PMP 1: Project Management Framework

When should a project manager be identified?

A project manager is identified and assigned as early in the project as is feasible, preferably while the project charter is being developed and always prior to the start of planning

Matrix Organization

An organization that has a blend of functional and projectized characteristics

Projectized Organization

An organization that often has organizational units called departments, but these groups either report directly to the project manager or provide support services to the various projects

Functional Organization

An organization where each employee has a one clear supervisor. Staff members are grouped by specialty, such as production, marketing, engineering and accounting and work is completed independent of other functional departments

Portfolio Manager

Are responsible for the high -level governance of a collection of projects, programs and operations, which may or may not be interdependent

Business Partners

Business partners are external companies, but they have a special relationship with the enterprise, sometimes attained through a certification process. Business partners provide specialized expertise or fill a specified role such as installation, customization, training, or support.

Portfolio Review Board

Committees usually made up of the organizations executives who act as a project selection panel

Project Team

Comprised of the project manager, project management team, and other team members who carry out the work but who are not necessarily involved with management of the project

Characteristics of a Project Life Cycle: Cost and Staffing

Cost and staffing levels are low at the start, peak as the work is carried out, and drop rapidly as a project draws to a close

Customes / Users

Customers refer to the entity acquiring the project`s product, and users refer to those who will directly utilize the project`s product. May be internal / external to the organization. May be multiple layers of customers

Project Phases

Divisions within a project where extra control is needed to effectively manage the completion of a major deliverable

PMO

Project Management Office. An organizational body or entity assigned various responsibilities related to the centralized and coordinated management of those projects under its domain

Project Constraints

Project constraints are those constraints associated with the project scope that limit the team`s options: Time, Cost, Scope

Project Governace

Provides a comprehensive, consistent method of controlling the project and ensuring success;

Balanced Matrix Organization

Recognizes the need for a project manager, it does not provide the project manager with the full authority over the project and project funding

Phase End

Represents a natural point to reassess the effort underway and to change or terminate the project if necessary. These points are referred to as phase exits, milestones, phase gates, decision gates, stage gates, decision gates, stage gates or kill points

Sellers

Sellers, also called vendors, suppliers, or contractors, are external companies that enter into a contractual agreement to provide components or services necessary for the project

Characteristics of a Project Life Cycle: Stakeholder Influence, Risk and Uncertainty

Stakeholders influence, risk and uncertainty are greatest at the start of the project. These factors decrease of the life 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

Project Management

The application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities to meet the project requirements

Program Management

The centralized coordinated management of a program to achieve the programs strategic objectives and benefits. Projects within a program are related through the common outcome or collective capability. Focuses on the project interdependencies and helps to determine the optimal approach for managing them

Negative Stakeholders

The interests of negative stakeholders are served by impeding the project`s progress. Overlooking negative stakeholders can result in an increased likelihood of failure.

Project Manager

The person assigned by the performing organization to achieve the project objectives

Sponsor

The person or group that provides the financial resources, champions the project and plays a significant role in the initial scope and charter

Most important characteristics of a Project Manager

• An integrator who can manage all the different interfaces of the project. • A good communicator, because a project manager usually spends more than 90% of her time communicating with different project stakeholders.

Examples of a Stakeholder

• Customers / Users; • Sponsor; • Portfolio Managers / Portfolio Review Board; • Program Manager; • Project Management Office; • Project Managers; • Project Team; • Functional Managers; • Operations Management; • Sellers / Business Partners;

Characteristics Overlapping Relationship

• Example of schedule compression technique called fast tracking; • Increases risk and can result in rework

Enterprise Environmental Factors

• Internal and external factors that influence a projects success; • May enhance or constrain project management options; • May have a positive or negative influence on the outcome

Characteristics of a project manager

• Knowledge of project management; • Performance: what the project manager is able to do or accomplish whilst applying the project management knowledge; • Personal: how the project manager behave - encompasses attitude and leadership

How can a PMO support project managers?

