Section 4: Project Management Terms

Question 1

Definition:

Project

Answer 1

A temporary endeavor that produces a unique product, service, or result.

Product - New model of Corolla

Service - New service to offer customers

Result - Does this method of massage fix this shoulder issue?

Temporary in nature and has a definite beginning and end.

Can be a part of a large program or portfolio.

Unique - Temporary - Progressively Elaborated

Question 2

What is Progressive Elaboration?

Answer 2

I want to accomplish X…

You’re not sure in beginning and estimates are not accurate.

Estimates become more precise over time.

Question 3

What is a Project?

Answer 3

It is temporary, unique output as a part of a product, service, or result.

Question 4

What is Project Management?

Answer 4

Use knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to make sure the project is complete and satisfy requirements.

-Justify investment via business case/estimate roi

-Estimate resources and time

-Develop Management Plan

-Leading and motivating delivery team

-Identify and managing risks, issues, and changes

-Monitoring progress against plan.

-Closing the project in a controlled fashion when appropriate.

Question 5

Project should be called…

Answer 5

“People Management”

Don’t general do the work itself, but manage the people that do the work.

Question 6

What is PROGRAM MANAGEMENT?

Answer 6

Group of related projects coordinated to obtain benefits and control not available from managing them individually.

Must be some value add in managing them together as a program.

A project mayor may not be part of a program, but a program will always have projects.

Focuses on the project interdependencies and helps to determine the optimal approach for managing them

Program managers manage the overall program that contains project managers who manage projects within the program.

                Program Project 1 > Project 2 > Project 3

Question 7

Project Management Office

Answer 7

Organizational Structure that standardizes the processes and facilitates the sharing of resources, methodologies, tools, and techniques.

Mid-to-large orgs have PMO

Question 8

What are the types of Project Management Office or PMO?

Answer 8

Supportive:
Supports the project manager, such as providing templates, training, or lessons learned from other projects.

Controlling:
Determines the framework or methodology and use of specific forms.

Directive:
Controls the project. PM will be assigned and report to the PMO.

Question 9

What is PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT?

Answer 9

A Portfolio is a collection of projects, programs, subsidiary portfolios, and operations managed as a group to achieve strategic objectives.

-Collections of projects, programs, and subsidiary portfolios.

-Achieve strategic (long term) objectives.

Question 10

What does a Portfolio Manager do?

Answer 10

They work with executives of programs and subsidiary portfolios and operations to achieve strategic objectives. Can sometimes be the CEO.

The board can say “HERE IS OUR GOAL” the portfolio manager can say “Okay, here are the programs we are going to implement in order to achieve that goal.”

Question 11

What is OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT?

Answer 11

Deals with the ongoing production of goods and/or services.

Considers the acquisition, development, and utilization of resources that firms need to deliver the goods and services.

Where projects have a start and end date, operations are the opposite because they do not have a start and end date.

Question 12

What is the value of the project?

Answer 12

What value will this project bring to the company upon completion?

Why should we undertake this project?

Money, Brand Reputation, Customer Service, New or Change product or service.

Every time the company spends money, there needs to be an ROI.

Question 13

What changes do projects enable?

Answer 13

Projects can be a vehicle for change in an organization.

Takes a company from a current state to desired state.

Example:
We want to go from A to B, run project to make the change.

We want to go from the current state to desired state.

Question 14

What is a Phase?

Answer 14

A phase is a collection of logically related project activities that culminates in the completion of one or more deliverables.
-The number of the phases depends on the industry type and size and the complexity of the project.

Phases are created by the Project Manager.

Question 15

What is a Deliverable?

Answer 15

A deliverable is any unique and verifiable product, service, or result.

May be tangible or intangible.

Must be accepted by the customer or sponsor for the phase.

Question 16

What is a phase vs deliverable?

Answer 16

A PROJECT outputs a DELIVERABLE…

Phases allow me to create deliverables.

