Introduction to Project

Management

Project 1
PRT152S
Learning Objectives

• Understand the growing need for better project

management, especially for information technology (IT)
projects
• Explain what a project is, provide examples of IT projects,
list various attributes of projects, and describe the triple
constraint of project management
• Describe project management and discuss key elements
of the project management framework, including project
stakeholders, the project management knowledge areas,
common tools and techniques, and project success
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• Discuss the relationship between project,
program, and portfolio management and the
contributions each makes to enterprise success
• Understand ethics in project management, the
role of project managers by describing what they
do what skills they need, and career opportunities
for IT project managers

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Introduction

• Many people and organizations today have a new—

or renewed—interest in project management.
• Computer hardware, software, networks, and the use
of interdisciplinary and global work teams have
radically changed the work environment.
• The world as a whole spends nearly $10 trillion of its
$40.7 trillion gross product on projects of all kinds.
More than 16 million people regard project
management as their profession.

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Project Management Statistics
• In 2011, the average salary for project management
professionals in U.S. dollars was $105,000 per year in the
United States, $139,497 in Australia, $160,409 in
Switzerland (the highest-paid country), and $23,207 in
China(the lowest-paid country). These average salaries do
not include bonuses.
• The number of people earning their Project Management
Professional (PMP) certification continues to increase each
year.
• CareerBuilder.com found that 44 percent of employers
listed project management as a skill they looked for in new
college graduates, behind only communication and
technical skills.
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Project Management Statistics

• Worldwide IT spending is projected to total $3.7 trillion in 2018, an

increase of 4.5 percent from 2017, according to the latest forecast
by Gartner, Inc.
• Enterprise software continues to exhibit strong growth, with
worldwide software spending projected to grow 9.5 percent in
2018, and it will grow another 8.4 percent in 2019 to total $421
billion
• The devices segment is expected to grow 5.6 percent in 2018. In
2017, the devices segment experienced growth for the first time in
two years with an increase of 5.7 percent. End-user spending on
mobile phones is expected to increase marginally as average selling
prices continue to creep upward even as unit sales are forecast to
be lower. 6
Why study IT Project Management?

• Today’s companies, governments, and nonprofit

organizations are recognizing that to be successful,
they need to use modern project management
techniques, especially for IT projects.
• Individuals
– are realizing that to remain competitive in the workplace,
they must develop skills to become good project team
members and project managers.
– realize that many of the concepts of project management
will help them in their everyday lives as they work with
people and technology on a day-to-day basis
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• IT projects have a poor track record

• A 1995 Standish Group study (“The CHAOS Report”)

found that only 16.2% of IT projects were successful
in meeting scope, time, and cost goals; over 31% of IT
projects were canceled before completion
• A PricewaterhouseCoopers study found that overall,
half of all projects fail and only 2.5% of corporations
consistently meet their targets for scope, time, and
cost goals for all types of project
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Advantages of using Project Management
techniques
• Better control of financial, physical, and human
resources
• Improved customer relations
• Shorter development times
• Lower costs and improved productivity
• Higher quality and increased reliability
• Higher profit margins
• Better internal coordination
• Positive impact on meeting strategic goals
• Higher worker morale
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Quick Quiz

• By a show of hands, who has worked on a project

before?
– What was the project about? How long did it take?

• What is a project?

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What is a Project?

• A project is a temporary endeavour undertaken to

create a unique product, service, or result
PMBOK Guide, 2008
• Operations is work done to sustain a business

• Projects and operations differ primarily in that

operations are ongoing and repetitive, while
projects are temporary and unique.
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Examples of IT projects
• A team of students creates a smartphone application and sell it online.
• A company develops a driverless car.
• A small software development team adds a new feature to an internal software
application for the finance department.
• A college upgrades its technology infrastructure to provide wireless Internet
access across the whole campus.
• A government group develops a system to track child immunizations.
• A global bank acquires a smaller financial institution and needs to reconcile
systems and procedures into a common entity.
• A multinational firm decides to consolidate its information systems into an
integrated enterprise resource management approach.

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Project Attributes
• A project:
– Is temporary
– Has a unique purpose (i.e. to create a unique product,
service, or result)
– Is developed using progressive elaboration
– Requires resources, often from various areas
• Resources include people, hardware, software, finances, time etc.
– Should have a primary customer or sponsor
• The project sponsor usually provides the direction and funding for
the project
– Involves uncertainty
• Because every project is unique, it is sometimes difficult to define
its objectives clearly, estimate how long it will take to complete,
or determine how much it will cost.
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• Temporary:
– means that every project has a definite beginning
and a definite end. The end is reached when the
project’s objectives have been achieved, or it
becomes clear that the project objectives will not
or cannot be met.
– Temporary does not necessarily mean short in
duration, however the duration is finite.
• Projects can be large or small.
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• Unique purpose: A project creates unique
deliverables, which are products, services or results.
Projects can create:
– A product or artifact that is produced, is quantifiable, and
can be either an end item in itself or a component item.
– A capability to perform a service, such as business
functions supporting production or distribution.
– A result, such as outcomes or documents. For example, a
research project develops knowledge that can be used to
determine whether or not a trend is present or a new
process will benefit society.