• Managing shared resources across all projects administered by the PMO; • Identifying and developing project management methodology, best practices, and standards; • Coaching, mentoring, training, and oversight; • Monitoring compliance with project management standards, policies, procedures, and templates via project audits; • Developing and managing project policies, procedures, templates, and other shared documentation (organizational process assets); and • Coordinating communication across projects

Strategic considerations that typically authorize a project

• Market Demand; • Strategic opportunity / business need; • Customer request; • Technological advancement; • Legal requirements;

Examples of Environmental Factors

• Organizational culture, structure, and processes; • Government or industry standards (e.g., regulatory agency regulations, codes of conduct, product standards, quality standards, and workmanship standards); • Infrastructure (e.g., existing facilities and capital equipment); • Existing human resources (e.g., skills, disciplines, and knowledge, such as design, development, law, contracting, and purchasing); • Personnel administration (e.g., staffing and retention guidelines, employee performance reviews and training records, overtime policy, and time tracking); • Company work authorization systems; • Marketplace conditions; • Stakeholder risk tolerances; • Political climate; • Organization's established communications channels; • Commercial databases (e.g., standardized cost estimating data, industry risk study information, and risk databases); and • Project management information systems (e.g., an automated tool, such as a scheduling software tool, a configuration management system, an information collection and distribution system, or web interfaces to other online automated systems)

Portfolio Management

• The central management of one or more portfolios. Includes identifying, prioritizing, authorizing, managing and controlling projects, programs and other related work, to achieve specific strategic business objectives • Project portfolio management refers to the selection and support of projects or program investments. • These investments in projects and programs are guided by the organization`s strategic plan and available resources.

Characteristics of a Project Phase

• Typically completed sequentially, but can overlap in some project situations; • A project phase is not a Project Management Process Group • When phases are sequential, the close of a phase ends with some form of transfer or handoff of the work product produced as the phase deliverable (referred to as phase exits, milestones, phase gates, decision gates, stage gates, or kill points) • Formal phase completion does not necessarily include authorization for the subsequent phase. For instance, if the risk is deemed to be too great for the project to continue or if the objectives are no longer required, a phase can be closed with the decision not to initiate any other phase• The work has a distinct focus that differs from any other phase. This often involves different organizations and different skill sets • The primary deliverable or objective of the phase requires an extra degree of control to be successfully achieved. The repetition of processes across all five Process Groups provides that additional degree of control, and defines the boundaries of the phase.

Types of Matrix Organizations

• Weak • Balanced • Strong

Project Management Process Groups

1. Initiating 2. Planning 3. Executing 4. Monitoring and Controlling 5. Closing

Project

A project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result. The temporary nature of projects indicates a definite beginning and end

Project Lifecycle

A collection of generally sequential and sometimes overlapping project phases whose name and number are determined by the management and control needs of the organization or organizations involved in the project, the nature of the project itself, and its area of application

Portfolio

A collection of projects or programs and other work that are grouped together to facilitate effective management of that work to facilitate strategic business objectives

Program

A group of related projects managed in a coordinated way to obtain benefits and control. Includes related work outside the scope of the discrete projects in the program. A project may or may not be part of a program; a program will always have projects

Sequential Relationship

A phase to phase relationship where a phase can only start once a previous phase has completed

Iterative Relationship

A phase to phase relationship where only one phase is planned at any given time and planning for the next is carried out as work progresses on the current one

Overlapping Relationship

A phase to phase relationship where the phases start prior to the completion of the previous one

Organization Process Assets

Include any or all process related assets, from any or all of the organizations involved in the project that can be used to infl uence the project's success. These process assets include formal and informal plans, policies, procedures, and guidelines (processes and procedures). The process assets also include the organization's knowledge bases such as lessons learned and historical information (corporate knowledge base)

Operations Management

Individuals who have a management role in a core business area, such as research and development, design, manufacturing, provisioning, testing, or maintenance

Functional Managers

Key individuals who play a management role within an administrative or functional area of the business, such as human resources, finance, accounting, or procurement

Weak Matrix Organization

Maintains many of the characteristics of a functional organization, and the project manager role is more of a coordinator or expediter than that of a true project manager

Strong Matrix Organization

Maintains many of the characteristics of the projectized organization, and can have full-time project managers with considerable authority and full-time project administrative staff

PMBOK

Project Management Body of Knowledge. A standard of managing most projects most of the times across many industries; Describes the project management processes, tools, and techniques used to manage a project;

Stakeholder

Persons or organizations who are actively involved in the project or whose interests may be positively or negatively affected by the performance or completion of the project