Example: Software Development Project

Phases:
-Gather Requirements
-Design Software
-Code Software
-Test Software
-Install Software

Deliverables are the output of the phases. The point of project management is to build deliverables.

Question 17

What is the Project Lifecycle?

Answer 17

A representation of the phases that a project typically goes through from start to finish.

Can be either predictive or adaptive.

Plan-Driven/Predictive/Traditional

Change - Driven (iterative, incremental, adaptive)

Hybrid

Question 18

What are predictive/plan/traditional project lifecycles?

Answer 18

The scope has been done before.

We know what the scope is, we don’t want to change the scope.

You make your plan and you never want to change it.

Question 19

What is a Change-Driven Project Lifecycle?

Answer 19

The scope changes throughout the project which falls under the “AGILE” umbrella.

Which will use iterative or incremental development.

Question 20

What is the Hybrid Project Lifecycle?

Answer 20

Combination of planned and change-driven project lifecycles.

Question 21

What is Project Governance?

Answer 21

Set of rules that must be followed by all members.

A framework within which project decisions are made.

Three pillars:
1. Structure
2. People
3. Information

Every business different.

Question 21

What are the ROLES of a PROJECT MANAGER

Answer 21

1. The Initiator - Someone who takes the first step or proposes an idea or action
2. Negotaitor - Someone who engages in discussions or formal negotations to reach mutually agreeable solutions or outcomes.
3. Listener - Someone who pays attention to anothers’ ideas, thoughts, concerns during conversations or discussions.
4. Coach - Someone who guides and supports individuals or teams in achieving their goals, improving performance, and enhancing their skills.
5. Working member - Someone who actively participates as a member of a team or group.
6. Facilitator - Someone who manages group processes, discussions, or meetings to ensure effective communication, collaboration, and decision-making.

Question 22

What are Milestones?

Answer 22

Milestone:
A significant event or achievement in a project that marks a key point or completion of a major deliverable.

Task Duration:
Task duration refers to the amount of time it takes to complete a specific task or activity within a project.

A task with a 0 duration typically is a milestone. A milestone is an accomplishment.

Question 23

What are Project Bosses?

Answer 23

Sponsor:
Someone generally internal or external
Project Champion
Funding the project
Make decisions

*Send recap/NOTE TO THE SPONSOR

Program Manager:
-Senior to the Project Manager
-Maybe responsible for several projects executed at the same time.
Maybe used to resolve conflicts in the project.

In agile, a product owner.

Question 24

What is Product vs Project Management?

Answer 24

Product Management:
-Encompasses the strategic planning, development, and lifecycle management of a product or service.
-Involves understanding market needs, defining product strategy, gathering requirements, and overseeing the products development, launch, and ongoing optimization.
-Product managers are responsible for the overall success of the product, aligning it with business objectives and customer demands.

Project Management:
- Focuses on successful execution and delivery of specific projects within a defined scope, timeline, and budget.
-Project managers are responsible for planning coordinating and managing the activities required to achieve project goals
-They ensure the project is completed on time, within budget, and according to the specified quality standards.

Product VS Project Management
-Product managers work closely with project managers to translate the product strategy and roadmap into actionable project plans.
-Project managers oversee the execution of those plans, ensuring that the product is developed, tested, and delivered according to the defined specifications.
-While project management is a part of product development, it is just one component.

Question 25

What are the areas within the project?

Answer 25

Scope - work to be done

Schedule - time to get the work done

Cost - Budget of the work

Quality - Customer satisfaction of the work

Question 26

What are the AREAS of a project?

Answer 26

Resources - Managing the people and material resources

Communications - all stakeholders get the correct information at the right time.

Risk - Identifying and responding to risk over the lifecycle of the project.

Procurements - Acquiring resources from outside the project team.

Stakeholders’ engagement - Keeping all stakeholders active and alert on the project.

Question 27

What are the Project Management Approaches?

