Project Management - Overview

Project Management• Project Governance

• Time and Cost Management

• Risk Management

• Resource Management

• Client Relationship Management

• Communication Management

• Infrastructure Management

• Issue Management

• Scope And Requirements Management

• Quality Assurance

• Configuration Management

• Knowledge Management

• Procurement Management

The term Project governance is used in industry, especially in the information technology (IT) sector (see Information technology governance), to describe the processes that need to exist for a successful project. Project Governance is an active rather than just a controlling role. While lack of senior management commitment is a consistent cause of project failure, this still occurs when governance structures are in place and operating. This is because Project Governance is not well understood and even less well executed. Formal methodology used Six sigma.

Project Governance - Nine Key Roles:- * Establish the basis for project governance, approval and measurement —including defining roles and accountabilities, policies and standards and associated processes * Evaluate project proposals to select those that are the best investment of funds and scarce resources and are within the firm’s capability and capacity to deliver * Enable, through resourcing of projects with staff and consultants, harnessing and managing of business support and the provision of the governance resources * Define the ‘desired business outcomes’ (end states), benefits and value — the business measures of success and overall value proposition * Control the scope, contingency funds, overall project value and so on * Monitor the project’s progress, stakeholder’s commitment, results achieved and the leading indicators of failure * Measure the outputs, outcomes, benefits and value — against both the plan and measurable expectations * Act to ‘steer’ the project into the organization, remove obstacles, manage the critical success factors and remediate project or benefit-realization shortfalls * Develop the organization’s project delivery capability — continually building and enhancing its ability to deliver more complex and challenging projects in less time and for less cost while generating the maximum value.

Project Governance :-

Elements:-

Project governance will:- * Outline the relationships between all internal and external groups involved in the project * Describe the proper flow of information regarding the project to all stakeholders * Ensure the appropriate review of issues encountered within each project * Ensure that required approvals and direction for the project is obtained at each appropriate stage of the project.

Important specific elements of good project governance include:- * A compelling business case, stating the objects of the project and specifying the in-scope and out-of-scope aspects * A mechanism to assess the compliance of the completed project to its original objectives * identifying all stakeholders with an interest in the project * A defined method of communication to each stakeholder * A set of business-level requirements as agreed by all stakeholders * An agreed specification for the project deliverables * The appointment of a project manager * Clear assignment of project roles and responsibilities * A current, published project plan that spans all project stages from project initiation through development to the transition to operations. * A system of accurate upward status- and progress-reporting including time records. * A central document repository for the project * A centrally-held glossary of project terms * A process for the management and resolution of issues that arise during the project * A process for the recording and communication of risks identified during the project * A standard for quality review of the key governance documents and of the project deliverables.

•Time and Cost Management

Risk Management :-

Risk is defined in ISO 31000 as the effect of uncertainty on objectives (whether positive or negative). Risk management can therefore be considered the identification, assessment, and prioritization of risks followed by coordinated and economical application of resources to minimize, monitor, and control the probability and/or impact of unfortunate events or to maximize the realization of opportunities.

Risks can come from uncertainty in - Financial Markets, - Project Failures, - Legal Liabilities, - Credit Risk, - Accidents, - Natural Causes and - Disasters as well as deliberate attacks from an adversary.

Several Risk Management Standards have been developed including the Project Management Institute, the National Institute of Science and Technology, actuarial societies, and ISO standards. Methods, definitions and goals vary widely according to whether the risk management method is in the context of project

management, security, engineering, industrial processes, financial portfolios, actuarial assessments, or public health and safety.

Certain aspects of many of the risk management standards have come under criticism for having no measurable improvement on risk even though the confidence in estimates and decisions increase.

Risk Management Process :-Establishing the context involves

1. Identification of risk in a selected domain of interest - Source Analysis may be internal or external to the system and Problem Analysis related to identified threats 2. Planning the remainder of the process. 3. Mapping out the following: * the social scope of risk management * the identity and objectives of stakeholders * the basis upon which risks will be evaluated, constraints. 4. Defining a framework for the activity and an agenda for identification. 5. Developing an analysis of risks involved in the process. 6. Mitigation of risks using available technological, human and organizational resources.

Resource Management:-

Resource management is the Efficient and Effective deployment for an organization's resources when they are needed. Such resources may include

- Financial Resources, - Inventory,

- Human Skills, - Production Resources, or - Information Technology (IT).

In the realm of project management, processes, techniques and philosophies as to the best approach for allocating resources have been developed. These include discussions on functional vs. cross-functional resource allocation as well as processes espoused by organizations like the Project Management Institute (PMI) through their Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) methodology to project management.

