Projects and Project Management

1.What is a Project?

Project Management Institute Staff, (2008) defines a project as follows:

“A project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result. The temporary nature of projects indicates a definite beginning and end”.

According to Project Management Institute Staff, (2008), this term 'end' indicates both success and failure end of a project (an end of a project can be when project goals were successfully achieved, terminate project because of inability to meet objectives or when there is no need for the project). The final outcome of the project can be a product, a capability which is supporting a service, a report or a document, implementation of a service etc.

2.What IS NOT Project Management?

According to Kerzner (2006), many most project managers misunderstand project management as following:

“Project management is the art of creating the illusion that any outcome is the result of a series of predetermined, deliberate acts when, in fact, it was dumb luck.”

3.What IS Project Management?

Project Management Institute Staff (2008) defines project management as follows [1]:

“Project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities in order to meet the project requirements. This application of knowledge requires the effective management of appropriate processes”

(Kerzner, 2006) defines project management as follows [2]:

“Project management is the planning, organizing, directing, and controlling of company resources for a relatively short-term objective that has been established to complete specific goals and objectives. Furthermore, project management utilizes the systems approach to management by having functional personnel (the vertical hierarchy) assigned to a specific project (the horizontal hierarchy).”

 Definition [1] closely match definition [2] when, Project Management Institute Staff's  (2008) definition of ‘project’, (“A project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result) is combined with its definition of ‘project management’ ([1]); Where [2]’s ‘short – term objective’, and ‘specific goal’ are represented in it. Vertical hierarchy in an organization depicts a chain of management (Ex: CEO->Top Management->Middle Management ->....) where as flat hierarchy has no middle managers. Therefore involvement of vertical hierarchy in project managements helps preserve level of responsibility.

Even though it seems like there are several differences between definitions for a Project by different authors, overall idea can be summarized as a sequential process that is being carried out which has a specifically defined one or more goals and a specific time frame. A project may use various resources (people with different skills, techniques and different tools to implement them, facilities, services, hardware and software.etc) in order to achieve the specifically defined goal. According to Project Management Institute Staff (2008), ‘temporary’ nature is that the specific beginning and the end of a project. But ‘temporary’ does not refer the state of final deliverables. For an example a project can be a construction of a building for lasting decades. A project is also defined as unique by Project Management Institute Staff, (2008) .Therefore a project is never repeated. But what if final deliverable of two projects is the same? But at this point, both projects may not take place in the same place, or the two projects may use different resources, methodologies, and different people in the process of manufacturing the book, and hence each project is unique. Because of this unique nature, a project has a risk or a possibility to fail. For an example when developing an ERP system, developers may use new technology hoping to deliver the product with improved performance. But finally if developed software is not functioning as expected, developers may not be able to debug software correctly due to lack of experience in the new technology.

A project is used to create a unique product or service in a specific time period using set of tools, resources, techniques and personnel. A Project is unique and temporary in nature. Uniqueness imposes higher risk and Management of such project is used to prevent possible risks by using properly identified requirements, addressing stakeholder concerns and balancing constraints.  Project manager is a key feature involved in managing of a project along with applied methodology and teamwork. Therefore Project Management is an essential task that must be carried out throughout project initiation to the closing of the project in order to successfully deliver an outcome which has successfully achieved defined goals.

4. Project Vs Product Processes

Product processes are used to create and specify the products (which is different from one product to another) where project management processes are used to ensure the flow the project throughout its lifetime (These processes are more generic in the sense that, they can be applied to any project regardless of type of its deliverables). According to Project Management Institute Staff (2008) both of these processes are required for a project. These two types of projects interact and overlap during the lifetime of a project.

5. Highlights  from Project Management Body of Knowledge:

• Project manager and project team is responsible for determining required processes and level of application of each. It’s not a must that all knowledge, processes and skills applied uniformly to every project. (Hence flexibility). 
• Managing interaction between process groups, positively affect successful project management.
• Project management Processes are not one time, can be iterated until required result is generated.
• Projects in an organization cannot act as closed ones, interaction with outside is required! (Ex: for gathering valuable input data and generate valuable outcome to be used within the organization)

Project Management Institute Staff (2008)

6. Project Management Process Groups

Project Management Institute Staff (2008) depicts that application and integration of five process groups which servers as guides for applying project management skills and knowledge. Each group contains several processes which are logically related to that group. Following figure extracted from (Project Management Institute Staff (2008), shows the interrelations, inputs and outputs of each process group. It is rare that these process groups act discretely. Instead, each group contains overlapping activities throughout the project (output of a one group results as input to another).

Figure 1 - Project management process groups

Following figure  extracted from (Project Management Institute Staff (2008) , further details the level of interaction within each process groups by providing a scaled perspective.  It is clear that the level of overlap between executing and planning process groups is highest, followed by monitoring and controlling. Initiating and closing process groups are more likely involved in respective initial and final phases of a project.

Figure 2 - Interaction of Process Groups

A brief description of project management processes are provided here according to Project Management Institute Staff (2008). A detailed description of each process group and knowledge areas will be included in the next post.

1. Initiating Process Group – Used to define a new project or a new phase of an existing project by obtaining the authorization (using project charter)
2. Planning Process Group – Used to establish the scope of a project, refine required actions to be performed and refine the objectives
3. Executing Process Group – Used to complete the work defined in the project management plan, which is an outcome of planning process group.
4. Monitoring and Controlling Process Group– Used to track, review and regulate the performance of the project. Identify changes to the plan and initiate those changes.
5. Closing Process Group – finalize all activities of the project in order to formally close the project.

Here is a nice Mind Map, containing processes in each Process group designed by  Sirinivasan (2010) according to the definitions by Project Management Institute Staff (2008) . A detailed description about inputs and outputs will be explained in upcoming posts.

Figure 3 - Project Management Process Groups

7.A Brief Look at Knowledge Areas (A mind map) : 

According to Project Management Institute Staff (2008), above discussed 42 processes are also fall into nine knowledge areas, which every project manager should have a comprehensive understanding of. Prior to detailed discussion of each knowledge area in upcoming posts, I thought following mind map, created by Sirinivasan (2010), would provide a better understanding.

Figure 4 - Project Management Knowledge Areas

8. References:

• Kerzner, H. (2006). Project management : a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. Hoboken, N.J.: J. Wiley.
• Project Management Institute Staff (2008). A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide). [Online]. Exton: Project Management Institute. Available from: http://encompass.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/checkIP.cgi?access=gateway_standard%26url=http://techbus.safaribooksonline.com/9781933890517. [Accessed: 02 August 2012].
• Sirinivasan, B. (2010) Project Management Mind Map.[Online]. Available from :  http://leadershipchamps.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/project-management-mind-map.png [Accessed : 03 August 2012]