Exploring Project Management

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On this Part 1 in part 6 series of Fundamentals in Project Management we will tackle the following:

  1. We will Define what is Project.
  2. We will Define what is Project Management?
  3. Do you have what it takes to be a Project Manager?
  4. What are these Top 5 processes of Project Management?
  5. What are the 2 types of Project Management Approach?
  6. What Project Management Software can we use?

  How to manage your project from beginning to end.

General concept of Project Management:

  1. Defining a Project started by  identifying the Project to solve and how to solve it.
  2. Planning your project
  • Identifying the works need to be done
  • Building a schedule and
  • defining the ground rules for how you run your project

3. Tips for launching your project, monitoring and controlling it’s performance so you stay on time and within a budget.

 

#1 PROJECT  DEFINITION MEANS:

unique (each construction project is unique)

  • specific goal (is it to solve a problem or take advantage of opportunity)
  • beginning and end (if the project seem to go on forever it could be just that, you might not define the project goal correctly. It is the crucial part)
  • budget (you think money when you hear about budget but it also include resources and time)

NOTES: A project is not an operations. Operations is a work that is the same day after day producing the same results. 

 

#2 PROJECT MANAGEMENT DEFINITION

Project management does not start and end showing your organizational and supervising skill. A Project management can be summed into answering some crucial questions:

  1. What problem are you solving?
  2. How are you going to solve this problem?
  3. What is your plan?
  4. How will you know when you’re done?
  5. How well did the project go?

 

#3 DO YOU HAVE WHAT IT TAKES TO BE A PROJECT MANAGER? 

The perception about being a Project Managers are that they are really organized and good at getting things done. PM actually had the following skills:

  1. Technical Skills 
  • What goes into project plan.
  • How to build and find tuning project schedules
  • How to measure progress tools like Earn and value analysis

       2. Business Expertise

  • As a PM it’s up to you if your project delivers value. You wanna make sure that the project achieve goals and objectives that you identify during project planning.
  • You also needs to understand your organizations business.  What it does and What it considers important.

       3. Interpersonal Skills Projects typically used people from different groups, departments and even different companies. Your the leader of this team so it’s your job to motivate your people.                

       4. Strong Leadership You must inspire your people, Guide them to do the right things,  and motivate them to give their best. So does Project Management sounds like you wanna do? If so, the following article might improve your skills to be a good Project Manager.

 

#4 WHAT ARE THESE TOP 5 PROCESSES OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT?

Project Management can be categorized into 5 processes.  To help guide a project to be successfully from beginning to end. INITIATING is about getting the commitment to start a project. Basiocally we answer the questions. What problems are you solving? and How are you going to solve this problem. PLANNING figure out how you perform the project. We need to answer the questions: What is your plan and How will you know when your done? EXECUTING putting your plans into actions. The executing a Project is about launching a project. You bring your resources on board introduce them to one another, get them settled in and explains the rules to used the project. MONITORING & CONTROLLING  is your ongoing responsibility to see whether the project is going according to plan & if it isn’t you work out ways back on track. CLOSING Process is short but important you get the client to officially accept that the project is complete. You document the project performance gather lessons learned, closed contract and help resources moved on to their next assignments.

 

#5 COMMON 2 APPROACHES  TO PROJECT MANAGEMENT 

And you might ask this questions on how May I identify if it’s the right approach I needed for my Project? We tackle a while ago the Top 5 Processes in Project Management. When these process occur one after another starting from Initiating and end with Closing Processes is is basically known as TRADITIONAL Management (or “waterfall Approach”)

 

 

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TRADITIONAL PROJECT MANAGEMENT works well when the project is familiar, Goal and solution are easy to identify, scope and deliverables are clear and you use familiar technology your tools. WITH MANY PROJECTS TODAY. YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT THE SOLUTIONS LOOKS LIKE. So you need to figure it out as you go all along. This type of project requires a different approach.

 

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AGILE PROJECT MANAGEMENT goes through Iterations to get closer to and eventually reach a successful outcome. For example you might known the Project Goal such as replacement of financial system. But your customer doesn’t have his procedures and requirements documented in any way. In this case you can iterate to the processes to get closer to what he want. In INITIATING and PLANNING PROCESSES you define the over all goal of the project and build an overall plan to achieve that goal. With Agile Project Management you define what you are trying to achieve with each iteration and develop a detailed plan for that work in that iteration. The EXECUTING PROCESS is easier in AGILE PROJECTS. Because they typically used small teams of highly skilled people who worked in the same location. This conditions makes it much simpler to get everyone on board. With AGILE PROJECT MANAGEMENT you monitoring and controlling the project more closely and communicate faster and more frequently. Finally, each iteration has its own closing process for accepting its specific deliverables. Then when the final iteration is accepted you can complete the other activities such as closing contracts. It’s up to you which approach you prefer,

 

Traditional or Agile?

 

#6 WHAT PROJECT MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE CAN WE USE?

In this part we will tackle about which software available for your Project Management job that’ll help you make your job much easier to do.   We have a lots of choices on what Scheduling Software a Project Manager can be used. Microsft Excel – With the simplest project to map out who works on “what” day by day. However for more \ The most well known desktop management program is

  1. Microsoft Project
  2. Oracle Primavera
  3. FastTrack Schedule
  4. OpenProj
  5. @Task

come with tons of features to set up scheduling

You might also needed for your documented files are:

  • MS Word
  • Gogole Docs

Spreadsheets Programs are good for calculations and analysis:

[You can use spreadsheets to analyze and figure out which one you got to keep an eye on]

  • MS Excel
  • Google Docs

A presentation program is useful when you have to communicate Project information at a high level when you want to include information for a variety of other types of documents.

  • MS PowerPoint
  • Apple Keynote
  • Prezi

FOR COMMUNICATIONS TO OTHER PEOPLE INVOLVED COLLABORATION TOOLS:

  • 37signals Basecamp
  • MS Sharepoint

ENTERPRISE (BIG PRJECTS) You may need:

  •  Complex Projects
  •  Resource Assignements
  •  Tracking
  •  Document Libraries

OTHER CONSIDERATIONS:

  • Culture
  • cost
  • number of projects
  • complexity

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