DEPARTMENT OF BUSINESS MANAGEMENT

INTEGRAL UNIVERSITY, LUCKNOW

Session 2019-20
BBA Third Year
UNIT-1 BM -319

UNIT1 : The concept of a project: characteristics of a project, Phases in the life cycle of a
project. Human Resource aspect of Project Management.

Concept of a project:
Project can be defined as an organized program of predetermined group of activities that are
non-routine in nature & that must be completed using the available resources within the given
time limit.

“Project is the non routine nature of activities which consume resources (men, money, material
& time) & the nature of resources is that they are limited scarce”

According to Harrison
“Project is a group of unique activities that are planned & executed in a certain sequences time
to create a unique product or services within specified and clients specifications.

Dimension of project
 Time
 Money
 Cost
 Budget
 Quality requirement
 Raw material
 Human Resource

History/ Occurence of Project Management

Project management started from the time of Egyptian civilization but it’s techniques gained its
acceptance in mid 1950s.

US navy was concerned with the control of contracts for its Polaris missile project. These
contracts consisted of research and development work and manufacturing of parts that were
unique and had never been previously under taken. Time estimates was not accurately estimated
due to the uniqueness of the project. Therefore PERT was used for the first time.

Dupont undertaken a project in 1950s to construct a chemical plant in USA. These project was
requiring accurate time and cost estimates. Therefore PPS(project planning & scheduling) was
used which was later known as CPM( critical path method ).

Till in 1970s both PERT & CPM were used by companies, Defence organisation & NASA. With
the introduction of personal computer in 1980, the use of project management was facilitated. At
that time project management was introduced as a curriculum in American Universities.

By 1990, project management theories tools & techniques were accepted in the industrial world.
Characteristics of project:-

1)Objectives:- The objective should be clear and mentioned in a disciplined format. This would
help to figure out what we have to accomplish.

2)Single entity:- Project is a single entity but as linked with various business department such as
production, marketing, HR & finance etc.

3)Teamwork:- Project involves different specialized activities that should be performed by

different people’s or department’s. Therefore people/deptt. related to any project should work as
a team in order to achieve the project objective.

4)Life span of project:- It is the time period or the duration of the project in which all activities
are to be completed.

5)Life cycle:- A project is never introduced it is only implemented that’s why there is a
implementation stage. The different stages are conception, designation, planning & organising ,
implementation & evaluation.

6)Uniqueness:- Every project is different from another project in many aspects of a project.

7)Risk & uncertainty:- Every project has risk & uncertainty associated with it. The degree of
risk and uncertainty depend on how the project has pass through its various phases of life cycle.

8)High level of sub contract:- These work which require technical expertise are contracted or
outsource. Sub contracting generally depends on the complexity of the project.

9)Change :- A project is not rigid in life span. Change occur throughout the life span of the
project. Some of the changes may not have major effect for eg- When Project manager resigns
or switch over to another company
Some changes can affect the earlier course of the project. for eg- development in technology,
new invention, change in market demand.

10)Control Mechanism:- All project will have predetermined control mechanism to ensure
completion of project within time schedule, within estimated cost and achieving the project
specification with desired level of quality & reliability.

11)Complexity:- Project is a complex set of activities related to technology, machinery,

material, people, work culture & ethics & financial resources. Execution of project in time by
proper scheduling of different activities contribute to the complexity of the project.

12)Optimisation:- Project management concept as evolved with the aim of achieving optimum
utilisation of available resources .

Objectives of project management

Project must be directed to achieve the objective. Following are the objectives:

1) Performance: - This is to satisfy the specified standard of performance, function,

reliability & safety.

2) Within budget: - The money spend on the project should be handle within the accurate
money (budget) for the accomplishment of the project.

3) Time scale: - Timely implementation of project has to be done with respect to different
activities involved in the project. Project implemented within the allotted time results in cost
 effectiveness.
A project has other objective also like-quality, design, safety, low operational cost,
minimising start up time, secrecy of information etc.

Function of Project Manager/Management

Following are the functions which are to be under taken in project management.

 Manage time by planning and meeting schedule.

