Project Management Resources
The Project Management Institute is the leading association for those in project, program, or portfolio management professions. Their website provides guides, industry standards, articles, templates, job boards, certifications, and more https://www.pmi.org
The Scrum Guide defines Scrum, a technique used in the Agile project management methodology.
|
1. Initiating- cost benefit analysis
2. Planning 3. Executing 4. Monitoring and Controlling 5. Closing |
1. Initiating
(sgsdsr) Stakeholders, Goals Scope, Deliverables Success criteria, Resources |
Project management processes fall into five groups: phase of the project life-cycle
1. Initiating - A well planned initiation, results in a strong foundation for your project, and sets it up for success. Initiation begins after a problem or
opportunity has been identified within an organization. Often, stakeholders like senior leaders at a company will initiate a project to address a specific need for the business. For example, perhaps the company would like to roll out a new product, improve employee well being, or reduce costs in a certain department. It's your responsibility as the project manager to help identify the project goals, resources, and other details based on initial discussions with the project stakeholders. it's still your job to figure out all the important pieces that need to come together, in order to get the work done. The initiation phase is a crucial time for asking stakeholders to write questions; performing research, determining resources and clearly documenting the key components of a project. Doing this will help you solidify the scope or the boundary of the project. Proper initiation also helps ensure that the benefits of the project outcomes, will outweigh the costs of the project. To determine this, you do what's called a cost benefit analysis, which is the process of adding up the expected value of a project (the benefits) and comparing them to the dollar costs. To do this, you will work with stakeholders to consider a few questions.
opportunity has been identified within an organization. Often, stakeholders like senior leaders at a company will initiate a project to address a specific need for the business. For example, perhaps the company would like to roll out a new product, improve employee well being, or reduce costs in a certain department. It's your responsibility as the project manager to help identify the project goals, resources, and other details based on initial discussions with the project stakeholders. it's still your job to figure out all the important pieces that need to come together, in order to get the work done. The initiation phase is a crucial time for asking stakeholders to write questions; performing research, determining resources and clearly documenting the key components of a project. Doing this will help you solidify the scope or the boundary of the project. Proper initiation also helps ensure that the benefits of the project outcomes, will outweigh the costs of the project. To determine this, you do what's called a cost benefit analysis, which is the process of adding up the expected value of a project (the benefits) and comparing them to the dollar costs. To do this, you will work with stakeholders to consider a few questions.
To determine the benefits of a project, those questions might include:
What value will this project create? How much money could this project save our organization? How much money will it bring in from existing customers? How much time will be saved? How will the user experience be improved? How much money will the company need to spend on this project? |
And to determine the cost of the project,
those questions might include: How much time will people have to spend on this project? What will be the one time costs? Are there any ongoing costs? What about long term costs? The benefits of a project should always outweigh the costs. |
Key components that make up initiation and how these pieces lead to the planning phase of a project.
Goals - what you've been asked to do and what you're trying to achieve. Clear goals, will be determined by senior company leaders with your help. A desired outcome of a project that is clear and specific.For example, your goal could be to improve the response time to customer increase via email by 20%.The goal of your Office Green project might be to increase revenue by 5% through a new service called Plant Pals that offers desk plants to top customers by the end of the year. SMART GOALS: Be Specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound.
Scope - the process to define the work that needs to happen to complete the project. Deliverables - the tangible and intangible outcomes of a project, A tangible outcome produced at the end of a task. Project deliverables refer to the tangible outcomes of the project. It's what gets produced or presented at the end of a task, event or process. Take the goal to improve customer response time. A deliverable for that goal could be the creation of email templates for responding to typical questions. Your Office Green project goal to increase revenues could have two deliverables: launching the plant service and a finished website that highlights the new kinds of plants being offered. These are considered deliverables because they describe tangible outputs that shows stakeholders how additional revenues will be generated. There are all sorts of project deliverable examples.A pretty common one is a report.When a goal is reached,you can visibly see the results documented in a chart graph or presentation, deliverables, help us quantify and realize the impacts of the project. Success criteria - the standards by which you measure how successful a project was in reaching its goals. Stakeholders - are key to making informed decisions at every step of the project, including the initiation phase. They're the people who both have an interest in and are affected by the completion and success of a project. As a result, they're often instrumental in determining the goals, objectives, deliverables, and success criteria of a project from coming up with the idea to outlining their expectations of its results. As you move through the initiation phase, it's your job to ensure that you understand the needs of the project stakeholders early on. It's also your role to ensure that all stakeholders are in agreement on the goals and overall mission of the project before moving on to the next phase. Resources - generally referred to the budget, people, materials, and other items that you'll have at your disposal. Once you've established your goals, scope, deliverables, success criteria, stakeholders, and resources, it's time to create a project charter. A project charter is a document that contains all the details of a project. Project charters clearly define the project and its goals, and outline what is needed to accomplish them. A project charter allows you to get organized, set up a framework for what needs to be done, and communicate those details to others. Once you've drafted the charter, you would then review the document with key stakeholders to get their approval to move into the planning stage. |
Consider the following scenario: A project manager oversees an office expansion project. As part of the initiation phase, they meet with the head of the company, the office staff, and the contractors who will build out the space. The stakeholders discuss what they hope the project will achieve, how they plan to measure success, and the project’s tangible and intangible outcomes.
Which of the key components of initiation did the project manager fail to consider? Resources - Project managers assess the amount of money, materials, and people needed during initiation. Scope - Project managers should define clear boundaries so that changes and growth don’t affect the project’s scope. |
Documenting scope example
Before beginning a project, it is important to take a step back and look at the big picture. Make sure you clearly identified the scope of the project and the expected outcome before you jump in. Being certain that the stakeholders understand and agree with what is in and out of scope for each project ensures that your project will meet expectations.
|
The importance of documenting scope.
You, as the project manager, are assigned to a project that has two key stakeholders and four tasks.
|
Before beginning a project, it is important to take a step back and look at the big picture. Make sure you clearly identified the scope of the project and the expected outcome before you jump in. Being certain that the stakeholders understand and agree with what is in and out of scope for each project ensures that your project will meet expectations.
2. Planning -
3. Executing -
4. Monitoring and Controlling -
5. Closing -
Project management knowledge draws on ten areas:
- Integration
- Scope
- Time
- Cost
- Quality
- Procurement
- Human resources
- Communications
- Risk management
- Stakeholder management