- Key element to activity resource estimating and project human resource management, plan to execute and monitor a project successfully and automate and assist the process of resource allocation to projects and portfolio resource visibility including supply and demand of resources.

Techniques:-- One resource management technique is resource leveling. It aims at

smoothing the stock of resources on hand, reducing both excess inventories and shortages.

- The required data are: the demands for various resources, forecast by time period into the future as far as is reasonable, as well as the resources' configurations required in those demands, and the supply of the resources, again forecast by time period into the future as far as is reasonable.

- The goal is to achieve 100% utilization but that is very unlikely, when weighted by important metrics and subject to constraints, for example: meeting a minimum service level, but otherwise minimizing cost.

Client Relationship Management

Customer relationship management (CRM) is a broadly recognized, widely-implemented strategy for managing and nurturing a company’s interactions with customers and sales prospects.

Involves using - Technology to organize, - Automate, and - Synchronize Business Processes—Principally sales related activities, but also those for marketing, customer service, and technical support.

The overall goals are to find, attract, and win new customers, nurture and retain those the company already has, entice former customers back into the fold, and reduce the costs of marketing and customer service.

According to Forrester Research, spending on customer relationship management is expected to top $11 billion annually by 2010, as enterprises seek to grow top-line revenues, improve the customer experience, and boost the productivity of customer-facing staff.

Vendor   Percentage of implementations  

Siebel (Oracle) 41%

SAP 8%

Epiphany (Infor) 3%

Oracle 3%

PeopleSoft (Oracle) 2%

salesforce.com 2%

Amdocs 1%

Chordiant 1%

Microsoft 1%

Metus Technology 1%

SAS 1%

Others 15%

None 22%

Vendor    2008 Revenue    

2008 Share (%)    

2007 Revenue    

2007 Share (%)    

2006 Revenue    

2006 Share (%)    

Oracle 1,475 16.1 1,319.8 16.3 1,016.8 15.5

SAP 2,055 22.5 2,050.8 25.3 1,681.7 26.6

Salesforce.com 965 10.6 676.5 8.3 451.7 6.9

Amdocs 451 4.9 421.0 5.2 365.9 5.6

Microsoft 581 6.4 332.1 4.1 176.1 2.7

Others 3,620 39.6 3,289.1 40.6 2,881.6 43.7

Total 9,147 100 8,089.3 100 6,573.8 100

Market structures - Table lists the top CRM software vendors in 2006-2008 (figures in millions

of US dollars)

Table lists of the top software vendors for CRM projects completed in 2006 using external consultants and system integrators

Communication Management :-

Communications management is the - Systematic Planning, - Implementing, - Monitoring, and - Revision of all the channels of communication within an

organization, and between organizations; it also includes the organization and dissemination of new communication

directives connected with an organization, network, or communications technology. Aspects of communications management include developing corporate communication strategies, designing internal and external communications directives, and managing the flow of information, including online communication. New technology forces constant innovation on the part of communications managers.

The weekly reporting method:-

One Simple and Popular Communications Method is called the Weekly Reporting Method:-

- Every employee composes an e-mail Report, - Once a week, including information on their Activities in the Preceding Week, their plans for the following

week, and any other information deemed relevant to the larger group, bearing in Mind Length Considerations. - Reports are sent to managers, who Summarize and Report to their Own Managers, eventually leading to an

overall summary led by the CEO, which is then sent to the board of directors. - The CEO then sends the board's summary back down the ladder, where each manager can append an

additional summary or note before referring it to their employees.- Eventually, each employee will receive a long e-mail, containing many or all of the above-mentioned

summaries, from every level of management; reading the full result is rarely a requirement. - Curious or ambitious employees are considered more likely to read the result; task-centered employees,

however, are not.

Infrastructure Management :-

Infrastructure Asset Management is the discipline of managing infrastructure assets that underpin an economy, such as roading, water supply, wastewater, stormwater, power supply, flood management, recreational and other assets. In the past these assets have typically been owned and managed by local or central government. Investment in these assets is made with the intention that dividends will accrue through increased productivity, improved living conditions and greater prosperity.

A well-defined Standard of service (SoS) is the foundation of Infrastructure Asset Management. The SoS states, in objective and measurable terms, how an asset will perform, including a suitable minimum condition grade in line with the impact of asset failure. There are two main objectives of Infrastructure Asset Management relating to standard of service:

A) Sustain SoS (System Preservation): To sustain or deliver an agreed standard of service in the most cost-effective way through the operation, maintenance,

refurbishment, and replacement of assets. Management of this objective is the focus of Asset Management Plans.

B) Change SoS (Capacity Expansion): To make strategic changes and improvements to the standard of service of the asset portfolio through the creation, acquisition,

improvement and disposal of assets. Changes to the SoS are usually managed as a programme based on strategic objectives regarding the asset portfolio.