 Manage quality so that output results are satisfied.
 Manage human resources involved in the project effectively.
 Manage the project scope to define the goals and the work have to be done in
sufficient details in order to improve the performance.
 Manage cost to see that project is performed at the minimum possible cost and within
the budget if possible.
 Manage communication among all the participant involve in the project at regular
intervals to make sure that everyone is inform about their work & have sufficient
information with them to keep the coordinate

Phases in the life cycle of project

 Level of activities increases as the time increases

Time
1) Conception phase - no time
2) Definition phase - 4% of time
3) Planning & Organizing phase(Design phase) - 8% of time
4) Implementation phase - 85% of time
5) Evaluation phase - 3% of time

A project life cycle has following phase:-

1) Conception phase: - This is the phase during which the project idea germinates. The idea
need to be put in black & white box & be given some space before that can finally be
considered and compare with other ideas. All pros & cons of availability of resources like
funds, machine, material, plant, capacity etc are taken into consideration. Project
management finalize the concept of idea after too much hard-work. That’s why it is said that
“identifying a new sound project is a complex problem.”

Therefore a careful study has to be conducted from different angles. At this stage all data
bases are not available & it is obvious that the concept generated may undergo considerable
change.

2) Definition phase: - This phase account for 4% of time spend on the whole project. This
phase of project has a strong dependency on the concept phase & it produce a document
describing a project in sufficient details covering all the necessary requirement. The area to
be examine during the definition phase are as follows-

 Raw material
 Plant size or capacity
 Location of site
 Technology/process selection
 Project layout
  Plant & machinery
 Civil engineering work
 Electrical & instrumentation work
 Utilities like fuel , power & water
 Manpower
 Financial analysis of the project
 Implementation schedule

3) Planning & organizing phase: - This is called design phase. This phase can affectively
start after the definition phase but in practice it starts much earlier almost immediately after
the conception phase. This phase overlaps very much with the definition phase & also little
bit with implementation phase. This phase includes-

 Project infrastructure & enabling services

 System design & basic engineering package
 Organisation & manpower
 Schedule & the budget
 Licensing & government clearances
 Finance
 System & procedure
 Identification project manager
 Design basis & general condition for purchase & contracts
 Site preparation & investigation
 Construction resources & materials

* Project control techniques

Project management has a special set of tools & techniques. These techniques are the
scientific part of management. Project management is done effectively with a very
common technique known as PERT/CPM in the past. But now project manager have
figured out that this technique alone is not sufficient to carry out the project.
Since the early 1950s, several project management techniques are used and they have
contributed effectively in the development project management. These techniques are
broadly classified under the following five categories.

1) Project Selection Techniques:-

a) Cost Benefit Analysis
b) Sensitivity Analysis

a) Cost Benefit Analysis: - It evaluates all relevant cost & benefits.

b) Sensitivity Analysis: - It is stimulation technique in which variables (cost, prices,

project, life etc) are selected & their error affects on the present value of the
project is calculated. It is used for complex project measuring the risk associated
with it.
 2) Project Execution & Planning Techniques:-
a) Project Evaluation Plan
b) Work Breakdown Structure
c) Project Management Manual

a) PEP: - It is used for small project where different activities with some time
duration are planned in a systematic manner.

b) WBS: - project is dividend into different activities performed by different

department in groups.

c) PMM: - Everything should be written & documented in the manual.

3) Project scheduling and coordinating technique:-

a) Bar chart
b) Life Cycle Curve
c) Line of Balance Technique
d) PERT/CPM

a) Chart: - Bar charts are used for small project that should not be overlap of activities.

b) Life cycle curve: - same as bar chart.

c) Line of Balance technique: - It is an extension of gantt. chart which shows

graphical representation of the progress of activities in a project. It shows the
activities progressing as per schedule, activities lagging behind the schedules
activities ahead of schedules.

d) PERT/CPM: - Program evaluation & review technique, Critical path method.

