Introduction to Project Management

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tutorials welcome to the world of project management so let's begin with an

important question what is a project is it a bird is it a plane we constantly

hear music bands artists sporty managers politicians say my project I have a new project the project about etc so is it

just another buzzword used to make some activities sound more sophisticated no it's something much much different a project is something real exciting and

extremely useful for people that want to accomplish their future ideas so let's get back to the main question what is a project

the project management institute defines it as a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product service or result

in other words it's a temporary initiative that is agreed planned and executed to achieve a specific goal

let's break this down with some terms first we have time this refers to a project being a temporary initiative it is distinct from normal business

operations in that it has a predetermined start and end date normal operations are characterized by the routine work in established companies think of the day-to-day activities which

are not very different from one day to another the accounting and finance department product department sales and marketing etc there is no end date

assigned to these repeating activities projects on the other hand have a strict expiry date then there is the specific goal you wish

to achieve with the project you can think of it as the output of a project this output can be a product like construct a new office building a

service like outsource a call center or a result such as improve an existing business process the output together with the work done

to create it is called project scope the scope of each project is unique they can be project outputs that are similar building an exact same house but

in a different place for example but the fact that the land and location are different is enough to change the project scope the architects and engineers will need to adapt their

construction accordingly changing the way the project work will be done if the work and the output are the same this will not be a project the scope

will not be unique and it will be a regular business process the third key attribute is cost which is the resources specifically dedicated to

accomplishing the goal in mind these three attributes form the project management triple constraint time scope and cost are dependent on

each other after determining them at the start if one of them changes it will trigger a change in one or both of the others for example let's say that you need to pull the end date of your

project forward to do this you will need to either increase your resources input by spending more or produce fewer

products output or perhaps even both so this is the general shape of a project remember a temporary initiative

that is agreed planned and executed to achieve a specific goal and is worth noting that projects are complex initiatives going to a new restaurant

for dinner is also a temporary activity with a specific goal in limited budget but it's not a project it also needs to benefit the business

through working in conjunction with a business strategy which is what we will be discussing next thanks for watching as I said in the previous lesson a

project must relate to a business strategy but how are the two connected and what creates the demand for a project in the first place good questions

so let's look into them there are a few key triggers that will jumpstart a business into executing a project there might be a market need

this is when your company wants to develop a product to address their client's needs or to keep up with the competition for example DTM bank needs

to develop mobile banking as other banks have done but to get there the bank needs to manage a complex project with various activities like software

development security financial and privacy regulations etc and of course all under time and budget constraints if you are too late to introduce it you

risk losing customers or there could be a business need during the financial crisis for example many companies had to execute projects to reduce costs optimize processes or

increase revenues by expanding the customer base just to stay in business also the demand for a project may arise

from technological advancement technology may advance to the point where your business can be automated or your products need to change for example

anything you use your smartphone for nowadays paying for things booking a taxi even ordering lunch surely involved a project

a project may come as the result of a customer request say if a key customer requires a tailored service or product for example you are a car dealer and

your biggest client is a taxi company and they request making your internal systems more compatible with theirs you are likely to approve such a project

or due to legal requirements regulations and laws change and the business would need to comply social media is a prime example where laws and regulations are

constantly updating as their technology and features advance you've probably noticed the general data privacy regulations introduced in the EU right

if not just check your email inbox they could also be social needs these can be anything from digging tunnels to extending hospitals to building an

Eiffel Tower anything that a government or organization can do to satisfy a social need and lastly there are ecological impact considerations companies are often

required and obliged to improve their industrial processes to reduce emissions many countries have found to only allow electric cars on the road by a certain year a massive project for car

manufactures see there are many things that can create a demand for a project and all have to do with the companies or organizations wider strategy once a

strategic goal is defined or a need arises the project will be the instrument to achieve that goal but needs such as the ones mentioned are not

likely to arrive one by one in a timely manner so how does a corporation choose which ones take priority and deserve a project the demand will require a

project proposal and the owner of this proposal will need to put it to the attention of higher management to compete for the limited resources of the organization management will then review the projects

and decide which ones to execute which to discard and which to postpone for a later date urgency is a key factor when selecting projects say a new regulation

