Basic PMT
Basic PMT
Basic PMT
1. Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 2
Project Life Cycle ................................................................................................................................. 4
The Initiation Phase ............................................................................................................................. 6
Business Case & Feasibility ............................................................................................................... 6
Team & Office...................................................................................................................................... 8
4. The Planning Phase ........................................................................................................................ 9
Project Plan & Resources ................................................................................................................ 9
Quality & Risk ..................................................................................................................................... 11
Communication ................................................................................................................................ 12
5. The Execution Phase .................................................................................................................... 14
Build Deliverables ............................................................................................................................ 14
Monitor and Control ........................................................................................................................ 16
6. The Closure Phase ........................................................................................................................ 18
Project Closure ................................................................................................................................. 18
Completion Review .......................................................................................................................... 19
7. Book Example ................................................................................................................................ 21
8. Successful Managing .................................................................................................................... 23
PM Roles ............................................................................................................................................. 23
PM Triangle ......................................................................................................................................... 24
PM Triple Constraint ....................................................................................................................... 26
The Gantt Chart ................................................................................................................................ 27
9. Conclusion ...................................................................................................................................... 29
1. Introduction
What is a Project?
A project is defined as “a unique endeavor to produce a set of
deliverables within clearly specified time, cost and quality constraints”.
Projects are different from standard business operational activities as
they:
1. Initiation Phase
The first phase in the project is the Initiation Phase. In this phase, a
business problem (or opportunity) is identified and a business case,
which provides various solution options, is defined. A feasibility study
investigates the likelihood of each solution option and a final
recommended solution is put forward. Once the recommended solution
is approved, a project is initiated to deliver the approved solution. The
Project Manager begins setting up a project team and a project office.
2. Planning Phase
Once the scope of the project has been defined, the project enters the
detailed planning phase. This involves the creation of a Project Plan
(outlining the activities, tasks, dependencies, and timeframes), a
Resource Plan (listing the labor, equipment, and materials required), a
Financial Plan (identifying the labor, equipment and materials costs),
Quality & Risk Analyses, and a Communication Plan. At this point, the
project has been planned in detail and is ready to be executed.
3. Execution Phase
This phase involves the execution of each activity and task listed in the
Project Plan. While the activities and tasks are being executed, a series
of management processes are undertaken to monitor and control the
deliverables being output by the project. Once all of the deliverables
have been produced and the customer has accepted the final solution,
the project is ready for closure.
4. Closure Phase
Project Closure involves releasing the final deliverables to the customer,
handing over project documentation, terminating supplier contracts,
releasing project resources and communicating the closure of the project
to all stakeholders. The last remaining step is to undertake a review to
quantify the overall success of the project.
The Initiation Phase is the first phase within the life cycle, as it involves
starting up a new project.
Lesson Content
After the solution has been agreed and funding allocated, a project is
formed. The Terms of Reference defines the vision, objectives, scope,
and deliverables for the project. It also provides the organization
structure (roles and responsibilities) and a summarized plan of the
activities, resources, and funding required to undertake the project.
Finally, any risks, issues, planning assumptions, and constraints are
listed.
Team & Office
At this point, the scope of the project has been defined in detail and
the Project Team is ready to be appointed. Although a Project Manager
can be appointed at any stage of the project, he/she will need to be
appointed prior to the establishment of the project team. The Project
Manager documents a detailed Job Description for each project role and
appoints a human resource to each role based on his/her relevant skills
and experience. Once the team members are ‘fully resourced’, the
Project Office is ready to be set-up.
The Project Office is the physical environment within which the team
will be based. Although it is usual to have one central project office, it is
possible to have a ‘virtual project office’ environment, with project team
members in various locations around the world. Regardless of the
physical location, a successful project office environment will comprise
the following components:
The Planning Phase is the second phase of the project life cycle. It
involves creating a set of plans to help guide your team through the next
phases of the project.
The plans created during this phase will help you to manage time, cost,
quality, change, risk, and issues. They will also help you manage staff
and external suppliers, to ensure that you deliver the project on time and
within budget.
Lesson Content
Communication
A simple risk plan for hiring a moving company could look like this:
Communication
Prior to the Execution phase, it is necessary to identify how each of the
stakeholders will be kept informed of the progress of the project.
The Communications Plan identifies the types of information to be
distributed, the methods of distributing information to stakeholders, the
frequency of distribution and responsibilities of each person in the
project team for distributing information regularly to stakeholders.
The Execution Phase is usually the longest phase in the project life
cycle and it typically consumes the most energy and the most resources.
In this phase, you will build the physical project deliverables and present
them to your customer for acceptance. The Project Manager monitors
and controls the activities, resources, and expenditure required to build
each deliverable.
Lesson Content
Build Deliverables
Build Deliverables
This phase requires the physical construction of each deliverable for
acceptance by the customer. The actual activities undertaken to
construct each deliverable will vary, depending on the type of project
(e.g. engineering, building development, computer infrastructure or
business process re-engineering projects).