Answer 27

The scope is determined early on and can’t be changed. For example, once you start building a building that is 25 stories, you can’t just change to 24 halfway through the project… This is an example of …

PREDICTIVE (Waterfall) APPROACH
-Extensive upfront scoping and planning, documentation, focus on predicting and defining the project scope, objectives, timeline, and deliverables.
-Extensive upfront planning
-Sequential execution
-Emphasis on control and documentation - limited flexibility, limited changes with a well defined change control process.

ADAPTIVE (AGILE) APPROACH
-Embraces change throughout the project and emphasizes continuous feedback and improvement.
-Iterative and incremental development
-Customer collaboration
-Emphasis on adaptability
-Self-organizing teams
-The adaptive approach commonly used in agile methodologies like SCRUM or KANBAN.

Hybrid Approach
-Build a building… Iterative approach to design the building. Once design approved, transition to predictive once the build begins.

Question 28

What are some Organizational Structures of Project Management?

Answer 28

Functional:
-Groups staff members according to their area of expertise (sales, marketing, construction etc). Functional structures require the project team members to report directly to the functional manager.

Matrix Organizations
-There are three matrix structures: weak, balanced, and strong. The different structures are reflective of the project manager’s authority in relation to the functional manager’s authority.

Project Oriented Organizations, (Projectised)
-Structure where the PM has the greatest amount of authority. The project team is assigned to the project on a full-time basis. When the project is complete, the project team members moves on to other assignments within the organization.

Question 29

Organizational Structures Chart

Answer 29

See section 4 video 40 organizational structures.

Question 30

Risk vs. Issues vs Assumptions vs Constraints

Answer 30

Risks
Potential events or situations that may occur in the future and have an impact on the project’s success.

Issues
Refer to problems or challenges that arise during the course of a project. They are typically negative events or circumstances that hinder progress or impact project objectives.

Assumptions
-Statements or beliefs that are considered to be true or valid for the purpose of planning and decision-making.

Constraints
-Limitations or restrictions that affect project planning and execution.

Question 31

What are the Project Constraints?

Answer 31

Scope
Schedule
Cost
Risk
Quality
Resources

Question 32

What is Emotional Intelligence?

Answer 32

-EQ - refers to the ability to recognize, understand, manage emotions both in oneself and in others.

-Involves being aware of one’s own emotions, effectively handling them, empathizing with others, and using emotions to guide thinking and behavior
-In project management, Eq plays a significant role.

Question 33

What are some aspects of Emotional Intelligence?

Answer 33

1. Relationship Building
2. Communication and conflict management
3. Motivation and Influence
4. Leadership and Decision Making
5. Stakeholders Management

Question 34

What is a Manager?

Answer 34

Management
-Focus on tasks, processes, operations and efficient execution (cheap and quick)
-Involves planning, organizing, coordinating, controlling
-Formal authority and responsibility within organization
-Maintain stability, control, and order, ensuring established processes and procedures are followed.
-Focus on coordinating and directing tasks, resources, and processes to achieve predetermined objectives.
-Focus on immediate goals and operational efficiency
-Management aims to maintain stability, implementing processes and procedures to minimize risk.

Question 35

What is a Leader?

Answer 35

-Focuses on inspiring and influencing
-Involves setting direction, motivating, and empowering individuals
-They inspire and influence others
-They encourage collaboration, trust, empowerment

Question 36

Leader vs Manager

Answer 36

Management
-Direct using positional power
-Maintain
-Administrate
-Focus on systems and structure
-Rely on control
-Focus on near-term goals
-Ask how and when
-Focus on bottom line
-Accept status quo
-Do things right
-Focus on operational issues and problem solving

Leader
-Guide, influence, and collaborate using relational power
-Develop
-Innovate
-Focus on relationships
-Inspire trust
-Focus on long-range vision
-Ask what and why
-Focus on the horizon
Challenge status quo
-Do the right things
-Focus on vision, alignment, motivation, and inspiration.