Project management is a top-five, in-demand skill in today's workplace, and the demand has spread far beyond IT to encompass nearly every industry; any organization that produces goods or services, whether for profit or not, has a vested interest in ensuring that projects are completed on time, on budget, and to the satisfaction of the clientâthis is the heart of the project management function. Let Kim Heldman, bestselling author of PMP Study Guide and CompTIA Project+ Study Guide, walk you through the basic principles and practices to help you build a strong foundation for further training.
Understand current project management methods and practices
Explore project management from a practical perspective
Delve into illustrative examples that clarify complex issues
Test your understanding with challenging study questions
Trillions of dollars are invested in various projects around the world each year, and companies have learned that investing in qualified project management professionals pays off in every aspect of the operation. If you're considering a career in project management, Project Management JumpStart provides an excellent introduction to the field and clear direction for your next steps.
Welcome to the world of project management. Chances are youâve already had some experience with project management, whether youâve called it that or not. Maybe youâve helped organize your companyâs annual conference or been involved with a new product launch. At some point in your personal or professional life, youâve probably used some sort of process to get from the beginning of the project to the end results.
Youâll discover through the course of this book that you may already use some of the processes Iâll talk about, but you may never have realized they were formalized project management techniques and processes. Iâll add some new twists and tricks to those processes that youâll want to try. Youâll also learn some new techniques and procedures that will enhance your project management experiences and help you run your next project smoothly and effortlessly. (OK, that might be stretching it a bit, but your project will run more efficiently.)
In this chapter, youâll start building the foundation of good project management practices.
The Project Management Journey
The first stop on our journey is a brief overview of the Project Management Institute (PMIÂź). PMIÂź is the leader and the most widely recognized organization in the world in terms of promoting project management best practices. PMIÂź strives to maintain and endorse standards and ethics in this field and offers publications, training, seminars, chapters, special-interest groups, and colleges to further the project management discipline. PMIÂź offers the most recognized certification in the field of project management called the Project Management ProfessionalÂź (PMPÂź) certification.
The focus and content of this book revolve around the information contained in A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOKÂźGuide), Sixth Edition, published by PMIÂź. This de facto standard of project management terms, processes, techniques, and more is known and understood by millions of project managers across the globe. I will use the PMBOK Âź Guide terms and process names throughout this book to familiarize you with terminology used by project managers everywhere.
Start your enginesâIâm ready to lay the foundation for building and managing your project. In this chapter, Iâll start with a definition of a project, and then youâll take a high-level look at some of the processes and plans youâll build throughout the rest of the book and how youâll benefit from using solid project management techniques when managing your next project. Iâll also cover organizational foundations before moving on to the project processes themselves. Here we go.
project management The process of applying knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to describe, organize, and monitor the work of the project to accomplish the goals of the project. (This definition is based on the PMBOK Âź Guide.)
Is It a Project?
How do you know whether your new work assignment is a project or whether itâs going to benefit from project management techniques? If youâre like most of us, once you get to work and settle in for the day, you check your email and voice mail and touch base with some of the other folks on your team. The boss may drop by and ask for a status report on a problem youâve been working on, gently nudging you to get back to it. All of these tasks are everyday work. They donât really have a beginning or end; theyâre ongoing. Projects are not everyday work. For work to be considered a project, it must meet a certain set of criteria.
Projects set out to produce a unique product, service, or result. They have a limited timeframe and are temporary in nature. This means that projects have a definite beginning and ending. You can determine that a project is complete by comparing its end result or product to the objectives and deliverables stated in the project plan.
Everyday work is ongoing. Production processes are an example of ongoing operations. Maybe you love popping a handful of chocolate drops into your mouth mid-afternoon for a quick treat. Producing those chocolate drops is an example of ongoing operations. The production line knows how many candies to produce, what colors to coat them with, how many go in a package, and so on. Every day, hundreds of thousands of those little drops make their way into bags, onto the store shelves, and eventually into our mouthsâyum. But the production of these candies is not a project.
Now letâs say that the management team has decided itâs time to introduce a new line of candy. Youâve been tasked with producing the new candy flavor and shape. You assemble a research team to come up with a new candy formula. The marketing team gathers some data, which shows that the new candy has real potential with the consumers. The candy is produced according to plan, monitored for adherence to the original formula and design, and shipped to the stores. Is this a project or ongoing operations?
The answer is, this is a project even though candy making is something the company does every day. The production of chocolate drops is considered an ongoing operation. The new candy, however, is a unique product because the company has never produced this flavor and shape of candy. Remember that projects are originated to bring about a product, service, or result that hasnât existed before. The new candy project was kicked off, carried out, monitored, and then ended when all the requirements were met. Candy production didnât stop there, though. At the end of this project, the production of the candy was turned over to ongoing operations and absorbed into the everyday work of the company. The project ended in this case by being assimilated into the ongoing operations of the company. Table 1.1 recaps the characteristics of projects versus ongoing operations.
TABLE 1.1Projects vs. ongoing operations
Projects
Ongoing operations
Definite beginning and end.
No definitive beginning and end.
Temporary in nature.
Ongoing.
Produces a unique product, service, or result.
Produces the same product, service, or result over and over.
Resources are dedicated to the project.
Resources are dedicated to operations.
Ending is determined by specific criteria.
Processes are ongoing.
Where Are We Going?
When you start out on a journey, it helps to have the destination in mind. Youâve embarked on a project managem...