The Common Sense Of Task Project

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

5.1 Definitions

5.1.1 Task

A definition for the everyday activity task particularly in project management is as follows: a task is an activity that needs to be accomplished within a defined period of time or by a deadline. A task can be broken down into assignments which should also have a defined start and end date or a deadline for completion. One or more assignments on a task puts the task under execution. Completion of all assignments on a specific task normally renders the task completed. Tasks can be linked together to create dependencies. (18)

5.1.2 Project

We would prefer the more in detail definition of project as:

Planned set of interrelated tasks to be executed over a fixed period and within certain cost and other limitations. (5)

Or in short:

A set of related tasks which have a specific goal. (19)

5.1.3 Matrix Concept

As discussed earlier a comparably new term to management is the matrix management. Before going in more deeply to this subject we have to consider the definition of it. The Matrix Concept in enterprise management is defined as below:

A matrix organization structure is an organizational reporting structure commonly used for project-based teams. It groups teams in the organization by both their department and their product, allowing for ideas to be exchanged between varying parts of the organization. (20)

5.2 Project Management

5.2.1 What is Project

Projects in an organization differs from the routine work done which is called operation. Operations and projects have some common points such as: they are both executed and finished by people, they all have limited resources and both are planned and controlled.

Operations and projects differ in uniqueness. Operations are ongoing work done in a company but projects on the other hand are temporary and unique in terms of creating a new a unique product as a result after the execution. Mostly projects in organizations are the way to respond to the customer needs which cannot be satisfied with the current products or services.

Since projects are the trials of creating a new service or a product in an organization, the main difference from operations is that it can be run in all levels of an organization. A project can involve all of the organization or some parts of organization, can be only one person can involve thousands of people. They are conducted in order to reach organization’s strategic goals. Possible examples for a project can be:

• Developing a new product or service

• Effecting a change in structure, staffing, or style of an organization

• Designing a new transportation vehicle

• Developing or acquiring a new or modified information system

• Constructing a building or facility

• Building a water system for community in a developing country

• Running a campaign for political office

• Implementing a new business procedure or process

• Developing a new product or service.

• Developing a new or modified information system.

5.2.1.1 Projects are Temporary

Temporary means that every project has a definite beginning and a definite end. The end is reached when the project´s objectives have achieved, or when it becomes clear that the project objectives will not or cannot be met, or the need for the project no longer exists and project is terminated. Temporary does not necessarily mean short in duration; many projects last for several years. In every case, however, the duration of a project is finite; projects are not ongoing efforts.

In addition, temporary does not generally apply to the product or service created by the project.Projects may often have intended and unintended social, economic, and environmental impacts that far outlast the projects themselves. Most projects are undertaken to create a lasting result. For example, a project to erect a national monument will create a result expected to last centuries. A series of projects and/or complementary projects in parallel may be a required to achieve a strategic objective. (21)

5.2.1.2 Projects Are Unique

Projects involve doing something that has not been done before and which is, therefore, unique. A product or service may be unique even if category to which it belongs is large. For example, many thousands of office buildings have been developed, but each individual facility is unique –different owner, different design, different location, different contractors, and so. The presence of repetitive elements does not change the fundamental uniqueness of the project work. (21)

For example:

• A project to develop a new commercial airliner may require multiple prototypes

• A project to bring a new drug to market may require thousands of doses of the drug to support clinical trials.

• A real estate development project may include hundreds of individual units.

• A development project (e.g., water and sanitation) may be implemented in five geographic areas.

5.2.1.3 Projects Require Progressive Elaboration

Progressive elaboration is a characteristic of projects that integrates the concepts of temporary and unique. Because the product of each projects is unique, the characteristics that distinguish the product or service must be progressively elaborated. Progressively means "proceeding in steps; continuing steadily by increments", while elaborated means "worked out with care and detail; developed thoroughly" (22). These distinguishing characteristics will be broadly defined early in the project, and will be made more explicit and detailed as the project team develops a better and more complete understanding of the product. (21) 

Progressive Elaboration is one of the main ideas of project management since the philosophy behind is failing repeatedly as fast as possible. The project starts with basic drawings and put in action. As number of fails increase the revision number which is the indicator of progressiveness or iteration character of a project, increases. When the time comes to meet the goals of project, iteration stops and final project is published. With an "as-built project" after reaching project goals, more understanding of the product can be achieved. 

