CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION TO PROJECT
MANAGEMENT

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

After reading this chapter, you will be able to:

• Understand the growing need for better project management, especially for information
technology projects
• Explain what a project is, provide examples of information technology projects, list
various attributes of projects, and describe the triple constraint of project management
• Describe project management and discuss key elements of the project management
framework, including project stakeholders, the project management knowledge areas,
common tools and techniques, and project success
• Discuss the relationship between project, program, and portfolio management and the
contributions they each make to enterprise success
• Understand the role of the project manager by describing what project managers do,
what skills they need, and what the career field is like for information technology
project managers
• Describe the project management profession, including its history, the role of
professional organizations like the Project Management Institute (PMI), the importance
of certification and ethics, and the advancement of project management software
INTRODUCTION
Many people and organizations today have a new or renewed interest in project management.
Until the 1980s, project management primarily focused on providing schedule and resource
data to top management in the military, computer, and construction industries. Today’s project
management involves much more, and people in every industry and every country manage
projects.

New technologies have become a significant factor in many businesses. Computer hardware,
software, networks, and the use of interdisciplinary and global work teams have radically
changed the work environment. The following statistics demonstrate the significance of project
management in today’s society, especially for projects involving information technology (IT).
Note that IT projects involve using hardware, software, and/or networks to create a product,
service, or result.

Today’s companies, governments, and nonprofit organizations are recognizing that to be

successful, they need to be conversant with and use modern project management techniques.
Individuals are realizing that to remain competitive in the workplace, they must develop skills to
become good project team members and project managers. They also realize that many of the
concepts of project management will help them in their everyday lives as they work with
people and technology on a day-to-day basis.

Advantages of Using Formal Project Management

1. Better control of financial, physical, and human resources

2. Improved customer relations
3. Shorter development times
4. Lower costs and improved productivity
5. Higher quality and increased reliability
6. Higher profit margins
7. Better internal coordination
8. Positive impact on meeting strategic goals
9. Higher worker morale

This chapter introduces projects and project management, explains how projects fit into
programs and portfolio management, discusses the role of the project manager, and provides
important background information on this growing profession. Although project management
applies to many different industries and types of projects, this text focuses on applying project
management to information technology projects.
WHAT IS A PROJECT?

To discuss project management, it is important to understand the concept of a project.

“A project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result.”

Projects can be large or small and involve one person or thousands of people. They can be done
in one day or take years to complete. As described earlier, information technology projects
involve using hardware, software, and/or networks to create a product, service, or result.
Examples of information technology projects include the following:

Project Attributes

As you can see, projects come in all shapes and sizes. The following attributes help to define a
project further:

• A project has a unique purpose. Every project should have a well-defined objective.
• A project is temporary. A project has a definite beginning and a definite end.
• A project is developed using progressive elaboration. Projects are often defined
broadly when they begin, and as time passes, the specific details of the project become
clearer.
• A project requires resources, often from various areas. Resources include people,
hardware, software, and other assets. Many projects cross departmental or other
boundaries to achieve their unique purposes. For the information technology
collaboration project, people from information technology, marketing, sales,
distribution, and other areas of the company would need to work together to develop
ideas.
• A project should have a primary customer or sponsor. Most projects have many
interested parties or stakeholders, but someone must take the primary role of
sponsorship. The project sponsor usually provides the direction and funding for the
project.
• A project involves uncertainty. Because every project is unique, it is some- times
difficult to define its objectives clearly, estimate how long it will take to complete, or
determine how much it will cost.

An effective project manager is crucial to a project’s success. Project managers work with the
project sponsors, the project team, and the other people involved in a project to meet project
goals.
The Triple Constraint
Every project is constrained in different ways by its scope, time, and cost goals. These
limitations are sometimes referred to in project management as the triple constraint. To create
a successful project, a project manager must consider scope, time, and cost and balance these
three often-competing goals. He or she must consider the following:

• Scope: What work will be done as part of the project? What unique product, service, or
result does the customer or sponsor expect from the project? How will the scope be
verified?
• Time: How long should it take to complete the project? What is the project’s schedule?
How will the team track actual schedule performance? Who can approve changes to the
schedule?
• Cost: What should it cost to complete the project? What is the project’s budget? How
will costs be tracked? Who can authorize changes to the budget?

Successful project management

means meeting all three goals
(scope, time, and cost) – and
satisfying the project’s sponsor!
Project and Program Managers
 Project managers work with project sponsors, project teams, and other people involved
in projects to meet project goals.

 Program: “A group of related projects managed in a coordinated way to obtain benefits

and control not available from managing them individually.”*

 Program managers oversee programs and often act as bosses for project managers.

WHAT IS PROJECT MANAGEMENT?

Project management is “the application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to project
activities to meet project requirements.”

Project managers must not only strive to meet specific scope, time, cost, and quality goals of
projects, they must also facilitate the entire process to meet the needs and expectations of the
people involved in or affected by project activities.

Project Management Framework

Figure 1-2 illustrates a framework to help you understand project management. Key elements
of this framework include the project stakeholders, project management knowledge areas,
project management tools and techniques, and the contribution of successful projects to the
enterprise.
Project management knowledge areas describe the key competencies that project managers
must develop. The center of Figure 1-2 shows the nine knowledge areas of project
management. The four core knowledge areas of project management include project scope,
time, cost, and quality management. These are core knowledge areas because they lead to
specific project objectives.

