MIS 578 Project Management Chapter 1 Flashcards
What is project?
A temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result.
The broader answer is: a project is an endeavor that requires an organized set of work efforts that are planned in a level of detail that is progressively elaborated as more information is discovered. Projects are subject to limitations of time and resources such as money and people. Projects should follow a planned and organized approach with a defined beginning and ending. Project plans and goals become more specific as early work is completed. The output often is a collection of a primary deliverable along with supporting deliverables such as a house as the primary deliverable and warranties and instructions for use as supporting deliverables. Each project typically has a unique combination of stakeholders – “persons or organizations … that are actively involved in the project, or whose interests may be positively or negatively affected by … the project” PMBOK®Guide 376. Projects often require a variety of people to work together for a limited time and each needs to understand that completing the project will require effort in addition to their other assigned work.
Stakeholders
Persons or organizations . . . that are actively involved in the project, or whose interests may be positively or negatively affected by . . . the project.
Project Management
The application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to project activities to meet project requirements.
This includes work processes that initiate, plan, execute, control, and close work. Project management includes both administrative tasks for planning, documenting, and controlling work and leadership tasks for visioning, motivating, and promoting work associates.
Project vs. Operations
Projects are temporary and unique while other work, commonly called operations, is more continuous.
Soft skills and hard skills
Soft skills - communication and leadership activities.
Hard skills -risk analysis, quality control, scheduling, budgeting, and so forth.
Authority and responsibility
A project manager will frequently be held accountable for work that she/he cannot order people to perform.
Project life cycle
Initiating, planning, executing, closing
Project Goals
Scope and quality
Scope
The sum of all products, services, and results to be provided by the project.
Quality
The degree to which a set of inherent characteristics fulfills requirements.
PMI
Project Management Institute
PMBOK
Project Management Body of Knowledge
5 Process Groups
1) Initiating
2) Planning
3) Executing
4) Monitoring & Controlling
5) Closing
10 Knowledge Areas
1) Integration management
2) Scope management
3) Time management
4) Cost management
5) Quality management
6) Human resources management
7) Communications management
8) Risk management
9) Procurement management
10) Stakeholder management
Project Roles
Executive Roles
Managerial Roles
Associate Roles
Executive Roles
Steering team, Chief Projects Office, Sponsor
Managerial Roles
Project Manager, Functional Manager, facilitator, Customer
Associate Roles
Core Team Member, Subject Matter Expert
What tradeoffs need to be made when managing a project?
Tradeoffs must be made among the scope (size), quality (acceptability of the results), cost, and schedule.
Why are more people spending more of their work time on projects?
With increased international competition, customers are demanding to have their products and services developed and delivered better, faster, and cheaper. Since project management techniques are designed to manage scope, quality, cost and schedule, they are ideally suited to this purpose.
How do you define project success?
Project success is creating deliverables that include all of the agreed upon features (meet scope goals). The outputs should satisfy all specifications and please the project’s customers. The customers need to use the outputs effectively as they do their work (meet quality goals). The project should be completed on schedule and on budget (meet time and cost constraints).
Project success also includes other considerations. A successful project is one that is completed without heroics – that is, people should not burn themselves out to complete the project. Those people who work on the project should either learn new skills and/or refine existing skills. Organizational learning should take place and be captured for future projects. Finally, the parent organization should reap business level benefits such as development of new products, increased market share, increased profitability, decreased cost, etc.
How do you define project failure?
Project failure is not meeting all of the success criteria listed above. Serious project failure is when some of the success criteria are missed by a large amount and/or when several of the success criteria are missed by even a small margin.
What are the nine project management knowledge areas?
The nine knowledge areas as paraphrased from the PMBOK®Guide, pages 9 and 10 are: scope, time, cost, quality, human resources, communications, risk, procurement, and integration.
What forces are contributing to the importance of project management?
Rapid growth and changes in industries – particularly information and communications technology.
• Increasing customer demands for rapid introduction of new products and technologies.
• Global competition driving down prices.
• Increasingly complex products and services.
At what stage of a project life cycle are the majority of the “hands-on” tasks completed?
Executing.
At what stage of a project life cycle does the project become officially sanctioned?
Initiating.
What two project dimensions are components of project performance?
Scope and quality.
What types of constraints are common to most projects?
Time and cost.
List at least four common causes of project failure.
- Not enough resources are available for project completion,
- Not enough time has been given to the project,
- Project expectations are unclear,
- Changes in the scope are not understood or agreed upon by all parties involved,
- Stakeholders disagree regarding expectations for the project, and
- Adequate project planning is not done.
What are three common means of classifying projects?
Projects can be classified by industry, size, when scope can be determined with confidence, and type such as organizational change, quality and productivity improvement, R&D, information systems (IS), and construction.
Steering Team
A steering or leadership team for an organization is often the top leader (CEO or other) and his or her direct reports.
Chief Projects Officer
The chief projects officer is the keeper, facilitator, and improver of the project management system.
Sponsor
The sponsor has a financial stake in the project, charters the project, reviews project progress, is often part of the steering team, and often mentors the project manager.
Project Manager
The project manager: is directly accountable for the project results, schedule, and budget; is the main communicator; and often must get things done through the power of influence since his or her formal power may be limited.
Functional Manager
The functional managers are department heads that determine how the work of the project gets accomplished; often supervise that work and often negotiate with the project manager regarding which workers are assigned to the project.
Facilitator
A facilitator is sometimes assigned to complex or controversial projects to assist the project manager with the process of running meetings and making decisions.
Senior Customer Representative
The senior customer representative ensures that the needs and wants of the various constituents in the customer’s organization are identified and prioritized and that project progress and decisions continually support the customer’s desires.
Core Team Members
Core team members are assigned to the project for its entire duration if possible and jointly make decisions with the project manager.
Subject Matter Experts
Subject matter experts are brought in as needed to help with specific project activities.
What is a challenge in managing subject matter experts?
A challenge with these subject matter experts is they were not present during the charter development and signing and, therefore, may have neither the dedication to nor detailed knowledge of the project.
What document is critical because most other planning is based upon it?
The project charter.
What needs must a project manager simultaneously champion?
The project manager needs to simultaneously champion the needs of the project, the team, and the parent organization.
What makes a person or group a project stakeholder?
Stakeholders are people or organizations that are actively involved in the project, or whose interests may be positively or negatively affected by either the process of performing the project or the project results.