The following example illustrate progressive elaboration:

Example 1. Development of a chemical processing plant begins with process engineering to define the characteristics of the process. These characteristics are used to design the major processing units.This information becomes the basis for engineering design, which defines both the detail plant layout and the mechanical characteristics of the process units and ancillary facilities. All of these result in design drawings that are elaborated to produce fabrication drawings (construction isometrics). During construction, interpretations and adaptations are made as needed and subject to proper approval. This further elaboration of the characteristics is captured by as-built drawings. During test and turnover, further elaboration of the characteristics is often made in the form of final operating adjustments.

5.2.2 What is Project Management

In order to create and control a project, project management gives the tools to "divide and conquer" complicated task of running whole project. Project management requires many skills all-once to overcome difficulties of creating a new product. 

Project management is accomplished by using following 5 processes: 

• Initiation 

• Planning

• Execution

• Controlling

• Closure

The project is planned and executed by the project team. The team in order to accomplish project requirements, manages various activities of the project, in general these activities are as following: 

• Competing demands for: 

o scope

o time

o cost

o risk

o quality

• Managing expectations of stakeholders.

• Identifying requirements.

5.2.2.1 Project Management Knowledge Areas

Knowledge areas of project management is the knowledge required in order to work with various processes of project management. These areas are classified in nine areas and all of them have sub-areas to complete the main area. 

5.2.2.1.1 Project Integration Management

This knowledge area is about ensuring processes required for various elements of project are coordinated in a proper way. Under this knowledge area it is possible to find three sub knowledge areas which are: project plan development, project plan execution, and integrated change control.

5.2.2.1.2 Project Scope Management 

Project scope management is the knowledge area for project management that is required in order to ensure that project team is going to do the work required to reach to project goals but only the required work simply this knowledge area writes down the scope of project. This knowledge area is made of sub-knowledge areas consisting of initiation, scope planning, scope definition, scope verification and scope change control.

5.2.2.1.3 Project Time Management 

This knowledge area of project time management is about timing and sequencing of project. With this knowledge it is possible to sequence the work to reach project goals. Project time management has; activity definition, activity sequencing, activity duration estimating, schedule development and schedule control as sub-knowledge areas.

5.2.2.1.4 Project Cost Management 

This is rather financial dimension of project management. This knowledge area is required in order to make budgeting, estimation and control of project finances. Requires sub-knowledge areas such as: resource planning, cost estimation, cost budgeting and cost control. 

5.2.2.1.5 Project Quality Management 

As the word quality means, and quality management knowledge area shows, project quality management is to ensure the project will meet the demanded quality and satisfy quality requirements of project. This knowledge area consists of sub-knowledge areas such as: quality planning, quality control and quality assurance.

5.2.2.1.6 Project Human Resource Management 

This part of knowledge area focuses on people who are working for the project. Project human resource management is the processes required to make the use of people in the most effective way as human resources has the goal in this direction. Sub-knowledge areas are organizational planning, staff acquisition and team development. 

5.2.2.1.7 Project Communications Management 

This is required in order to manage data, information and knowledge generated during the project. Project communications management ensures timely generation, collecting, documenting, storage and disposition of project information. It consists of communications planning, information distribution, performance reporting, and administrative closure.

5.2.2.1.8 Project Risk Management 

Project risk management is the knowledge area with the activities of identifying, analysing, and responding to project risk. Sub-knowledge areas are risk management planning, risk identification, qualitative risk analysis, quantitative risk analysis, risk response planning, and risk monitoring and control.

5.2.2.1.9 Project Procurement Management 

This is the knowledge area that is required to get goods and services from other companies needed for the project. Sub-knowledge areas are procurement planning, solicitation planning, solicitation, source selection, contract administration, and contract closeout. 

