Project Management Concepts

Project Management Concepts

Bec Camper
Support Services
Office of Information Technology

Why bother?
In the November 11, 2001 issue of
IT Support News, 1400 CIO’s were
asked in a national poll to:

“Name an area in which your

IT staff could most improve”

Survey Results
 34% - Technical Skills
 23% - Project Management
 13% - Communications Skills
 12% - Interpersonal Skills
 10% - Organizational Skills
 08% - Other or Don’t Know

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 Project Management Concepts

Projects, Programs, and

Operations

 Operations: day to day routines

 Projects: produce something new
 Program: repeated projects

What is a Project?
 Sequence of tasks
 Consumes resources
 Achieves an objective
 Results in something new

Why Projects Fail

 Not enough resources
 Not enough time
 Unclear specifications
 Changes in scope
 Disagreement among stakeholders
 Bad plan
 Lack of project management

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 Project Management Concepts

Golden Rules of
Project Success
 Develop a comprehensive, realistic plan
and keep it up-to-date.
 Gain consensus on project outcomes.
 Make reasonable resource
requirements.
 Build the best team you can and take
care of them.

Golden Rules (continued)

 Keep the stakeholders informed.
 Be willing to change or to try new
things.
 Be both a manager and a leader.

Purpose of Project Management

 Better workload management

 Better communications

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 Project Management Concepts

Project Management
Project management is both a method
and a mindset.

It is about organizing work and changing

people’s behavior toward the work.

Stakeholders
 What is a stakeholder?
 Who are the stakeholders?
 What are their expectations?

Success of a Project
 Stakeholder agreement
 Management support
 Dynamic team
 Effective communications
 Work breakdown skills

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 Project Management Concepts

Communications Channels

Management
Support

Project
Manager

Project Other
Team Stakeholders

Successful Project Manager

 Planner
 Communicator
 Politician
 Courageous

Basic Project Management

Steps
 Initiate
 Plan
 Implement
 Close

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 Project Management Concepts

Initiate the Project

 Set goals and objectives
 Identify stakeholders expectations
 Appoint a Project Manager
 Select initial team members
 Identify deliverables

Plan
 Define project scope
 Identify tasks
 Sequence tasks
 Define resource needs
 Prepare plan
 Present for approval

Implement
 Obtain resources
 Lead team
 Maintain communications
 Evaluate change requests
 Resolve conflicts
 Control/manage project
 Brief management

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 Project Management Concepts

Close

 Conduct post-project review

 Prepare final report
 Shut down operations
 Disband team

Project Life Cycle

Initiate Plan Execute Close
Resources

Time

Task Definition

 Techniques for breaking work into tasks

 Defining the dependencies
between tasks

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 Project Management Concepts

Work Breakdown Structure:

Outline Form

 Task A
z Task A1
z Task A2
• Task A2-1
• Task A2-2

 Task B

Work Breakdown Structure:

Hierarchical Form
PROJECT

TASK A TASK B

A1 A2

A2-1 A2-2

Common Project Management

Diagrams
 Gantt Charts
 Calendars
 PERT Charts & Critical Paths

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 Project Management Concepts

Common Project Management

Diagrams (continued)

Gantt Chart
Task 1
Task 2
Task 3

Common Project Management

Diagrams (continued)
Calendar
TASK 1 TASK 3 TASK 1
STARTS STARTS ENDS
TASK 2
STARTS
TASK 2 TASK 3
ENDS ENDS

Common Project Management

Diagrams (continued)
Pert Chart
TASK 1 TASK 2

TASK 3

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 Project Management Concepts

Project Tracking

 Establishing a project baseline

 Comparing actual performance
to the plan

OIT Project Plan

z Sections or Components
z When to use

OIT Project Plan Components

 Executive Summary
 Project Scope
 Limitations

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 Project Management Concepts

OIT Project Plan Components

 Work description
 Baseline schedule
 Resource requirements

OIT Project Plan Components

 Cost analysis
 Progress reports
 Attachments or references

OIT Project Plan:

Executive Summary
 Introduction
 Background
 History
 Summary of key points
 Brief cost analysis

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 Project Management Concepts

OIT Project Plan:

Project Scope

 Overall objectives
 Goals
 Milestones
 Deliverables

OIT Project Plan:

Project Limitations
 Assumptions
 Risks
 Constraints
 Impact on other work or projects

OIT Project Plan:

Work To Be Performed

 Work breakdown structure

 Task identification
 Task dependencies

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 Project Management Concepts

OIT Project Plan:

Project Baseline Schedule

 Gantt Chart

OIT Project Plan:

Resource Requirements

 People
 Material
 Equipment
 Space (Rooms)
 Services

OIT Project Plan:

Cost Analysis

 Cost details
 Difference between in-house resources
and total required resources

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 Project Management Concepts

OIT Project Plan:

Progress Reports

 Format
 Schedule
 Distribution

OIT Project Plan:

Attachments or References

 Supplemental material
 Vendors’ literature
 Other documents

How to Find and Use the

OIT Project Plan Template
 Location of template
 Location of instructions for completing
the template
 Location of additional project management
material
oit.wvu.edu/support/projectmanagement/

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