Advantages
The purpose of this paper is to gain an understanding of project management and to give a brief overview of the methodology the fact that underpins most formally run projects. Many organisations you should not employ full time Project Managers and it is common to pull alongside one another a project team to address a specific need. While most people are possibly not formally skilled in project methodology, taking a role from a project team can be an excellent learning opportunity and can strengthen a person's career profile especially if the companies are using management solutions.
What is a Project?
A project is a short lived and one-time exercise which varies in duration. It happens to be undertaken to address a specific need in an organisation, which may be to have a product or service or to change a business process. This is in lead contrast to how an organisation generally works on a good permanent basis to produce their goods or services. For example the work connected with an organisation may be to manufacture trucks on a continual point of view, therefore the work is considered functional as the organisation creates similar products or services over-and-over again and people hold their roles at a semi permanent basis.
What is Project Management?
A project usually is initiated by a perceived need in an organisation. Being a an individual off undertaking, it will have a start and an end, demands of budgets, time and resources and involves a purpose produced team. Project teams are made up of many different team members, for example , terminate users/customers (of a product or service), representatives from Banking (IT), a project leader, business analysts, trainers, the task sponsor and other stakeholders.
Project management is the discipline for managing all the different resources and aspects of the project in such a way that the resources will deliver all the output that is required to complete the very project within the defined scope, time, and cost regulations. These are agreed upon in the project initiation stage and by the time period the project begins all stakeholders and team members has a clear understanding and acceptance of the process, methodology and even expected outcomes. A good project manager utilises a formal progression that can be audited and used as a blue print for those project, and this is achieved by employing a project management software scheme.
Project Management Methodology
Generally, projects are split into two phases Initiation, Implementation and Closure. Each phase then simply has multiple checkpoints that must be met before the next point begins. The degree to which a project is managed will depend on how big the the project. For a complex project in a large setup that involves a number of people, resources, time and money, a more structured approach it takes, and there will be more steps built into each stage belonging to the project to ensure that the project delivers the anticipated end product. For a simple project in a small organisation, agreed milestones, just a few checklists and someone to co-ordinate the project may be as much is required.
Initiating a Project
All projects start with an idea for that product, service, new capability or other desired finish result. The idea is communicated to the project sponsors (the folks that will fund the project) using what is called sometimes a mandate or project charter. The mandate is a insurance policy structured in a way that lays out a clear method for proposing a project and should result in a business case for the project. Once the online business case has been approved a more detailed document is set that explains the project and it is known as the 'The Project Definition Report' (PD). The PD is not only helpful to provide detailed information on the project, but is the article on which an assessment is made as to whether the project should really proceed or not. Some of the key areas it covers would be the scope of the project, results of any feasibility studies, and what it is intended to deliver. As well this document will distinguish the key people involved, resources required, costs and required duration as well as benefits to the business. A project usually incorporates a goal (the big picture) and this has to then get broken down into objectives you can use to measure whether you possess achieved your aims.
From this list you must then indicate what is known as 'Key Success Criteria', and these are the direction that are 'key' to the success or failure of the project - regardless if other objectives are met. These obviously vary from job to project. Once the project has been given the go ahead, then a contract document is drawn up and the project sponsor purposes this to give formal agreement to funding the venture and for the project to begin. The initiation phase can be considered to be completed.