2.2.1 Anatomy of a Project

2.2.1.1 Project Life Cycle

consists of all the work required to bring a product to the market / make service operational

Project life cycle stages and project manager's tasks

1. Starting
• Determine the need for the project 
• Determine the feasibility of the project
• Set project's goals
• Create a proposal
• Convince stakeholders (e.g. upper management) that the project is needed
• Decisions on resources, staffing and budget
2. Organizing and preparing
• Conduct research (on requirements)
• Design a prototype (for testing)
• Prepare and implement a schedule
• Identify targets
• Distribute tasks and resources to the team
• Adjusting project team members as needed
3. Carrying out the work
• Building / producing the product / service
• Getting materials for production
• Testing (quality and performance) and making necessary modifications
• Preparations for delivery
4. Closing
• Delivery to users (and maintainers)
• Completing all contractual commitments
• Transferring responsibilities
• Training personnel
• Rewarding the project team
• Reassigning team members to new work
• Transferring freed resources (to other projects or organizational divisions)

Characteristics of the phases

• Cost and staffing
• Uncertainty
• Cost of changes

Stage	Cost and staffing	Uncertainty	Cost of changes
1. Starting	Low	High	Low
2. Organizing and preparing	Increases	Decreases	Increases
3. Carrying out the work	Peaks	Decreases	Increases
4. Closing	Decreases	Low	High

Product life cycle

• Product inception and development
• Market introduction
• Market growth
• Market maturity
• Sales decline

2.2.1.2 Project Phases

Independent of project stages, will always depend on the type of project, what and how many project phases make sense. All phases together make up the 4 stages of the project, but phases and phase boundaries aren't same as stages. Usually phases deviate from stages in the stage 3. Carrying out the work.

Characteristics

• Sequential (but can overlap according to project situation, can be iterative)
• Distinct work
• Repeat processes
• End with handoff/transfer of deliverable (=output of a phase)
• Have natural end points (aka phase exit, phase gate, decision gate, kill point)

2.2.1.3 Introduction to Project Management Process Groups

PMBOK Guide describes a process as a

"set of interrelated actions and activities performed to achieve a pre-specified product, result or service."

So, they ensure right results.


Project management process groups

• Initiating processes
• Start a new project or new phase
• Collect information
• Define new ideas
• Obtain authorization to proceed with the project / phase
• Usually these processes do not iterate
• Planning processes
• Defines the plans
• Determines scope and objectives
• Establish a better idea of the project requirements
• If necessary, alternative courses of action can be planned
• Usually iterate
• Executing processes
• Work / Create the final output of the project
• Managing the project team
• Communicating information to stakeholders
• Typically uses most time & resources
• Usually iterate
• Monitoring & controlling processes
• Regulate and control the project's progress
• Monitoring, reviewing and identifying any problematic areas
• Initiating any necessary changes
• Interact with the four other processes throughout the project
• Usually are repeated throughout a project/phase, from starting to closing
• Closing processes
• Aim to finalize all activities and contracts for a project or phase

Definition: Iteration

"repeated feedback loops that allow additional analysis."

(PMBOK(r) Guide)

2.1.2 Project Stakeholders and Organization

2.1.2.1 Project Stakeholders

Definition: Managing a project
Managing work in relation to people’s expectations.

Definition: Stakeholders
People affected or involved in a project with (usually) conflicting interests and priorities

Typical stakeholders are:

• Project sponsor
• Typically senior executive
• Provides financial resources
• Primary risk taker within the project
• Vendors / Business partners
• External organizations (suppliers / contractors)
• Supply goods / services
• Project manager
• Person authorized to manage a project
• Identifies all stakeholders
• Determines stakeholders’ interests
• Balances conflicting expectations
• Project team
• Performs the work of the project
• End users / Customers
• Will (buy and) use the product / service created by the project
• Independent if they are internal (e.g. from another department) or external (e.g. end consumer)

Definition: Hidden stakeholders
Do not work directly with a project or do not use the product / services, may include

• Physical environment
• Cultural environment
• Political environment
• Organizational structure and culture of a company

Can jeopardize the project’s success, so it’s even more important that they are identified early

