PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Although management of projects has been going on for thousands of

years, the practice has been widely recognized as a discipline in its own
right for only about last fifty years.
Not only are there now numerous degree programs, but also some
organizations have begun to ask their contractors to provide only project
managers who have been certified as professional project managers by
the Project Management Institutes, the professional society for
practitioners. They are also insisting that their own people become
professional project managers.
Dr. J. M. Juran, the quality guru, defined a project as a
problem scheduled for solution.

From Project to Project Management:

Though Project Management is a newer concept but projects are never
new to the earth. One of the seven wonders of the world, the Pyramids
date back to 2650 BC, which stand as the hall mark of Egyptian
civilization. One can imagine the extent of resources and expertise that
would have been put forth for the completion of such magnificent
projects.
The Government of a country builds highways, dams, thermal power
plants, hydro power plants, airports etc. These are all projects that the
country undertakes.
A Project is a temporary or regular endeavour to create
a unique product or service.

Projects are unique.

Projects are temporary in nature and have a definite beginning and

end date but may be repeated elsewhere.

Projects are completed and closed when the project goals are
achieved or it is abandoned if determined that the project is no
longer viable.

A successful project is one that meets or exceeds the expectations

of stakeholders.

Project Features:
Uniqueness:

Product characteristics are progressive and elaborated.

The product or service is different in some way from other product

or services.

Additional features announced against existing setups available

already.

Temporariness:

It has a definite beginning and end effort.

It is not an ongoing effort such as in operations, manufacturing and

uses showing continuity.

It ceases when objective is attained, specific to governing contracts

under which started.

The team is disbanded and shifted upon project completion.

Example
Building a Hydro Power Station (HPP) or a road etc. are example of a
project. The process of building a road takes a finite amount of time, and
produces a unique product. So is the H P P known for its tailor made
parlances.
Operations, on the other hand, are repetitive. Generating bills every
month, and broadcasting news everyday are examples of operations.
A project may be understood as a sequence of unique, complex, and
connected activities having one goal or purpose and that must be
completed by a specific time, within budget, and according to
specification.

Project Management:
Project management is facilitating the planning,
scheduling, and controlling of all activities that must
be done to achieve project objectives.

In making a project succeed is no simple task.

The difficulties manifest themselves in (extreme) delays, (extreme)
budget over-runs, inadequate results, dissatisfied customers and market
loss, high stress among the project team, phases of technological
obsolescence looming large, high rise of NPAs and other undesirable
outcomes.

Therefore four features:

a group of people,
a goal,
limited time and money and
a certain level of uncertainty regarding whether the goals will be
achieved,
drive for Project Management.

Project Management is the application of knowledge, skills,

tools, techniques and other resources to project activities to meet project
requirements.
Through proper project management, it is assured that the set purpose /
vision and goals are maintained minimising risks effectively and efficient
use of available resources.
It makes the team members to understand their responsibilities, the
deliverables expected, and the schedule everyone needs to follow to
complete the project on time and within budget.

Project Phases:
Projects are typically broken down into various phases, each phase
outlining the work that needs to be done and who are involved as team
with identified resources.
Generally, in order for a phase to be considered complete, specific
deliverables need to have been completed and handed off. Some project
teams, however, do choose to implement fast tracking, which is when
phases are overlapped. Example: THPP Phase I & II etc.

In Project Management , Performance, Time, and Scope are variables of

Cost ,
C = Fn (P, T, S)
i.e. "Cost is a function of
Performance, Time, and Scope.
This translates into a very practical rule of project management: There
can be assigning of values to any three variables, but the project manager

During World War II defence contractors were under great pressure to

build weaponry at an intense level. To accelerate construction of ships
and planes in particular, many new assembly methods were invented.
Avondale shipyards, for example, worked on finding better ways to
build ships. The traditional way had always been to build the ship in an
upright position. However, ships built from steel required welding in
the bottom, or keel area of the boat, and this was very difficult to do in
the traditional model. Avondale decided to build its ships upside down,
to make the welding easier, and then to turn them over to complete the
structures above the top deck. This strategy was so effective that it
could build boats faster, cheaper, and of higher quality than its
competitors, and the strategy is still being used today.