is imposed which requires your company to comply with the latest standards or lose their license to work in the country you can bet that the Board of Directors will prioritize a project that

resolves this first this process is referred to as project selection it's an essential task for top management they must select the projects

which bring the most value to the company financial and non-financial in the eyes of the Board of Directors projects are investments they use

resources again financial and otherwise with the objective of seeing a worthwhile return for the business as you can probably guess several

projects are usually on the go at the same time that said when the Board of Directors is presented with possible projects they often select several of them and add them into a project

portfolio the Board of Directors then dabbles in what is called project portfolio management this is the process of prioritizing projects and the

administration and control of large sets of projects and programs basically the objective is to achieve the results and combine resources across projects in an optimal way

like we said projects are investments and with any investment the preliminary analysis needs to be performed with care projects consume enormous amounts of

resources finances time effort and attention so if they're not aligned with the business strategy then they're a massive waste leading to many

disappointed stakeholders at best and a bankrupt business at worst no pressure then great next lesson we'll have a look

at the project manager themselves and what their role involves see you there great now we know what a project is a temporary initiative that is agreed

planned and executed to achieve a specific goal so once we have our project and that project has been selected by the Board of Directors as the current initiative it's down to one

person to make sure that projects execution is successful can you guess who that one person is the project manager that's who but what exactly is

their role let's discuss the project manager is the CEO of the project they will be accountable for the project success and for a project to be

successful it needs to accomplish the specific goal of the project within the prior agreed time and budget constraints everything needs to fit neatly into the project management triple constraint

triangle which we looked at in the first lesson remember in fact by assuming the project manager position for a project the project manager implicitly agrees to work within

these constraints and still meet the goal now that's a big responsibility what if the time frame and budget are insufficient a project manager can't

shoot themselves in the foot and take on a project that is unlikely to be successful therefore when the project management trouble constraints are put in place they must be realistic it is

the project managers duty to assess a project and deem the constraints practical or otherwise and if otherwise they must demonstrate why - whoever proposed the project and negotiate for

additional time resources or an adjustment to the goal itself of course a project manager is well within their rights to refuse to head a project if they feel the difference between the set

constraints and the realistic expectations is too large in real life however the time and resources will usually be just enough to

complete the goal the project manager's job then is to best utilize them and this is by no means an easy task and often project managers will be

accountable for multiple projects at the same time okay so we've been throwing around the term accountable but never actually defined it what does it mean to be

accountable the formal definition would be to commit to achieve a certain result and then deliver this commitment simple enough

but a lot easier said than done let's shed light on the magnitude of this commitment project managers are accountable not

only for their own tasks but also all the tasks that other parties must work on and complete this includes the project team members support functions

managers vendors and other stakeholders any work that is important for the progress of the project to achieve successful completion of the project the manager needs to have full control and

visibility on all project related work and take actions immediately when identifying something is not progressing on track they will be on hand to help others overcome their barriers and keep

them motivated all on top of their personal daily duties Wow who would be crazy or brave enough to take on such accountability your friendly

neighborhood project manager that's who but they do have some weapons up their sleeve their skills knowledge and expertise these will help them make the

best decisions and direct the work in the right direction but more about that in the next lesson projects encompass many different individuals and organizations but the

project manager is the face of the project and the point of contact for any questions or concerns about their project including all tasks performed by other people but just try to imagine

what project managers deal with they need to be able to manage work in which they sometimes they don't have any experience with they need to also manage the experts performing this work and

ensure they deliver as per expectations on top of that they need to successfully relate with professionals from all levels of seniority from junior team members through heads of departments to

the high level managers like CEOs they must own their project and every cog working within it they are accountable for all of it and with that comes the power bestowed

upon them to make decisions and take action but what makes them worthy of this power their skills knowledge attitude and

practical experience there are countless attributes a project manager will have both professional and personal what we can do is look at the

three major skill sets and essential qualities within them developing these skills and this knowledge is not a linear progression however think of these skill sets as

containers each with a tap above them and connected by tubes they fill at different speeds and in varying orders but it's near impossible to fill only