The Closure Phase is the last phase of the project life cycle. In this
phase, you will formally close your project and then report its overall
level of success to your sponsor.
Lesson Content
Project Closure
Completion Review
Project Closure
The project closure phase is the last phase in the project lifecycle, and it
officially puts an end to the project. When you have worked long and
hard on a project and it’s finally completed, it’s hard to find time to really
close it down properly. However, it is definitely in your best interests to
have a closure procedure so that you cover every base and can safely
archive it.
Project Closure involves undertaking a series of activities to wind up
the project, including:
During the last phase of the project life cycle, meaning the project
closure, everything should be detailed in order to measure if the project
went as planned and if the outcome is done as required.
Completion Review
The final activity undertaken on any project is a review of its overall
success by an independent resource. Success is determined by how
well it performed against the defined objectives and conformed to the
management processes outlined in the planning phase. To determine
performance a number of questions are posed. For example:
Now that we know the project life cycle and the four major
project management phases, it is time to take a look at a concrete real-
life example. We will keep it simple and assume that you and your team
intend to create and publish a new textbook.
1. Project Initiation
In the initiation phase, we need to get a rough idea of how long it will
take to make, how much it will cost, and the effect it will have. If the CEO
of the publishing company decides that the value is worth the perceived
difficulty, it’s time to move onto planning.
2. Project Planning
The planning stage would involve meeting with the marketing team and
stamping out a timeframe for each chapter of the book to be completed.
Once the topic has been set and assessed (for the difficulty of writing),
these dates will become more solid.
The person responsible for writing each chapter will be assigned, along
with the task of designing and creating the book itself. Furthermore, risks
such as hidden topic depth or difficulty in securing a designer for the
book would be assessed.
3. Project Execution
The execution stage would involve figuring out what each chapter will
consist of, assigning various team members to complete said chapters,
giving a deadline for each chapter, and carving out a regular meeting
time during which your team’s progress and problems will be relayed.
Everyone should know what they are working on, why they are working
on it, when it should be completed by, and what everyone else is
responsible for.
For our book, let’s say that you’ve set out a two-month deadline for the
final product, and you meet twice a week with your marketing team to
check on their progress.
4. Project Closure
The project closing step would be after the book’s public launch. Once
complete, the benefits would be tracked (eg, increased conversion
rates), any expenses on items such as the design of the book would be
totaled, and contracts with freelancers terminated.
Lesson Content
PM Roles
PM Triangle
PM Triple Constraint
PM Roles
Irrespective of how the organization is structured, there are certain roles
and responsibilities that are required in all projects. Different
organizations may use different names for these roles but the
responsibilities of each one will be the same.
PM Triangle
The Project Management Triangle (PM Triangle) is used by managers
to analyze or understand the difficulties that may arise due to
implementing and executing a project.
All projects irrespective of their size will have many constraints. There
are three main interdependent constraints for every
project: time, cost and scope. This is also known as the Project
Management Triangle.
1. Time
A project’s activities can either take a shorter or longer amount of time to
complete. Completion of tasks depends on a number of factors such as
the number of people working on the project, experience, skills, etc.
Time is a crucial factor which is uncontrollable. On the other hand, failure
to meet the deadlines in a project can create adverse effects. Most often,
the main reason for organizations to fail in terms of time is due to a lack
of resources.
2. Cost
It’s imperative for both the project manager and the organization to have
an estimated cost when undertaking a project. Budgets will ensure that
the project is developed or implemented below a certain cost.
Sometimes, project managers have to allocate additional resources in
order to meet the deadlines with a penalty of additional project costs.
3. Scope
The scope looks at the outcome of the project undertaken. This consists
of a list of deliverables, which need to be addressed by the project team.
A successful project manager will know to manage both the scope of the
project and any change in scope which impacts time and cost.
PM Triple Constraint
Example: “Pick Two”
To provide an easy example, we changed the dimensions of the triangle
into the options of Fast, Good, and Cheap, and ask you to pick any two.
Here, Fast refers to the time required to deliver the product, Good is the
quality of the final product, and Cheap refers to the total cost of
designing and building the product.
This triangle reflects the fact that the three properties of a project are
interrelated, and it is not possible to optimize all three – one will always
suffer. In other words, you have three options:
As the project manager, making sure that you stay on top of all the key
attributes of the triple constraint will make the likelihood of project
success that much higher. So be cognizant of any fluctuations to the key
attributes, whether they be unexpected or requested. Never assume that
other attributes can be left unchanged if one attribute is known to be
changing or fluctuating. As noted earlier, one cannot simply dismiss a
change to one without being fully aware of the fact that it will affect the
other two.
The project triangle expresses the “triple constraint” of time, cost, and
scope.
There are various preferences and cultural values that weigh different
communication techniques and interpersonal skills differently.
Perceptions of communication techniques will have an impact on the
end-user and the end result of the project, so it is important to clarify
preferences at the beginning.
Thank you for taking this course and good luck with the quiz!