MIS 578 Project Management Chapter 1 Flashcards
What is project?
A temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result.
The broader answer is: a project is an endeavor that requires an organized set of work efforts that are planned in a level of detail that is progressively elaborated as more information is discovered. Projects are subject to limitations of time and resources such as money and people. Projects should follow a planned and organized approach with a defined beginning and ending. Project plans and goals become more specific as early work is completed. The output often is a collection of a primary deliverable along with supporting deliverables such as a house as the primary deliverable and warranties and instructions for use as supporting deliverables. Each project typically has a unique combination of stakeholders – “persons or organizations … that are actively involved in the project, or whose interests may be positively or negatively affected by … the project” PMBOK®Guide 376. Projects often require a variety of people to work together for a limited time and each needs to understand that completing the project will require effort in addition to their other assigned work.
Stakeholders
Persons or organizations . . . that are actively involved in the project, or whose interests may be positively or negatively affected by . . . the project.
Project Management
The application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to project activities to meet project requirements.
This includes work processes that initiate, plan, execute, control, and close work. Project management includes both administrative tasks for planning, documenting, and controlling work and leadership tasks for visioning, motivating, and promoting work associates.
Project vs. Operations
Projects are temporary and unique while other work, commonly called operations, is more continuous.
Soft skills and hard skills
Soft skills - communication and leadership activities.
Hard skills -risk analysis, quality control, scheduling, budgeting, and so forth.
Authority and responsibility
A project manager will frequently be held accountable for work that she/he cannot order people to perform.
Project life cycle
Initiating, planning, executing, closing
Project Goals
Scope and quality
Scope
The sum of all products, services, and results to be provided by the project.
Quality
The degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfills requirements.
PMI
Project Management Institute
PMBOK
Project Management Body of Knowledge
5 Process Groups
1) Initiating
2) Planning
3) Executing
4) Monitoring & Controlling
5) Closing
10 Knowledge Areas
1) Integration management
2) Scope management
3) Time management
4) Cost management
5) Quality management
6) Human resources management
7) Communications management
8) Risk management
9) Procurement management
10) Stakeholder management
Project Roles
Executive Roles
Managerial Roles
Associate Roles
Executive Roles
Steering team, Chief Projects Office, Sponsor
Managerial Roles
Project Manager, Functional Manager, facilitator, Customer
Associate Roles
Core Team Member, Subject Matter Expert
What tradeoffs need to be made when managing a project?
Tradeoffs must be made among the scope (size), quality (acceptability of the results), cost, and schedule.
Why are more people spending more of their work time on projects?
With increased international competition, customers are demanding to have their products and services developed and delivered better, faster, and cheaper. Since project management techniques are designed to manage scope, quality, cost and schedule, they are ideally suited to this purpose.
How do you define project success?
Project success is creating deliverables that include all of the agreed upon features (meet scope goals). The outputs should satisfy all specifications and please the project’s customers. The customers need to use the outputs effectively as they do their work (meet quality goals). The project should be completed on schedule and on budget (meet time and cost constraints).
Project success also includes other considerations. A successful project is one that is completed without heroics – that is, people should not burn themselves out to complete the project. Those people who work on the project should either learn new skills and/or refine existing skills. Organizational learning should take place and be captured for future projects. Finally, the parent organization should reap business level benefits such as development of new products, increased market share, increased profitability, decreased cost, etc.
How do you define project failure?
Project failure is not meeting all of the success criteria listed above. Serious project failure is when some of the success criteria are missed by a large amount and/or when several of the success criteria are missed by even a small margin.
What are the nine project management knowledge areas?
The nine knowledge areas as paraphrased from the PMBOK®Guide, pages 9 and 10 are: scope, time, cost, quality, human resources, communications, risk, procurement, and integration.
What forces are contributing to the importance of project management?
Rapid growth and changes in industries – particularly information and communications technology.
• Increasing customer demands for rapid introduction of new products and technologies.
• Global competition driving down prices.
• Increasingly complex products and services.
