Project Management - Definition and

Important Concepts
Project Management is the art of managing all the aspects of a project from inception to
closure using a scientific and structured methodology. The term project may be used to
define any endeavor that is temporary in nature and with a beginning or an end. The project
must create something unique whether it is a product, service or result and must be
progressively elaborated. As the definition implies, not every task can be considered a
project. It would be worthwhile to keep this definition in mind when categorizing projects
and studying their role in the success of the organization. With the above definition of the
project, one gets a clear idea on what a project is.

Program Management is defined as a department that centralizes the management of

projects. What this means is that the PMO or the Project Management Office is a repository
of all the projects that are being executed in an organization. Program Management serves the
CIO (Chief Information Officer) by providing him or her with regular status updates
regarding the progress of all the projects in the company.

The PMO’s role is to ensure that the projects are financially viable and to raise an alert
whenever there is a possibility or occurrence of a cost overrun. The PMO also keeps tab on
the billing and other details that are concerned with the project. Thus, the PMO’s function is
to oversee the projects coming under its domain and act as a kind of monitoring agency for
them. In the current scenario, there is a need for visionary leadership by the CIO’s in addition
to the technical leadership.

Technical leadership is the ability to spot trends in the technical space and leverage them for
the success of the project. This involves choosing the right technology and being able to stay
ahead of the curve with respect to new technologies. On the other hand, program visionary
leadership is needed to control costs and effectively manage productivity increases and
tighter integration of processes. This is relevant in the context of the ongoing economic crisis
where the accent is on cutting costs and improving the bottom line.

The role of a project manager is akin to that of a conductor in a symphony. Individually each
of the artists knows what has to be done for his or her role. But, there needs to be a person
who has the overall “big picture” or the collective vision to make the performance a success.
Similarly, the project manager drives the entire project team in pursuit of common goals.

The Project Manager’s role is to ensure that the overall objectives of the project are
achieved with the participation of each individual member. The project manager is like
the Prima Donna and his or her acumen depends on how well he or she can leverage the
strengths of the individual members while minimizing the impact of their weaknesses.
Program managers take the same view but at a much higher level. Their job is on the overall
bottom line for the division or the company and they drive the individual project managers.
This is similar to that of a pyramid where the CIO or the program manager sits on the apex
and the project manager at the next level, project leads further down and so on.
Importance of Project Management for
Organizations
Project management is the art of managing the project and its deliverables with a view to
produce finished products or service. There are many ways in which a project can be carried
out and the way in which it is executed is project management.

Project management includes: identifying requirements, establishing clear and

achievable objectives, balancing the competing demands from the different stakeholders
and ensuring that a commonality of purpose is achieved. It is clear that unless there is a
structured and scientific approach to the practice of management, organizations would find
themselves adrift in the Ocean called organizational development and hence would be unable
to meet the myriad challenges that the modern era throws at them. Hence, the importance of
project management to organizations cannot be emphasized more and the succeeding
paragraphs provide some reasons why organizations must take the practice of project
management seriously.

Without a scientific approach to the task of managing the projects and achieving objectives, it
would be very difficult for the organizations to successfully execute the projects within the
constraints of time, scope and quality and deliver the required result. In other words, there has
to be a framework and a defined way of doing things to ensure that there is a structure to the
art of project management.

Thus, project management is about creating structure and managing the project commitments
and the delivery of agreed upon results. By using the methods of project management as
described in the PMBOK and allied technical journals, organizations can seek to achieve
control over the project environment and ensure that the project deliverables are being
managed. Managers face what is known as the “triple constraint”. This is the competing
demands of time, scope and quality upon the project manager’s list of things to do and how
well the project manager manages these constraints goes a long way in determining the
success of the project. Without the use of Project Management, managers and organizations
would find themselves facing an unpredictable and chaotic environment over which they
have little control. Thus, Project Management is both necessary and essential to the success
of the project.

Project Management is too big an area to be covered in a few pages and the attempt is to
provide concise and lucid definitions of the various terms and terminologies associated with a
project. It is important to note that project management provides a framework within which
subsequent actions by the organization can be taken and in this way, it is essential for
organizations to adopt the framework provided by the practice of project management.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Project Management and the practice of the same have become indispensable
to the modern day project manager and they form the basis of much of what is achieved
during the course of a project. Thus, the idea of a project being managed professionally lends
itself to the concepts and processes laid out for the practitioners of the art of Project
Management.
Components of Project Management and
Stakeholder Management
Role of the Project Manager

There has been much debate about what the Project Manager can or cannot do. And the
argument is also centred around on whether to take a proactive or a subdued approach
towards the issues surrounding the management of the project. The proactive approach
favours an interventionist and hands on approach that includes intervening in day to day
affairs of the project.

This approach is manifested in the IT industry where the Project Manager is called upon to
involve themselves in the technical aspects of the project that would include participating in
design, coding and other activities. This phenomenon cannot be said to be restricted to the IT
industry alone as there are several instances in the other sectors where the Project Manager
has to get their hands dirty, literally and metaphorically.

