1.

Introduction
Bhushan Chandra Adhikari
adhikaribhushan@gmail.com
9851156353
Chapter Overview
 Introduction of Project
 Historical Prospective
 Current Issue in Project Management
 Relation between General & Project

Management
 Concept of Project
◦ What is Project?

  It’s a temporary group activity designed to produce a unique

product, service or result.

 A project is temporary in that it has a defined beginning and end

in time, and therefore defined scope and resources.

 And a project is unique in that it is not a routine operation, but a

specific set of operations designed to accomplish a singular goal.
So a project team often includes people who don’t usually work
together – sometimes from different organizations and across
multiple geographies. -PMI
Definition….
 A project in any organization is collaboration across
departments to achieve a single well defined objective. The
process of planning, organizing and managing resources to
achieve the organizational objective is called project
management. – anonymous

 A project can be considered to be any series of activities and

tasks that have a specific objectives to be completed within
certain specific actions, have defined start and end dated,
having funds limits, consume resources. – Kerzner H. Project
Management 1987
Examples
Consider building a garden shed,
 which involves designing the shed,
 figuring out what materials are
needed,
 ordering or purchasing the materials,
 putting together the various parts.
 Some of these tasks depend on the
others, some must be scheduled,
some take labor, etc.
Examples……
 Construction of hydropower project.
 Construction of shopping mall.
 Web page design of College.
 Road expansion of Kathmandu.
 Developing new product or service.
 Income generation project for rural poor.
 Producing new movie of TV commercial
 Advertising campaign, merger, etc.
 Development of new aero plane, engine.
 Research and development of army weapons system.
 Characteristics of project
 Specific Objectives.
 Consists of temporary activities that have predetermined start and end
dates
 Project has limited resources
 It has a single goal or a set of goals.
 All events are to be realized to develop a new output.
 Usually has a budget.
 Usually a project manager is responsible for coordinating all activities.
 And they have progressive elaboration.(know more details about the
project as u progress.)
 Specific Beneficiaries
 Team Work
 Planning and control
Volume/Variety Relationship
 Project Initiated Through
 Market Demand
 Business Need
 Customer Request
 Technological advance
 Legal Requirement
 A Crisis
 A Social Need
 REAL WORLD Sometimes, it takes more
than projects . . .
The product that has led to the revival of Apple Inc’s fortunes
since 2000 is the iconic iPod. Launched in 2001, like most new
products its development was managed through a programme of
projects – that is, a coordinated set of projects with a common
goal. These included:
1 The development of the hardware – from the electronics to the
‘look and feel’ of the product.
2 The development of the software – the user interface, the
firmware.
3 Establishing iTunes – vital for the success of the product was
the content that could be loaded onto it.
4 The production set-up – tooling up to produce prototypes to
production of the final product and its subsequent upgrades.
5 The marketing – from identification of market needs to
promotion of the product.
While all of these had to function together for the product to be a
success at its launch, the collaboration and the projects did not
stop there. In order to keep up with a highly innovative and
competitive market, there needed to be continual refreshing of
the product, new versions and cost-reduction projects on the
existing versions. Ability to deliver this depends on Apple Inc’s
ability to manage its projects.
Current Issue in Project Management
There are many areas where project management proves to be a
huge challenge for individuals and organizations.
Ready, fire, aim.’
 A project is started with no clear objectives. The motto is ‘ shoot

first – whatever you hit, call it the target’. While we accept that
emergence is a characteristic of projects, and some will be
deliberately exploratory (but necessarily limited), this approach to
managing projects is not associated with any great success for
the organisation. However, if you do work in such an
environment, setting your own targets at the end of the project is
the easiest method for the project manager, without a doubt!
 Current Issue in Project Management
…..
It’s all in my head.’

 The project manager will set out with all the information in their
head. This may work well where the project is very small, but the
lack of any system will soon start to tell on the individual and
the results if there are any problems or if the scale of the project
escalates. Here, the application of the structures and systems
will greatly help, enabling better-grounded decisions to be made
and avoiding many problems to which this approach will
inevitably lead. It remains a challenge for many individuals and
organisations to move away from this usually random approach
to managing projects. This links to the next point.
 Current Issue in Project Management
….
We work in a nanosecond environment, we don’t have time to do
this stuff.’

