10/19/2010

Curs 5
MANAGEMENTUL PROIECTELOR
Dan NICULA

[email protected]
http://etc.unitbv.ro/~nicula

The Project Management

Question and Answer
Book
Michael W. Newell
Marina N. Grashina

What is the project management

triangle or the triple constraint?

What is the project life cycle?

Once again we turn to the Project Management Institute's Guide to the Project Management
Body of Knowledge for a definition of project management. It defines project management as
"the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities to
meet project requirements." In the project management triangle we are concerned with
the management of the project's time, cost, and scope. These concerns lead us to manage
the project's quality, risk, communications, integration, schedule, performance, stakeholder
needs, desires, requirements, and expectations.

What are the project baselines?

A project has three baselines that will be used for performance and progress
measurement. They are the scope baseline, the time or schedule baseline, and the
cost baseline.
The scope baseline is the sum of the deliverables of the project. It represents all
the work that must be done to complete the project. Any deliverables that are not
included in the scope baseline will not be delivered to any of the stakeholders.
The time baseline is the schedule of all the work that will be done to produce the
scope baseline. Each item of work in the schedule is an item of work that is
required to produce an output that either contributes to the delivery of a
deliverable or that is an input required by another scheduled task in the project.
Scheduled tasks that do not contribute to the delivery of a deliverable or an input
to another task should not be part of the project schedule.
The cost baseline is the budget of the project. A budget is the timephased cost of
all the work in the project schedule. The cost baseline does not include the
contingency budget or the management reserve. The cost baseline is also called
the performance baseline. Cost and schedule baselines will be discussed in the
sections on cost and time management.

The project management triangle is often used to illustrate that project management success
is measured by the project team's ability to manage the project or part of the project so that
the expected results are produced while managing time and cost.
The triple constraint is depicted as a triangle with cost, scope, and schedule as the sides of
the triangle. It could be said that they contain customer satisfaction that could be considered
figuratively to be the interior of the triangle since the customer should always be concerned
about scope, time, and cost as well. Thus, in order to create customer satisfaction, we must
perform all of the scope that was promised for the budget that we promised and deliver it
when it was promised.

Who are the project stakeholders?

A stakeholder is anyone who has something to gain or lose as a result of this

project. It includes all the people who have something to gain or lose by either the
doing of the project or the results delivered by the project. The broadest
interpretation of the stakeholder is used. This means that people we might not
think of as being stakeholders in the project probably are stakeholders. All of the
people on the project team are stakeholders. Suppliers to the project, outside
contractors, our client, our management, and literally anyone else who has
something to gain or lose is a stakeholder.
It is important for the project team to recognize all of the stakeholders. Unless we
identify all the stakeholders, it will not be possible to fill their requirements, and
the scope of the project will be understated. Generally the stakeholders who are
not recognized will make their presence known toward the end of the project
when they see that their needs have not been incorporated. These then become
new requirements that have been neither funded nor scheduled.

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What is a deliverable in the

project?

All projects accomplish something. The "something" that they accomplish can be
either a good or a service and is usually a combination of both. The individual
items of goods or services that are accomplished are called the project
deliverables.

What is the requirements process?

What is a work breakdown

structure (WBS)?

What is a scope statement?

The scope statement is the defining statement of the project. It is the document
that defines the project and is the basis for making decisions about the project.
The scope statement is a dynamic document in that in the beginning it contains
the information available, and as the project progresses, it is changed and added
to. It is the primary document used for understanding the project and its nature.
The scope statement includes the goal statement, the project justification, the
products that the project will produce, the deliverables, and the success criteria of
the project. The scope statement should also include the things that the project
will not do. These statements should include exclusions from the project
deliverables and any identified constraints and assumptions that have been made.

How do I do a work breakdown

structure?

