Project management skills for all careers pdf

The project manager should be aware that disagreements have the potential to arise at all levels. The issue that underlies a particular conlict may not be immediately apparent. Personality clashes are a classic underlying problem that very few people feel able to raise and discuss. It is common for personality conlicts to manifest themselves as a dispute over some project issue—for example a technical stand-off. This is where experience is invaluable, enabling the project manager to identify the real issues and then to address them effectively.

KEy POINtS 4 The sponsor is responsible for securing the inancing and overall resource budget approval and owns the opportunities and risks related to the inancial outcome of the project. This is understandable because of the complicated nature and diversity of projects, which can vary enormously in size and complexity.

Project Initiation 2. Project Planning 3. Project Execution 4. The number of activities depends on the scope of the project. A simple project will involve only a few activities while a more complex project may involve hundreds or thousands of individual activities. This model can be applied to a variety of project scenarios although the cost and duration of each phase will vary according to the particular project.

Projects are temporary structures set up with the speciic aim of delivering an identiiable end-product. All projects will therefore have an identiiable life cycle, the characteristics of which will vary according to the size and complexity of the project.

For example, in the case of a project whose aim is to evaluate, recommend and implement a computerized accounts system. The costs of the project are restricted to the selection of the most suitable system available and the training and implementation necessary for its introduction. The actual purchase of the system is not within the terms of reference of the project, as this capital cost will be taken from a separate budget.

A typical life cycle will run from the formal initiation of a project through to a post implementation review PIR of the delivered end-product. This post implementation review is not shown as it is usually held some months after the project has been formally closed. There is often little agreement between industries, or even between organizations within the same industry, about the life cycle phases of a project. This is understandable because of the complicated nature and diversity of projects.

A ive-phase project life cycle model can be applied to a variety of project scenarios although the cost and duration of each phase will vary according to the particular project. The conceptual phase includes the preliminary evaluation of an idea. It is common for this phase to include a irst cut feasibility study for the proposed project. This analysis should also include a preliminary risk assessment. The resources required by the project should be deined along with time, cost and performance estimates.

Project estimation is a dificult task—especially in this early phase. However it is essential that costs are quantiied, as this information is needed to establish whether or not the project should proceed. Once a project has received the funding and backing of senior management it can proceed to the production phase. This incorporates the production, or acquisition, of the end-product speciied. This begins with the updating of detailed plans, started in the preceding phases and encompasses the identiication and management of the resources required.

This phase also includes the development of manuals, plans and other documentation that will support the end product in its live environment. The operation phase involves the integration of the end-product or service into the organizational environment.

If the end-product was a marketable product then this phase would typically include the product life cycle phases of marketing and reinement. The divestment phase involves the reallocation of resources that are no longer required by the current project. The end-product of any project will have a inite lifespan and therefore its ability to generate revenue will be limited.

The organization will usually need to run future projects to guarantee its revenue stream. This phase also incorporates the post implementation evaluation of the delivered end-product, and this should serve as input to the conceptual phase of future projects. The use of resources over time will vary according to each particular project. Whilst it may be possible to characterize life cycle proiles within different industry sectors, this can give a false impression as individual projects can vary radically from the generic proile.

KEy POINtS 4 All projects can be mapped to the following simple life cycle structure: starting the project, organizing and preparing, carrying out the work, and closing the project. This model can be simpliied into a three or four phase view to which formal organizational processes can be applied.

However, you can also look at project management from the perspective of the individual processes involved. Functional Areas of a Risk Project Mgmt Quality Team Budget Scope Schedule The reason for doing this is that it allows complex high-level tasks to be broken down into smaller tasks, a common practice when learning something new. For example, when learning to drive you concentrate on speciic tasks, such as gear changing, hill starts etc. Extending this approach to project management makes tasks easier to manage, resource, and control.

However, whilst these functional areas can be presented as being more or less self-contained, in practice they overlap and interact in a unique fashion that relects the nature of a project. Consequently, the functional areas are not meant to be prescriptive activities that are executed one after the other. You do not perform scoping, then scheduling, then costing, then quality control, etc. You need to be continually reviewing each area as the project progresses and new information becomes available.

For example, looking at the scope management activity as something discrete makes sense because even if it is being done at the same time as one or more of the other processes it is always done in the same way. There is no need to do different types of scope management at different stages of the project because scope management is scope management no matter when you do it and no matter what else is happening at the same time.