This was a regular quotation from senior managers in fast-moving

e-commerce firms in the late 1990s. Given the demise of so many
of these, one can only speculate on the impact that the lack of
good project management had on those businesses. Undoubtedly,
changes to the basic practices of project managers are required
under such circumstances, but this is more adaptation than radical
re-invention. This scenario is in sharp contrast to the next one.
 Current Issue in Project Management
….
‘Project management – we have a procedure for that.’
 Having procedures or a documented set of processes for projects

provides a highly structured approach that is favored in some

industries. Indeed, there are many where the slavish dedication to
highly restrictive methods is necessary as part of the
requirements of customers. The result is high levels of
documentation (the procedures manual for projects at one
international bank ran to several thousand pages) and
considerable bureaucracy associated with it. Decision making can
be very slow and the overhead costs might be significant. It is a
challenge for project managers to deal with this high degree of
formalisation and yet try to engender creativity into the project
and the people working on it. It is a constant theme among
project management professionals just how much formalization is
required in systems.
 Current Issue in Project Management
….
‘It’s all just common sense, isn’t it?’
Well yes, but that depends on what you mean by common sense. If
you mean ‘the obvious after it has been explained’, then possibly.
However, this statement usually just shows that things about which
little or nothing is known appear obvious, as exemplified by the
bar-room philosopher with easy answers to life, the universe and
everything, if only they would listen . . . This is a great challenge for
project management today. The past 50 years of the subject will be
shown to have provided a substantial knowledge base for project
managers to use. The art is in knowing the relevant parts of that
base and tailoring that knowledge to the particular environment.
 Current Issue in Project Management
….
I’ve got the badge, therefore I am a project manager.’
 The card-carrying project management expert is a relatively

recent phenomenon. Short courses provide some knowledge, at

the end of which participants take an exam. If they pass it, they
have the status of project management practitioner. This is
regardless of whether they can actually apply any of the
knowledge gained from their course or its relevance to their
context. Such courses are valuable as first steps on the way to
becoming a professional project manager and many people have
benefited from them; however, they are only a starting point.
 Current Issue in Project Management
….
We’ve done this lots of times before. It never worked then, why
should it this time?’
 Here we see the experienced project worker showing the anger

that comes with the application of many different approaches,

only to be regularly confronted with the same results – projects
running late, over budget or delivering less than was required of
them. This is not at all uncommon, because organisations rarely
address the real causes of failure. The failures deserve more
careful study – they are a significant opportunity for learning and
are generally very costly: to individuals, the organization or both.
 Current Issue in Project Management
….
It won’t work here!’
Lastly, a challenge for new methods that have been developed
in other areas of business is to find how they might be
applied with benefit to the project environment. These must
overcome this often-heard rejection of anything new as it was
‘not invented here, therefore it cannot be of any relevance to
us’. The pressure for change in most organisations is such
that ideas need to be brought in from wherever possible and
adapted for projects and then the particular application.
Examples of changes that are having an impact on the project
environment include taking operations initiatives and
applying the principles to the project environment There is no
longer just one best way to run a project; now there are many
possible options and it is this choice of processes that will be
discussed in subsequent chapters.
 Project Vs general management
General management
Responsible for managing the status quo
Authority defined by management
structure
Consistent set of tasks
Responsibility limited to their own function Responsibility for cross-functional
Works in ‘permanent’ organizational
structures
Tasks described as ‘maintenance’
Main task is optimization
Success determined by achievement
Project management
Responsible for overseeing change
Lines of authority ‘fuzzy’
Ever-changing set of tasks
activities
Operates within structures which exist
for the life of the project
Predominantly concerned with
innovation
Main task is the resolution of conflict
Success determined by achievement of
Historical Perspective :

Time Development Generation

No theoretical ground, accepted methods

Pre – 1950s
or recognized processes.

Very much influenced by scientific

1950s – 1980s management approach, quantitative First generation PM
techniques.

Projects are seen having strategic

importance. Organizations have strategies
1990s Second generation PM
and projects are designed and formed to
put the strategy into action.

Extensive Use of IT in Project Management,

2000s development of lean and agile approaches Third generation PM
to PM.

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