4) Project Monitoring & Progressing Technique:-

a) PROMT (Progress Management Technique)
b) PERMT (Performance Monitoring Technique)
c) URRT (Updating Removing & Reporting Technique)

a) PROMT: - This technique is carried out by project manager to know the status of
work accomplished during the implementation stage.
Bar
b) PERMT: - This technique is done by quality control department under the
supervision of quality manager.

c) URRT: -
5) Project Cost & productivity control technique:-
a) Productivity Budget Technique
b) Value Engineering
c) Project Costing Technique

a) PBT: - It help to control the project cost.

b) VE: - It adds more value to the product/project.

c) PCT: - It tell us how much money invested in different activities of a project. It also
shows us difference between allocated costs to invested cost. *

4) Implementation Phase: - During the IP, the project plan is put into motion & the project
work is perform. It is important to maintain proper controlling & communication during the
IP among different department involved in the project. Progress is continuously monitored &
appropriate adjustments are made & recorded as variances from the original plan.

Project manager spend his maximum time in this stage. During project implementation,
People involved carry out the task & progress information is being reported through regular
time meetings. The project manager uses this information to maintain control over the
direction of the project. By comparing the progress report with the project plan, project
manager measures the performance of the project activities & take corrective action if needed.

The first course of the action should always be to bring the project of original plan. If that
can’t happen, the team should record variation from the original plan & suggest/implement
modification to the plan. Throughout this step, project sponsors & other key stakeholders
should be regularly informed about the project status timely through regular meetings. The
status report should always emphasis the anticipated end point in terms of cost, schedule,
quality etc.

Each project should be reviewed for quality & measured against acceptance criteria. After
this stage the project is ready for evaluation/review/clean-up stage.

5)Evaluation/ Feedback/Clean-up Stage:- During the evaluation phase the emphasis is on

releasing the final delivariables to the customer, handling over project documentation to the
business or the organisation, terminating supplier contract, releasing project resources &
communicating the closure of the project to all stakeholders.

The last step is to conduct investigative studies to examine what went right and what went
wrong. The use of this analysis will help to develop experience in future projects and same
can be transfer back to the organisation.

Human Resources Aspects of PM:-

People are the backbone & the most valuable resources for successfully executing any project.
Project manager must learn and use interpersonal skill that inspire all those involved in the
project. PM consists of number of process like project planning, scheduling, performance,
reporting evaluation etc. All these operations are undertaken by individual or groups (team)
with special skills, knowledge, experience & dedication. The personnel HR involve with the
project are project manager, functional manger, & staff have to work like a team.

The following steps are required in the selection of the project member & building of project
team.

1) Selection of Project Manager:-Project manager is full responsible for the

accomplishment of the project. Therefore his appointment has to be by CEO/MD on the
basis of his previous expertise.

2) Selection of Staff For Project Office:-Here the selection of staff like functional heads
(finance, production marketing, HR), & legal personnel etc are selected.

3) Selection For Staff For Field Work: - Here the selection of staff like foreman, supervisor,
assistant manager and marketing sales executive is done.

4) Selection Of Supplier & Vendors: - There is a high degree of sub-contracting involved

so prior selection of suppliers and vendors is to be done.
There should be more emphasis on developing a good team having better understanding
resulting in good communication. Communication is an integral part of project because it
reduces hindrance and help in coordination among team members. HR department always
work to develop a good team so that there is a smooth functioning & proper allocation of job.

HR issues Related With PM

1) Communication Issues:-Lack of proper communication raises the feeling of

dissatisfaction among team members. A project manager has to be a good communicator and
should interact with team member on regular basis.

2) Unable to manage a big team:- sometime the project manager is unable to manage a team
in a good manner, as a result of which the team member starts doing whatever they want.
They try to form different groups within the team & staff teasing individuals which they
don’t personally like such as competitors. These issues can solve by better leadership &
controlling skills.
3) Diversification Issue: - when you have people belonging to different culture, gender,
races, in your team then you have to be extra careful in dealing with them. There are
differences in their point of view & their behaviour which results in hindrance in
communication. A thing which is considered legal or acceptance for one team member can
be dislike by other member.
The best way to avoid HR issue is to remain close with team member & listen to their
problem. These problem have to be resolved on timely basis by project management.