A lifecycle of the project defines the beginning and end of the

project; it represents all of the phases together.

Project management is accomplished through the use of

the processes such as:

Initiating with formulated Strategies, Tactics, and Logics

Planning to Implement, Logistics and Resources Mapped

Scheduling and rescheduling

Executing on Original to revisions decided

Monitoring and Controlling

Closing and Reviews

Project managers or the organization, group the project activities into

above planning phases to provide better management , monitoring and
control with appropriate links to the ongoing operations of the performing
organization.
Collectively, these phases are known as the project life cycle.

Managing a project entails, project leaders and teams

with the following:
1. Team: A project team comprised of a group of people who will realise
the project result. The group is often comprised of people who have
various backgrounds, each of whom contributes knowledge and skills with
expertise.
2. Goal: A product result (or goal) desired and realised on completion.
In an example, if a new piece of software has been written, a reorganisation has been carried out or a bridge has been built. The project
goal is sometimes vague or less firmly established. In projects, it is
necessary to adapt the goal as the project proceeds.
3. Limited resources: The amount of time and money available for
completing a project is always scares and limited. No project is completely
free of time pressure.
4. Uncertainty (risk): One characteristic feature of projects that their
success is never guaranteed beforehand signifies risk attached.
Even if the desired goal is already being reached, it is uncertain whether it
will be achieved within the available budget or within the proposed time.

It is not unusual for a project to take many times as long and to cost much
more as originally estimated. It is also not unusual for only very less per
cent of the original project team members to be working on the project
upon its completion.

Although project managers must attend to many

matters, they actually direct projects along only
five parameters:

Time
Money
Quality
Organisation
Work Progress
Information.

These five parameters behave like control factors.

Project managers deliver projects while balancing the
constraints:

Scope, Limits , Clearances, Society Demand

Schedule, Time frame, Milestones,

Quality and Standards, Design and Specifications

Resources..Man power, Expertise Consultants Designers, Material

and Construction, Equipments and Machinery, Manufacturing to
Methodologies, Money and Market Services etc.

Customer Satisfaction

Risk identification and Mitigation

These all are so intertwined that a change in one will most often cause a
change in at least one of the others
For example:

If time is extended, the cost of the project will increase.

If time extended with the same cost then quality and market of the
product will reduce.

If scope is extended then cost and time will also extend.

Etc.

Changes to any of these legs sets off a series of activities that are needed
to integrate the change across the project.

Program to Project Management:

A program consists of a group of related project components with
schedule and resources earmarked.
The Program management is a process of managing multiples of

on going projects,
balancing together to Schedules drawn ,
incorporating minimising exercise for deviation and
working out new program of the project , if need be .

An example would be that of designing, manufacturing and providing

support infrastructure for power project.
Program management involves centrally managing and coordinating
groups of related projects to meet the objectives of the program.

In some cases Project Management is a subset of Program Management.

The project manager may report to the program manager in such cases.
Here, a portfolio consists of multiple programs to manage portfolios based
on specific goals.

Senior managers or senior management teams typically take on the

responsibility of portfolio management for an organization.

Need for Project Management:

Project management is to manage projects effectively top to bottom to
bring completion as planned or with revised plans successfully.
Project Management starts with the decision to conceive it and to drive to
start a project upon weighing its need and viability.
Once a project starts, it is crucial to watch the project progress at every
step so as to ensure it delivers what all is required, in the stipulated time,
within the allocated budget.

Other drivers influencing the need of project

management are:

Exponential expansion of human knowledge

Global demand for goods and services

Global competition

Team is required to meet the demand with quality and standard.