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• Progressive Elaboration
– A characteristic of projects that accompanies the
concepts of temporary and unique.
– It means developing in steps, and continuing by
increments. e.g. The project scope will be broadly
described early in the project and made more explicit
and detailed as the project team develops a better and
more complete understanding of the objectives and
deliverables.

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• Projects and operations share many of the
following characteristics:
– Performed by people
– Constrained by limited resources
– Planned, executed and controlled

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Project Constraints
• Every project is constrained in different ways, often by its scope, time,
and cost goals.
• These limitations are sometimes referred to in project management as
the triple constraint.
– Scope: What work will be done as part of the project? What unique product, service,
or result does the customer or sponsor expect from the project? How will the scope
be verified?
– Time: How long should it take to complete the project? What is the
project’s schedule? How will the team track actual schedule
performance? Who can approve changes to the schedule?
– Cost: What should it cost to complete the project? What is the
project’s budget? How will costs be tracked? Who can authorize
changes to the budget?

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What is Project Management?

• The application of knowledge, skills, tools and

techniques to project activities to meet project
requirements.
• Project management is accomplished through the
application and integration of the project
management processes of initiating, planning,
executing, monitoring and controlling, and closing.
• Project managers strive to meet the triple constraint
by balancing scope, time, and costs.

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Framework for Project Management

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Project Stakeholders
• Stakeholders are the people involved in or affected by
project activities,
– include
• the project sponsor,
• project manager
• project team,
• support staff,
• customers,
• users,
• suppliers, and
• opponents of the project.
• These stakeholders often have very different needs and
expectations.
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Role of Project Manager

• Responsible to accomplishing the project

objectives. Managing a project includes:
– Identifying requirements
– Establishing clear and achievable objectives
– Balancing the competing demands for quality, scope,
time and cost
– Adapting the specifications, plans and approach to the
different concerns and expectations of the various
stakeholders.

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Project Management Knowledge Areas:
• Project management knowledge areas describe the key
competencies that project managers must develop.
• The PMBOK Guide mentions the following areas:
– Project Integration Management
– Project Scope Management
– Project Time Management
– Project Cost Management
– Project Quality Management
– Project Human Resource Management
– Project Communications Management
– Project Risk Management
– Project Procurement Management

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• 4 core knowledge areas lead to specific project
objectives (scope, time, cost, and quality)
• 4 facilitating knowledge areas are the means through
which the project objectives are achieved (human
resources, communication, risk, and procurement
management
• 1 knowledge area (project integration management)
affects and is affected by all of the other knowledge
areas
• All knowledge areas are important!
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 Project Integration Management
• Describes the processes and activities that integrate the
various elements of project management, which are
identified, defined, combined, unified and coordinated
within the Project Management Process Groups. It consists
of the following project management processes:
– Develop Project Charter
– Develop Preliminary Project Scope Statement
– Develop Project Management Plan
– Direct and Manage Project Execution
– Monitor and Control Project Work
– Integrated Change Control
– Close Project

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Project Scope Management

• Describes the processes involved in defining and

managing all the work required to complete the
project successfully. It consists of the following
project management processes:
– Scope Planning
– Scope Definition
– Create WBS
– Scope Verification
– Scope Control
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Project Time Management

• Describes the processes concerning the timely

completion of the project. It consists of:
– Activity Definition
– Activity Sequencing
– Activity Resource Estimating
– Activity Duration Estimating
– Schedule Development
– Schedule Control

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Project Cost Management

• Describes the processes involved in planning,

estimating, budgeting and controlling costs so
that the project is completed within the approved
budget: Includes:
– Cost Estimating
– Cost Budgeting
– Cost Control

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Project Quality Management

• Describes the processes involved in assuring that

the project will satisfy the objectives for which it
was undertaken. It consists of:
– Quality Planning
– Perform Quality Assurance
– Perform Quality Control

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Project Human Resource Management

• Describes the processes that organize and

manage the project team. It consists of:
– Human Resource Planning
– Acquire Project Team
– Develop Project Team
– Manage Project Team

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Project Communications Management

• Describes the processes concerning the timely

and appropriate generation, collection,
dissemination, storage and ultimate disposition of
project information. It consists of:
– Communications planning
– Information distribution
– Performance reporting
– Manage Stakeholders

