Project Management: Phases, Evaluation, and Key Concepts

Posted on Jan 23, 2025 in Business Administration and Innovation Management

Project Definition

A project is a set of human, financial, and material resources intended to generate a product or service.

Project Management Periods

  • Traditional: Focuses on meeting requirements, not necessarily time and budget. Authoritarian leadership.
  • Renaissance: Emphasizes meeting time and cost constraints in addition to requirements. Participative leadership.
  • Modern: Prioritizes quality, business knowledge, and leadership skills.

Scale Method

Compliance with time, cost, and quality. Focus on customer satisfaction and long-term relationships with providers and team members.

Participants, Functions, and Actions

  • Client/Contractor or Project Owner: Authorizes and sets acceptance criteria.
  • Sponsor: Oversees project management, makes decisions, allocates resources, and supports the manager.
  • Project Manager: Leads the team, identifies and resolves problems.
  • Team Members (Managers, Staff, Suppliers): Prepare the project plan, execute, and control it.

Investment Project

A plan that, if assigned capital and inputs, can produce a useful good or service.

Project Evaluation

Aims to meet economic and social goals, ensuring that a need is solved. Criteria and evaluation are essential.

Project vs. Program

  • Project: A sequence of activities with a common goal, utilizing limited resources.
  • Program: A group of projects managed in a coordinated way to obtain benefits not available if administered individually.

Project Management

The application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities to meet customer needs.

  • Plans, organizes, and controls resources.
  • Has a defined term structure.

Levels of Project Evaluation

  • Profile (High-Level Vision): Project idea, environmental analysis, identification of needs.
  • Feasibility and Preliminary: Conceptual definition of the project, study, evaluation, and decisions.
  • Final Project: Construction of the project.

Introduction

A brief overview of development and product applications.

Development Framework

  1. Check that there is a potential market.
  2. Verify that it is technologically possible.
  3. Confirm that it is economically feasible.

Market Study

Determine supply and demand, price analysis, and product penetration in the market.

Technical Study

  1. Determine the optimal size of the plant.
  2. Determine the optimal location of the plant.
  3. Engineering project.
  4. Administrative analysis.

Economic Survey

  • Regulates monetary information.
  • MARR (Minimum Acceptable Rate of Return).
  • Calculation of net cash flows.
  • Selection of a funding plan.
  • Calculation of breakeven (costs, sales, etc.).

Economic Evaluation

The final stage of the feasibility analysis, where the implementation of the project is decided.

  • NPV (Net Present Value): Subtract the total value of discounted flows from the initial investment. (NPV >= 0, accept investment)
  • IRR (Internal Rate of Return): Makes the NPV = 0.

Sensitivity Analysis

Determines how much changes in project variables affect the IRR without altering the variables.

Risk Management

Approach and application in economic risk are lower among unstable economic conditions. Profitability = MARR – IRR. IRR > MARR = risky project.