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Sunday, July 31, 2011

What is Project Management ?????

What is Project Management   ?????


  • When cooking a meal of roast lamp, peas and beans, the lamb goes in the oven first, the bean goes into the boiling water or steamer some time later, and the peas last of all. That way all food is ready at once, and the meal works. Start cooking lamp, the beans, and peas at the same time, and they will be ready at different times. That is the heart of project management: doing different things at right times so that end result is what is wanted. This means knowing what is wanted , what inputs we need to get there, what processes must be performed, and in what order. Some risk management is also good idea: what if the lamb cooks faster or slower than expected? We check the lamb time to time to see whether it is progressing as expected, and bring forward or delay the start of cooking the beans and peas.
  • It is exactly the same in project management: we determine what is likely to vary from our plan, we monitor progress to check for variance, and we take steps and change things to ensure that despite variances we end up with what we wanted.
(Sebastian Nokes & Sean Kelly)

Viewpoints of management 

  • Classical view point

    • Originated at the start of 20th century
    • Established formal principles for planning, organizing, leading, controlling
  • Behavioral view point
    • Originated in 1930’s
    • Emphasis shifted from work principles to human and social aspects of organizations.
    • The contribution is that it highlighted the importance of leadership style, group dynamics, social environment,
  • System approach
    • Originated during world war II
    • This acknowledges the complexity and casual relationships
  • Contingency
    • Current view point
    • Recognizes that none of the above alone can guide the manager in all aspects of the job in every situation
    • Includes ideas like situational leadership, and contingency approaches to management 
  • Project management
    • Pay attention to goal-oriented systems, subsystems – systems approach
    • Rely heavily on elements of classical and behavioral view points
    • In fact it is a good example of contingency approach, because it is a management philosophy and methodology oriented toward effective accomplishment of just one type of undertaking – the project

Forces fostering project management


  • First
    • The expansion of knowledge allows an increasing number of academic disciplines to be used in solving problems associated with the development, production, and distribution of goods
(Meredith and Mantel , 2004)

  • Second
    • Satisfying the continuing demand for more complex and customized products and services depends on our ability to make product design an integrated and inherent part of our production and distribution systems.
  (Meredith and Mantel , 2004)
  • Third
    • Worldwide market force us to include cultural and environmental differences in our managerial decisions about what, where, when, and how to produce and distribute output  (Meredith and Mantel , 2004)
Another important societal force
  The intense competition among institutions, both profit and non-for-profit, fostered by our economic system.
  (Meredith and Mantel , 2004)

Finally
  The project we undertake are becoming larger and larger.
  Appropriateness of Project Management

  • Five Criteria

    • Cleland and King suggest criteria to decide when to use project management techniques and organization;
      • Unfamiliarity
      • Magnitude of the effort
      • Changing environment
      • Interrelatedness – if functional areas need joint effort
      • Reputation of the organization – the risk of undertaking


 
 NEXT:Different forms of Project Management

   

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Classification of Projects

 Classification of Projects

  • Based on Technological Characteristics
  • Low Tech – using existing, well established technology - buildings
  • Medium Tech – using mostly established with new technology – new appliances, advance building technology components
  • High Tech – using recently developed new technologies in a new combination – defense industries, new computers
  • Super High Tech – using highly advance technology, that may not exist on commencement, and will require research – moon landing 

  • Based on Scope Characteristics

    • Level 1 – Assembly of components into a single unit – computer monitor
    • Level 2 – complex collection of interactive elements and subsystems within a single project – computer workstation, or radar system
    • Level 3 – array of related projects designed to accomplish a broad goal – national telecommunication system




 Catergories of Projects
















Project TYPES



 

    Tuesday, July 19, 2011

    Where do Projects originate?

     Where do Projects originate?


    • The origin of project is linked to the identification of 
      • a need,
      • a problem or
      • an opportunity
                           Within the organization

    Reasons why project is created?
    • Projects are usually authorized as a result of one or more of the following reasons
        • An opportunity based on market conditions  - Your company is growing so quickly a project is launched to create a sales- and order-fulfillment application.
        • Special needs within your company - All of the computers are older than Moses, so a project is launched to replace all of the computers and standardize office applications.
        • Customers  - Many organizations, such as IT integrators, construction companies, architects, and dozens more, complete projects for other people. Customers drive new projects

     How do Projects Originates? 
    • Projects are usually authorized as a result of one or more of the following reasons
        • Technology  - Technology changes so quickly that there are constantly new technical projects within an organization.
        • Lawyers  - Laws can cause a new project to launch. New law spurred many projects to adhere to the new privacy requirements.
        • A crisis
        • A social need
    Examples of Projects

    • Designing a new product or service
    • Converting from one computer application to another
    • Building a new warehouse
    • Moving from one building to another
    • Organizing a political campaign
    • Designing and building a new airplane   
     

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