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Project Risk Management

• Describes the processes concerned with

conducting risk management on a project. It
consists of:
– Risk Management Planning
– Risk Identification
– Qualitative Risk Analysis
– Quantitative Risk Analysis
– Risk Response Planning
– Risk Monitoring and Control
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Project Procurement Management

• Describes the processes that purchase or acquire

products, services or results, as well as contract
management processes. It consists of:
– Plan Purchases and Acquisitions
– Plan Contracting
– Request Seller Responses
– Select Sellers
– Contract Administration
– Contract Closure
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Common project management tools and
techniques by knowledge area (Summary)

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Project Success

• There are several ways to define project success:

– The project met scope, time, and cost goals
– The project satisfied the customer/sponsor
– The results of the project met its main objective, such
as making or saving a certain amount of money,
providing a good return on investment, or simply
making the sponsors happy

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What helps projects succeed?
• User involvement
• Executive support
• Clear business objectives
• Emotional maturity
• Optimizing scope
• Agile process
• Project management expertise
• Skilled resources
• Execution
• Tools and infrastructure
Source: The Standish Group, “CHAOS Activity News” (August 2011).

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Program and project portfolio management

• A program is “a group of related projects managed in

a coordinated way to obtain benefits and control not
available from managing them individually” (PMBOK®
Guide, Fourth Edition, 2008, p. 9)
• A program manager provides leadership and
direction for the project managers heading the
projects within the program
• Examples of common programs in the IT field include
infrastructure, applications development, and user
support

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Project Portfolio Management

• As part of project portfolio management,

organizations group and manage projects and
programs as a portfolio of investments that
contribute to the entire enterprise’s success
• Portfolio managers help their organizations make
wise investment decisions by helping to select
and analyze projects from a strategic perspective

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Comparison of Project Management and
Project Portfolio Management

Tactical Goals
Strategic Goals

Project Management Project Portfolio Management

• Are we carrying out projects
well?
• Are projects on time and on
budget?
• Do project stakeholders know
what they are doing?
• Are we working on the right
projects?
• Are we investing in the right
areas?
• Do we have the right resources to
be competitive?

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Best Practice

• A best practice is “an optimal way recognized by industry to

achieve a stated goal or objective”*
• Robert Butrick suggests that organizations need to follow basic
principles of project management, including these two mentioned
earlier in this chapter:
– Make sure your projects are driven by your strategy; be able to
demonstrate how each project you undertake fits your business
strategy, and screen out unwanted projects as soon as possible
– Engage your stakeholders; ignoring stakeholders often leads to
project failure; be sure to engage stakeholders at all stages of a
project, and encourage teamwork and commitment at all times

* Project Management Institute, Organizational Project Management Maturity Model (OPM3) Knowledge
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Foundation (2003), p. 13.
Sample- Project Portfolio Approach

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Suggested Skills For Project Managers

• Project managers need a wide variety of skills

• They should:
– Be comfortable with change
– Understand the organizations they work in and with
– Be able to lead teams to accomplish project goals
• The Project Management Body of Knowledge
• Application area knowledge, standards, and regulations
• Project environment knowledge
• General management knowledge and skills
• Soft skills or human relations skills

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Most Important Skills And Competencies For
Project Managers
• People skills
• Leadership
• Listening
• Integrity, ethical behavior, consistent
• Strong at building trust
• Verbal communication
• Strong at building teams
• Conflict resolution, conflict management
• Critical thinking, problem solving
• Understands, balances priorities
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Different skills needed for different situations

• Large projects: leadership, relevant prior experience,

planning, people skills, verbal communication, and
team-building skills were most important
• High uncertainty projects: risk management,
expectation management, leadership, people skills,
and planning skills were most important
• Very novel projects: leadership, people skills, having
vision and goals, self confidence, expectations
management, and listening skills were most
important

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Importance of Leadership skills

• Effective project managers provide leadership by

example
• A leader focuses on long-term goals and big-
picture objectives while inspiring people to reach
those goals
• A manager deals with the day-to-day details of
meeting specific goals
• Project managers often take on the role of both
leader and manager

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Ethics in Project Management

• Ethics, loosely defined, is a set of principles that

guide our decision making based on personal
values of what is “right” and “wrong”
• Project managers often face ethical dilemmas
• In order to earn PMP certification, applicants
must agree to PMI’s Code of Ethics and
Professional Conduct
• Several questions on the PMP exam are related to
professional responsibility, including ethics

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Summary
• A project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a
unique product, service, or result
• Project management is the application of knowledge, skills,
tools, and techniques to project activities to meet project
requirements
• A program is a group of related projects managed in a
coordinated way
• Project portfolio management involves organizing and managing
projects and programs as a portfolio of investments
• Project managers play a key role in helping projects and
organizations succeed
• The project management profession continues to grow and
mature

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