Project Management

Overview Alexandra Vilvoi-an 4 CTI

Project Management
Project management is a carefully planned and organized effort to accomplish a successful project. A project is a one-time effort that produces a specific result, for example, a building or a major new computer system. This is in contrast to a program, which is 1) an ongoing process, such as a quality control program, or 2) an activity to manage a series of multiple projects together. In some countries, the term "program" refers to a software tool and the term "programme" can mean a TV or radio show.

Project Management
Project management includes developing a project plan, which includes defining and confirming the project goals and objectives, identifying tasks and how goals will be achieved, quantifying the resources needed, and determining budgets and timelines for completion. It also includes managing the implementation of the project plan, along with operating regular 'controls' to ensure that there is accurate and objective information on 'performance' relative to the plan, and the mechanisms to implement recovery actions where necessary.

Project Management
Modern project management is designed specifically to deal with this situation. With flexible project teams and resources focused on the needs of the enterprise, project-based planning and implementation enables the alignment of corporate effort with corporate strategy. Managing by projects helps not only to accomplish this goal but also to develop those qualities of initiative and effectiveness that senior management must have if it is to survive in the future.

Project Management
For the benefits of project management to be realized, it has been suggested that three principle ingredients must first be in place. These are: Support from senior management Agreement and commitment at the level of responsibility; and A willing acceptance at the level of impact.

Project Management
Top managers who plan to introduce the project management discipline, or who wish to improve existing project performance, must pay attention to cultural, structural, practical and personal elements. Project management demands quality information, discipline and goal-orientation and requires team-working skills, rather than rigid functional divisions. Its primary focus is on what has yet to be done, and who will do it, rather than the achievements of the past. It is as much about mobilizing the energies of diverse team members as it is about procedures, tools and techniques.

Project Management
Project managers are sometimes selected for the depth of their technical competence alone. This can be a mistake. Certainly, he or she must have a good understanding of the technical nature of the project in hand to be able to separate real issues from vested interests. But the primary areas of competence required by every project manager include communication; the ability to get the best out of the real specialists; and planning, forecasting and decision-making skills the very stuff of future senior management.

Project Roles and Responsibilities

The Project Team is the group responsible for planning and executing the project. It consists of a Project Manager and a variable number of Project Team members, who are brought in to deliver their tasks according to the project schedule. The Project Team Members are responsible for executing tasks and producing deliverables as outlined in the Project Plan and directed by the Project Manager, at whatever level of effort or participation has been defined for them.

Project Roles and Responsibilities

The Project Manager is the person responsible for ensuring that the Project Team completes the project. The Project Manager develops the Project Plan with the team and manages the teams performance of project tasks. It is also the responsibility of the Project Manager to secure acceptance and approval of deliverables from the Project Sponsor and Stakeholders. The Project Manager is responsible for communication, including status reporting, risk management, escalation of issues that cannot be resolved in the team, and, in general, making sure the project is delivered in budget, on schedule, and within scope.

Project Roles and Responsibilities

The Executive Sponsor is a manager with demonstrable interest in the outcome of the project who is ultimately responsible for securing spending authority and resources for the project. Ideally, the Executive Sponsor should be the highest-ranking manager possible, in proportion to the project size and scope. The Executive Sponsor acts as a vocal and visible champion, legitimizes the projects goals and objectives, keeps abreast of major project activities, and is the ultimate decision-maker for the project. The Executive Sponsor provides support for the Project Sponsor and/or Project Director and Project Manager and has final approval of all scope changes, and signs off on approvals to proceed to each succeeding project phase.

Project Roles and Responsibilities

The Project Sponsor and/or Project Director is a manager with demonstrable interest in the outcome of the project who is responsible for securing spending authority and resources for the project. The Project Sponsor acts as a vocal and visible champion, legitimizes the projects goals and objectives, keeps abreast of major project activities, and is a decisionmaker for the project. The Project Sponsor will participate in and/or lead project initiation.

Project Roles and Responsibilities

The Steering Committee generally includes management representatives from the key organizations involved in the project oversight and control, and any other key stakeholder groups that have special interest in the outcome of the project. The Steering committee acts individually and collectively as a vocal and visible project champion throughout their representative organizations

Project Roles and Responsibilities

Customers comprise the business units that identified the need for the product or service the project will develop. Customer Representatives are members of the Customer community who are identified and made available to the project for their subject matter expertise. Customer Decision-Makers are those members of the Customer community who have been designated to make project decisions on behalf of major business units that will use, or will be affected by, the product or service the project will deliver.

Project Roles and Responsibilities

Stakeholders are all those groups, units, individuals, or organizations, internal or external to our organization, which are impacted by, or can impact, the outcomes of the project. Key Stakeholders are a subset of Stakeholders who, if their support were to be withdrawn, would cause the project to fail.

Project Management

The benefits of project management contain all the elements of what is a truly symbiotic relationship between manager, client and worker bee. In fact, its this very application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques that ultimately will meet or exceed a stakeholder's needs and/or expectations on any given project.