Improved automated control over the project

Improved performance appraisal and evaluation

Improved budget use and quality enhancement

Project Management Skills:

Many of the tools and techniques for managing projects are specific to
project management. However, effective project management requires
that the project management team acquire the following three dimensions
of project management competencies:

Project Management Knowledge Competency: This refers to

what the project management team knows about project
management.

Project Management Performance Competency: This refers to

what the project management team is able to do or accomplish
while applying their project management knowledge.

Personal Competency: This refers to how the project

management team behaves when performing the project or activity.
No one has 06 / 06 foresight for future. Unforeseen problems are
almost certain to arise and test the Competency.

Interpersonal Skills Management:

The management of interpersonal relationships includes:

Effective communication: The exchange of information

Influencing the organization: The ability to "get things done"

Leadership: Developing a vision and strategy, and motivating

people to achieve that vision and strategy

Motivation: Energizing people to achieve high levels of

performance and to overcome barriers to change

Negotiation and conflict management: Conferring with others to

come to terms with them or to reach an agreement

Decision Making: Ability to take decision independently.

Political and cultural awareness: Important to handle various

personal and professional issues.

Team Building: Ability to create a productive team.

A road construction project was going on in NE India by BRO in
80s that had very bad living conditions for the workers. The
food was bad, sleeping conditions were poor, and the workers
were suffering low morale. The project manager and his senior
staff were all staying in nice camps in the nearby town 70 Km
away. When the construction suffered for more than a year,
they finally realized the problem and moved to the site with
the workers. Living conditions immediately improved, and so

Project Management Knowledge includes ten knowledge

areas:

Project Integration Management

Project Scope Management

Project Cost Management

Project Time Management

Project Risk Management

Project Quality Management

Project HR Management

Project Communication Management

Project Procurement Management

Project Stakeholder Management

Each Knowledge area has certain processes with three important parts.

Inputs

Tools & Techniques

Outputs

Project Management process groups.(Each process is part of one of

these five project phases)

Initiating

Planning

Scheduling and Executing

Monitoring and Controlling

Closing

Initiating & Planning The Project

To Identify work to be done and estimate time, cost and resource
requirements and
gain approval to do the project.
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o

Defining all of the work of the project

Estimating how long it will take to complete this work
Estimating the resources required to complete the work
Estimating the total cost of the work
Sequencing the work
Building the initial project schedule
Analyzing & adjusting the project schedule
Writing a risk management plan
Documenting the project plan
Gaining senior management approval to launch the project

( If the length of the activity bars indicates relative task duration, this
chart tells about the project: There are two important deadlines when
sub-components of the system (interim deliverables) must be delivered
for the project to be considered on track. The Critical Path (the
sequence of activities that cannot slip without the whole project
slipping) is A C D E H. If activities done to develop subcomponent 1 and sub-component 2 in parallel, the project time slip risk
reduced considerably)

Monitoring & Control of The Project

 Responding to change requests and resolve problem situations to

maintain project progress.
Monitoring project performance
Establishing the project performance and reporting system

Monitoring risk Reporting project status Processing scope change

requests
Discovering and solving problems

A Brief History of Scheduling

From the opening remarks of Dr. J. M. Juran, a project is a problem
scheduled for solution.
But it never meant that project management is nothing but scheduling,
and this is incorrect.
Scheduling is just one of the tools used to manage jobs and should not be
considered the primary one.
Professionals tend to acquire scheduling software, of which there is an
abundance, thinking that will make them instant project managers. They
soon find that idea is wrong.
In fact, it is nearly impossible to use the software effectively unless project
management understood (and scheduling methodology in particular).
Until around 1958, the only tool for scheduling projects was the bar chart.

Henry Gantt developed a complete notational system for showing

progress with bar charts, often called Gantt charts.
They are simple to construct and read and remain the best tool to use for
communicating to team members what they need to do within given time
frames. Arrow diagrams tend to be too complicated for some teams.
Nevertheless, it is often helpful to show an arrow diagram to the people
doing the work so that they understand interdependencies and why it is
important that they complete certain tasks on time.

