Essential Project Management Principles and Techniques

Posted on Mar 22, 2025 in Business Administration and Innovation Management

Project Management: Key Concepts and Best Practices

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Importance of Project Management

  1. Compression of the product lifecycle
  2. Knowledge explosion
  3. Triple Bottom Line
  4. Corporate Downsizing
  5. Increased customer focus
  6. Small businesses represent big problems

Project Control Process

  1. Setting up a baseline plan
  2. Measuring progress and performance
  3. Comparing plan against actual
  4. Taking action

Project Characteristics

  1. Objectives
  2. Lifecycle
  3. Conception stage
  4. Design stage
  5. Implementation stage
  6. Commissioning stage
  7. Definite time limit
  8. Uniqueness
  9. Teamwork
  10. Complexity
  11. Subcontracting
  12. Risk and uncertainty
  13. Customer-Specific Nature
  14. Change
  15. Response to Environments
  16. Forecasting
  17. Rational choice
  18. Principles of succession
  19. Optimality
  20. Control Mechanism
  21. Multi-disciplinary
  22. Conflicts
  23. Part of a large program

Taxonomy of Projects

  1. Based on the type of activity
  2. Based on the location of the Project
  3. Based on Project completion Time
  4. Based on ownership
  5. Based on size
  6. Based on need
    1. New project
    2. Balancing Project
    3. Expansion project
    4. Modernization Project
    5. Replacement project
    6. Diversification project
    7. Backward integration project
    8. Forward integration project

Characteristics of a Project Manager

  1. Problem-solving skills
  2. Team-building skills
  3. Cool under pressure
  4. Ability to delegate tasks
  5. Competence
  6. Empathy
  7. Enthusiasm
  8. Integrity
  9. Good communication skills
  10. Administrative skills
  11. Technical expertise
  12. Interpersonal skills
  13. Analytical skills
  14. Leadership skills
  15. Personality skills

Types of Scheduling

  1. Financial
  2. Documentation
  3. Management
  4. Quality

Defining a Project

  1. Defining the project scope
    1. Project objectives
    2. Deliverables
    3. Milestones
    4. Technical requirements
    5. Limits and exclusions
    6. Reviews with customer
  2. Establishing project priorities
  3. Creating the WBS (Work Breakdown Structure)
    1. Major groupings found in WBS
          1. Defines work
          2. Identifies time to complete a work package (how long)
          3. Identifies a time-phased budget to complete a work package (cost)
          4. Identifies resources needed to complete a work package (how much)
          5. Identifies a single person responsible for units of work (who)
          6. Identifies monitoring points for measuring progress (how well)
  4. Integrating the WBS with the Organization
  5. Coding the WBS for the information system

Risk Management

  1. Risk identification
  2. Risk assessment
  3. Risk response development
    1. Mitigating
    2. Transfer
    3. Scheduling
    4. Funding
    5. Cost
    6. Avoid
    7. Technical
  4. Risk response control

Project Lifecycle Stages

1. Defining stage: Specifications of the project are defined; project objectives are established; teams are formed; major responsibilities are assigned.

2. Planning stage: The level of effort increases, and plans are developed to determine what the project will entail, when it will be scheduled, whom it will benefit, what quality level should be maintained, and what the budget will be.

3. Executing stage: A major portion of the project work takes place—both physical and mental. The physical product is produced (a bridge, a report, a software program). Time, cost, and specification measures are used for control. Is the project on schedule, on budget, and meeting specifications? What are the forecasts of each of these measures? What revisions/changes are necessary?

4. Closing stage: Closing includes three activities: delivering the project product to the customer, redeploying project resources, and post-project review. Delivery of the project might include customer training and transferring documents. Redeployment usually involves releasing project equipment/materials to other projects and finding new assignments for team members. Post-project reviews include not only assessing performance but also capturing lessons learned.

To organize and complete your projects in a timely, quality, and financially responsible manner, you need to schedule projects carefully. Effective project scheduling plays a crucial role in ensuring project success. To keep projects on track, set realistic time frames, assign resources appropriately, and manage quality to decrease product errors. This typically results in reduced costs and increased customer satisfaction. Important factors include financial, documentation, management, and quality assurance.

Financial Aspects of Project Scheduling

Project scheduling impacts the overall finances of a project. Time constraints require project managers to schedule resources effectively. This is particularly true when resources must have highly specialized skills and knowledge in order to complete a task or when costly materials are required. Completing a project in a short time frame typically costs more because additional resources or expedited materials are needed. With accurate project scheduling, realistic estimates and accurate projections prevent last-minute orders that drive up costs.

Documentation in Project Scheduling

Creating a comprehensive work breakdown structure allows you to create a chart, such as a Gantt chart, that lists the project tasks, shows dependencies, and defines milestones. Management consultant Henry Gantt designed this type of chart to show a graphic schedule of planned work. Its role in business projects is to record and report progress toward project completion. Your project schedule also allows you to assign human resources to the work and evaluate their allocation to ensure you have the appropriate levels of utilization. You may also develop a program evaluation and review technique chart, or PERT chart, to help you analyze project tasks.

Management Practices in Project Scheduling

Effective project managers conduct regular meetings to get status reports. They use project scheduling meetings to check in with their team members and prevent costly misunderstandings. These regular meetings ensure that work flows from one process to the next and that each team member knows what he needs to do to contribute to the project’s overall success.

Quality Assurance in Project Scheduling

Project scheduling ensures one task gets completed in a quality manner before the next task in the process begins. By assuring that quality measures meet expectations at every step of the way, you ensure that managers and team members address problems as they arise and don’t wait until the end. No major issues should appear upon completion because you’ve established quality controls from the very beginning of the scheduling process. Effective project managers understand that ensuring quality control involves managing risks and exploiting opportunities to speed up the schedule when possible to beat the competition and achieve or maintain a competitive edge with a more reliable product.