Midterm Notes (1-5)

❖ Chapter 1
Projects are complex, one-time processes, limited by budget, schedule and resources
Projects are developed to resolve a clear goal or set of goals, they are customer-focused
Project: is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result.
Charachteristics:
- Ad hoc endeavors with a clear life cycle
- Building blocks in the design & execution of organizational strategies
- Responsible for the newest and most improved products, services, and organizational
process
- Provide a philosophy and strategy for the management of change
- Project management entails crossing functional and organizational boundaries
- Traditional management functions of planning, organizing, motivation, directing and
controlling apply to project management.
- Principal outcomes of a project are the satisfaction of customer requirements within the
constraints of technical, cost and schedule objectives.
- Projects are terminated upon successful completion of performance objectives.
Projects are Important:
- Shortened product life cycle
- Narrow product launch windows
- Increasingly Complex and technical products
- Emergence of global markets
- An economic period marked by inflation
Project Life Cycles:
Project Life Cycle refers to the stages in a project’s development and are divided into 4
distinct phases:
- Conceptualization: Development of the initial goal and technical specifications of the
project. Key stakeholders are identified and signed on this phase.
- Planning: Detailed specification, schedule, schematics, and plans are developed.
- Execution: The actual work of the project is performed
- Termination: Project is transferred to the customer resources reassigned; projects is closed
out.
Six Criteria for IT Project Success:
System Quality, Information Quality, Use, User Satisfaction, Individual Impact, Organizational Impact
Project Management Maturity (PMM): Used to allow organizations to benchmark the best
practices of successful Project management firms.
Benchmarking: Practice of systematically managing the process improvements of project delivery
by a single organization of a period
 ❖ Chapter 2

Strategic Management: The Science of formulating, Implementing, and evaluating cross-functional

decisions that enable an organization to achieve its objectives
- Developing vision and mission statements
- Formulating, implementing, and evaluating
- Making cross-functional decisions
- Achieving objectives
Stakeholder Analysis: Useful tool for demonstrating some of the seemingly irresolvable conflicts
that occur through a planned creation and introduction of new projects.
Project Stakeholders: Defined as all individuals or groups who have an active stake in the project
and can potentially impact, either positively or negatively, it is development.

Managing Stakeholders:
- Assess the environment
- Identify goals of the principal actors
- Assess your own capabilities
- Define the problem
- Develop solutions
- Test and refine the solutions
Organizational Structure:
- Consists of 3 key elements
i. Number of levels in hierachy
ii. Span of control
- Identifies grouping of
i. Individual into departments
ii. Departments into total organizations
- Design of systems to ensure
i. Effective communication
ii. Coordination
iii. Integration across department

Forms of Organizational Structure

Functional Organization: Group people performing similar activities into department

Project Organziation: Group people into project teams on temporary assignments
Matrix Organization: Create a dual hierachy in which functions and projects have equal
prominence.

Heavyweight project Management

Organizations can sometimes gain tremendous benefit from creating a fully dedicated project
organization
- Project manager authority expanded
- Functional alignment abandoned in favor of market opportunism
- Focus on external customer
Project Management offices
Centralized units that oversee or improve the management of projects
Resource center for:
- Technical Details
- Expertise
- Repository
- Center for excellence
Forms of PMOs and control
- Supportive: low control
- Controlling: Moderate control
- Directive: High control
PMO Control Tower
Performs 4 functions:
- Establishes standards for managing projects
- Consults on how to follow these standards
- Enforces the standards
- Improves the standards
Organizational Culture
- Unwritten
- Rules of behavior
- Held by some subset of the organization
- Taught to all new members
 ❖ Chapter 3
Screening models help managers pick winners from a pool of projects. Screening models are
numeric or non-numeric and should have:
Realism, Capability, Flexibility, Ease of use, Cost effectiveness, Comparability.
Project selection can be based on financial or non-financial models
Approaches to Project Screening
Checklist model, Simplified Scoring models, Analytic hierachy process, Profile models.
- Checklist model: This model set up a set of essential criteria to measure and asset the
project
For each criterion it will score high, medium, or low
The one who get more highs will win, if highs are tied, we move to the next level medium

Disadvantages: Not numeric, more of subjective assessment, all criteria share the same
importance which can’t be at any realistic level.