Examples of Organization Process Assets: Processes and Procedures

• Organizational standard processes such as standards, policies (e.g., safety and health policy, ethics policy, and project management policy), standard product and project life cycles, and • quality policies and procedures (e.g., process audits, improvement targets, checklists, and standardized process definitions for use in the organization); • Standardized guidelines, work instructions, proposal evaluation criteria, and performance measurement criteria; • Templates (e.g., risk, work breakdown structure, project schedule network diagram, and contract templates); • Guidelines and criteria for tailoring the organization's set of standard processes to satisfy the specific needs of the project; • Organization communication requirements (e.g., specific communication technology available, allowed communication media, record retention policies, and security requirements); • Project closure guidelines or requirements (e.g., final project audits, project evaluations, product validations, and acceptance criteria); • Financial controls procedures (e.g., time reporting, required expenditure and disbursement • reviews, accounting codes, and standard contract provisions); • Issue and defect management procedures defining issue and defect controls, issue and defect identification and resolution, and action item tracking; • Change control procedures, including the steps by which official company standards, policies, plans, and procedures—or any project documents—will be modified, and how any changes will be approved and validated;

Characteristics of Projects and Operations Work

• Performed by individuals; • Limited by constraints, including resource constraints; • Planned, executed, monitored and controlled; • Performed to achieve organizational objectives or strategic plans

Examples of Organization Process Assets: Corporate Knowledge Base

• Process measurement databases used to collect and make available measurement data on processes and products, • Project files (e.g., scope, cost, schedule, and performance measurement baselines, project calendars, project schedule network diagrams, risk registers, planned response actions, and defined risk impact), • Historical information and lessons learned knowledge bases (e.g., project records and documents, all project closure information and documentation, information about both the results of previous project selection decisions and previous project performance information, and information from the risk management effort), • Issue and defect management databases containing issue and defect status, control information, issue and defect resolution, and action item results, • Configuration management knowledge bases containing the versions and baselines of all official company standards, policies, procedures, and any project documents, and • Financial databases containing information such as labor hours, incurred costs, budgets and any project cost overruns

Project Management Knowledge Areas

• Project Management Integration • Project Scope Management • Project Time Management • Project Cost Management • Project Quality Management • Project Human Resource Management • Project Communications Management • Project Risk Management • Project Procurement Management

Characteristics of a Projectized Organization

• Project Managers Authority: High to Almost Total • Resource Availability: High to Almost Total • Control of Project Budget: Project Manager • Project Manager's Role: Full-time • Project Management Administrative Staff: Full-time • There is "no home" for the project team members once the project is completed • Team members are often co-located • Project Coordination: Down Project Department, Project Manager heads up a department, no Functional Managers

Characteristics of a Weak Matrix Organization

• Project Managers Authority: Limited • Resource Availability: Limited • Control of Project Budget: Functional Manager • Project Manager's Role: Part-time • Project Management Administrative Staff: Part-time • Project Co-ordination: Across functional staff level, with functional staff engaged on projects

Characteristics of a Functional Organization

• Project Managers Authority: Little / None • Resource Availability: Little / None • Control of Project Budget: Functional Manager • Project Manager's Role: Part-time • Project Management Administrative Staff: Part-time • Project Co-ordination: Across Functional Manager Level, which functional staff engaged on projects

Characteristics of a Balanced Matrix Organization

• Project Managers Authority: Low to Moderate • Resource Availability: Low to Moderate • Control of Project Budget: Mixed • Project Manager's Role: Full-time • Project Management Administrative Staff: Part-time • Project Co-ordination: Across functional staff level, with project manager reporting into a Functional Manager

Characteristics of a Strong Matrix Organization

• Project Managers Authority: Moderate to High • Resource Availability: Moderate to High • Control of Project Budget: Project Manager • Project Manager's Role: Full-time • Project Management Administrative Staff: Full-time • Project Co-ordination: Across functional and project staff level, with a Project department and a Manager of Project Managers at the same level as Functional Managers, Project Manager reports into Manager of Project Managers

Characteristics of an Iterative Relationship

• Reduce the ability to provide long term planning; • Managed by continuously delivering increments

Characteristics Sequential Relationship

• Reduces uncertainty; • Eliminates options for reducing the schedule

Project Governance Best Practices

• Should be described in the project management plan; • Must fit within the larger context of the program and organization

Project Lifecycle Structure

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

A Project Manager is not required to be...

• Subject Matter Expert. There may be several subject matter experts from whom the project manager can take advice when required. • Creative. This is desirable but not the most important characteristic of a project manager • Risk Minimizer. A project manager should try to minimize risks in the project. However, this is not the most important characteristic of a project manager