5.2.2.2 Relationship to Other Management Disciplines

Project management and general management are similar in many areas. General management is about controlling and enterprise’s operations. On the other side project management is about management of a project which is running under an enterprise. General management is about planning, staffing, executing and controlling operations of a working enterprise. General management has sub-knowledge areas or supporting disciplines such as strategic planning, law, logistics and human resources management.

In enterprises, project management is monitored by general management but on the other hand projects in an enterprise affects and directs the enterprise itself so we can say project management directly affects general management. 

5.2.2.3 Project Application Areas

Project application areas are possible topics a project can be applied in order to change/modify or create a new product in this area. Projects applied in similar application areas have significantly common elements, since conditions are similar in every aspect in that particular application area. Even if they have similar elements, they do not have to be the same in all projects. Project application areas are in general defined in terms of:

• Functional departments of an organization and supporting disciplines, such as legal, accounting, marketing and sales, production and inventory management, logistics and human resources.

• Technical areas, such as software development, pharmaceuticals and engineering.

• Management areas, such as government contracting, community development, or new product development.

• Industry groups, such as automotive, chemicals, agriculture, or financial services.

5.2.2.4 Project Characterizations

5.2.2.4.1 Project Phases

Project phases are steps of the project required to be followed in order to proceed in a project. Each project has deliverables to be finished, as deliverables are completed, the phase can be marked as completed. A deliverable is a tangible, verifiable work product such as a feasibility study, a detail design, or a working prototype. (21) The deliverables, are the early designed steps of a phase to be completed in order to reach goals of project. As the deliverables are completed for a project phase, project performance and deliverables need to be reviewed and checked. Additionally project performance also has to be reviewed in order to decide if it is the right time to move onto next phase and find possible errors, mistakes to make required revisions on time and save a lot of time and money by spotting correcting the mistakes early. The reviews in the end of each phase are called "phase exits", "stage gates" or "kill points". 

Every phase of a project has pre-defined deliverables in order to establish management control over project. Most of these items have relations to the deliverables of primary phase. Generally rest of the phases are named by these items appropriately such as: prerequisites, design, build, test, follow-up, start-up, turnover, and others. 

5.2.2.4.2 Project Lifecycle

The Project Life Cycle refers to a series of activities which are necessary to fulfil project goals or objectives. (23) Even if the projects are different and applied in different project application areas they always follow a similar life cycle structure as follows: 

• Starting the project

• Organizing and preparing

• Carrying out project work

• Closing the project

The project life cycle is used to define the beginning and the end of a project. For example, as an enterprise sees an opportunity that had to be caught, the enterprise will start a feasibility study in order to be sure that the organization is able to take the project and for example can decide to give an offer to bid in auction to start or take the project. The project life-cycle definition will name the activity as the first phase of the project or a separate work.

With the definition of project lifecycle in the beginning of a project – or in general having it in an organization as a rule- will also make sure what kind of transitional actions in the beginning and in the end of a project will be counted as in or out of that particular project. In this way it will be clearer how much effort or money put into the project.

In most of the project lifecycles, defined phase sequences have some sort of knowledge transfer from different levels and phases of work such as from requirements to design, construction to operations or design to manufacturing. Just before the work starts for the next phase the required deliverables has to be approved. But in general a subsequent phase starts just before the approval of deliverables if the risks taken are acceptable. This is called fast-tracking. 

Fast tracking means that you look at activities that are normally done in sequence and assign them instead partially in parallel. For instance, normally you would not start constructing a solution until the design was completed. However, if you were fast-tracking, you would start constructing the solution in areas where you felt the design was pretty solid without waiting for the entire design to be completed.Fast-tracking always involves risk that could lead to increased cost and some rework later. For instance, in the example of designing and constructing an application, it’s possible that the design might change before it is finalized, and those final changes may result in having to redo some of the construct work already underway. (24)

Another fast forwarding on a project in order to keep up with the schedule is called crashing. "Crashing" the schedule means to throw additional resources to the critical path without necessarily getting the highest level of efficiency. For instance, let’s say one person was working on a ten-day activity on the critical path. If you were really desperate to shorten this timeframe, you might add a second resource to this activity. In fact, the resource may not have all the right skills and he might work five days just to reduce the overall time by two days. (24)

In a Project life cycle it is generally written:

• What is the required technical work to be done each phase?

