Unit No – 1 (Introduction to the concept of Project)

• Project meaning and concepts

• Project characteristic
• Project classification
• Project management concept & scope
• Importance and difficulties in project planning

Project

Manager have to handle various projects during their careers’ software consultant may need to implement a
database management project, a construction engineering may have to handle the construction project of a
building, a scientist in the research and development department of an organization may be given a research
project and simply, for an entrepreneur, starting a new business or a manufacturing unit is a project, A project
requires manpower, money, material, machine etc.

Example of project

• Commissioning a new industrial unit

• Construction of a house
• Setting up of an office
• Developing a technology
• Launching a new product in the market
• Managing any event in college
Planning a project requires identification of various activities involved in the project and the sequence in which
these activities have to be performed. A well planned project leads to completion in the schedule time, thus
avoiding unnecessary delays and extra costs.

A project is a group of unique, interrelated activities that are planned and executed in a certain sequence to create
a unique product or service within a specific time frame, budget and the client specifications.

or

A project is a set of activities which are networked in an order and aimed towards achieving the goal of a project.
Upon the completion of all the activities the goal of the project would have been achieved. A project is undertaken
to achieve a purpose.

or
A project is a temporary and one time exercise which vary in duration. It is undertaken to address a specific need
in an organization, which may be to create a product or service or to change a business process. This is in direct
contrast to how an organization generally works on a permanent basis to produce their goods or service.

or

A project may be defined as a series of related jobs usually directed towards some major output and requiring a
significant period of time to perform.

or

A project is a set of activities which are networked in an order and aimed towards achieving the goal of a project.
Upon the completion of all the activities the goal of the project would have been achieved.

A project may be related to

• Education
• Construction
• Event
• Finance
• Human recourses
• Software
• Research

Management

Management is the techniques of understanding the problem, needs and controlling the use of resources such as
cost, time, management, and materials. Management is an optimum use of all the recourses used in the project.

Management of all activities related to particular project like Time Management, Marketing Management,
Operation Management, Human Resource Management, Finance Management etc.

Project Management

Project Management is planning, organizing, monitoring and controlling of all aspects of a project and motivation
of all involved to achieve project objective of safety and within a defined time, cost and performance.

or
It is the art of planning, directing controlling recourses like people, equipment, material to meet the cost, time,,
manpower, hardware and software resources involved in a project.

Objective of Project

Major’s objective - Performance or Quality of project as per customer requirement

- Containment of expenditure within budge

- Timely implementation and completion of project.

Other objective of Project – proper safety of people, machine, material and other recourses

- Enhance public image

- Minimizing accident or breakdown
- Minimize wastage in the project
- Maximum utilization of all recourses
- High level of automation

Characteristic of project / features of project

• Unique activities (every project have different activities)

• Sequence of activity (all activities of project should have proper routing and then scheduling)
• Interrelated activities (some activity may be independent or some activity may be dependant0
• Well defined, established and unique objective (every project may have different project)
• Specified time (every project may have different duration of project)
• Allocated budget (every project may have different budget)
• Each project has its own project life cycle reflected by growth, maturity and decline.
• Overlapping of activities
• Sharing of resources
• Non – continuous life span with a beginning and an end.
• Involvement of several departments and professionals
• A project has a number of sources but one end or sink.
• Project is dynamic in nature and changes in original plan are a normal feature in a project.
• Team spirit is required to achieve objective of project as different individual from varied discipline are
involved in the project.
• Every project has its own risk and uncertainty associated with it.
Classification of project / type / kind of project

• Based on profit (Industrial and non industrial)

• Bases on technology involvement (conventional, non conventional, new, high, low technology )
• Based on size and scale (large, medium, small )
• Bases on ownership and control (public sector, private sector, joint sector )
• Base on Infrastructure
• Base on scope and significance (national and international )
• Based on degree of change (inventive, discovery, innovative, adaption)
• Based on speed (normal, crash, disaster)
• Base on beneficiary (industrial, ancillary, consumers)
• Base on purposes (new project, mergers, diversification, modernization, replacement, up gradation )

Project life cycle/ Process of Project management/ functions of project management/Phases of Project/

Scope of project.

Project life cycle refer to a logical sequence of activities that are performed to achieve project goal of objective.
It can also be termed as project cycle. The life cycle of every major project include seven steps like

• Identification – It refer to selection of one most feasible project idea out of several alternative.
• Preparation – It refer to developing the identified and selected ideas.
• Appraisal – Perform systematic and comprehensive evaluation of every aspect of the select ideas to
prepare the final project plan. Project appraisal deals with market appraisal, technical appraisal, financial
appraisal, economic appraisal, managerial appraisal, environmental appraisal.
• Planning and organizing – It refer to designing the course of actions required to achieve the objectives of
the project like organization structure, manpower, schedule and budget, licensing and government
clearance, infrastructure of project, finance, site preparation, selecting vendors
• Presentation – Involve creative a detail plan to send it to appropriate entities
• Implementation – It refer to a stage in which the approved project plan is executed. Major bulk of work
(80 – 85%) project is done in this phase like preparation of equipment and machinery, civil construction,
placing orders for recourses, commissioning of plant.
• Monitoring – It involve assessing and monitoring the progress of the project at every stage to identifying
the loopholes and take corrective action if required.
 • Closing – It refer to the formal closure of project. It involve handling over of the facilities built to the
customer ( project accounts are closed, outstanding payment is made, dues are collected, manual and
catalogued are handed over, The employee and other resources are released to be used for other activities)
• Evaluation – Calls for the re assessment of the efficiency and performance of the project after the
completion of project.

Importance of project management / Need of project management

Project management is necessary because

• A project requires huge investment which should not go waste.

• A loss in any project would have direct or indirect impact on the society.
• Prevent failure in projects
• Scope of the project activity may undergo a change
• Technology used may change during the course of project execution.
• It takes more time, more money, and more resources that may be waste if there is no proper planning.
• Consequence of negativity in project related problem could be very serious.
• Change in economic may affect a project.
• Shortening of project life cycle
• Global competition
• Knowledge explosion
• Corporate Downsizing
• Increased customer focus

Role and responsibility of Project Manager

• The project manager must determine the purpose, goal and constraints of the project.
• The project manager must establish basic project management controls.
• Project planning puts together are the details of how to meet the project goals, given the constraints.
• Managing the time by planning and meeting schedule.
• Manage quality so that the project result is satisfactory
• Manage cost to see that project is performed at the minimum possible cost within the budge,
• Managing communication to see that appropriate parties are informed and have sufficient information to
keep the project coordinated.
• Mange the human resource involved in a project effectively.
 • Mange the project scope of to define the goals and the work o be done in sufficient detail to facility
understanding and correct performance by participants.
• To take corrective action.

Main cause of project failure

There are various cause of failure of project failure which are given below

• Inadequate project formulation

• Poor planning for implementation
• Lack of proper contract planning and management
• Lack of project management during execution

Difficulties in Project planning

• Poorly defined goal (goal in not clear, not focus)

• Unrealistic deadlines (very high target )
• Scope creep (objective of project may changed with time)
• Insufficient team skill (labor are not given training)
• Improper communication (week coordination among team member)
• Geographically dispersed team (high distance between all stakeholder)
• Risk management (degree of risk is different in each project)
• Not using project management software (avoiding technology to increased productivity)
• Issue within a team (more conflicts among team member)