A Gantt
GPS for

chart is like a
manufacturing
projects. It shows
what
elements are
involved in the
project
from start to
finish,
where the
progress is supposed to be at what point of time, and if the project is on
schedule or not. Gantt charts are used in manufacturing, projects etc to
have a birds eye view of the progress.
Below is a modified Gantt chart used for keeping track of an industrial
manufacturing project.

Gantt Chart Example with Legend

How it works
A. Tasks Shows the breakdown of tasks required to complete this
manufacturing project. This particular project is divided into 3 sections:

Designing

Purchasing

Manufacturing

B. Legend Shows what the colors signify in parts D and E.

Green: On Track Factory worked on a task according to schedule

and it is not been

Yellow: Missed Factory DID NOT WORK on a task on the day they
were supposed to.

Red: Not on track The factory DID NOT COMPLETE task according
to schedule and the task has extended beyond its completion date.

Blue: Complete Factory has completed task

Black: Estimated Schedule

C. Dates Start and end dates of each task and a time line.
D. Status What percent of this task is complete (factorys or auditors
estimate) and if the task is on track or not.
E. Schedule Layout of schedule and whether each task is on time on
not
F. Resources How many workers worked on a specific task
Any type of Bar charts do have one serious drawback-it is very difficult to
determine the impact of a slip on one task on the rest of the Projects i.e. if
Task A in Figure gets behind, it is hard to tell how this will affect the rest of
the work.

(Bar Chart Y Axis Tasks A,B,C

etc, X_Time,)

The reason is that the bar chart (in its original format) did not show the
interdependencies of the work. (Those days lack of software did not show
links between bars, making them easier to read. The actual name for
these bar charts is "time-line critical path schedules.)

PERT & CPM:

To overcome this problem, two methods of scheduling were developed in
the late 1950s and early 1960s, both of which used arrow diagrams to
capture the sequential and parallel relationships among project
activities.
One of these methods, developed by Du Pont, is called Critical Path
Method (CPM), and the other, developed by the U.S. Navy and the Booze,
Allen, and Hamilton consulting group, is called Program Evaluation and
Review Technique (PERT).

Although it has become customary to call all arrow diagrams PERT

networks, strictly speaking the PERT method makes use of probability
techniques, whereas CPM does not.
In other words, with PERT it is possible to calculate the probability that an
activity will be completed by a certain time, whereas that is not possible
with CPM.

( PERT stands for

Program Evaluation and Review Technique. The numbered circles represent tasks or milestones in
a project. The arrows show the sequence of these tasks. The time to do a task is shown near the
arrow. The critical path in the chart shown above is drawn with red arrows. PERT charts display
task dependencies, showing which tasks need to be done before others can be started. CPM stands
for Critical Path Method.)

An activity-on-node network as beow:

Project Networking for House: example

The network in the top upper half of Figure uses activity-on node
notation, which shows the work as a box or node, and the arrows show
the sequence in which the work is performed.

Events are not shown in activity-on-node networks unless they are

milestone points in the project at which major portions of the work are
completed.
Actually, it simply happens that the above two schemes were developed
by different practitioners separately. They both get the same results in
figuring . Both forms are still used, although activity on-node is used a bit
more than the other, simply because much of today's personal computer
software are programmed to use node notation.
The main advantage is that these can tell whether it is possible to meet
an important project completion date, and can also tell exactly when
various tasks must be finished in order to meet that deadline.
Furthermore, which tasks have some leeway and which do not. In fact,
both CPM and PERT determine the critical path, which is defined as the
longest series of activities (that can't be done in parallel) and which
therefore governs how early the project can be completed.
PERT and CPM notify which activities will determine the end date, and help
guide how the project should be managed. However, it is never good to
get carried away with scheduling, spending all time updating, revising,
and so on.
The scheduling software in use today should be viewed as a tool, and
managers should not become slaves to the tool. It is also very easy to
create schedules that look good on paper but don't work in practice. The
main reasons are resources are not available, scope and priorities change
(something is forgotten, not feasible, was not well researched, surprises
arising from nowhere, added "wish lists" ) often and constraints in many
other forms not allow to do the work when it comes due.