• Who is going to be working in each phase?

Depending on the needs the project life cycle descriptions can be detailed or general. This document can be supported forms charts or other supporting material in order to make the message and descriptions clear. Detailed project life cycle documents are often called project management methodologies.

Mostly in every project life cycle document there are few common characteristics such as the cost and staffing needs are low in the beginning but as the project moves forward and passes to another phase, cost and number of people working for the project increases. In the final phase which is mostly closing of project, costs and staffing of the project gradually decreases.

This characteristic of project life cycle is often because of the high levels of uncertainty and risk in the beginning of the project. As the project goes forward and it becomes possible to see that project will succeed, or at least some crucial measures are taken or some important phases of project has been successfully completed, then the money invested into the project rises gradually until the intermediate phases are completed. As the final phase starts which is closure the need of investing and therefore the cost of the project rapidly moves to zero. As the project is approved to be finished investing period also finishes.

A project life cycle is very much different than product life cycle. One must be carefully distinguish the meanings of these two different concepts. In the end of a successful project, mostly a new product is created therefore, in the end of a project life cycle, life cycle of product starts and they mostly have different characteristics. 

5.2.2.5 Key Management Skills

Since project management is a similar subject related to general management, we can argue that they require similar skills in order to overcome tasks of each management area. General management is a general subject on management that should overcome and deal with every aspect of management of an enterprise. The topics what the general management is dealing with is a long list but in short it looks like as follows:

• Organizational functions

o Finance and accounting

o Sales and marketing

o Research and development

o Manufacturing and distribution.

 

• Planning

o Strategic planning

o Tactical planning

o Operational planning

• Organizational Skills

o Organizational structures

o Organizational behaviour

o Personnel administration

o Compensation, benefits, and career paths

• Managing People

o Managing work relationships through motivation

o Delegation

o Supervision

o Team building

o Conflict management

o Other techniques

• Self-Management

o Personal time management

o Stress management

o Other techniques

For project management these skills of general management build the foundation. Most of them are very much needed, essential skills of a project manager. Almost in every project a set of these skills are needed in order to properly manage the project and get the things done. These skills are more in detail discussed in general management literature but their application in project management is fundamentally the same. In the following section some of the important skills are described which are highly effective on management of a project.

Leading: Kotler, the famous authority and professor of marketing distinguishes between leading and managing while emphasizing the need for both: 

"All managers should be leaders, but most are administrators. If you are spending most of your time on budgets, organization charts, costs, compliance, and detail, you are an administrator. To become a leader, you need to spend more time with people, scanning opportunities, developing a vision, and setting goals." (25)

Leader without a manager or manager without a leader is likely to produce unwanted results. He says that managing is primarily concerned with "consistently producing key results expected by stakeholders," while leading involves: 

• Establishing direction: Creating the vision for the future. Where will the organization be in the future, what is the ideal, what is the direction?

• Creating strategy: Showing the way to follow in order to reach the vision. Showing the steps to be followed. 

• Aligning people: Telling to people the vision of organization in order to show them where to go and how to work, in short in order to lead them. Making people understand the vision by a good communication. 

• Motivating and inspiring: Helping people to overcome Newton’s first law of motion which can be easily applied to people in life situations: "As if governed by Newton's First Law of Motion, aninstitution will resist any change in its current direction." (26) In other words helping people to energize themselves to overcome barriers to change.

On a project generally the manager of the project is expected to be the project’s leader. However in a project leadership will be carried out in many aspect in many areas of project this can be technically or on field. In a project since it is a production of a new thing, product, system etc the vision and goals of the project must be communicated to the people who work for it or follow it. For this reason leadership is used and demonstrated in many levels of the project.

Communicating: Most of a project manager’s time goes to communication with many people.Communication is defined as "the imparting or exchanging of information by speaking, writing, or using some other medium" (27). In which there is a receiver, a transmitter and a communication channel. Communication channel in project management is either in oral way, by talking or written way. It can be vertical in an organization with the higher hierarchical units or horizontal with partners and peers. It can be formal like in reports, mail and briefings or informal like in memo or ad-hoc conversations. 

