Project & Project Management

PROJECT MANAGEMENT A successful project management process must address the various phases of the project life cycle. There are several process cycle or phases involved in Project Management namely; i) project initiating/defining the project ii) planning iii) executing iv) controlling/monitoring and v) closing. This process flow can be illustrated as per the following:- Figure 1.1: Project Process & Life Cycle i) Project Initiating / Defining the Project Project Initiation is the first phase in the Project Life Cycle and essentially involves starting up the project. You initiate a project by defining its purpose and scope, the justification for initiating it and the solution to be implemented. Besides, you will also need to recruit a suitably skilled project team / members in order to be part of decision making team. Firstly, in order to initiate a project, a project manager should identify the scope, vision and mission of the project. An idea for a project will be carefully examined to determine whether or not it benefits the organization. During this phase, a decision making team will identify if the project can realistically be completed. ii) Project Planning After defining the project and appointing the project team, you're ready to enter the detailed Project Planning phase. This involves creating a suite of planning documents to help guide the team throughout the project delivery. In this stage, the project manager lists all activities or tasks, how the tasks are related, how long each task will take, and how each tasks is tied to a specific deadline. This phase also allows the project manager to define relationships between tasks, so that, for example, if one task is x number of days late, the project tasks related to it will also reflect a comparable delay. Likewise, the project manager can set milestones, dates by which important aspects of the project need to be met. Define requirements for completing the project. In this stage, the project manager identifies how many people (often referred to as "resources") and how much expense ("cost") is involved in the project, as well as any other requirements that are necessary for completing the project. The project manager will also need to manage assumptions and risks related to the project. The project manager will also want to identify project constraints. Constraints typically relate to schedule, resources, budget, and scope. A change in one constraint will typically affect the other constraints. For example, a budget constraint may affect the number of people who can work on the project, thereby imposing a resource constraint. Likewise, if additional features are added as part of project scope, that could affect scheduling, resources, and budget. iii) Project Executing In this phase, the project manager knows how many resources and how much budget he or she has to work with for the project. The project manager then assigns those resources and allocates budget to various tasks in the project. With a clear definition of the project and a suite of detailed project plans, you are now ready to enter the Execution phase of the project. This is the phase in which the deliverables are physically built and presented to the customer for acceptance. iv) Project Controlling / Monitoring While each deliverable is being constructed, a suite of management processes are undertaken to monitor and control the deliverables being output by the project. These processes include managing time, cost, quality, change, risks, issues, suppliers, customers and communication. Once all the deliverables have been produced and the customer has accepted the final solution, the project is ready for closure. v) Project Closing Project Closure involves releasing the final deliverables to the customer, handing over project documentation to the business, terminating supplier contracts, releasing project resources and communicating project closure to all stakeholders. The last remaining step is to undertake a Post Implementation Review to identify the level of project success and note any lessons learned for future projects.