Project Management

Week 1
Agenda
1. Introduction to the course
2. Project Management overview
3. Project initiation
a. Business Case
b. Project Charter

4. Practice assignment
The Introduction
1. First and last name?
2. Occupation?
3. Experience in the field of project Management? (Beginner, Intermediate,
Expert)
Introduction to the course
Project Management

1. The focus is mainly going to be on Project Management.

2. There are 7+ processes that we will cover in the class.
3. The objective is to provide you with tools needed to work or manage projects
4. This is an interactive class, so feel free to ask questions or comments
Course Schedule

Week Topic

Week 1 Project Initiation Management

Week 2 Stakeholders Management & Leadership

Week 3 Schedule & Scope Management

Week 4 Cost & Resource Management

Week 5 Risk Management/Quality Management

Week 6 Presentation
Management Overview
What is Management?
Management’s primary function is to get people to work together for the attainment of an
organization’s goals and objectives.

● Management processes include planning, organizing, directing and controlling.

● An important aspect of management’s function is the allocation of finite resources.
● Resources can be human, financial, technological or natural.
● There are different management styles.

(lumenlearning.com)
Where do we need managers?
1. We need managers when executing projects.
2. We need managers when performing day to day operations (ex restaurant)
3. We need product managers
4. We need managers when executing programs. etc..
Project vs Program vs Portfolio vs Operations
1. A project: A project is temporary in that it has a defined beginning and end in time, and therefore defined scope and
resources.

2. Program: A program is a group of related projects, subsidiary programs, and program activities that are
managed in a coordinated manner to obtain benefits not available from managing them individually

3. Portfolio: A portfolio is a collection of projects, programs, subsidiary portfolios, and operations managed as a
group to achieve strategic objectives.

4. Operations: are the ongoing, routine activities that are involved in the organization’s primary business. This is the
“keeping-the-lights-on” work, such as staffing management, payroll, product production, service delivery, etc. As such,
operations includes all of the “normal” business functions.

(www.pmi.org)
Little Quiz (Is it a project or an operation)
1. Organizing a conference.
2. Running an assembly line.
3. Opening a new restaurant.
4. Opening and closing a restaurant on a daily basis.
Project Life Cycles
1. The predictive life cycle is defined as the scope of the project, including time and costs, that
are necessary to deliver it are determined early in the project’s lifecycle as
possible.(Waterfall)
2. Adaptive life cycles, also known as change-focused methods or flexible methods, respond
to high levels of change and to ongoing participation by the interested parties.
(Kanban, Scrum)
Predictive life cycle
Project Initiation
Definition:

1. Project initiation is the first phase of the project management life cycle and in this stage,
companies decide if the project is needed and how beneficial it will be for them.

2. The two metrics that are used to judge a proposed project and determine the expectations
from it are the business case and feasibility study.

Some Steps: Creating a business case, Perform feasibility study, Establish a project charter,
Stakeholder Management
Business Case
1. The business case is an important document that explains how the project’s goals align with
the company’s long-term plans. This document explains why should the company spend its
technical, financial, and human resources on the specific project.

2. An ideal business case does not talk about any technical details of the project and focuses
solely on the business aspects. It is made to convince the upper-management to approve the
project and answers their concerns related to possible financial and business-related risks.
Feasibility study
After the approval of the business case, the next step is to determine the likelihood of the project’s
success after considering all the factors. This study identifies the high-level constraints and assumptions
of the project and decides whether the project is worth it or not.

Example:

1. Expert judgments
2. Data gathering
3. Data analysis
4. Survey
Project Charter
The project charter is perhaps the most comprehensive and important part of the project initiation
process. It answers the 3 Ws to identify the scope/objective, team members, and the possible
timeframe of the project.

The charter is, in some ways, the first document of the project that identifies the necessary details
like the goals and the constraints of the project. It also identifies the project scope and lists the
required resources for the completion of the project.
Course Project
Scenario:

Coco, Small Company with only 7 employees is going through an expansion. In order to cope with the growth,
the CEO decided to hire 3 new team members. However, the current office can only hold 7 people creating
the need to find new office that could accommodate all 10 employees. The budget allocated is 10000$, and
the timeline is 6 months. You are the project manager.

The objective of the project is to find a new office for our company.
Homework
Create a business case for a project and send it to me by next week.