Project Management Fundamentals

Key Concepts and Methodology

Gregory T. Haugan

• Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers
• Year: 2010
• ISBN:
  9781567263190
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Investments & Securities
• Index: Business

Build on the Right Fundamentals for Project Management Success!
To achieve success in any endeavor, you need to understand the fundamental aspects of that endeavor. To achieve success in project management, you should start with Project Management Fundamentals: Key Concepts and Methodology, Second Edition.
This completely revised edition offers new project managers a solid foundation in the basics of the discipline. Using a step-by-step approach and conventional project management (PM) terminology, Project Management Fundamentals is a commonsense guide that focuses on how essential PM methods, tools, and techniques can be put into practice immediately.
New material in this second edition includes:
• A thorough discussion of agile project management and its use in real-life situations
• Detailed explanations of the unique factors involved in managing service projects
• An enhanced appendix on management maturity models
• A new appendix on project communications and social networking
• Expanded coverage of the triple constraints in PM, going beyond scope, schedule, and cost to include quality, resources, and risks
As a refresher for the experienced project manager or as a comprehensive introductory guide for the new practitioner, Project Management Fundamentals: Key Concepts and Methodology, Second Edition, is the go-to resource that delivers.

PART 1

Introduction and Overview

…it will be seen that the development of a science to replace rule of thumb is in most cases by no means a formidable undertaking, and that it can be accomplished by ordinary, everyday men without any elaborate scientific training; but that, on the other hand, the successful use of even the simplest improvement of this kind calls for records, a system and cooperation where in the past existed only individual effort.

—Frederick Winslow Taylor,
The Principles of Scientific Management, 1911, p. 62

To F.W. Taylor, scientific management was a policy of establishing, after scientific study and research, a standard way of performing each industrial operation with the best possible expenditure of material, capital, and labor.¹ His principles—and those of Harrington Emerson, Henry Gantt, and others—revolutionized the manufacturing industry in the decade preceding World War I. These principles are followed today in manufacturing processes, and extensions of them provide the basis for today’s project management body of knowledge. The concept of using a standard methodology to perform project management functions is the same concept used by F.W. Taylor in his philosophy of “one best way.”

The recognition that managing projects required skills and techniques different from those required for managing manufacturing processes arose in the late 1950s when the Cold War prompted the United States to develop large, complex weapons systems. Much of the management effort up to that point involved developing principles to manage large companies, organizations, and production processes. These new weapons systems development activities involved integrating the work of several companies involving many disciplines, not just civil or mechanical engineering, to develop one product. Most of the modern project management principles, processes, and practices evolved from the lessons learned in managing early weapons systems development.

These new weapons systems had five things in common: (1) they were one-time efforts and were therefore temporary in that the final products were not endlessly replicated, as occurs on a production line; (2) the final products had to be completed by a specified time; (3) the work required to create the final products had a specified price or budget; (4) the required performance of the final products was specified; and (5) the final products were complex and required coordinating and integrating the activities of several organizations and disciplines in every step of the development process.

Just as scientific management principles were documented in the period from 1910 to 1920, project management principles and practices were documented in many books, company manuals, government reports, and magazine articles starting in the 1960s.

The lead in monitoring and documenting project management practices transitioned from the public to the private sector in the 1980s with the major reductions in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) space program, the end of the Cold War, and the rapid growth of the public sector’s awareness of the importance of formal project management.

THE PROJECT MANAGEMENT BODY OF KNOWLEDGE

As the private sector developed its formal project management practices, one organization in particular took the lead in documenting best practices. The Project Management Institute (PMI), a professional association of nearly 300,000 members in 170 countries, provides a forum for the growth and development of project management practices through its conferences, chapter meetings, monthly magazine PM Network, and quarterly journal Project Management Journal.

Building on the seminal work of the U.S. government and the aerospace industry in the 1960s, PMI published a landmark document titled The Project Management Body of Knowledge in August 1987, which was followed in 1996 by A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK^® Guide), now in its fourth edition.²

PMI has also published two derivative PMBOK^® Guide documents focusing on the construction industry and government, respectively.³ More recently, PMI published standards for portfolio management, program management, work breakdown structures, and organizational project management.⁴

The PMBOK^® Guide documents proven classic practices that are widely applied, as well as more advanced practices used less often but also generally accepted. This book is generally consistent with the PMBOK^® Guide and the derivative PMI publications noted here.

Despite the frequency of new project management systems purporting dramatic changes and improved methods, in reality basic project management concepts haven’t changed much since they were developed during the late 1960s and standardized in the original PMBOK^® Guide. Two areas developed recently, however, are web-based communications and self-organizing team concepts key to agile project management. Both are discussed in this new edition.

KEY CONCEPTS OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT

An understanding and appreciation of the evolution of project management is useful when applying the techniques to individual problems and situations. It is important to understand why each step in the project management process is performed, so you can effectively tailor that step to individual projects in your organization.

Project management today, just like the scientific management of Taylor’s day, still involves records, a system, and cooperation, although now these are called data collection, planning and control, and communications.

The core of this book is the application of a basic project management process or methodology that consists of a number of steps performed in sequence. Some of these steps require more than one iteration to incorporate unforeseen changes, and several have sub-processes with their own defined steps, as well.

While all projects can be managed successfully by following these steps, the effort and emphasis placed on performing each step must be tailored to the specific project and its context. For example, every project requires planning, but the planning for a major aerospace project is far more extensive than the planning required for a two-week project to develop a marketing brochure. Similarly, the planning that is performed when responding to a request for proposals is different from that required for a new project assigned by a supervisor.

In recognition of each project’s unique conditions, Part 3 presents eight scenarios of different conditions or situations a project manager may encounter and describes how to tailor the basic methodology presented in Part 2 to each of these scenarios.

Part 4 discusses critical project environment elements needed in addition to the basic methodology, including management support, project management software, procedures and directives, and project management maturity. Part 4 also discusses particular facilitating elements needed in addition to the basic methodology, including human resource management, risk management, communications, project procurement management, and configuration management.

Part 5 discusses agile project management, which evolved from software development projects using an incremental approach to delivering the final product. The agile approach assumes that the entire suite of initial requirements cannot be developed or planned at the start of the project. Increments of the final product can be delivered very early, and their testing and evaluation can provide essential input for succeeding iterations and deliveries. The process is continued until a satisfactory set of product functions, performance, or features is attained, fulfilling the customer’s objectives.

For more advanced project managers, Appendix A provides a new discussion of project management maturity and an overview of business development and knowledge management assessments.

Communications methods and tools have evolved rapidly with the evolution of the Internet and social networking applications. A new appendix on project communications systems and networking provides an overview of the tools currently available to the project and program teams.

KEY TERMS

The world of project management is full of jargon and acronyms. Figure 1.1 defines the most common project management terms used frequently in this book and in the project management field. These definitions are included in similar form in the glossary of the PMBOK^® Guide.⁵

Readers should take care to thoroughly absorb and understand these definitions because they are key to understanding project management. Once you are comfortable with the terminology, the principles and the process will not seem as daunting.

Figure 1.1. Key Project Management Terms

THE BASIC PROJECT MANAGEMENT PROCESS

To understand the basic project management process, it is necessary to first discuss what is meant by p...