Lessons learned:

• Identify (hidden) stakeholders early
• Anticipate competing demands (and balance them)
• Understand stakeholders’ roles and responsibilities (and/or make their roles and responsibilities clear to them)

Project managers key responsibilities when dealing with stakeholders:

• Balance stakeholder interests
• Manage stakeholder expectations

Balance stakeholder interests

• Communicate purpose and benefits
  (of the project to all stakeholders to motivate stakeholders to buy into the project)
• Ensure stakeholders see the project as win-win for everyone
• Have senior management backing for the project

Manage stakeholder expectations

• Communicate expected results (before the project starts clearly to all stakeholders)
• Keep stakeholders informed
• Resolve issues with stakeholders (quickly)

Stakeholder roles

• Sponsor
• Champions a project at its outset
• Develops the initial project scope and charter
• Authorizes the start of the project
• Provides project resources, incl. funding
• Bears ultimate responsibility for the project’s success
• Is expected to remove roadblocks
• Provide guidance and feedback
• Encourage the team
• Authorize major changes in scope
• Have the final say in high-risk decisions
• Vendors / Business partners
• Carry out all contracts and duties according to agreed levels of quality
• Provide specialized expertise / services
• May interact with project team and end users / customers
• Project manager
• Part of the project team
• Must be able to move from big-picture view to focusing on details quickly
• Communicator, interface between all stakeholders
• Ability to
• Motivate
• Persuade
• Negotiate
• responsible for
• Developing project and component plans
• Providing reports on project metrics
• Ensuring the project remains on schedule and within budget
• Identifying, monitoring, and responding to risks
• Project team
• Work and communicate well together
• Need to accept and work with the strengths and weaknesses of each member
• Should be aware how their work affects other team members
• Needs to commit producing quality work
• Must commit to meet project deadlines
• End users / Customers
• Provide key information about scope and project result
• Need to outline what’s needed
• Need to highlight risks or problems
• The project aims to create something for them
• May be involved in testing
• Their feedback can identify potential risks and problems
• Expected to respond to issues that arise during the project life cycle

2.1.2.2 Organizational Stakeholders

Likely to have different interests than project stakeholders


How a business is structured affects the variety and levels of organizational stakeholders, e.g.

(PMO = Project Management Office)

Business Objectives		Meet business objectives at the enterprise level – has a stake in the overall performance of all projects, programs and portfolios within the organization
		Can range from providing project management support functions to directly managing projects – ensures standardized processes
Management support or direct management

PMO's responsibilities

• Promote overall mission
• May initiate major program changes
• To help achieve an organization’s goals
• Create standardized approach for project management methodologies
• Identify
• Develop
• Standardize
• Mentor, coach and train project managers
• Communicates across projects
• Manages and coordinates across projects
• Shared resources
• Risks
• Policies
• Documentation
• Performs audits regarding project management
• Standard policies
• Procedures
• Templates
• Coordinate communication across projects
• Monitors project
• Timelines
• Budget
• Quality

Other stakeholders that operate at a strategic level that keep an eye on the big picture / across projects

• Portfolio review board
• Provides additional support for project selection and priorization
• Reviews for value, risks and ROI
• Often responds to external opportunities (e.g. tenders or Requests for Proposals)
• Portfolio managers
• Makes decisions based on business strategy
• Responsible for high-level governance of projects
• Reviews for values, risks, and likely ROI
• Authorize and prioritize projects (according to the strategy)
• Program managers
• Manage and control related projects
• Ensure projects are integrated into their program
• Ensure that the program is on budget and schedule
• Provide support and guidance to project managers
• Main interest is achieving program (not individual project) benefits
• Ensure that projects work together to achieve program benefits

Definition: Functional manager
Oversee administrative functions and are reponsible for providing services to project teams, but have no interaction with other project stakeholders. (e.g. HR or financial manager)


Definition: Operational manager
Oversee divisions that directly produce and maintain products/services. Provide project with skilled personnel. Op. managers and their teams might interact with other project stakeholders, on behalf of the project team.

