Project Management

A Problem-Based Approach

Bennet Lientz

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9780230348493
• eBook ISBN: 9781350305410
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Management
• Index: Business

An ideal course text that helps students to identify, manage and solve problems that arise during the lifecycle of projects. This problem-based approach encourages students to develop analytical and problem-solving skills and to get a more complete understanding of the factors that contribute to project success.

PART I
Introduction

The purpose of this book is for you to understand project management concepts, methods, and tools as well as how to address common project problems. The success of a project depends directly on how project problems are identified, tracked, investigated, and solved. For, if the problems in a project are not solved, then there is a high likelihood of at least partial failure.

Project management concepts are given in Chapter 1 of Part I along with a framework for problem-solving. This leads to a consideration of alternative project management methodologies in Chapter 2. The last chapter in this part (Chapter 3) is important because it presents the structure for managing problems and risk. Part II then proceeds chapter by chapter from the initial idea of a project through implementation and measurement of results of changes resulting from the project.

CHAPTER 1
Introduction

In this chapter we start with definitions related to projects and project management. Further we discuss the success and failure of projects. Then it is time to discuss the planning, management, and execution of a project. These then lead to a discussion of project problems, complexity, and risk.

Projects and project management

We often start classes and seminars with an example that helps understand what projects are, why people undertake projects, and how a problem-oriented approach to project management works. For our example, let us select something that all of us do – travel. For the sake of the example, let us assume you live in Los Angeles, California. You can substitute where you live now.

Let us say that you know you will have two weeks of time available for travel. You know this is at least three months in advance of the trip. Suppose that you think about some potential destinations and settle on going to Europe. Now you see an ad through email, a social networking site, or whatever for a discount flight to Madrid, Spain. Never been to Spain. Sounds good! The price is right and you buy a ticket online. A few weeks later you begin to think about what you might want to see and do. Later you think about where you will stay. Then you wonder how you will get around. If you take this approach, you are making a series of decisions in a rather unplanned way. A lot could go wrong. The weather could be too hot. There could be a labor strike. Some of the sights you might want to see may be under renovation. I think you would agree that you need a more organized approach.

You might want to treat this trip as a project. A project can be thought of as the allocation of resources directed toward achieving specific, defined objectives using a planned and organized approach. A project is a temporary effort that has a defined beginning and end. As such, projects are differentiated from regular operational work that is repetitive and well defined and that produces services and products. Right away, you can see the importance of projects. They are a vehicle for change for individuals and companies. Your trip to Europe will be a project.

Now let us step back and take a longer-term view. Suppose you have a goal to visit a number of countries in Western Europe. You will proceed to do this via a series of projects. This is a program and you are undertaking program management. A visit to a specific country or a region is a project within the program. Program management is the process of managing a number of related projects. When you have visited all the countries in Western Europe, you will have completed the program.

Widen the scope. You may have traveled or may want to travel to Asia, South America, or other countries outside of Europe. The set of all of your trips is a portfolio. Portfolio management includes methods for the analysis and management of a group of current and potential projects. In portfolio management you seek to improve the mixture and sequencing of projects to achieve your goals.

Returning to our single project or one trip, you need to be able to manage the project. The term “project management” refers to the structure and discipline for planning, analyzing, organizing, and managing the work and resources to achieve the objectives of the project. The benefits of using project management include the following:

• Employing standard methods and techniques for managing and tracking work;
• Providing a structured approach for defining a project and developing the project plan;
• Establishing a structure for building and managing a project team;
• Being able to track work and objectives through the project plan;
• Identifying, analyzing, and addressing problems in projects through a structured approach;
• Providing the basis for managing multiple projects;
• Supporting the measurement of the project work and project results.

Project management began to be recognized as a separate field in the 1950s in engineering and construction. Early methods stemmed from the work on scientific management by Frederick Winslow Taylor and later by Henry Gantt (the GANTT chart) and Henri Fayol. Project management was first applied in construction, engineering, and militarydefense work. In the 1960s and 1970s it was expanded to banking, communications, technology, and other fields. In the 1980s and 1990s project management was applied to global projects. Project management was also employed in reengineering and change management. Today project management is employed for almost all work that aims to create change. Why? Two reasons are that it provides structure and standardization. In spite of many project failures, project management has been proven to get results.

As time progressed, project management organizations were founded. In the 1950s the American Association of Cost Engineers was created. In Europe in 1967 the International Project Management Association was formed with a number of national project management associations as members. The Project Management Institute (PMI) was founded in 1969 in the United States.

These societies along with the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) in England established project management standards in the form of project management methodologies (discussed in Chapter 2). They also developed certification programs for project management professionals.

A project progresses through various life-cycle stages. These stages, along with multiple projects and the project portfolio, are the focus of Part II of the book. The project life-cycle stages include the following:

• Identification of the project and development of the project concept;
• Development of the project plan;
• Project execution. This is the work involved in achieving the purposes of the project, as defined in the project concept and plan;
• Project implementation and closure. This is the use of project results to change organizations and business processes so that the benefits of the project are achieved.

The project concept includes the purposes, scope, budget, benefits, and other factors that define the project. You develop the project concept after you have an idea for a project, but prior to developing a detailed project plan. The project concept supports reaching a consensus on the purpose, scope, and other elements of the project before the detailed tasks in the project plan are defined.

A project plan consists of all tasks completed and milestones passed to achieve the project purposes along with their start dates, durations, end dates, assigned resources, and dependencies. It also includes the following:

• The roles and responsibilities of people and the organizations involved in the project;
• Benefits of the project;
• Costs of the project;
• Scope of the project;
• Problems likely to be encountered in the project;
• Definition of project success;
• The impact on the organization if the project is not undertaken.

Projects do not exist in a vacuum. In our example on travel, a person or family has other projects and non-project everyday work in addition to the travel project. That is why we need to consider how to manage multiple projects and portfolios of projects. Managing multiple projects requires that human and other resources be allocated among projects while also completing non-project work (resource allocation).

What is project su...

Table of contents

• Cover
• FullTitle
• Copyright
• Contents
• Figures
• Preface
• About the Author
• For the Instructor
• For the Student
• For the Practitioner and Professional
• PART I Introduction
• PART II The Life of the Project
• PART III Business Problems
• PART IV Management Problems
• PART V Vendor Problems
• PART VI Project Problems
• PART VII Problems Related to Government and Culture
• PART VIII Information Technology Problems
• Appendix: Project Problem Checklist
• Bibliography
• Web Sites
• Index