Doing a work breakdown structure is one of the simplest things that you will do as
a project manager, yet it is one of the things that many project managers and their
staff do not do well. Part of the reason must be that it is so simple that many
managers do not think that something so simple will be of use to them. In reality,
the WBS is simple, but it is also one of the most useful tools in project
management.
To do a WBS, you start at the top, which is the project level. The project is then
broken down into subprojects. As we discussed, we could be doing a product
breakdown at this point. Usually a project is first broken down into four to seven
subprojects or products. Once the first level of the breakdown for the project has
been completed, a different group of people on the project team can be used to
break each one of the subprojects into sub-subprojects. In this way the proper
expertise can be used for each area of the project.

There are many ways to develop the deliverables of a project. It is important that a
procedure be established for each project that will ensure that all of the necessary
deliverables of the project are found and that all unnecessary requirements are
eliminated from the list of deliverables.

Once we have identified all of the things that we are supposed to produce in the
project, it is necessary to develop the specific items of work that must be done to
complete all of the work. The work breakdown structure takes the project and
divides it into smaller pieces. These can be called subprojects. The subprojects can
be broken down into smaller pieces. This process of breaking down the project can
continue until the project is broken into small, more manageable pieces.

How do I do a work breakdown

structure?

The work of breaking each project and subproject down further and further
continues until the level of breakdown is achieved at which an individual can be
assigned to be responsible for the work of the defined sub-sub-sub . . project. At
this point we have what is usually called a task or an activity. There is plenty of
flexibility in doing this, as there should be since each project and each project
manager is unique and we do not want to burden the process with unnecessary
rules and restrictions.

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What is a project estimate?

In order to run the project we must know how long things take, how much they
will cost, and what kind of resources will be required. The only way we can get this
data is by doing good estimates. Without good estimates we have no way of
knowing where we are at any point in the project, and we have no way of
predicting how much the project will cost or how long it will take to do it.
An estimate is the determination of a likely quantitative result. There are two
major things that we estimate in a project; one is the cost of the project or the
money that will have to be spent to produce it. The second is the time that the
project will take to be completed. Whenever we are doing project estimates, we
will not only be estimating the cost of doing the work but also the time that it will
take to complete it.

What terms are used in estimating?

What is float or slack in a project

schedule?

What is a network diagram?

Network diagrams are used in many ways, from engineering to computer

programming to management. In project management the network diagram is
usually associated with the scheduling function. The network diagram for a
schedule shows the logical relationships between the activities of the schedule for
a project.
The activities are taken two at a time. The relationship between them is such that
one activity is the independent activity and the other is the dependent activity.
Typically, for example, this relationship shows that the independent activity must
finish before the dependent activity is allowed to start.
The network diagram clearly delineates the sequence of activities that the project
must follow to reach its end. Once all the relationships between the activities are
shown on the diagram, the actual schedule dates can be calculated.

What is a Gantt chart?

A Gantt chart, as seen in Figure 5-5, is used to show the project schedule in a
graphic form.
It is probably the most used graphic report in project management and may be the
most used of any of the reports used in project management. The Gantt chart is
about 100 years old and was invented by Henry L. Gantt in 1917. Back then the
charts were, of course, drawn by hand instead of computer. Today every project
management software package produces the Gantt chart. It is clearly the favorite
graphic for displaying the project schedule.

The terms used in estimating are related to the use of project management
software. Because of the defaults used in project management software, we have
been using these terms in our estimates.
Effort: The hours of labor to do work. Effort is usually expressed as man-hours or
people-hours but could be expressed as man-days, man-months, or man-years.

First of all, float and slack are two words that mean the same thing. It is perfectly
fine to use either term in project management. Float is a measure of flexibility in
the project schedule. There are two kinds of float, total float and free float. Total
float is usually called float. (Sometimes it seems that we try to make things
unnecessarily confusing.) Total float is the amount of time that an activity can be
delayed without having to reschedule the project completion date. Free float is the
amount of time an activity can be delayed without having to reschedule any other
activity in the project.

What is the critical path method?

