Relationship between Projects, Programs and Portfolios:

Projects are initiated for a number of reasons:  what are they?

1.  Market  demand

2.  Stragegic opportunity/business need

3.  Customer request

4.  Technological advance

5.  Legal requirements

6.  Ecological impacts

7.  Social need

Project Management is balancing the competing project constraints:

What are the constraints?

• Scope
• Quality
• Schedule
• Budget
• Resources
• Risk

The PM also has to meet stakeholder requirements.

The PM has to select an appropriate approach to deliver the project objectives

Shortcut:  SQSBRR

What is Project Management?

What are the 5 process groups?

Project Management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities to meet the project requirements.  Project management is accomplished through the appropriate application and integration of the 42 logically grouped project management processes comprising the 5 process groups:  the 5 process groups are

• Initiating
• Planning
• Executing
• Monitoring and Controlling
• Closing

Project Management Office

What are the purposes of the PMO?

1.  Support Project Managers

2.  Managing shared resources across all projects administerd by the PMO

3.  Identifying and developing project management methodologies, best practices, and standards

4.  Coaching, mentoring, training, oversight

5.  Monitoring compliance with project management standards policies, procedures, and templates via project audits

6.  Developing and managing projects policies, procedures, templates, and other shared documentation (opa's)

7.  Coordinating communication across projects

Project Managers

vs.

PMO's

What are the differences?

1. The PM focuses on the specified project objectives, while the PMO manages major program scope changes which may be seen as potential opportunities to better achieve business objectives

2.  The PM controls the assigned project resources to best meet project objectives while the PMO optimizes the use of shared organizational resources across all projects.

3.  the PM manages the constraints (scope, schedule, cost, and quality,etc) of the individual projects while the PMO manages the methodologies, standards, overall risk/opportunity, and interdependencies among projects at the enterprise level.

Roles of a Project Manager

What are they?

• Knowledge - this refers to what the project manager knows about project management
• Performance - this refers to what the project manager is able to do or accomplish while applying their project management knowledge
• Personal - this refers to how the project manager behave when performing the project or related activity.  Personal effectiveness encompasses: attitude, core personality characteristics and leadership (the ability to guide the project team while achieving project objectives and balancing the project constraints.

Enterprise Environment Factors

What are they?

These factors may come from any or all of the enterprises involved in the project. EEF's may enhance or constrain project management options and may have a positive or negative influence on the outcome.  EEF's are considered as Inputs to most planning processes:

• organizational culture, structure, and processes
• Government or industry standards
• infrastructure
• existing human resources
• personnel administration
• company work authorization systems
• marketplace conditions
• stakeholder risk tolerances
• political climate
• organization's established communications channels
• commercial databases
• project management information systems

Characteristics of the Project Life Cycle

What are they?

• Starting the project
• Organizing and preparing
• Carrying out the project work
• Closing the project

Generic Life Cycle Structure

What are the characteristics?

• Cost and staffing levels are low at the start, peak as the work is carried out, and drop rapidly as the project draws to a close 
• Stakeholder influences, risk, and uncertainty, are greatest at the start of the project.  These factors decrease over the life cycle of the project
• Ability to influence the final characteristics of the project's product, without significantly impacting cost, is highest at the start of the project and decreases as the project progresses towards completion

The Project Management processes are integrative, iterative and overlap.

What are some of the steps to achieve a valid schedule?

• Define activities
• Sequence activities
• Estimate activity resources
• Estimate activity durations
• Estimate costs
• Determine budget
• Plan quality
• Develop HR plan
• Identify risks
• Perform quality risk analysis
• Develop risk responses
• Plan procuremenht

What are the objectives of the Initiating Process Group?

• Select the project manager
• Authorize the project manager to apply organizational resources
• Authorize the project via a Project Charter
• Develop the Project Charter

1.  
   1. Define high-level requirements
   2. Document project objectives
   3. Identify key deliverables
   4. Estimate overall duration
   5. Estimate initial budget

• Identify internal and external stakeholders
  • Document their influence, requirements and expectations
  • Develop strategies to mangage stakeholders

Planning Process Group requires some iteration to take place.

What are two aspects of iteration? 

• Progressive elaboration - continuously improving and detailing a plan as more detailed and specific information and more accurate estimates become available as the project progresses; thereby producing more accurate and complete plans that result from the successive iterations of the planning process.
• Rolling wave planning - A form of progressive elaboration planning where the work to be accomplished in the near term is planned in detail at a low level of the WBS, while the work far in the future is planned at a relatively high level of the work to be performed within another one or two periods in the near future, is done as work is being completed during the current period.

What are the Initiating Processes?

• Develop Project Charter
• Identify Stakeholders

What are the Planning Processes?

• Develop Project Management Plan
• Collect requirements
• Devine scope
• Create WBS
• Define activities
• Sequence activities
• Estimate activity resources
• Estimate activity durations
• Develop schedule
• Estimate costs
• Determine budget
• Develop HR plan
• Plan communications
• Plan risk managment
• Identify risks
• Perform qualitative risky analysis
• Plan quality
• Perform quantitative risky analysis
• Plan risk responses
• Plan procurements

What are the Executing Processes?

• Direct and Manage Project
• Execution
• Perform quality assurance
• Acquire project team
• Develop project team
• Manage project team
• Distribute information
• Manage stakeholder expectations
• Conduct procurements

What are the Monitoring and Controlling Processes?

• Monitor and Control project work
• Perform integrated change control
• Verify scope
• Control scope
• Control schedule
• Control costs
• Perform quality control
• Report performance
• Monitor and control risks
• Administer procurements

Change requests include?

• A change to the product, project, project management plan or project documents
• Preventive action
• Corrective action
• Defect repair

What are the Closing Processes?

• Close project or phase
• Close procurements

What are some activities associated with the Closing Process Group?

• Obtaining customer acceptance
• Documenting lessons learned
• Conducting a project or phase review
• Updating historical information and OPA's
• Archiving project information
• Closing out procurements and contracts

What are the 3 processes in Project Integration Management that have discrete deliverables?

1. Develop Project Charter - project charter is the deliverable
2. Develop Project Management Plan - project management plan is the deliverable
3. Close Project or Phase - final product, service or result is the deliverable

What are the 3 processes in Project Management Integration that are involved with the day to day work of managing the project?

1. Direct and Manage Project Execution
2. Monitor and Control Project Work
3. Perform Integrated Change Control

In developing the Project Charter, what provides the business and financial justification for the project?

• Project statement of work
• Business case

The business case defines why the project is being undertaken and provides the financial measurements such as:

1. Return on Investment (ROI)
2. Future value (FV)
3. Net present value (NPV)
4. Payback period
5. Internal rate of return (IRR)
6. Cost-benefit analysis