Project Chapter 1

Chapter One
Introduction to
Project Analysis and
Management
Discussion Question
• Prepare a list of activities that are not projects.
What distinguishes them from project activities?
Which activities are difficult to classify one way
or the other?
Continued
Brief History Of Project Management
• Projects from ancient times have left impressive legacies on our
architectural and industrial culture.
• We wonder how some of those early masters managed without
the technology that is readily and cheaply available today.
• However, with the exception of a few notable philanthropic
employers, concern for the welfare and safety of workers was
generally lacking and many early project workers actually lost
their lives through injuries, disease and sheer physical
exhaustion.
• People were often regarded as a cheap and expendable resource.
Continued
Continued
Continued
Definition
• Project is a temporary endeavor involving a
connected sequence of activities and a range of
resources, which is designed to achieve a
specific and unique outcome, which operates
within time, scope, cost and quality constraints
and which is often used to introduce change.
Key concepts:
• Purpose-the basic reason for the existence
of a project- to solve a problem, address a
need or take the advantage of opportunity.
• Temporary: means that a project is
something that has a specific start date and
a specific end date.
Continued
• projects are of a transient nature, with a
defined beginning and end. The end is
reached when the project’s objectives have
been achieved and effectively handed over
to the business
• In certain situations the project itself is a one-off event and
not integrated into an organization, for example an election,
or the Olympic Games.
Key concepts:
• Sequences of Activities: the works and the steps we
perform and the methods and knowledge we use to
achieve the project objective.
• Unique Outcome: A project brings about a unique product
or service - something that has not existed in the
organization here-to-fore.
• Uniqueness derives either from activities that have not
been done before, or from some product or service
feature that distinguishes it from all other products or
services the organization has produced before.
• Identifying and focusing on uniqueness is important to
project management.
• It helps identify new organization risk areas, enabling
management to develop and implement timely risk
management strategies.
• Time: any project should be time bounded-it has a
start and end time
• Cost: activities consume human, financial and material
resources.
• Quality: the project needs to produce quality products
to maximize the satisfaction of the users.
• Introduce change: A project is often used as an
instrument for change - change for the betterment of
the society.
• Projects range in size, scope, cost and time
from mega international projects costing
millions of dollars over many years to small
domestic projects with a low budget taking
just a few hours to complete.
Examples of projects:
• Build low cost houses/ condominium
• Build a dam for hydroelectric/irrigation
• Improve the standard of a road
• Develop training program for CEOs about human rights
• Redesigning the IT system
More examples from your experiences?

Different Types of Project
• The principal identifying characteristic of a project is its
novelty. It is a step into the unknown, fraught with risk and
uncertainty.
• No two projects are ever exactly alike: even a repeated
project will differ from its predecessor in one or more
commercial, administrative or physical aspects.
• However, I have found it possible and convenient to classify
projects as four different general types.
Continued
Continued
A typology of projects
Project Vs program
• “project” – a group of activities to produce a Project Purpose in
a fixed time frame –
• A “program” – a series of projects whose objectives together
contribute to a common Overall Objective, at sector, country or
even multi-country level.
• A program is an assortment of related/associated projects that
are managed together to achieve a number of objectives.
• Programs may also contain elements of ongoing operations.
Since programs comprise multiple projects, they are larger in
scope than a single project.
Generally, the word program refers to a series of
planned ongoing activities with a broader scope than
a project. However, a project is a temporary
investment activity where resources are used to
create assets, which produce benefits over time and
has a beginning and an end with specific objectives.
Project Program
Narrow in scope Wide in scope; can comprise
many projects as components.
Differences Specific and detail Comprehensive and general
More precise and accurate in Broader goal related to
its objectives and features sectoral policy
Possible to calculate the Difficult to calculate costs

costs and returns and returns
• Have purpose/ objectives
Similarities
• Require input (financial, manpower, material)

• Generate output (goods and/or services)
• Operate over space and time
Projects Vs operations
Organizations perform two types of work: project
work and operational work
• Operations are ongoing and repetitive while projects
are temporary and unique.
• The purpose of a project is to attain its objective and
then terminate whereas the objective of an ongoing
operation is to sustain the business.
Feature Projects Operations
Purpose Attain objectives and Sustain the
terminate organization
Time Temporary Ongoing
Unique product, service, or Non-unique product,
Outcome result service, or result
Key Differences
Dynamic, temporary teams Functional teams

formed to meet project generally aligned
People
needs with organizational
Generally not aligned with structure
organizational structure
Varies by organizational Generally formal,
Authority structure direct line of
of
Manager
Generally minimal, if any, authority
direct line authority
Project stakeholders
• Project stakeholders are individuals and
organizations who are actively involved in the
project, or whose interests may be positively or
negatively affected as a result of project
execution or successful project completion.
The key stakeholders on every project include:
• Project manager - the individual responsible for
managing the project.
• Project beneficiaries/Customer - the individual or
organization that will use the project product.
• Performing organization—the enterprise whose
employees are most directly involved in doing the work of
the project.
• Sponsor - the individual or group within or outside the
performing organization who provides the financial
resources, in cash or in kind, for the project.
Continued
• Suppliers and contractors – e.g. Construction
companies, Skills development and education and
training organizations, legal firms,;
• Project team members and their families;
• Government agencies – e.g. local municipality.
• Community representatives and organizations
• Project management is a process of leading a team of
capable people in planning and implementing a series
of related activities that need to be accomplished on a
specific date with a limited budget.
• Project Management is the application of
knowledge and expertise to the development
and completion of a project.
Defining Project Management
• Project management is the process of planning,
controlling and directing a project from its
inception to its completion, in a given time, at
given cost, and for a given purpose.
• The basic objective of Project Management is to
integrate or connect 3P’s of project:
• Purposes – why we do the project
• People – who does the project
• Processes – how we do the project

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Chapter One

More examples from your experiences?

Possible to calculate the Difficult to calculate costs

• Require input (financial, manpower, material)

Dynamic, temporary teams Functional teams

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