one don't worry you will see momentarily first let's show you the kinds of skills and knowledge you will find in each container the first container to fill contains

project management and business knowledge starting with project manager fundamentals leading project work addressing project situations and

knowledge of the project lifecycle then you've got planning quality management of project critical areas effective communication work with project management tools and documents topping

it off with business analysis skills business acumen and awareness and knowledge of the project manager industry standards good news we will cover all these key attributes in this

course you will be set up with a solid ground on which to build your future experience in projects the second container is filled with

people and workflow management skills examples of these are business analysis efficient organization of project work defining who's responsible and the due

date issue resolution skills people skills working with stakeholders and motivating the project team good news here too you will experience

the organizational stakeholder related and issues resolution dynamics with this course examples and case studies the last container has your strategy and

leadership skills in it some of these include negotiation managing the program of projects and project portfolio working towards the strategic objectives of the overall program influencing

shareholders and promoting the values and benefits of the project or program to the business strategy these more advanced skills usually start to grow once a project manager has

accumulated experience angular connect the previously unseen dots now let's fill these up it's important to remember that this is not a

definitive order just a rough example to show how a project managers skills evolve with time and experience so starting with the first beaker a

project manager is likely to gain the fundamental knowledge first moving on to planning then the second beaker starts filling up because they've learned to communicate through execution the

project manager is gaining skills from both areas simultaneously until there are three beakers filling at the same time but maybe the project manager wants to focus on strategy and

leadership so they fill this beaker up to influence but then they've just learned people skills it's near impossible for a project managers to stop learning and improve across all

areas of a project whoo that's a lot of skills and tons of knowledge but bear in mind that in project management not everything comes

down to skills we could have the smartest most skilled project manager in the world but if they went around making their team cry each week the team would get very little done

the attitude of the project manager and of course their professionalism is paramount the image of the project is another thing the project manager is accountable for

the project manager has got to try a little tenderness they must stay positive and goal-oriented especially during challenging times with so many

people in organizations involved in a project so many expectations and constraints if team members see the project manager crumbling how can you expect them not to

the project manager must make the right decisions and keep the project on the path to success being a business professional no matter the challenges they must show high

morale strong ethics and solid credibility right this might sound a little overwhelming but a project manager needs to cover all these areas but don't worry

we're going to go through these skill areas with you to give you a great understanding of our project managers responsibilities but first how about a brief history lesson

you although different from how we know and see it today temporary initiatives with a specific goal and resource constraints have been happening for thousands of years so

let's take a step back in time and see some old school projects ancient Egypt can you imagine pitching the Great Pyramid of Giza to a board of

directors as one of seven wonders of the world this construction was no doubt a massive endeavor with a unique result great amounts of materials and workforce

were employed and it's still unknown exactly how the work was organized and executed but the planning and management was something innovative even for today's standards

15th century this period was all about overseas expeditions to find new lands and resources one particular project manager Christopher Columbus had tough

times finding the budget for his initiative to find a path through the West to Asia his budget was three ships and a timeline of one year with a

request of 10% of future revenues from any discoveries his business case was rejected multiple times by the king of Portugal Genoa Venice and even the King

of England finally he found his sponsor though the king and queen of Spain Columbus departed in 1492 and made the first steps toward the discovery of the

American continent by Europeans the rest his well history 19th century here comes the Industrial

Revolution the beginning of the fastest technological growth in recorded history automation and mass production changed the face of Trade and the way industries operate economy and society had seen

nothing like it competition started growing and with it the better use of time and resources employed for given work became much more

critical 20th century this is when project management as we know it really came into its own and started developing we mentioned that after the Industrial

Revolution the time and resources were more and more limited and using them efficiently became absolutely fundamental as a result the project management field started to develop at a

much faster pace henry gantt one of the forefathers of project management created a simple yet ingenious table that illustrates activities that need to be performed on the vertical axis and a

time indicator on the horizontal axis this was probably the first project scheduled it was prominently used during World War one to plan and track the

progress of Navy ship construction we will look at this in more detail later in the course then we have the revolutionary critical path method invented by DuPont and