2.1.2.3 Organizational Influences on a Project

Main organizational influences on a project

• Culture
• Unique ways the organization operates
• Includes unwritten rules and expectations of its members (are we more conservative or entrepreneurial?)
• Views of authority
• Values
• Policies and procedures
• Beliefs
• Norms
• Arises from the accumulated shared learning of a group
• Might be difficult to explicitly define or communicate
• Structure
• How positions and departments are defined
• Includes reporting structure and hierarchy
• Affects who gets authority and how project resources are accessed
• Process assets
• Processes and procedures
• Plans
• Policies
• Standard Processes
• Procedures & Guidelines
• Templates
• Corporate knowledge base
• Lessons learned from previous projects
• Projects files and records from previous projects

Definition: Matrix organization
Mixture between projectized organization (executives -> project managers -> project staff) and functional organization (executives -> functional managers -> staff & project staff)


Project characteristics and organizational structure

Project characteristics	Functional	Projectized
Project manager's authority	Very low	High
Resource availability	Very low	High
Person in control of budget	Functional manager	Project manager
Project manager's role	Part-time	Full-time
Project administrative staff	Part-time	Full-time

2.1.1 Project Management Overview

2.1.1.1 What is a Project?

Why projects?
Organizations use projects to help meet their strategic goals
e.g.

• Market demands
• Customer requests
• Organizational requirements
• Technological advances
• Legal requirements

Differs from their “normal” operational (=ongoing and repetitive) work

Definition: Project

• Produces a unique result (product, service, …)
• Defined, temporary duration (beginning and end), is finished when specific objectives have been met, are not ongoing and repetitive
• Involves progressive elaboration

Typical steps

• Requirements Analysis
• Design
• Implementation

Definition: Progressive Elaboration
“an incremental process that allows changes to be incorporated into a project without significantly affecting scope”

• Involves clarifying and refining a project over time
• Project teams continuously improve and adjust project plans as more information becomes available
• Must not turn into scope creep
• Project managers must be on the look-out for issues and new information that must result in updates to plans
• Changes will affect budget and timeline

Examples of changes that can trigger progressive elaboration:

• Legislation
• Organizational structure
• Technology
• Context, in which the project occurs

Changes will affect:

• Deliverables
• Objectives
• Scope

These will affect:

• Project timelines
• Life cycles
• budget

2.1.1.2 Managing Projects

Project Success is achieved through applying:

• Knowledge
• Tools
• Skills
• Techniques

Project Manager’s Responsibilities

• Accomplish project’s objectives
  (to produce unique product, service, … within budget and schedule)
• Balance stakeholders’ expectations
  (keep expectations realistic and in line with project’s objectives)
• Update project plans
  (gather more accurate information, estimates, details, … as part of progressive elaboration)
• Balance competing demands
  (budget, schedule, quality, scope)

Project Manager’s Competencies

• Knowledge (what you know)
• Project management techniques
• Processes
• Standards
• Performance (what you can do)
• Qualifications
• Experience
• Skills
• Personal (what kind of person you are)
• Motives
• Attitudes
• Values
• Self-concept

Knowledge:
PMBOK provides information on 9 knowledge areas for project management:

• Integration
• is about
• Identifying
• Defining
• Combining
• Unifying and
• Coordinating all the processes and activities that support a project
• it requires knowledge of the processes for
• Developing the Project charter
• Developing the Project plan
• Directing and managing project execution
• Monitoring and controlling the project
• Performing integrated change control
• Closing the project or phase
• Scope
• is about
• Ensuring that the project only includes the work required to complete it
• it requires knowledge of the processes for
• Collecting project requirements
• Defining project scope
• Creating a work breakdown structure (WBS)
• Verifying and controlling the project’s scope
• Time
• is about
• Ensuring that a project is completed on time
• it requires knowledge of the processes for
• Defining and sequencing activities
• Estimating needed resources
• Estimating durations of activities
• Developing and controlling a project schedule
• Cost
• is about
• Planning project costs
• Controlling and managing project costs
• Ensures that the project is completed within budget
• it requires knowledge of the processes for
• Estimating costs
• Determining a budget
• Controlling costs
• Quality
• is about
• Ensuring that a project satisfies its quality objectives
• it requires knowledge of the processes for
• Quality planning
• Performing quality assurance reviews
• Performing quality control
• Human Resources
• is about
• Ensuring that people are deployed effectively
• Ensuring that their skills and experience are used to optimum effect
• it requires knowledge of the processes for
• Human Resources Planning
• Acquiring and Developing a project team
• Managing the project team
• Communications
• is about
• Ensuring a timely and appropriate communication of key project information
• it requires knowledge of the processes for
• Identifying stakeholders
• Planning communication
• Distributing information
• Managing stakeholders’ expectations
• Reporting on performance
• Risk
• is about
• Managing all factors that place a project’s success at risk
• it requires knowledge of the processes for
• Planning Risk Management
• Identifying risks
• Performing project risk analyses
• Planning risk responses
• Monitoring and controlling risk as the project evolves
• Procurement
• is about
• Managing the acquisition of materials, products, goods and services for the project
• it requires knowledge of the processes for
• Planning procurements
• Conducting procurements
• Administering procurements
• Performing the relevant closure process