No matter which way of communication is used, the transmitter’s task is to make the message clear and understandable by the receiver and if needed confirm that message is received by questioning. 

Dimensions of communication can be summarized in the following way:

• Written and oral, listening and speaking

• Internal (within the project) and external (to the customer, the media, the public, etc.)

• Formal (reports, briefings, etc.) and informal (memos, ad hoc conversations, etc.)

• Vertical (up and down the organization) and horizontal (with peers and partners)

The Project Communications Management is a similar concept to a communicating skills in general management but they are not the same. Communication is broader subject which includes sub topics such as:

• Sender-receiver models: Feedback loops, barriers to communications, etc.

• Choice of media: When to communicate in writing, when to communicate orally, when to write an informal memo, when to write a formal report, etc.

• Writing style: Active versus passive voice, sentence structure, word choice, etc.

• Presentation techniques: Body language, design of visual aids, etc.

• Meeting management techniques: Preparing an agenda, dealing with conflict, etc.

Negotiating: As we discussed before that management requires to be all the time in contact with people. Negotiations are also existing in almost every part of life –not only management or business- when there is a contact with people. Negotiation is the art of coming into an agreement with others. It can occur directly, or with assistance. Two types of assisted negotiation are arbitration and mediation. In a project environment negotiations can occur at many levels of a project such as:

• Scope, cost, and schedule objectives

• Changes to scope, cost, or schedule

• Contract terms and conditions

• Assignments

• Resources

Problem Solving: Problem solving in a project consists of problem definition and decision making processes. The idea of problem solving requires to identify problem, and distinguishing causes and effects. 

Problems can be in two different ways; internal or external. Internal problems are created inside the organization. There can be a problem about for example staffing issues in the organization or some conflict between staff. On the other hand an external problem has the roots outside of the organization (some paperwork with government, environmental, political etc).

The problems in their nature do not need to be technical. There can be interpersonal or managerial problems arising in an organization. In order to solve these problems decisions have to be made. Once the decision is made or obtained (from the customer, from the team, or from a functional manager) it has to be implemented as soon as possible. Timing of decisions is also very important since a very late or a very early decision is mostly no more the best decision. 

Influencing the Organization: This is the ability the skill to "get things done" in an organization. This skill has a requirement of understanding certain things in an organization. These are formal and informal organizations which are alive under the organizations involved. The involved organizations are the performing organization, customers, partners, contractors and numerous others, as appropriate. For influencing the organization apart from the understanding of working organizations inside a performing organization, the understanding of mechanics of power and politics is needed because usually they are used in an organization very often. Pfeffer defines power as "the potential ability to influence behavior, to change the course of events, to overcome resistance, and to get people to do things that they would not otherwise do." Similarly for politics Eccles says "politics is about getting collective action from a group of people who may have quite different interests. It is about being willing to use conflict and disorder creatively. The negative sense, of course, derives from the fact that attempts to reconcile these interests result in power struggles and organizational games that can sometimes take on a thoroughly unproductive life of their own."

As an effect of globalization, outsourcing of non-core activities of the companies to other preferably cheaper countries started as an increasing trend. As a result the eastern markets such as China have seen a dramatical increase in their production capacity and economic activities. This trend brought into play international projects which consists of multiple locations, companies, organizations, cultures and countries. The presence of multiple delivery locations resulted a cross-cultural project environment. Which makes communication in project team a lot bigger handicap. Therefore a group of cross-cultural aspects have to be addressed by a project manager. These aspects are: 

• Understanding of local culture and language

• Techniques and work methods unique to a particular location

• Standardization of work practices

• Infrastructure replication across locations

• Control from remote locations on a more or less real time basis

• Offer flexibility in offering products and services

Socioeconomic influences on a project include a wide range of topics. Therefore the project team must understand the local trends and conditions that affects project. A misunderstanding in this subject may bring a delay in the project schedule which can affect the project itself adversely.