Remington Rand corporations in the late 1950s the CPM helped project managers calculate the fastest way to complete a project this is done by analyzing how

the different activities are linked to each other together with the expected durations it helps project managers identify the best way to sequence the activities in their project this will

also be discussed in greater detail in our course in the 60s project management was established as a profession two associations were founded the

International project management association I PMA and a few years later the project management institution PMI

their goal was and still is to develop the project management discipline and to establish standards best practices tools and guidelines all of this led to the development of

innovative project management standards and approaches don't worry we will talk about them later in great great detail

and finally welcome to the 21st century where businesses have progressed technologically and expanded geographically like never before what is exceptional about today's

projects is the amount of complexity around the desired result you can imagine the difference between opening a physical store versus an online one designed connection speed online

payments security client data regulations customer service and so on the activities people and risks to consider are so much more in today's

world and with more demanding projects comes a need for a strong project manager one who can lead the way through complex projects which will inevitably

determine the life or death of a business awesome thanks for watching so far we'll now be taking you step-by-step through the life cycle of a project

explaining what to do from beginning to end see you there right so we've already covered what a project is why they're executed what a

project manager does and the skills they have plus a little history lesson just for fun now it's an appropriate time to go through some terminology five terms in

fact we have mentioned most of these already but a little more detail never hurt anyone unless we're talking about tattoos and given that as of next lesson we're

diving straight into the life cycle of a project it'll be best to reacquaint ourselves of some of these one term we haven't mentioned yet is the

project management office PMO this is the name of the department responsible for managing coordinating and consulting project related work

in the PMO you will find project and program managers project coordinators analysts and more all working to ensure the projects of the organization are

properly managed the types of PMO will vary in size and structure from company to company some don't even have a PMO it's usually the

organizations that are more dynamic and changing which require a PMO to govern project work companies that work predominantly with projects are structured in a way they can easily form

teams to execute projects while industrial companies rarely need to maintain a significant PMO unit for example consulting companies are

organized almost entirely as a PMO they need to be able to easily form project teams that are working for different clients on the other hand an industrial

company producing steel for example will have well standardized operations that would not need to maintain a PMO unit the role and importance of a PMO unit

can also be diverse a PMO will have a strategic role if they are responsible for project selection and project portfolio management or it can have a more execution focused role

when given the responsibility to lead the project management the role is to assist where the PMO employees help by reporting on project progress in keeping the project work within established

standards now these other terms we've mentioned but to recap and expand every project has a project team

the project team are the experts responsible for the execution of the work for example developers on a software project or designated managers

coordinators in case of bigger projects for example construction workers and the responsible supervisor in other words everyone who is directly

working on the project these can be from different departments and can also include external employees or companies and vendors for example

consultants coaching professionals hardware and equipment vendors etc actually joint teams are created often connecting employees from more than one

company this is one way to ensure the project team has broader expertise and the capabilities to deliver a more complex project in an insurance software project for

example the IT experts would likely be put in a joint team with some insurance professionals from the client organization to work together and ensure

the end result is met both from IT and from the insurance perspective great next our project stakeholders all

individuals or organizations who participate in a project can influence or are influenced by the project work and results these can be management customers

competitors vendors clients and in some cases society for things like public infrastructure projects for example if a new underground line is being

constructed next to your apartment you will be a stakeholder you are influenced by the work and in case there are big delays you and your neighbors could

attract media attention to the problem in this way you could also influence the project work it's important to remember that stakeholders could influence the project

work even without being involved in the project itself and yes the project manager and project team are definitely stakeholders too

program management is the coordinated management of multiple projects which have similarities similar goal similar resources etc by managing them as a

program the organization gains advantages by realizing efficiencies and synergies for example if your company wants to implement a similar software in

European branches and each country needs a separate project it would be efficient to manage it in a program the project managers can be helping each other

and finally project portfolio management this is the term that refers to the coordinated management of multiple programs and projects

think of a pharmaceutical company in any minute there are hundreds if not thousands of separate research projects for new drugs such corporations need strong portfolio

management to follow this huge work and resources awesome thanks for watching so far we are about to get to the really

good stuff really soon we'll be discussing the life cycle of a project next see you there you [Music]