Chapter 1 Flashcards
(18 cards)
What is portfolio management?
- Management of one or more portfolios
- Includes identifying, prioritizing, authorizing, managing, and controlling
- To achieve specific strategic business objectives
What is program management?
Management of a program to achieve the program’s strategic objectives and benefits
What is project management?
application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities to meet project requirements.
the skills, tools, and management processes required to undertake a project successfully
skills: specialist knowledge, skills, and experience
tools: to improve their chances of success
processes: required to monitor and control time, cost, quality, and scope
What is a project?
A complex, nonroutine, one-time effort limited by time, budget, resources, and performance specifications designed to meet customer needs
Major characteristics of a project
- Has an established objective
- Has a defined life span with beginning and end
- Requires across-the-organizational participation
- Has specific time, cost, and performance requirements
What is a program?
- Series of coordinated, related, multiple projects that continue over an extended time
- Intended to achieve a goal
- Higher level group of projects targeted at a common goal.
What are the phases of the project life cycle?
Defining, planning, executing, closing
What is the defining phase?
Very general, no detail
Goals, specifications, tasks, responsibilities
What is the planning phase?
cost of all the ideas, getting into detail, getting all key staff
schedules, budgets, resources, risks, staffing
What is the executing phase?
start implementing the project, bring all the staff
status reports, changes, quality, forecasts
What is the closing phase?
monitor and control, close all reports, evaluate all the employees
train customers, transfer documents, release resources, evaluation, lessons learned
What is a project manager?
manages projects and frequently acts independently of the organization
- marshals resources
- linked directly to customer interface
- provides direction, coordination, and integration
- responsible for performance and success of the project
must induce right people at the right time
What are the current drivers of project management?
- compression of the product life cycle
- knowledge explosion
- triple bottom line (planet, people, profit)
- corporate downsizing
- increased customer focus
- small projects represent big problems
Project governance provides senior management with:
- an overview of all project management activities
- how organizational resources are used
- risk assessment
- metric of the firm’s improvement
- links senior management with project execution management
Problems resulting from uncoordinated project management systems:
- projects do not support the organization’s strategic goals and plan
- create internal imbalances, conflicts and confusion
- waste of project resources on non-value-add projects
What are the major functions of portfolio management?
- oversee project selection
- monitor aggregate resource levels and skills
- encourage use of best practices
- balance projects to represent risk level appropriate to the organization
- improve communication
- create total organization perspective
- improve overall management of projects
Sociocultural side of project management includes:
leadership, problem solving, teamwork, negotiation, politics, customer expectations
Technical side of project management includes:
scope, WBS, schedules, resource allocation, baseline budgets, status reports