There are organisations that define the role of the project manager clearly and delineate the
roles and responsibilities. This usually happens in Matrix organisations where the structure of
the organisation is such that there is lot of emphasis on clarity of the role. Thus, after a review
of the literature, it would seem that there is no single answer to the question of whether the
project manager has to be at the centre of the universe or like a conductor directing the
symphony.

This article addresses the question: Should Project Managers behave like Prima Donnas? The
question posed is about the role of the project manager and the ways in which he or she steers
the project towards successful completion. The thesis statement is about the point that covers
a broad range of topics and deals with a set of questions that include how much and how far
should the project manager involve himself or herself and the extent to which the project
manager has to go in meeting stakeholder expectations and keeping the team intact.

It has been said that Project Management is the art of balancing competing demands and
determining appropriate interventions whenever necessary. The balancing act is about taking
the different stakeholder requirements together and then ensuring that everything falls
together for the common purpose of meeting the project deliverables. This then is the bottom-
line guideline for project managers: The practice of management for the express purpose of
delivering customer delight and stakeholder value.

The contention of this author is that project managers and the art of project management is
highly contextual and situation dependant that theory can only point the way and it is up to
the individual to make the decisions and tread the path accordingly. Real world scenarios
often have a way of surprising the most experienced project manager and hence theory can
only help to a point in making decisions that affect real people. Thus, one way of looking at
the question is that project managers have to combine the science of project management
with the art of people and process management to achieve optimal results. Project
Management combines statistics and people skills in equal measure and it is incumbent upon
the project manager to plan their strategies accordingly.

There has been much debate about what the Project Manager can or cannot do. And the
argument is also centred around on whether to take a proactive or a subdued approach
towards the issues surrounding the management of the project. The proactive approach
favours an interventionist and hands on approach that includes intervening in day to day
affairs of the project. This approach is manifested in the IT industry where the Project
Manager is called upon to involve themselves in the technical aspects of the project that
would include participating in design, coding and other activities. This phenomenon cannot
be said to be restricted to the IT industry alone as there are several instances in the other
sectors where the Project Manager has to get their hands dirty, literally and metaphorically.

There are organisations that define the role of the project manager clearly and delineate the
roles and responsibilities. This usually happens in Matrix organisations where the structure of
the organisation is such that there is lot of emphasis on clarity of the role. Thus, after a review
of the literature, it would seem that there is no single answer to the question of whether the
project manager has to be at the centre of the universe or like a conductor directing the
symphony. In conclusion, the question of whether the project managers should behave as
Prima Donnas need to be answered as something that is contextual and situation dependant.
In the fast paced world of organisations and project management, the central role for a project
manager ensures that he or she is always in the middle of action and the thick of things. Thus,
the art of project management requires extraordinary patience and certain thoughtfulness
towards the team and stakeholders. Any management devoid of sensitivity and lack of finesse
is bound to result in failure.

PROJECT ORGANISATION

Project integration management refers to the process of tying everything in place.

Integration management deals with: Developing the Project Charter and Project Scope
statement (Initiating Process Group), Develop Project Management Plan (Planning
process group), Direct and Manage project execution (Executing Process group). Hence
this is process that integrates all the disparate processes and provides a focus for the project.

As noted above, the deliverables out of the integration management are the Project Scope,
Project Charter and the Project management plan. We shall discuss each of these
components. The first component that is the Project Scope refers to the document that details
what is the work to be done and what are the boundaries of the work that is to be executed.

As we discussed in the article related to Project Scope, “scope creep” is something that the
project manager has to watch out for when dealing with this component.

The next deliverable out of the project integration management is the Project Charter. This is
an expression of the document that deals with listing out the details of the project, the
relevant sponsors and the functions of each. The project charter can be thought of as a
document that kicks off the project with the expression of interest that contains the details of
the project sponsors along with the role of the project manager. The last document from the
integration management process is the project management plan.
The PMP is the most important document in a project and contains the details of the project
like scope, time, cost and quality along with the other aspects that are needed for the effective
execution of the project. The PMP is prepared by the Project manager and is the repository of
all information pertaining to the project. As we have discussed, the integration management
is the domain of the project manager and hence the project manager can be thought of as the
integrator who takes into account all the relevant details and ties them in together.

If you were asked, “What is the main role of the project manager ?” what would you say?
The answer is to perform integration. While the work of the project is being done, it is the
team members’ role to concentrate on completing the work packages. The project sponsor
should be protecting the project from changes and loss of resources. It is the project
manager’s role to put all the pieces of the project together into one cohesive whole that gets
the project done faster, cheaper and with fewer resources while meeting the project
objectives. The project management processes do not happen independently. A cost estimate
needs to take into account risk reserves. A new resource added to the project may require
changes in cost or schedule. In dealing with each situation the project manager is integrating
the processes of project management. Integration management refers to the act of bringing
together the disparate processes of the project management into one cohesive whole with the
aim of developing a framework to develop the project management process.

The integration management deals with: Developing the Project Charter and Project Scope
statement (Initiating Process Group), Develop Project Management Plan (Planning process
group), Direct and Manage project execution (Executing Process group). Hence, the Project
Integration refers to the complete set of processes that span across the process groups and the
aim of which is to ensure that the project is driven by one common purpose. Hence, the
project management process.