PM3 Flashcards
(28 cards)
Understanding project management begins with understanding the
project environment. This environment is different from that of a traditional organizational environment.
All projects have two essential characteristics:
Every project has a beginning and an end. The end, however, must be clearly defined so that all project participants agree on what it means to be complete.
Every project produces a unique product. The outcome could be tangible, such as a building or a software product, or it could be intangible, such as new hiring guidelines.
few project examples, drawn from a variety of industries:
Engineers redesign controls on an automobile dashboard.
An advertising firm produces print and television ads to promote a new razor.
Hospital administrators restructure responsibilities for nurses in their maternity ward.
Manufacturing engineers document their processes to gain ISO certification.
Ongoing operations have the opposite characteristics of projects in that they have no
end and they produce similar, often identical, products. Ongoing operations are often the primary purpose of a firm or a department. examples:
An insurance company processes thousands of claims every day.
A bank teller serves over 100 customers daily, providing a few dozen specific services.
Traditional management theory has focused almost exclusively on
ongoing operations. Experts in accounting practices, process improvement strategies, inventory management, staffing, and human relations have all viewed the organization as an ongoing set of activities.
Because projects have different characteristics than ongoing operations, they pose challenges:
Personnel
Estimating
Authority
Controls
Personnel challenges:
The number of people needed and their different skill sets are different for each project. Where do these people come from? Where do they go, once they are no longer needed? These staffing problems may be compounded if several projects are running simultaneously. If all projects hit their resource peak at the same time, it could place an impossible burden on an organization. And if all the projects should end around the same time, the company may be forced into layoffs.
Estimating challenges:
In order to evaluate potential projects, organizations need accurate estimates of costs and schedules. But because each project is different, estimates may contain more assumptions than facts.
Authority challenges: Organization charts usually
represent the ongoing operations of the firm. When projects cross organizational boundaries, it is no longer clear who has authority for many decisions. This can lead to political maneuvering and a gridlock that blocks progress.
Controls challenges:
Normal accounting practices match operational budgets to operational costs on a quarterly or an annual basis. But these time frames are not sufficient to keep a project on track. By the time quarterly accounting reports show a project to be over budget, it may be so far out of control that it’s beyond recovery.
project management is not more difficult than managing ongoing operations but
managing projects presents a different set of challenges.
projects and ongoing operations overlap and
projects and ongoing operations overlap and interact. Projects initiate or change ongoing operations. At times, projects exist within an ongoing operation, while at other times the reverse is true. Both may be funded out of the same budget process and use many of the same people. Both require a wide range of the same management skills: written and oral communication, conflict resolution, motivation, accounting, and negotiating, to name just a few.
it has been only since World War II that a formal project management discipline
has emerged. During and immediately after the war, the U.S. government was engaged in enormous weapons development projects. The Manhattan Project, in which the first atomic bomb was designed and built, is generally recognized as the first project to use modern project management techniques.
The first modern project management methods were constructed to deal with
government initiatives to build nuclear‐powered submarines and warships. Their names—program evaluation and review technique (PERT) and critical path method (CPM).
U.S. government has been a leader in developing and promoting project management techniques because
these techniques continue to be necessary to manage its huge defense, space, and civil projects.
project management has only enjoyed widespread recognition since the mid
1990s. At that time it became a central focus of improving information technology projects and was embraced by the telecommunications industry, which was convulsed by changes that included the explosion of cellular telephone technology.
The focus on excellence in project management quickly evolved to include multi-
project management, giving rise to the project management office (PMO).
key question: Is project management a set of knowledge and techniques that can be understood and applied independent of a technical specialty? To what degree is technical knowledge required to effectively lead a project?
Could John Roebling have designed the Brooklyn Bridge and then employed a project manager with no engineering skills to complete it? No.
Project managers must not only know how to operate in business and project environments, they must also be well acquainted with the focus of the project.
PROJECT MANAGEMENT IS INDUSTRY‐INDEPENDENT, the theory works in all kinds of industries. This industry independence has been a major factor in the
development of project management as a discipline, but that independence doesn’t extend to the people practicing the discipline.
Project managers are not industry‐independent—they must have good technical skills in their field.
project managers require skills in three different areas:
Project management: This is the pure discipline.
Business management: Negotiating, finance, customer recruitment, organizational development, communication, and motivation are skills that any good manager should have, whether managing projects or operations. Technical: Every company begins the career path with technical competence. Whether it’s accounting, advertising, computer chips, or oil pipelines, the person leading the work needs to know it thoroughly.
Project managers need to understand the work being performed. If they don’t,
they won’t be able to understand or participate in technical problem‐solving and lose the confidence of their teams.
project managers bring a mix of
skills to their job, and that the larger the project, the more project management skills are required.
proof that management theory is portable comes from
project management consulting firms. These firms work effectively in all industries, not by having all the right answers, but by having all the right questions. They will be acting as a catalyst and facilitator—not as a decision maker. The decisions will be made by the project manager with the help of their team, because they are the ones who possess the technical skills demanded by the specific project.
THE DEFINITION OF PROJECT SUCCESS is understood through the success criteria of
On time
On budget
On scope