- Simplified Scoring model: This mode has more accurate details since each criterion
meausured has its own importance weight
It will use scores 3 for high, 2 for medium, 1 for low
Weighed Score: we multiply each criteria weight with its performance
The one with highest score will win
- Profile Model: Represents a chart with its criteria presented as axis where each criteria has
a metric threshold that determines a limitation for project to get accepted.
-
Financial Models
- Payback model: When the project will return the investment cost after how much time
which will be the breakpoint of the project payback
Present Value should be less than the future value
- Calculating the discount factor: Convert the future value to the present value to determine
the payback based on the discount factor.
- Net Present Value convert future value in to present value, then after evaluating the
investment cost with the PV income cash flow of each year in a set range of time (years)
If the total of NPV is positive, then it’s worth investing otherwise it’s discouraging

If you have 2 projects with positive, the one with highest NPV will win.
 ❖ Chapter 4
Leadership: The ability to inspire confidence and support among the people who are needed
to achieve organizational goals
Project management is leader intensive
Leaders versus Managers:
- Exchange of purpose
- A right to say No
- Joint accountability
- Absolute honesty
Project Managers function as mini-CEOs and manage both “hard” technical detail and “soft”
people issue
Project Managers:
- Acquire project resources
- Motivate and build teams
- Have a vision and fight fires
- Communicate
Projects are underfunded for a variety of reasons:
- Vague goal
- Lack of top management support
- Requirements understand
- Insufficient funds
- Distrust between managers
Purpose of meetings:
- Define Project and team players
- Provide an opportunity to revise, update, and add to kwoledge base
- Assist team members in understanding role in project as part of whole and how to
contribute to project success
- Help stakeholders increase commitment to project through participation
- Provide a collective opportunity to discuss project
- Provide visibility for project manager’s role
Communication: Critical for a project manager to maintain strong contact with all stakeholders
Two forms of leadership behavior are critical for effectively running project meetings:
- Task- oriented
- Group maintaining behaviors
Charachteristics of effective Project manager:
Leads by example, visionary, technical competent, decisive, good communicator, good motivator,
stands up to top management, when necessary, supports team members, encourage new ideas
Emotional Intelligence: Refers to leaders’ ability to understand that effective leadership is part of
the emotional and relational transaction between subordinates and themselves
- Self-awareness, Self-regulation, Motivation, Empathy, Social Skills
Effective project leadership revealed these common characteristics:
Credibility, creative problem-solver, tolerance for ambiguity, Flexible management style, Effective
communication skills
Project champion are “fanatics” in the single-minded pursuit of their pet ideas
Champions can be: Creative originator, Entrepreneur, Godfather or sponsor, Project manager
Creating Project Champions: Identify and encourage their emergence, Encourage and reward risks,
Remember the emotional connection, free champions from traditional project management duties.
New Project Leadership:
Four Competencies determine a project leader’s success
- Understand and practice the power of appreciation
- Remind people what is important
- Generate and sustain trust
- Align with the leader
Right Management Choices in International Setting:
1. Develop detailed understanding for the environment
2. Do not Stereotype
3. Be genuinely interested in cultural differences
4. Do not assume there is one way (yours) to communicate
5. Listen actively and empathetically
Project Management Professionalism
Project work is becoming the standard for many organizations
There is a critical need to upgrade the skills of current project works
Project managers and support personnel need dedicated career paths
Creating Project managers
- Match Personalities with project work
- Formalize commitment to project work with training programs
- Develop a unique reward system
- Identify a distinct career path
PMI Code of Ethics: Responsibility, Respect, Fairness, Honesty
Unethical Behavior:
Corruption is the abuse of entrusted power for private gain
- Pretty Corruption: Everyday abuse of power by low-level officials with ordinary citizens
- Grand-Corruption: Committed by relevant institutions such as governments, corporations,
or legal bodies
Types of Corruption: Bribery, Extortion, Fraud, Abuse of Power, Embezzlement, Conflict of
intrest, Nepotism.

❖ Chapter 5

Product Scope

Project Scope: is everything about a project – work content as well as expected outcomes.

