Sunday, September 28, 2014

Project and Project management (Introduction)

Refer to master index list for project management articles.

While we have spoken about Agile and Scrum in earlier articles, I thought it would help to start a little earlier (defining project and its characteristics).

What is a Project?
A temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service or result.

When we mention temporary, we do undertsand that every project has a definite beginning and end (does not imply short duration though). Howvever, it's not an ongoing effort.
Once the project objectives are met, the project is terminated (there is no need for a project anymore).

Constraints of Project management:

Constraints of project management is best see via the Triple Constraint Theorem.

Balancing scope, time and cost within the frame work of quality and meeting customer expectations.

You could also look at an alternate way of making a balanced project in the following way:


Limiting scope within the time and cost constraints and quality framework.

Project management knowledge areas
There are multiple project management knowledge areas. I will try to write an article on each one of them separately in the future.

Let me give a brief on the knowledge areas:



Scope management:
Includes all the work required to complete a project successfully. Consists of scope planning, definition, verification and control.

Cost management:
Ensure project is completed within the budget. Consists of estimation, budgeting and cost control.

Time management:
Ensure timely completion of the project. Consists of activity definition, resource and duration estimation, schedule development and control.

Communication management:
Consists of communication planning, report performance and manage stakeholders.

Quality management:
Consists of Quality planning, assurance and control.

HR management:
Human resource planning and develop/manage project teams are its main constituents.

Risk management:
Aspects of projects can put a project delivery under risk. Risk identification,qualitative and quantitative analysis along with response planning and monitoring are the important processes.

Procurement management:
If contracts are needed as part of the project, then we need to plan contracts and will involve lots of administrations.

Project Integration management:
Integration management consists of processes that ensure that various elements of a project are properly coordinated.




1 comment:

  1. This kind of Project Management templates are amazing to use for project managers, no matter how much experience they are. They give us a whole idea about the overview and summary of whole project in terms of what to achieve, how to achieve, when to achieve and resources needed. I highly recommend these templates to all.

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