Chapter 2: Introduction To Project Management

Chapter 2: Introduction to Project
Management
Project Success
There are several ways to define project
success
The project met scope, time, and cost goals
The project satisfied the customer/sponsor
even if the scope, time and/or costs goals were
not met
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.
26
What Helps Projects Succeed?*
1.Executive support 7.Firm basic requirements
2.User involvement 8.Formal methodology
3.Experienced project 9.Reliable estimates
manager 10.Other criteria, such as
4.Clear business small milestones, proper
objectives planning, competent
5.Minimized scope staff, and ownership
6.Standard software
infrastructure
What the Winners Do
• Recent research findings show that companies
that excel in project delivery capability:
–Use an integrated project management toolbox (use
standard/advanced PM tools and lots of templates)
–Grow project leaders, emphasizing business and soft
skills
–Develop a streamlined project delivery process
–Measure project health using metrics, like customer
satisfaction or return on investment
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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”
 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:
 infrastructure- wireless Internet access, upgrading h/w & s/w,
developing corporate standards for IT
 applications development – updating an ERP system, purchasing a
new off-the-shelf billing system, adding new feature to CRM
 system user support – daily operational support, upgrade e-mail
system, develop technical training for users
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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
6
Project Management Compared to
Project Portfolio Management
7
Suggested Skills for Project
Managers
Project managers need a wide variety of skills
They should:
Be comfortable with change
Understand the social, political and physical

environments of the organizations they work in and with
Be able to lead teams to accomplish project goals
8
The Role of the Project Manager
Job descriptions vary, but most include
responsibilities like planning, scheduling,
coordinating, and working with people to achieve
project goals
Remember that 97% of successful projects were

led by experienced project managers, who can
often help influence success factors
9
Suggested Skills for Project Managers
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
38
Ten Most Important Skills and
Competencies for Project Managers
1. People skills
2. Leadership
3. Listening
4. Integrity, ethical behavior, consistent
• Strong at building trust
• Verbal communication
2. Strong at building teams
3. Conflict resolution, conflict management
4. Critical thinking, problem solving
5.Understands, balances priorities
39
Different Skills Needed in
Different Situations
 Large projects: leadership, relevant prior experience,
planning, people skills, verbal communication, and team-
building skills are most important
 High uncertainty projects: risk management, expectation
management, leadership, people skills, and planning skills
are most important
 Very novel projects: leadership, people skills, having vision
and goals, self-confidence, expectations management, and
listening skills are most important
40
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
“Managers do things right, leaders do the right thing”
“Leaders determine the vision, managers achieve the
vision”
13
The Project Management Profession
 The profession of project management is growing at a
very rapid pace
 It is helpful to understand the history of the field, the role
of professional societies like the Project Management
Institute, and the growth in project management software
14
History of Project Management
 Some people argue that building the Egyptian pyramids was
a project, as was building the Great Wall of China
 Most people consider the Manhattan Project to be the first
project to use “modern” project management
 This three-year, $2 billion (in 1946 dollars) anization chart of
project had a separate project manager
(General Leslie Groves) and a technical manager
(Dr. Robert Oppenheimer)
 The military realized that scientists and
other technical specialists often did not have
the desire or the necessary skills to manage
large projects
 Dr. Oppenheimer was asked repeatedly for an org
the teams working on the project and their responsibilities.
Eventually he threw a piece of paper at his director and said “Here’s
your damn organization chart.”
15
History of Project Management
 In 1917, Henry Gantt developed the famous Gantt chart as
a tool for scheduling work in factories
 A Gantt chart is a standard format for displaying project schedule
information by listing projects activities and their corresponding start
and finish dates in a calendar format
The military was the key industry behind the
development of several project management techniques.
 Members of the US navy Polaris missile/submarine project first
used network diagrams in 1958. These diagrams helped model
the relationships among project tasks, which allowed them to create
schedules that were more realistic.
 Determining the relationships among tasks helps in finding the critical
path of the network. This tells the manager the earliest completion date
of the project.
 In the 1990s, many companies created project management
offices (PMO) to help them handle the increasing number and
complexity of projects throughout an organization
16
Project Management Software
 There are hundreds of different products to assist in
performing project management
 Three main categories of tools

 Low-end tools: handle single or smaller projects well, cost under
$200 per user
 Midrange tools: handle multiple projects and users, cost $200-600 per
user, Project 2007 most popular
 High-end tools: also called enterprise project management software,
often licensed on a per-user basis, like VPMi Enterprise Online.
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Chapter 2: Introduction to Project

Be comfortable with change

Understand the social, political and physical

Be able to lead teams to accomplish project goals

Remember that 97% of successful projects were

The Project Management Body of Knowledge

 A leader focuses on long-term goals and big-picture

 Three main categories of tools

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