The project management eBooks on this website include: Managing the Project team This includes all of the processes used to put together, develop, and manage the project team.

It also includes identifying what information needs to be communicated and to whom, in order to ensure that the right people get the right information at the right time. Managing the Project Scope This is the process by which the project manager deines the boundaries of the project and ensures that any changes to the original scope are carefully managed.

It deines exactly what is included in the project and what is excluded. Managing the Project Schedule This involves making sure that things happen on time and keeping the project on schedule. It includes techniques to estimate how long things will take, to plan accordingly, and then to keep everything on track.

Managing the Project Budget This involves keeping the project on budget and includes techniques for estimating costs planning and budgeting as well as monitoring and controlling the costs.

If this is the case then the project manager will also need an understanding of contract and supplier management. Managing Project Quality This ensures that the project meets its requirements and that the deliverables do what is expected of them. Managing Project Risk This involves the identiication and evaluation of risk as well as planning responses to ensure that corrective action is taken if the risks materialize.

It would be much easier although far less lexible if it were possible to specify a simple linear path involving preparing, planning, doing and reviewing. Unfortunately, this approach is only possible in very simple projects and even then it falls apart as soon as something unexpected happens.

This judgment requires knowledge and experience, which is one reason why experienced project managers are always in high demand. It also underlines the importance of recording as much as possible about how projects are performing. This information can be used to analyze how and why projects have succeeded or failed in the past. By deinition a project is going to change something in the way that the organization works and this is something that needs to be explained to all of the project stakeholders in order to get them on board and then to keep them there.

This is easier said than done and what makes the discipline of project management so complex is that in order to satisfy all stakeholder requirements you need to manage interactions across organizational and process boundaries. Consequently, a key part of project management is to gain commitment from others outside of the project to provide these resources as and when necessary.

This is something that relies on highly developed interpersonal skills including persuasion and negotiation. Complex projects need more management tools and techniques than small projects and a project manager needs to know which tools to use and when. Successful Project Managers Gain commitment from outside the project Negotiate for necessary resources Decides the best techniques to use Aids decision for chosen tools to be used by project team Makes thorough assessment at each project phase before progressing The aim of every project manager should be to use the smallest number of project management tools and techniques possible to deliver the project objectives.

Remember, project management must never become the focus of effort. It is always a means to an end, not an end in itself. Summary Project management is a complex activity that requires a structure, procedures and processes that are appropriate to your project.

Each project function describes the expertise, skills and tools needed for your project. The other project management skills eBooks available from www. Each one has been written to provide you with the practical skills you need to succeed as a management professional. Templates—Most of the day-to-day management tasks you need to do have already been done by others many times in the past. Our management templates will save you from wasting your valuable time re-inventing the wheel.

Checklists—When you are working under pressure or doing a task for the irst time, it is easy to overlook something or forget to ask a key question. These management checklists will help you to break down complex management tasks into small controllable steps. FME Update—Subscribe to our free regular updates and stay in touch with the latest professional development resources we add every month.

Visit www. Kerzner, H. Knapp, B. Larson, E. Lock, D. JSON Variables. Project Management Skills for All Careers offers a framework for managing projects in any career area. The concepts can be applied no matter where you work. As a matter of fact, many of our dislocated workers are trained to become certified in Project Management. Project management skills are essential and invaluable for anyone who initiates or is assigned to a project.

Project Management Skills for All Careers is a unique book, as it is current, well organized, a pleasure to read. It is available as an open source textbook, free to those who use and apply it in their work place. When an opportunity presents itself, we look around for people with these skills: leadership, decisiveness, scoping, identifying tasks and deliverables, defining relationships among tasks, finding and assigning resources, scheduling, and budgeting.

We also want soft skills including building relationships, communicating with all concerned parties, and motivating people to produce quality work quickly and efficiently. This book presents an overview of the main research findings and case studies concerning education and skills for inclusive growth, green jobs and the greening of economies.

The purpose of this book is to shed light on the performance and personal competencies of information technology IT project managers in South Africa. Predictive models are built to determine what project managers consider the crucial competencies they should possess to deliver an IT project successfully. This investigation takes place in the cont Time Predictions. Predicting the time needed to complete a project, task or daily activity can be difficult and people frequently underestimate how long an activity will take.

This book sheds light on why and when this happens, what we should do to avoid it and how to give more realistic time predictions.