own home or the national football team winning the next World Cup. In the Murray and
Roberts project, the objective was to undertake the construction of the Grayston Drive pedestrian and
cyclist structural bridge.
2. A defined life span with a beginning and an end:
The project has to have a kick off (or start) date and then an end (or termination) date. It is important
to remember that projects are temporary endeavours (see the definition provided again) although
they could span many years. In the Murray and Roberts example, this project was initiated after a
transport study indicated that as many as 10 000 pedestrians walk to and from Alexandra to
employment in Sandton each day. This project commenced on 1 March 2016 and was due to
be completed by October 2016.
3. Involvement of several departments and professionals:
The construction project that Murray and Roberts was busy with was only made successful by the
involvement of many individuals/specialists – government, engineers, planners, quality control
managers, security, etc. each becoming involved in some aspect of the project.
4. Non-repetitive (never been done before):
Projects have to be “non-routine” and have some element of uniqueness to them. Construction of
the Grayston Drive pedestrian and cyclist structural bridge had not been done before.
5. Has specific time, cost and performance requirements:
Every project will have individual (or specific) time frames, costs and performance requirements.
Projects are evaluated according to accomplishment, cost and time spent. The time, cost and
performance requirements are unique to a given project. For example, the
construction of a bridge will be uniquely different from baking a cake for your mother
on Mother’s Day.
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,1.3 THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PROJECTS AND ROUTINE WORK
A project is not routine repetitive work.
Routine, repetitive work Projects
Taking class notes Writing a term paper
Daily entering sales receipts into the accounting Setting up a sales kiosk for a professional
ledger accounting meeting
Responding to a supply-chain request Developing a supply-chain information system
Practicing scales on the piano Writing a new piano piece
Routine manufacture of an Apple iPod Designing an iPod that is approximately 2 × 4
inches, interfaces with PC, and stores 10,000
songs
Attaching tags on a manufactured product Wire-tag projects for GE and Wal-Mart
What is project is not:
Not every day work (same or similar work over and over) = project is done once
Not routine or repetitive
Program vs Project
Program = is a group or related projects designed to accomplish a common goal over an extended
period of time
Program management = managing a group of ongoing, interdependent, related projects
Each project within a program has a project manager – major differences lie in scale and time span
1.4 PROJECT MANAGEMENT BODY OF KNOWLEDGE (PMBOK)
WHAT IS A KNOWLEDGE AREA?
A complete set of concepts, terms and activities that make up a project management field or
area of specialisation. By grouping many processes and activities into a few areas, it is easier to
understand and remember. Also, knowledge areas describe the overall knowledge and skills you
will need as a project manager.
Modern project management recognises the following ten knowledge areas:
1. Project integration management:
This is covered first in the PMBOK guide, but it is about bringing together everything you know so that
you are managing your project holistically and not in individual process chunks.
2. Project scope management:
“Scope” is the way to define what your project will deliver. Scope management is all about making
sure that everyone is clear about what the project is for and what it includes. It covers collecting
requirements and preparing the work breakdown structure.
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, 3. Project time management:
Project time management is not about being personally more effective. It relates to how you manage
the time people are spending on their project tasks and how long the project takes overall. This
knowledge area helps you understand the activities in the project, the sequence of those activities
and how long they are going to take. It is also where you prepare your project schedule.
4. Project cost management:
Cost management is, as you would expect, all about handling the project’s finances. The big activity in
this knowledge area is preparing your budget which includes working out how much each task is going
to cost and then determining your project’s overall budget forecast. Of course, it covers tracking the
project’s expenditure against that budget and making sure that you are still on track not to overspend.
5. Project quality management:
Project quality management is quite a small knowledge area, as it only covers three processes. This
area is where you will learn about and set up the quality control and quality management activities on
your project so that you can be confident the result will meet your customers’ expectations.
6. Project human resource management:
Project human resource management relates to how you run your project team. First, you have to
understand what resources you need to be able to complete your project, then you put your team
together. After that, it is all about managing the people on the team including giving them extra skills
to do their jobs, if they need it, and learning how to motivate your team.
7. Project communications management:
Given that a project manager’s job is often said to be about 80% communication, this is another small
knowledge area. The three processes are planning, managing and controlling project communications.
It is here that you will write your communications plan for the project and monitor all the incoming
and outgoing communications.
8. Project risk management:
The first step in project risk management is planning your risk management work, and then you
quickly move on to identifying risks and understanding how to assess risks on your project. There is a
lot of detail in this knowledge area, specifically around how you perform quantitative and qualitative
risk assessments. Risk management is not a one-off activity, though, and this knowledge area also
covers controlling your project risks going forward through the project life cycle.
9. Project procurement management:
Procurement management is not something that you will have to do on all projects, but it is common.
This knowledge area supports all your procurement and supplier work from planning what you need
to buy, to going through the tendering and purchasing process to managing the work of the supplier
and closing the contract when the project is finished. This has strong links to the work of
financial tracking on your project and also to performance management. You will have to manage the
performance of your contractors as the project progresses.
10. Project stakeholder management:
The final knowledge area is, we think, the most important. This takes you through the journey of
identifying stakeholders, understanding their role and needs in the project and ensuring that you can
deliver those.
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, 1.5 THE PROJECT LIFE CYCLE
Generic cycle
Sequential flow through stages = prior stage needing completion (or near completion) before the next
stage can be started. This may not always be the case as sometimes stages can be undertaken
concurrently.
Projects normally have four distinct stages:
1. Defining stage:
This is when the project specifications need to be defined.
The goals, tasks and responsibilities are typically defined at this stage.
Teams are formed.
The project objectives are established.
2. Planning stage:
At the planning stage, the level of effort is increased with plans, tactics and resource requirements
being identified. At this stage planning schedules, budgets and staffing requirements are typically
drawn up and determined.
3. Execution stage:
The execution stage is when the work/project actually begins. It is therefore the stage where the
major portion of the work is undertaken. In the first two stages no output was produced, and it is only
from the execution stage that production takes place. Furthermore, throughout the execution stage
actual output is assessed against budgeted output and if there are serious departures from the
planned output, corrective action may need to be undertaken. Therefore, time, cost and performance
measures typically define this stage. Quality measures are also key.
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