Isn’t project management just a variant on general management?
Yes and No. There are lot of similarities, but there are enough differences to justify treating project management as a discipline separate from general management. In the last article on “what is a project?”, we defined project as – A project is temporary endeavor undertaken to create unique product, service, or result.
Since projects are temporary endeavor, they are schedule intensive than most of the activities that general managers handle. In this article, we will define project management and briefly look at various processes that come under umbrella of project management. Let’s start with a question – Why project management?
Why Project Management?
Project Management has emerged because of evolution of worldwide competitive markets for production and consumption of goods and services. Globalization has resulted into growing demand for broad range of complex, customized goods and services. These two reasons mandate the use of teams to solve problems that used to be solvable by individuals. Thus it requires more sophisticated systems to manage the team and to accomplish specific goals.
Project Management allows project teams to be responsive to:
- the customer
- identify and correct problems at an early stage
- make timely decisions about trade-offs between conflicting project goals
- formalize all the processes together so that they are repeatable and robust
Majority of organisations using project management processes experience better customer relations and apparently increase in their project’s return on investment. Other benefits of project management are shorter product development time, high product quality and higher profit margins.
Let’s formally define the project management.
Definition of Project Management?
Project Management is application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to project activities to achieve project requirements. Project management is accomplished through application and integration of 49 logically grouped project management processes comprising the 5 process groups: initiating, planning, executing, monitoring and controlling.
Project Management Body of Knowledge, Project Management Institute, 2021
Imagine project management is like guiding a ship from the start of its journey to its destination. It’s about planning what needs to be done, getting the work started, making sure everything is going smoothly, checking if things are on track, and finally, making sure the job is finished properly. In simple terms, it’s a way to make sure a task (or project) is done right, on time, and without wasting money or resources. It helps teams know what they should do, when they should do it, and how to handle any problems that come up.
Misconception about Project Management
One of the common misconception about project management is that it is just project scheduling. For many functional managers, project management is just about creating Gantt/ PERT charts.
Microsoft has sold a huge number of copies of Microsoft Project, yet the project failure rate remains high. Scheduling is certainly a major tool used to manage projects, but what is even more important is to have shared understanding of what project is supposed to accomplish.
As outlined in the definition, project management consist 49 processes comprising 5 process groups. We will not cover all 49 process here, but we will touch upon briefly the 5 process groups.
5 process groups of Project Management
Let’s imagine that you want to set-up a manufacturing plant to produce new product you have launched in a market. You hired a experience project manager to oversee the entire project life cycle from its inception to launch. Following are different project management process groups that a project must follow:
Initiation
In the initiation phase, project manager defines the project. The project manager meets with the founders (in this case, it is you) and understands the project outcome. Why you want to do the project? What is the vision of a project? What is a goal of a project? These questions are answered in the initiation phase.
Once goal of a project is defined, the project manager identifies the key contributors in a project (also called as stakeholders). In this example the key stakeholders are: founder, investors, suppliers, potential customers, government agencies and so on.
Once project manager understands a goal of a project, its various stakeholders and very high level time and cost budgets, he will document everything in a report, called as project charter.
Planning
After project charter is prepared, the next is planning phase. In the planning phase project manager defines the scope of a project. The scope document is a formal document that defines a boundaries of a project. For e.g. if civil contractor is building a plant structure, what should be his boundary of work? If plant requires AC and ventilation system, who will design and install the system? Is civil contractor responsible for this system or is it outsourced to other vendor?
Please remember, project manager would require subject matter expert to come up with the scope document.
After scope finalisation, the project manager comes up with the project schedule, budgeting, resource allocation plan and risk management plan.
In project scheduling, project manager uses Gantt chart to plot timeline for each task. In budgeting, he will get cost estimates from various machine suppliers and other equipment manufacturers. Based on the estimates, he will finalize the project budget.
In resource allocation, the project manager identifies the need for civil engineer, mechanical engineer, accountant and other subject matter experts who can work as per the plan and set up the manufacturing plant within time and cost budgets.
Potential risks such as supply chain disruptions, delay in government approvals are identified and mitigation strategies are planned.
Execution
In execution, project manager assembles the project team, conducts the kick off meetings and ensures everyone understands their role. Everyone starts working as per the plan prepared in a planning phase. In our example, the suppliers start working on their orders, civil engineers start construction of plant building.
The project manager regularly checks the progress of work, ensuring it aligns with the defined quality standards. Project manager also keeps founders updated with weekly status reports.
Monitoring and Controlling
In this phase, project manager uses tools such as Microsoft project to track the project’s progress against the planned timeline and budget. During execution, there could be some scope addition or deletion in the deliverables, the project manager assesses the impact of scope change on project schedule, cost and makes necessary adjustments
During planning phase, the potential risks are documented. These risks are reviewed in monitoring and controlling phase and are addressed proactively using mitigation plans.
The monitoring and controlling phase also involves weekly/ daily project meetings with key stakeholders to assess the progress and resolve the project issues.
Completion
This is a final process in project management process group. Once plant construction is ready and all plant machinery is installed, the project manager and the founders review its performance against the initial objectives. The founders test all the machines by performing trial runs and prototype batch production of a product. If everything is working as per the quality norms, a final sign off of the project takes place and founders approve project completion.
The project manager compiles all project documents and stores them for future reference. The founders formally hand over the newly built plant to operations in-charge and production of new product starts.
It is also time to release all internal internal (engineers, designers) and external (suppliers, labor contractors) resources working on the project
These process groups are often overlapping. Each process groups has its own project management processes. In all there are 49 project management processes spanned across these five process groups. Every project must pass through these process groups in one way or the other.
Summary
In this article we defined project management. Project management is group of processes which are required to execute the project activities. There are 49 logically grouped project management processes comprising the 5 process groups. We looked at each process group briefly and understood its importance using hypothetical example.
Its your turn
Select any simple project from your organisation. Map out all its activities to five process groups. Post your answer in the comments section. I will be happy to read your comment.
References
Here are the resources if you want to go deep