Scope Management is the function of controlling project in terms of its goals and objectives &
consists of:
Conceptual development, scope statement, work authorization, scope reporting, control systems,
project closeout
Conceptual development: The process that addresses project objectives by finding the best
ways to meet them
Requirement Gathering:
- Hear the voice of the customer
- Avoid doing the wrong things right
- Requirements can be different types
▪ Product-related requirements
▪ Non-functional requirements
▪ Performance requirements
Information Gathering
The project manager has a clear understanding of the current situation:
- Specific target dates
- Alternative supplier options
- Degree top management support for the project
Constraints
The project manager must understand any restrictions that may affect project developments
- Time constraints
- Budget shrinkages
- Client Demands

Alternative Analysis
Problems usually offer alternative method
In project management, alternative analysis consists of first clearly underrating the nature of the
problem statement then working to generate alternate solution
Project objectives:
Conceptual development concludes with a clear statement of the final objective for project in terms:
Outputs, Required Resources, Timing, Expectations, Enhancements.
Business Case:
The business case is the organization’s justification for committing to the project
Carefully prepared document that highlight:
- Financial Statement
- Justification for undertaking the project
- Costs of doing the project
- Risks from not doing the project
- Feasible approaches to the given problem
Statement of work (SOW)
Detailed narrative description of the work required for a project
Introduction & Background, Objectives, Technical description of the project, Scope, Task or
requirement, Selection/Success criteria, Deliverable or delivery schedule, Timeline and milestone,
Security, Place of performance, Period of performance.
Project charter
Established after SOW
A document issued by the project initiator or sponsor formally sanctioning existence of the
project and authorizes the project manager to begin applying organizational resources to
project activities.
Is created once project sponsors have verified that:
- There is a business case
- Elements of project are understood
- Company-Specific information for the project has been applied
It demonstrates formal company approval of the project

Scope Statement
1. Establish project goal criteria to include:
- Cost
- Schedule
- Performance
- Deliverable
- Review and approval “gates”
2. Develop management plan for project
3. Establish a work breakdown structure
4. Create a scope baseline
Deliverable
Any measurable, tangible, verifiable outcome, result, or item that must be produced to complete a
project or part of the project
Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
Hierarchical decomposition of the total scope of work to be carried out by the project team to
accomplish the project objectives and create the project deliverables
Each deliverable is decomposed into specific “bite-sized” pieces representing work to be completed.
Purposes:
- Echoes project objectives
- Organziation chart for the project
- Creates logic for tracking costs, schedule & performance specifications
- communicates project status
- Improves project communication
- Demonstrates control structure.
Defining a work package
Lowest Level in WBS, Deliverable result, one owner, Miniature projects, Milestones, Fits
Organization, Trackable.
Organizational Breakdown structure
OBS allows work definition, owner assignment of work package, budget assignment to
departments.
OBS links cost, activity, and responsibility.

Defining a project work package

- Work package form lowest level in WBS
- Has deliverable result
- One owner
- Considered by its owner as a project itself
- Include several milestones
- Fir organizational procedures and culture
- The optimal size of work package may be expressed in terms of labor hours calendar times
cost, reporting period and risks
Work authorization
The formal “go ahead” to begin work
Contractual documentation possesses some key identifiable features:
Contractual requirements, valid considerations, contracts terms
Scope reporting
Determine what types of information reported, who receives copies, when and how info is acquired
and dismissed
Typical project reports contain cost, schedule, and technical performance status
Reasons why project fail:
Politics, Naïve promises, Naïve optimism of youth, Startup mentality of fledging entrepreneurial
companies, “Marine Crops” mentality, Intense competition caused by globalization, Intense
competition caused by appearance of new technologies or unexpected government regulations,
unexpected and or unplanned crises.
Types of control System
Configuration, design, trend, document, acquisition, specification
Configuration management
Collection of formal and documented procedures used to apply technical and Adminstrative
direction and surveillance to:
 - Identify and document the functional and physical characteristics of product, result, service,
or component
- Control any change to such characteristics
- Record and report each change and its implantation status
support the audit of products results or components to verify conformance to requirements.
Scope Baseline
The project’s scope fixed at a specific point in time (Project’s scheduled start date)
Project changes
Occur for one of several reasons:
- Initial planning errors, (Technological or humans)
- Additional kwoledge of project or Enviromental conditions
- Uncontrollable mandates
- Client requests
Project closeout
Job is not over until paper works are done
Closeout documentation is used to: Resolve disputes, train project managers, and facilitate auditing
Closeout documentation includes Historical records, post-project analysis, financial closeout.