Basic Project Management Tools & Approaches

What is a Project?

“…a task or set of tasks undertaken within specific timescales and cost constraints in
order to achieve a particular goal.”

From the above definition, a project is evaluated on three simple parameters:

1. Timeliness
2. Cost
3. Quality

There exist relationships or trade-offs between each of these pillars

We cannot be in all three corners of the triangle at once. At any corner, we can only
satisfy at MOST, two criteria while the third suffers.

That’s where project management comes in.

What is Project Management?

“…the discipline of planning, organizing, securing and managing resources to bring

about the successful completion of specific engineering project goals and objectives”

Successful Project?
…done within required time and required project without sacrificing quality

How?
Approaches, tools, techniques
Approaches:

Tools:

Gantt Chart
• Type of bar chart
• Illustrates project schedule
• Shows timing (start, finish, duration) of tasks or activities as they occur
• Show dependency relationships of tasks within the project
• Actual progress can be easily tracked versus the planned progress

Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) or Critical Path Analysis

(CPM)
• Mathematically based algorithm for scheduling / timing
• Best suited for projects with interdependent activities
• Longest path of planned activities to the end of the project. Activities on this path
are the “critical” activities
• Earliest and latest that each activity can start and finish without making the
project longer and hence the float time of each activities (time an activity can be
delayed without making the project longer.

Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

• Hierarchal listing of subcomponents of a project – level 1, 2, 3,…,6
• Divides project into smaller pieces called work packages
• Timeframe, task responsibility, cost estimates assigned to each work package
• No hard and fast criteria for Breakdown – discipline, system function, location etc