Key components of the sustain SoS objective are:

* a Defined standard of service Measurable specification of how the asset should perform Minimum condition grade * a Whole-life cost approach * Asset management plan

Key components of the Change SoS objective are:-1. Asset portfolio strategy:-

An Asset portfolio strategy revolves around meeting customer needs in the most effective and efficient way.Key asset portfolio strategy questions include: * Is the need for the service real? * What standard of service is required? * Are the long-term costs of the current asset portfolio affordable? * Have non-asset solutions been explored? * What standard of service should new assets provide?

2. Improvement programme management:-Improvement programme management is the short-medium term management of a series of projects, that deliver the

strategic objectives identified in the Asset Portfolio Strategy. The improvement programme will often involve a mix of asset acquisition or creation, as well as changes to existing assets, either to provide a higher standard of service, or in the case of disposal or divestment, reduce the standard of service. Controlling the initiation of change projects is an important function of improvement programme management

3. Improvement project management:-Changing the SoS of an existing asset usually requires careful consideration of the wider costs and benefits. Often this

involves consultation with customers and other stakeholders who may be affected by the SoS change. As a result, potential SoS changes are typically managed as a project.

Issue Management :-

In Business, Issue Management refers to the discipline and process of managing business issues and usually implies using technology to electronically automate the process. In Project Management, the purpose of Issue Management is to insure that any concerns recognized during a project are addressed in a timely manner and do not go unresolved until they become major problems[1]. Electronic issue management has gathered steam as a business and technology movement in recent years [when?] as mid-sized and large businesses have realized the advantage of implementing systems to manage, document, and track work.

Today, issue management systems are commonly used by product development companies to manage requests, changes to products, and reported defects.

A Typical issue workflow might look like this with regard to issue state:- [Issue Submitted] -> [Open] -> [In evaluation] -> [In work] ->

[In test] -> [Closed] Where the [In test] and [In work] Phases often Loop.

Scope And Requirements Management :-Requirements management is the process of -Identifying,- Eliciting, - Documenting, - Analyzing,-Tracing,- Prioritizing and - Agreeing on requirements and then controlling change and communicating to

relevant stakeholders. It is a continuous process throughout a project. A requirement is a capability to which a

project outcome (product or service) should conform.

Requirements activities stage in a Development Process, Key Requirements Management activities and

Methods. Standard Five-Phase Development Process with - Investigation - Feasibility - Design - Construction and test - Release

Quality Assurance:-

Quality assurance, or QA for short, refers to a program for the systematic monitoring and evaluation of the various aspects of a project, service, or facility to ensure that standards of quality are being met.

It is important to realize also that quality is determined by the program sponsor. QA cannot absolutely guarantee the production of quality products, unfortunately, but makes this more likely.

Two key principles characterise QA: "Fit for purpose" (the product should be suitable for the intended purpose) and "Right first time" (mistakes should be eliminated).

QA includes regulation of the quality of raw materials, assemblies, products and components; services related to production; and management, production and inspection processes.

It is important to realize also that quality is determined by the intended users, clients or customers, not by society in general: it is not the same as 'expensive' or 'high quality'. Even goods with low prices can be considered quality items if they meet a market need.

Configuration Management:-

Configuration Management (CM) is a field of management that focuses on establishing and maintaining consistency of a system's or product's performance and its functional and physical attributes with its requirements, design, and operational information throughout its life. For information assurance, CM can be defined as the management of security features and assurances through control of changes made to hardware, software, firmware, documentation, test, test fixtures, and test documentation throughout the life cycle of an information system.

Configuration Management:-

Knowledge Management :-

Knowledge management (KM) comprises a range of practices used in an - An Organization to Identify, - Create, - Represent, - Distribute, and - Enable Adoption of insights and experiences.

Such insights and experiences comprise knowledge, either embodied in individuals or embedded in Organizational processes or practice.

KM efforts have a long history, to include- On-the-job discussions, - Formal apprenticeship, - Discussion forums, - Corporate libraries, - Professional Training and - Mentoring Programs.

More recently, with increased use of computers in the second half of the 20th century, specific adaptations of technologies such as knowledge bases, expert systems, knowledge repositories, group decision support systems, intranets, and computer supported cooperative work have been introduced to further enhance such efforts.

KM efforts typically focus on Organizational Objectives such as improved Performance, Competitive Advantage, Innovation, the sharing of lessons learned, and Continuous Improvement of the Organisation. KM efforts overlap with Organisational Learning, and may be distinguished from that by a greater focus on the Management of knowledge as a strategic asset and a focus on encouraging the sharing of knowledge.

Procurement Management:-