5.2.3 Project Lifecycle

5.2.3.1 Initiation

This is the first phase of the project in which solutions for an opportunity which can be academic or a business opportunity are evaluated and if they are possible to establish, the possible approach to solution is defined. The project team defines what in every phase they have to produce as deliverables in order to know that they are on the right track and they completed the project. In this phase participants who are involved in developing proposal and the enterprise they belong to need the documents referring to; sponsors, business process owners, project manager, business analyst and the technical architect

The Business Case has the definition of a project and why this project is initiated. Sometimes a project is initiated in order to make a better business case which is better aligned with the enterprise’s strategic goals. In this case a Preliminary Business Case is created in order to reach to a better final business case as a result. This Preliminary Business Case is typically no more than one or two pages which sets the ground rules to follow in order to reach a better Business case as a result.

Some of the possible deliverables of initiation phase of a project can be in following way:

• Basic Project

o Project Charter

o Governance Structure

o Communication Plan

o Risk Assessment

o Budget Plan

o Meeting Notes

• Full Project

o Project Charter

o Governance Structure

o Statement of Guiding Principles

o Team Contract

o Communication Plan

o Risk Assessment & Management Plan

o Budget Plan

o Meeting Notes

After finishing the deliverables of the initiation phase and everything gets ready for the project to start. A final activity is a launching event, a "kick-off" meeting with sponsors, business process owners and full project staff ensuring that everybody has the same vision and understanding about the project. Everybody knows in which direction to go and everybody has a high motivation to finish the project. This meeting ensures better relationship in all the project team including the higher management of the project and therefore a more powerful informal organization is built which is very important for the team to continue working with high motivation less stress and full productivity. Also in this event a professional development requirements are discussed regarding possible trainings which can be scheduled in order to develop new skills for the team. 

5.2.3.2 Planning

In planning phase the concept of the project is verified and transformed into workable, manageable, smaller pieces or in short into a plan. The goals and objectives are defined. Deliverables are set the schedule is ready. 

In this stage project management plans are developed in the following areas: 

• Integration (Coordination, Planning, Change Control)

• Scope

• Time (Schedule)

• Cost (Budget)

• Quality

• Human Resources (Staffing)

• Communications

• Risk

• Procurement

In planning phase core project team is created. This project team is made of: business process owners, project manager, clerical support, business analyst, technical architect, technical lead, and other staff as appropriate to the project which the team is working on.

In this phase also key stakeholders or representative key stakeholders are consulted and the advisory committee or the task groups are created, identified and formed. For the remaining skills and personnel requirements are identified and recruitment process starts by human resources.

In planning phase project management produces following deliverables: 

• Basic Project

o Scope Statement

o Schedule – Basic

o Competitive Bids & Purchase Order

o Communication Bulletins

o Meeting Notes

• Full Project

o Scope Statement

o Risk Assessment & Management Plan

o Budget Plan

o Procurement Plan

o Staffing Plan

o Quality Assurance Plan

o Plan for Managing Issues

o Statement of Intended Operations Organization

o Schedules – Full

o Communications Bulletins

o Meeting Notes

 

5.2.3.3 Execution

Execution phase is the phase in which the project plan is put on progress. Depending on the schedule required actions are made. During this phase, management of the project controls and monitors the workflow of the work done and directs the field team as required, depending on the changes in the flow of the work done. Management team should keep project team informed about the progress of the project and make sure the work done and the work which is planned to be done is understood and well-translated to the project team. The management team also has to review the change requests regarding project. They have to decide if it is possible to make these requested changes inside the project or not. 

Following deliverables are produced on execution phase of the project life cycle:

• Basic Project

o Meeting Notes

o Status Reports (includes risk log)

o Schedules

o Issue Resolution Log

o Project Delay Log

• Full Project

o Meeting Notes

o Status Reports (includes risk log)

o Schedules

o Issue Resolution Log

o Project Delay Log

o Change Requests

5.2.3.4 Closure

In closure phase the project and documentation are completed. The product is delivered to owner’s hands. To documentation, the lessons learnt, possible new deliverables to be developed for the next project and best practices have to be added in this way for the next time there will be a knowledge base for the new project team and it will be more possible to record and transfer knowledge. In closure phase project management processes produce the following deliverables: 

• Basic Project

o Lessons Learned

o Closing Report

• Full Project

o Lessons Learned

o Closing Report