• Project scope management involves defining and managing all the work required to
complete the project successfully.
• Project time management includes estimating how long it will take to complete the
work, developing an acceptable project schedule, and ensuring timely completion of the
project.
• Project cost management consists of preparing and managing the budget for the
project.
• Project quality management ensures that the project will satisfy the stated or implied
needs for which it was undertaken.

The four facilitating knowledge areas of project management are human resource,
communications, risk, and procurement management. These are called facilitating knowledge
areas because they are the processes through which the project objectives are achieved.

• Project human resource management is concerned with making effective use of the
people involved with the project.
• Project communications management involves generating, collecting, disseminating,
and storing project information.
• Project risk management includes identifying, analyzing, and responding to risks related
to the project.
• Project procurement management involves acquiring or procuring goods and services
for a project from outside the performing organization.

Project integration management, the ninth knowledge area, is an overarching function that
affects and is affected by all of the other knowledge areas. Project managers must have
knowledge and skills in all nine of these areas.

Project Stakeholders
Stakeholders are the people involved in or affected by project activities and include the project
sponsor, project team, support staff, customers, users, suppliers, and even opponents of the
project. These stakeholders often have very different needs and expectations. For example,
building a new house is a well-known example of a project. There are several stakeholders
involved in a home construction project.
The project sponsors would be the potential new homeowners. They would be the people
paying for the house and could be on a very tight budget, so they would expect the contractor
to provide accurate estimates of the costs involved in building the house.

The project manager in this example would normally be the general contractor responsible for
building the house.

The project team for building the house would include several construction workers,
electricians, carpenters, and so on.

Support staff might include the buyers, employers, the general contractor’s administrative
assistant, and other people who support other stakeholders.

The suppliers would provide the wood, windows, flooring materials, appliances, and so on.

Project Management Tools and Techniques

Project management tools and techniques assist project managers and their teams in carrying
out work in all nine knowledge areas. For example, some popular time- management tools and
techniques include Gantt charts, project network diagrams, and critical path analysis.

 Specific tools and techniques include:

 Project charters, scope statements, and WBS (scope).

 Gantt charts, network diagrams, critical path analyses, critical chain scheduling
(time).

 Cost estimates and earned value management (cost).

Project Success Factors

1. Executive support
2. User involvement
3. Experienced project manager
4. Clear business objectives
5. Minimized scope
6. Standard software infrastructure
7. Firm basic requirements
8. Formal methodology
9. Reliable estimates
10. Other criteria, such as small milestones, proper planning, competent staff, and ownership
THE ROLE OF THE PROJECT MANAGER
You have already read that project managers must work closely with the other stakeholders on
a project, especially the sponsor and project team. They are also more effective if they are
familiar with the nine project management knowledge areas and the various tools and
techniques related to project management. Experienced project managers help projects
succeed. But what do project managers do exactly? What skills do they really need to do a good
job? The next section provides brief answers to these questions, and the rest of this book gives
more insight into the role of the project manager. Even if you never become a project manager,
you will probably be part of a project team, and it is important for team members to help their
project managers.

Fifteen Project Management Job Functions

 Define scope of project.

 Identify stakeholders, decision-makers, and escalation procedures.
 Develop detailed task list (work breakdown structures).
 Estimate time requirements.
 Develop initial project management flow chart.
 Identify required resources and budget.
 Evaluate project requirements.
 Identify and evaluate risks.
 Prepare contingency plan.
 Identify interdependencies.
 Identify and track critical milestones.
 Participate in project phase review.
 Secure needed resources.
 Manage the change control process.
 Report project status.

Suggested Skills for Project Managers

 Communication skills: Listens, persuades.

 Organizational skills: Plans, sets goals, analyzes.

 Team-building skills: Shows empathy, motivates, promotes esprit de corps.

  Leadership skills: Sets examples, provides vision (big picture), delegates, positive,
energetic.

 Coping skills: Flexible, creative, patient, persistent.

 Technology skills: Experience, project knowledge.

Most Significant Characteristics of Effective and Ineffective Project Managers

Effective Project Managers Ineffective Project Managers

• Leadership by example • Sets bad example
• Visionary • Not self-assured
• Technically competent • Lacks technical expertise
• Decisive • Poor communicator
• Good communicator • Poor motivator
• Good motivator
• Stands up to upper
management when
necessary
• Supports team members
• Encourages new ideas

Project Management Office (PMO)

 A PMO is an organizational group responsible for coordinating the project management
function throughout an organization.

 Possible goals include:

 Collect, organize, and integrate project data for the entire organization.

 Develop and maintain templates for project documents.

 Develop or coordinate training in various project management topics.

 Develop and provide a formal career path for project managers.

 Provide project management consulting services.

 Provide a structure to house project managers while they are acting in those
roles or are between projects.
Chapter Summary

 As the number and complexity of projects continue to grow, it is becoming even more
important to practice good project management.

 A project has several attributes, such as being unique, temporary and developed
incrementally.

 A framework for project management includes project stakeholders, the nine

knowledge areas, tools and techniques, and creating project portfolios to ensure
enterprise success.

 Successful project managers must possess and development many skills and lead their
teams by example.

 The project management profession continues to mature as more people become

certified and more tools are created.