You’ve determined that you indeed have a project. What now? The notes you scratched out on the back of a napkin at coffee break might get you started, but that’s not exactly good project management practice.
We have all witnessed this scenario — an assignment is made and the project team jumps directly into the project, busying themselves with building the product or service requested. Often, careful thought is not given to the project-planning process. I’m sure you’ve heard co-workers toss around statements like, “That would be a waste of valuable time” or “Why plan when you can just start building?” Project progress is rarely measured against customer requirements. In the end, the delivered product or service doesn’t meet the expectations of the customer! This is a frustrating experience for all those involved. Unfortunately, many projects follow this poorly constructed path.
Project management is a process that involves several things including planning, putting the project plan into action, and measuring progress and performance. Planning is one of the most important functions you’ll perform during the course of a project. It sets the standard for the rest of the project’s life and is used to track future project performance. Before we begin the planning process, we’ll need to look at some of the skills needed to perform project management functions and some of the constraints found on all projects.
Project Constraints
In my organization, and I’m sure the same is true in yours, there are far more project requests than we have resources to work on them. In this case, resources are a constraint. You’ll find a similar phenomenon occurs on individual projects as well. Every project must work within the triple constraint combination of time, money, and quality. One or two of the triple constraints, sometimes all three, are limited. You might work on projects where you have an almost unlimited budget (don’t we wish), but time is the limitation. You can have all the money and people you need to accomplish your project, but you need to complete the project in 24 months. The computer-programming changes required for the year 2000 are an example of a time-constrained project because moving the date wasn’t an option.
Other projects might present the opposite scenario. You have all the time you need to complete the project, but the budget is fixed. Still, other projects may incorporate two or three of the constraints. Government agencies are notorious for starting projects that have at least two and sometimes all three constraints. For example, new tax law legislation is passed that impacts computer programming, requiring new programs to calculate and track the tax changes. Typically, a due date is given when the tax law takes effect, and the organization responsible is required to implement the changes with no additions to budget or staff. In other words, they are told to use existing resources to accomplish the goals of the project. The specific requirements of the project are such that quality cannot be fudged to try to meet the time deadline.
As a project manager, one of your biggest jobs is to balance the triple constraints while meeting or exceeding the expectations of your stakeholders. In most projects, you will usually be faced with balancing only one or two of the triple constraints. For example, if the project goal is a high-quality product, the saying goes, “I can give it to you fast or I can give it to you cheap, but I can’t give it to you fast and cheap.”
Tools and Techniques
Project management brings together a set of tools and techniques, performed by people, to describe, organize, and monitor the work of project activities. Project managers are the people responsible for managing the project processes and applying the tools and techniques used to carry out the project activities. There are many advantages to organizing projects and teams who utilize these techniques. We’ll be examining these advantages in-depth throughout the remainder of this book.
Programs are groups of projects that are managed using the same techniques in a coordinated fashion. Sometimes, programs include aspects of ongoing operations as well. This would be the case where a very large program exists with many sub-projects under it — for example, building a new shopping mall. Many sub-projects exist underneath this program such as excavation, construction, interior design, store placement, marketing, facilities management, etc. Each of the sub-projects is really a project unto itself. Each has its own project manager, who reports to a project manager with responsibility for several of the areas, who in turn reports to the head project manager over the entire program. After the structure itself is built, the management of the facility is considered the ongoing operations part of this program.
Project management involves many skills and techniques. According to the Guide to the PMBOK, page 6, “Project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities to meet project requirements.” It is the responsibility of the project manager to ensure project management techniques are applied and followed.