Aspects of project management knowledge competencies:

• Knowing how to use project management tools
• Understanding each of the 9 PMBOK Guide knowledge areas
• Understanding project management processes

Performance:
how the project manager is able to put knowledge into practice. E.g.

• Develop a project budget
• Schedule project resources properly
• Perform a risk assessment
• Effectively mitigate risk

Personal:
successful project managers

• Can manage change
• Are innovative
• Take calculated risks
• Get things done
• Can put plans in motion
• Keep people motivated
• Need to be able to move between focusing on details to focusing on the big picture
• Have appropriate people skills
• Leadership ability
• Good communication skills
• Ability to negotiate and persuade

2.1.1.3 Portfolios, Programs and Sub-projects

Organizations group work into projects, programs and portfolios depending on their needs and preferences - groupings to increase efficiency, and will derive from products and services, functional area, geographic area, client or customer type, … - but no fixed rules. Project’s context is within what program, portfolio and organization it is running in – affects all aspects of the project.

Definition: Portfolio
Collection of programs, projects and ongoing work. Grouped to facilitate centralized and effective management, which helps an organization meet its strategic business objectives. However, the parts may not be directly related. Portfolio managers are expected to identify, authorize, manage, prioritize, decide on budget and control projects and programs within their portfolios. Feedback loops also from projects up to the portfolio.

Definition: Program
Group of related projects and maybe ongoing work. Centrally managed (=in a coordinated way) to achieve benefits and a level of control not available through managing the projects individually. Schedules, priorities and shared resources are better managed by ensuring that related work is controlled more consolidated. Allows increase management control as projects also feed back information to programs. Change in one project might influence other projects or ongoing work. So, projects can contribute to consolidated program benefits.

Definition: Sub-project
Smaller portion of an overall project; more manageable components of a project – smaller part of the whole. Can be managed by different people, even outsourced. No “correct” way to split projects, usually depending on organization, or project phases, or as seen necessary by project manager.

Table of Contents on the Project Management Professional (PMP)

Notes on the
Project Management Professional (PMP)
by the Project Management Institute (PMI)

Table of Contents

• 1 About
• 1.1 Why BlogSpot?


• 2 Project Management Essentials


• 2.1 Managing Projects within Organizations


• 2.1.1 Project Management Overview
• 2.1.1.1 What is a Project?
• 2.1.1.2 Managing Projects
• 2.1.1.3 Portfolios, Programs and Sub-projects
• 2.1.2 Project Stakeholders and Organization
• 2.1.2.1 Project Stakeholders
• 2.1.2.2 Organizational Stakeholders
• 2.1.2.3 Organizational Influences on a Project


• 2.2 Project Management Overview


• 2.2.1 Anatomy of a Project
• 2.2.1.1 Project Life Cycle
• 2.2.1.2 Project Phases
• 2.2.1.3 Introduction to Project Management Process Groups
• 2.2.1.4 Life Cycles, Phases, and Process Groups Exercise
• 2.2.2 The Project Management Body of Knowledge
• 2.2.2.1 PMI® and the PMBOK® Guide
• 2.2.2.2 The Knowledge Areas