The Project Management Body Of Knowledge

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

A Project Manager needs the following skills to manage and implement projects (Project Management Institute, 2008):

The Project Management Body of Knowledge

Application area knowledge, standards and regulations

Project environment knowledge

General management knowledge and skills

Soft skills or human relations skills

In general though, hard skills relate to the competent use of technical tools such as Microsoft Project or Excel to create schedules, work breakdown structures, spreadsheets etc. Soft skills are those needed to manage interpersonal relations such as managing project sponsors’ and other stakeholders’ expectations, project team members’ or end users’ resistance to change, and most importantly, leadership skills. Communication, negotiation, conflict resolution, problem-solving, motivating and influencing skills are also important soft skills.

Much research (including the Standish Group’s CHAOS Theory (www.standishgroup.com, 1995)) has been undertaken regarding the effect of a project manager’s lack of hard and soft skills on project success or failure. It is therefore vital that project managers have expertise in the hard and soft skills to manage the triple constraint of all projects – to complete the project on time, within budget and within scope. This involves managing the many risks that threaten the successful outcome of a project manifested in scope creep, extra costs or in scheduling issues.

Question 2: importance of project management within an organisation

In order for organisations to make the best use of their resources (e.g. money, time, people, other assets) in trying to achieve their objectives, it is essential that projects be managed efficiently and effectively. This requires organisations to adopt a system of managing projects that is promoted and supported from senior management throughout the organisation. It is therefore necessary for organisations to have employees who are trained and experienced project managers, and for executive sponsors to give those project managers the support required to complete projects successfully (i.e. on time, and within budget and scope).

All types of organisation benefit from using project management techniques. Manufacturing companies use projects for conducting research and development, or implementing new production lines, and new sales and distribution systems. Construction and engineering companies would not be able to survive without using project management to control their schedules, costs and quality issues. Governmental bodies also use project management to implement the policies and programmes announced by politicians. Military organisations have in many ways been the ‘birthplace’ of many project management techniques that have later been adopted by other types of organisation.

Question 3: Operations compared with projects

A project can be defined as: "a temporary endeavour undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result." (Project Management Institute, 2008). Operations are tasks undertaken in an organisation to sustain the business.

The distinctive characteristics of a project (in comparison to operations) are therefore:

A unique purpose – a well-defined objective such as a product, service or result, i.e. not an ongoing activity.

Temporary in nature – a defined beginning and end. Threats to these are poor project definition and scope creep causing the project to finish later than originally planned. Operations are ongoing and repetitive.

Requiring resources from various areas of within and outside an organisation – the people, and tools (e.g. hardware and software) may need to be drawn from across the organisation and from external sources such as consultancies in order to collaborate to achieve the unique outcome. Operations are undertaken by specific organisational departments and resources within them.

Using direction, funding and support from a project sponsor (or client) – a sponsor is one of the project’s stakeholders that need to have their needs met for the project to succeed. Operations are part of the overheads of an organisation and are functional in nature using managers to ensure ongoing requirements are met.

question 4: phases of a project lifecyle

Commonly accepted phases of the project lifecycle are:

PMBoK (Project Management Institute, 2008):

Initiating – identifying stakeholders, defining project scope, time and cost constraints, producing business case, project initiation document or project charter;

Planning – developing a project management plan, creating a work breakdown structure, estimating resources, developing a schedule and risk register;

Executing – directing deliverables, quality assurance, human resource management, communicating information to stakeholders, procurement management, risk management

Monitoring and Controlling – monitoring and controlling work, change control, scope verification, cost, quality, risk and time management;

Closing – project close out reporting, procurement closeouts, lessons learned.

Project Lifecycle – degree of project completion and required effort (Wideman, 2001):

The project selection, definition and planning phases of a project require the efforts of the core project team – project manager, technical and administrative project team members – using input from project sponsors and stakeholders. A work breakdown structure will assist in producing a resource plan that will indicate how many more project team members are required to develop and implement the project, whilst the core project team monitors and controls their output. These extra resources will produce a much greater level of effort in the project as a whole (see Phase 3 in Fig. 1). As the project deliverables are achieved, the resources required will diminish until project close out.

Figure 1: Four-phase Generic Project Life CycleFig. 1 – Project Lifecycle

Question 5: project selection models

Main Criteria

Models are based on benefits measurement (comparative) or constrained optimization (mathematical). Which type to use should be aligned with the organisation’s maturity and its overall business strategy and plans, and to support specific business plans. Criteria can be:

Realism – based on organisational strategy and goals, able to reflect constraints on money, time and resources.

Capability – should be capable of use for different types of projects with short-term or long-term objectives/outcomes, and different types of technologies or results.

Flexibility – should be capable of being adjusted if special conditions require it such as changes in legislation, codes, etc.

Ease of Use – should be easily understandable by all levels of an organisation without the need for special training.

Cost – should be cost-effective in terms of time and energy in producing a meaningful and useful outcome.

Comparability – capable of use in general and consistent comparison of project options. (Pearson, 2012)

Project Selection Models:

Numeric:

Net Present Value Analysis

Return on Investment

Payback Analysis

Discounted Cash Flow

Non-Numeric:

Balance Scorecard

SWOT Analysis

Cost-Benefit Analysis

Analytical Hierarchy Process