Project Management

How to select the best project and align it with the strategy of organization?

Before entering into Planning Phase:

If outsourcing we have to make Request for Proposal (RFP)

If we have capabilities within our organization we make Project Charter

1. Make Project Charter

2. 2-3 Page Document
3. Signed by Project Sponsors & Project Managers
4. Authorizes the project manager to make different kind of plans
5. An informal contract between the project team and sponsor
6. A contract is an agreement into freely by two or more parties, cannot be arbitrarily changed,
offers something of value for each party, is a living document that can evolve with changing
conditions if both parties agree and receive something of value for making the change
7. Once its signed, transition happens from project selection to project planning stage
8. Purpose : Authorization to proceed, Development of common understanding between project
team & sponsor, Help the project team & sponsor commit, quickly screen out poor projects
9. Its informal contract because there is scope of change
10. Elements in a Project Charter – Title of Project, Scope Overview, Business Case, Background,
Milestones Schedule, Signatures & Commitment
11. Background can be added to add detail to scope
12. Success Criteria – Quality Standards
13. Assumptions are things considered to be true and if they turn false it is termed as risk.
14. Constraints – Limitations in Resources
15. Every project charter has to be signed by Project manager & sponsor with two lessons learnt
from previous project (2 Success, 2 failures)
16. Scope Overview – The project in nutshell
17. Scope Creep – We can avoid it through Project Charter
18. Milestones
19. Risk Quantification Graph
20. Spending Approval
21. Communication Plan – Project Charter
22. Team Operating Principles
23. Project Charter – Structure – Project Manager – Project Team Members
24. Structure – Functional, Project, Matrix, Project Management Office
25. Urgent Type PROJECT – Project
26. Routine Project – Functional
27. Charter-Identify Stakeholders-Stakeholders Register (Internal, External, Affected by Project
Process, Affected by Project Results)
28. Prioritize Stakeholders (Proximity to Project, Power over Project, Urgency (Time Sensitivity) How
much time does he spent?)
29. Develop Communication Plan for Important Stakeholders
30. Communication Methods – Push, Pull, Interactive Methods
31. Project Planning
32. Charter & Stakeholder Register – Collect Requirements (Requirements Matrix) – Define Scope
(Project Scope Statement)-Create WBS (WBS & Scope Baseline)-Integrated project change
control (Updates)
33. Scope planning – Product Scope to Project Scope
34. WBS – product scope to project scope
35. WBS results in Identification of Activities
36. Components-Sub Components – Activities
37. Hierarchical, Indent, Free Format
38. WBS is prepared before scheduling & resource allocation
39. Task Oriented (Product, Noun), Function Oriented (Verb), Time Phased Oriented (Delhi Metro)
40. WBS and then project representation
41. Gantt Chart or Bar Chart (Drawback – No Precedence Relationships), Project Network
42. Project Network – A-O-A and A-O-N
43. Identify Activities - Sequence (Predecessor) – Drawing the Project Network
44. Activities are represented by nodes and connected by arrows (AON)
45. Activities are represented by arrows and nodes represent Starting & Ending points of an activity
(AOA)
46. If an activity has more than one predecessor it can be represented with the help of a dummy
47. Source(S) and Sink(T)
48. Methods to remove the loops (Inconsistencies) from diagrams – Topological Ordering (Identify
activities with no predecessor, remove them from predecessor list of other activities, list them
down. If u can’t list them all down, there is some closed loop. Rectify your network.)
49. Fulkerson Numbering Rule – Identify the Source (No incoming activities, remove outgoing arrow
from it)
50. Impossible to determine exact duration of an activity as every activity is unique in every project
which is unique.
51. Different project completion scenarios if risk is materialized and what is the charge.
52. Uncertainties with time : PERT & Project Stimulation
53. PERT is based on three type of time : Optimistic(Min time for completion as everything goes
well), Most likely (Everything happens in a normal way), Pessimism (If everything goes bad,
longest time an activity can take)
54. 2, 3, 6 – Range of time somewhere in between
55. Assumptions: Based on Beta Distribution. But drawback being activity can take any other
distribution. Average Time acc. to Beta distribution , Variance
56. Step-1. Compute the average activity time using formula
57. Step-2. Compute the variance of critical activities and these add variances to get total variance
58. Calculate standard deviation from variance
59. Z Deviation
60. Mu (u) is the project completion time
61. Step-3. Compute or determine the project completion time
62. Central Limit Theorem : If sample size is 30 or more than that, then your distribution is normal
distribution and there are a lot of activities in a project
63. Assignment-3 textile problem
64. 35.8% chance that project will be completed in time
65. On EOF THE MOST IMPORTANT RESPONSIBILIES OF THE PROJECT MANAGER is to meet the
project deadline or to increase the likelihood of meeting the project deadline.
66. PERT is based on a single critical path. If an activity assumes pessimistic value it can become part
of critical path. (Drawback)
67. We have used Average time estimate in the computation of project completion time (PCT
(Drawback))
68. Eliminating these drawbacks – Project Stimulation
69. Project Shortening Methods
70. If the sponsor is saying 4 days but in planning we get 6 days for completion
71. If suppose project is 50% done and it is being delayed in terms of time
72. Sink –No Outgoing arrow
73. 1. Crashing (Time-Cost Tradeoff)(Allocating more resources as overtime) (Cost of overtime is
more than the normal cost)
74. 2. Fast tracking (PDM – Precedence Diagram Mapping) (Parallel Activities) (Increased Risk)
75. 3. Critical Chain Management (Theory of constraint & waste)
76. Critical Chain Method has two constraints – Precedence & Resource
77. First perform the critical activities the non-critical activities
78. Critical chain and critical path are different as critical path takes into consideration PRECEDENCE
restraint only
79. PDM, Four relationships
80. 1. Start to Start relationship between A & B activities where A is predecessor, the start of B can
occur n days at earliest after the start of activity A
81. 2. Finish to Finish relationship between two activities A and B, B will finish n days the latest after
A finishes
82. 3. Start to Finish relationship between A and B means the finish of activity B can occur n days at
the latest after A starts
83. Finish to start relationship between A and B that the start of activity B occur n days at the
earliest after A finishes. Negative Lag
84. Development of PDM Network, Apply forward and Backward Path
85. Slag for Early Start, Slag for Late Start
86. Resourcing Projects – Why are we doing this? Who do we need? How do we know who we
need? How do I secure the same of each worker? How to assign optimum amount of work? How
do I make sure project schedule is feasible-realistic considering who is working on which work?
87. Technical Skills & Behavioral Skills – Staff Management Plan
88. 2 methods for resolving resource conflict. Resource smoothing, resource levelling
89. PERT/CPM Schedule : Sufficient number of resources which is idealistic
90. Square based network
91. Smoothening – Keep the project duration same. Shift non-critical activities using float constraint
is total project duration decided by PERT/CPM schedule
92. Levelling – smoothens the demand on resource in order that the demand of a resource is as
uniform as possible using floats. Constraint is the type of resource. No. of resources of a
particular type.
93. RACI chart
94. Parametric (Develop a relationship with past data), Analogous (Developed from past data),
Bottom-Up (Need WBS)
95. Cost Estimation (Support details – Charter & WBS, for estimating rate – vendor bid analysis
96. Cost Budgeting (Aggregating costs, reserves-management & contingency, cash flow statement)
97. Risk Identification, Analysis, Risk Response Plan
98.