Unit-1
Project management
Definition
“Project management is an art of application of knowledge, skills, tools,
and techniques to project activities in order to meet or exceed
stakeholder needs and expectations”.
Meaning
• Project mgmt. is the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and
techniques to a broad range of activities in order to meet the
requirements of a particular project.
• P.M. involves the Planning, and events that occur as software
evolves from a preliminary concept to operational
implementation.
• P.M. is the application of knowledge skills tools and techniques to
project activities in order to meet and exceed stakeholder needs
and expectations.
Nature
Project Management, in a simple term, it means managing a project
from end to end. It is how a person of authority sets up and supervises
the resources that are available in order to finish a project they have
taken. The person of authority who supervises the whole project is
called the Project Manager. The Project Managers uses different
techniques, methodologies, skills, and they have the required
knowledge which will help the Project achieve the objective as per the
criterion which has been agreed upon by all the parties
Concept of project management
The project management concepts provide a systematic view of the
plan and processes with which they are implemented in the project.
The Concept of Project management includes major factors of the
projects such as follows;
• Scope
The tasks required to fulfill the project’s goals
• Time
The schedule for the project to reach completion
• Cost
The financial constraints of a project, also known as the project
budget
• Quality
There are quality standards for every project, whether its final
deliverable is a tangible or intangible product. Project managers
need a quality management plan to control quality.
• Risk
Risk is inherent to any project. That’s why project managers need
to create a risk management plan to explain how project risks will
be handled
Process of project management
The key project management processes, which run through all of
these phases, are:
• Phase management.
• Planning.
• Control.
• Team management.
• Communication.
• Procurement.
• Integration
Phase management
Deliverables and sign-off requirements are usually identified in
the Project Initiation Document, so review this appropriately during
the project.
• Planning –
Carry out high-level planning for the whole project at the start
of the project, then do more detailed planning for each phase
at the start of each phase. Ensure that the right people,
resources, methodologies, and supporting tools in place for
each planning phase, so that deliver the project on time, on
budget, and to appropriate quality standards.
• Control –
It's essential to control scope, cost, and issues; and to manage
time, risks, and benefits effectively.
• Team management –
As project manager, responsible for managing the project
team. Working on a project is often different from most
"business as usual" activities, and project work may require a
different approach and set of skills.
• Communication –
Make sure that about who is responsible for communicating
to team members, the project board, the
different stakeholders within the business, and relevant third
parties. Inadequate communication is a frequent problem
area for projects, and it needs considerable attention to
communicate well. Our articles on communication skills are a
useful starting point for developing these essential skills.
• Procurement –
This is a specialist area. Many projects hire third parties to
manage purchasing, particularly when it involves IT systems.
Managing these third parties is often the role of the project
manager.
• Integration –
Many projects do not stand on their own within an
organization – they often impact other areas of the business.
Make sure thatconsider how project will interface with other
projects or functions.
DIFFERENT TYPE OF PROJECT UNDER BMRED
The types are:
1. Balancing Projects
2. Modernisation Project
3. Replacement Project
4. Expansion Project
5. Diversification Project
1. Balancing Projects:
There are situations when the production process in a plant passes
through different stages and/or through different machineries. The
maximum production at a particular stage (or by a particular machine)
is the ultimate optimum production of the plant as a whole. This
particular stage may be called the ‘Key Factor’ with respect to the
volume of production.
It may also be noted that installation of additional capacity and/or
additional machineries at that particular stage—within the entire chain
of production process—would increase the plant’s total volume of
production.
2. Modernisation Project:
We find a situation when an organisation is carrying out its activities
with its plant setup long back. As a result, while the company was
running efficiently and profitably in the past, it started facing problems
in its plant leading to erosion of its profitability.
This is mainly because:
i. The old age of the plant causing very high maintenance cost and
increasing breakdown.
ii. The modernisation elsewhere in the plants for the same industry
(and obsolescence of its own plant) is creating difficulties in
competition.
3. Replacement Project:
An organisation carrying out its manufacturing activities in its plant may
face some problems with some machinery installed in the plant. The
situation arises due to ageing, wear and tear leading to break-down,
and lower output. Mounting up of such problems even lead to a
situation where the maintenance costs become too high and
uneconomic and, at the same time, a reduction in the volume of
output.
In such a situation, the organisation must consider replacing the
particular machine/machines causing such problem.
By ‘replacement’ in such a situation we mean that the assets currently
in use is replaced by a new one with almost the same capacity (as the
old one being replaced) and does not include new machine with much
larger capacity as, otherwise, it would be a type of ‘expansion project’
and not a ‘replacement project’.
The managerial decision to go ahead with the project will depend upon:
i. The cost of replacement; comparative costs when there are options
to select a new machine.
ii. The availability of resources for the new machines;
iii. The magnitude of the saving of maintenance costs and the losses on
account of breakdowns;
iv. The possibility of achieving the sales target
v. Additional incidental facilities by replacement and
vi. The scrap value of the old machine which is being replaced
4. Expansion Project:
An organisation carrying out certain volume of activities may like to
increase its volume of activities with the same products or services and
grow. When such an organisation intends to install extra capacities by
adding, inter alia, new set of machineries etc. for larger volumes, the
project for such investments is called Expansion Project.
The expansion project is undertaken primarily for the growth of the
organisation with confidence that the organisation is likely to maintain
its market share in the estimated increase in the market size, or, that
the organisation is driving for an increase in the market share.
The expansion plan, as such, can be achieved by one or more of the
following steps:
i. By establishing additional capacity in its plant and thus increase its
volume of output;
ii. By acquisition of another organisation relating to the same industry
and
iii. By modernisation of its plant, which may also include installation of
capacity within the plant to boost the volume of production.
5. Diversification Project:
The project initiated by an organisation with the idea of carrying out
new activity, a new business dealing with new products/services in
addition to its existing activities, is known as Diversification Project.
It must be ensured that the new products/services are fully marketable
by the organisation.