The critical path method or CPM is a management tool that helps the project
manager recognize where in the project schedule his management effort should
be applied. The critical path method recognizes that the activities in the schedule
that have zero float are the activities that cannot be delayed without delaying the
completion of the project. These activities are called critical activities and should
be identified as activities that require close supervision.
By this definition of critical activities, all the other activities must have some float.
This means that those activities containing at least some float can be delayed
without affecting the completion of the project and can be managed somewhat
less closely than the critical path activities.

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What is the PERT method?

The PERT method stands for program evaluation and review technique. It is a
statistical approach to project schedules. Actually, it is a statistical way of
predicting project completions when there is uncertainty about the project
durations.
The PERT method was developed during the Polaris Missile program in the United
States in the 1950s. At that time the United States was in the middle of the Cold
War and had come up with the idea that ballistic nuclear missiles could be fired
under water from a submarine. Of course this was a tremendous advantage in a
nuclear war because the submarine could approach the coastline of the Soviet
Union and fire the missiles before being detected. It seems no one told the
submarine commander that as soon as the rocket took off, the submarine would
be spotted and probably blown up. But that takes us a bit off the subject of PERT.

What is a milestone chart?

What is the difference between

management and leadership?

A milestone is used to represent groups of activities or significant events or

commitments in the project. A milestone chart shows a group of milestones in an
organized way similar to a Gantt chart with one milestone per line vertically with a
description on the left and the milestone located horizontally along a time scale
showing when it occurs. Milestones differ from the bars in a Gantt chart in that
they show only a single date and are usually depicted as a triangle instead of a bar.
Milestones can be shown in various colors depicting the status of the milestone.
Milestones can also appear on Gantt charts; project management software
supports the placement of milestones on Gantt charts and other project reports
and displays generated by the software.

What is a project team?

In overall management theory, the recent trends consider distinguishing strongly

between leadership and managerial qualities. According to this view, managers
and leaders have certain major differences in a number of areas, including:
Psychological personality profile: Administrative for a manager and innovative for a
leader.
Type of power and approach to making people do things: Administratively
supported ordering for a manager and inspiring for a leader; subordinates' respect
replaced by admiration.
Approach to task execution: Objective-oriented task fulfillment with lots of
detailed planning involved for a manager and overall vision (mission)-oriented
movement for a leader; control replaced by trust.
Approach to planning: Acting on the basis of the goals set by others for a manager
and fighting for their own goals with a great level of belief and commitment for a
leader; professionalism replaced by enthusiasm.
Ways of affecting people: Logical for a manager and emotional for a leader.
Generally: While the manager is the one "doing things right", the position of the
leader becomes to "do the right thing".

A project team is defined as a small number of people with complementary skills who
are committed to a common purpose, performance, goals, and approach. It could
also be described as an assembly of people who are directly or indirectly
accountable to the project manager.

What is a project team?

What is delegation?

As we discussed in the part of this chapter describing the differences between

management and leadership, the project manager is also often required to be able
to fulfill the functions of a project leader. As such, he has to be able to:
Set clear goals and make certain that they are followed.
Assist other team members in gaining the overall vision of the project and in
maintaining the vision throughout the course of project realization regardless of
the problems and confusion.
Create and maintain motivation and a feeling of ownership and involvement in the
team.
Among the many tools that the project manager, in the role of a project team leader,
has to be able to use well are presentation skills, negotiation skills, and conflict
resolution skills.

The term delegation describes the process used by a manager to shift some of the
responsibilities for the task implementation to another team member. Delegation
is key to improving team members' feelings of involvement and ownership, and
the ability to delegate is therefore considered to be an extremely important skill
for a project manager.
The ability to delegate responsibility for tasks fully or partially to other people not
only gives higher motivation to the team members, but also frees the project
manager to be able to carry out other project tasks related more to her area of
responsibility, such as planning, management, reporting, and coordination.

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What are the tools and rules for

human resource coordination in
projects?

What is risk management?