Definitions of Network Terms

ACTlVlTY: An activity always consumes time and resources. Examples:
paperwork, labour negotiations, machinery operations, and lead times for
purchased parts or equipment.
CRITICAL: A critical activity or event is one that must be achieved by a
certain time, having no latitude (slack or float) whatsoever.
CRITICAL PATH : The critical path is the longest path through a network
and determines the earliest completion of project work.
EVENTS: Beginning and ending points of activities known as events. An
event is a specific point in time. Events are commonly denoted graphically

by a circle and may carry identity nomenclature (e.g., words, numbers,

alphanumeric codes).
MILESTONE: An event that represents a point in a project of special
significance. Usually it is the completion of a major phase of the work.
Project reviews are often conducted at milestones.
NETWORK: Networks are called arrow diagrams. They provide a graphical
representation of a project plan showing the relationships of the activities.

STEPS TO BREAKDOWN PROJECT IN SMALLEST

IDENTITIES:
Example Yard Development Project

CPM diagram for yard project.

ES = Early Start LS = Late Start EF = Early Finish LF = Late Finish DU =

Duration (of the task)

While planning going in too much detail leads to avoidable troubles, but if
plan in too little detail, one might as well not bother.

Practically, create schedules showing tasks with no. of weeks duration.

To have a duration for never completing such schedules on time is
disastrous. To do the back-end load because knowledge work is harder to
track than tangible work.
There are two ways to develop a schedule.
One is to begin at the end and work backward to arrive at the beginning.
The second method is to start at the beginning and work toward the end.
Not be prey to garbage-in, garbage-out malady.
This small project might be thought of having three phases: preparation,
execution, and cleanup.
There are three preparation tasks: pick up trash, put gas in equipment,
and get out hedge clipper.
Schedules should be cleanup tasks include bagging grass, bundling,
clippings, and hauling trash to the dump.

Network Rules
In order to compute network start and finish times, only two rules apply to
all networks. Other rules are applied by the scheduling software itself.
These are strictly a function of the software and are not applied to all
networks.
Rule 1. Before a task can begin, all tasks preceding it must be completed.
Rule 2. Arrows denote logical precedence.

Elements of Successful Project Management

There is no single process that makes a project successful.
It is the careful orchestration of a number of different elements.
The factors that lead to successful projects include:
Clearly defined goals and objectives
A well-defined project management process
A proven set of project management tools
A clear understanding of the role of project management
The project manager has a broad array of behavioural and management
techniques to choose to use techniques that ensure high-quality, on-time
deliverables that are accepted by the business and that fit the conditions
and environment.

BRIEF DISCUSSION ON HYDRO POWER PROJECTS:

The hydroelectric power projects construction includes, in
addition to various other parameters:
Feasibility Studies
Geological, geotechnical, geodetical and hydrological research and
analysis
Various Field Tests and Laboratory testing of construction materials,
fills, concrete aggregates, concrete, rock samples etc. Numerical
modelling for hydrology, river runoff, structural components etc.
Hydropower Engineering,
Environmental Impact Assessments and Reports, Health, safety and
environmental management, general risk assessment
Site Investigations
Civil, Structural and Mechanical Design, design and construction
management,
Cost Estimates
Contract Documents
Tender Evaluations
Project Management
Project Planning
Construction and its Supervision
On-site Inspections
Testing and quality control during construction of tunnels, dam sites
and power stations.

Commissioning

Best Site Selection, Calculations to confirm Selection

Correctness,

(PFR)

A remote view of HPP

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