Staffing plans are used by functional managers in order to be able to track

different employees from project to project. As shown, a staffing plan is a simple
matrix showing the projects each person is working on at certain periods of time.
Functional managers can use the staffing plan in order to see the people available
to fulfill certain functional or new project jobs; it also gives the person himself
some vision of his coming assignments.

What are the basic steps in

risk management?
There are usually four steps considered in managing any risk. This will vary from
author to author, so we will stick with the Project Management Institute's Guide to
the Project Management Body of Knowledge. The PMBOK lists the steps in the risk
process as follows:
1. Risk identification
2. Risk quantification
3. Risk response
4. Risk control

How can we increase accuracy in

communications?

It is a well-known fact that 80 percent of a manager's time is spent

communicating. It is a somewhat less-known fact that the normal efficiency of
communicating is pretty low: right after the information is heard by a person, he
can remember only 50 percent of it, and after a month the retention falls to 25
percent. Thus, it seems reasonable for a project manager, for whom
communication skills make up one of the major tools for managing project results
and stakeholders' expectations, to be able to increase the accuracy of
communications and thus the efficiency of information transfer to the people
involved with the project.

A risk is a possible unplanned event. It can be positive or negative. In project

management the success of our projects depends on our ability to predict a
particular outcome. Since risks are the unpredictable part of the project, it is
important for us to be able to control them as much as possible and make them as
predictable as possible. A pure risk or threat is a risk that has only a negative
possibility as an outcome. A business risk is a normal risk of doing business. It can
have a good or bad outcome. An opportunity is a risk that has only good
outcomes. These risks can be of two types, known risks and unknown risks. The
known risks are those that we can identify, and the unknown risks are those that
cannot be anticipated at all.
Risk management is the process of identifying, analyzing, and quantifying risks,
responding to them with a risk strategy, and then controlling them.

What is communications?

Communications is the art of transmitting an idea from the mind of one person to
the mind of another, with understanding. Understanding is the key word.
A classical communications model consists of a sender who is developing, coding,
and transferring information through certain message channels to a receiver.
When the receiver is reached, the message is decoded, filtered, and then studied.
The receiver usually sends his feedback to the sender through a feedback channel.
The overall model is called the loop of understanding.

How can we increase accuracy in

communications?
There are a number of important considerations in increasing the accuracy of
information transfer between two people. Some of these are listed briefly
below:
Avoid negative evaluation.
Avoid ignoring what your partner is saying.
Avoid inquiring too much.
Try to minimize inserting observations in the course of a conversation.
Practice active listening.
Ask for clarification.
Paraphrase.
Develop thoughts further.
Describe your emotional state.
Periodically summarize what has been said.

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What are the major communication skills a

project manager needs to know in order to
manage projects successfully?

What are the major communication skills a

project manager needs to know in order to
manage projects successfully?

Talking and presentation skills. Knowing how to get your idea or a task
through to a person or group of people in order for the information to be
perceived most accurately.
Listening skills. Being able to gain information from a person even if the
person does not really want to give you the information or has problems
opening up. This skill has another very important aspect: giving your team
members a chance to be adequately heard. You increase people's selfesteem and their willingness and ability to involve themselves fully with
the project work.

The ability to choose the right communication channel. Since any project
has many external and internal stakeholders, all of which need to be able
to deliver different types of information in different ways, it is important
to realize that you can plan and use various communication channels
depending on the situation, the type of information transferred, the type
of person receiving information, and the type of feedback you need. It is
also good if you are able to use many of the informal channels existing in
the organization in case you need them.
The ability to distinguish among different personality types and address
them properly in various situations.
The ability to open up closed personalities and discipline the ones who
behave too informally. In other words, you need to be able to manage
people's behavior based on the knowledge of their personalities.

What are the major communication skills a

project manager needs to know in order to
manage projects successfully?
The ability to manage meetings. As lots of a manager's time is normally
spent in meetings and many important project functions are carried out
through meetings, it is very important that the project manager can
manage meetings professionally and increase their efficiency by being
able to set people's attention on the theme to be discussed and get the
people who need to be involved to speak out.