2 PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Meaning / Definition of Project and Project Management

“A temporary endeavor undertaken to create unique product or service.”
– PMI
A project in any organisation is collaboration across departments to achieve a single well defined
objective. The process of planning, organizing and managing resources to achieve the organisational
objective is called Project Management.

Project Management
The term Project Management constitutes two words ‘project’ and ‘management’. We are aware
of the definition of project. Management has various definitions. The functions of management are
planning, organizing, staffing, coordinating, controlling and directing. Management is known as a
discipline i.e, it is an organized body of knowledge.
Project Management is the “application of skills, tools and techniques to project activities in
order to meet or exceeds stakeholder needs and expectations from activities of the project.”
Project Management is very important in production of goods and services. Idea generation to
final production of product or service, each step can be categorized as individual projects. Any project
requires a project manager, who leads the project to its logical conclusion. The Project manager is
responsible for appointing team members with different background but essential in completion of the
project.

Classification of Projects
1. Personal Projects:
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(a) To obtain a degree of B.Sc.
(b) To plant a garden
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(c) To construct a house

(d) To plan a vacation tour
(e) To plan personality development
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2. Industrial Projects:
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(a) Construction of a building

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(b) Provide raw materials to industrial estate

(c) Construction of a motor way
(d) Design a new machine
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3. Business Projects:
(a) To develop a new product
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(b) To introduce a new product

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(c) To setup a new institution

(d) To design a new machine
Projects have size and duration. The size and duration of each project varies depending on the
kind of project is concern.
Generally, project are made up of:
(a) a definite well defined beginning
(b) multiple activities which are well defined
(c) a definite well defined end

Why Project Management?

Project Management plays a very important role in the success of each project. As we saw in
project model, time, quality and cost constraints are associated with every project. Also, various other
factors are associated with every project which may adversely affect the ongoing project.
There are more chances of failure of a project. There are various things which may go wrong.
1. Completion of a project may be delayed, i.e., project gets implemented after the given
deadline.
2. Project cost may increase than the actual budget.
3. Project may not meet the functionality requirements of the client, i.e, unable to provide what
is expected by the customer or client.
4. Projects are always associated with various kinds of risks.
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The things which are mentioned in the previous part are responsible for failure of the project.
Also, these things may cause the incompletion of the project.
To complete any project successfully Project Management process must be carried out. Project
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Management is a special branch which deals with application of knowledge of management to every
aspect of the project. Project Management framework consists of different knowledge areas which
helps in managing cost, time, quality, human resources, risks etc.
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Characteristics / Importance of Project Management

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Project Management has its importance in managing the project in following manners:
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1. Project Management defines the work in appropriate manner to avoid confusion and no-work
later, i.e., Project Management defines the framework which must be done to facilitate the
work of a project.
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2. Proper Project Management resolves problems more quickly.

3. Project Management defines the appropriate scope of the project which concentrate on the
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area of the work.

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4. It defines the risks associated with the project and also create the risk investigation plan.
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5. Project Management guides in establishing communication with clients, team members and
stakeholders.
6. It helps to adopt a win-win approach and initially building higher quality product.
Project Management is the art of managing the project and its deliverables with a view to produce
finished product 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 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, organisations would find themselves adrift in the ocean called
organisational 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 organisations cannot be
emphasized more and the succeeding paragraphs provide some reasons why organisations 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 organisations 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, organisations 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”. That 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
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way in determining the success of the project. Without the use of Project Management, managers and
organisations 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
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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
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important to note that Project Management provides a framework within which subsequent actions by
the organisation can be taken and in this way, it is essential for organisations to adopt the framework
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provided by the practice of Project Management.

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Conclusion
In conclusion, Project Management and the practice of the same have become indispensable to
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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.
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Need for Project Management (Objectives)

We all follow Project Management processes in our projects. Mostly, they are tailored to meet
the requirements of the project. Some projects need tighter control and more stringent processes that
might have been mandated in the contract, while some need processes sufficient to self manage and
execute the project to meet the deadlines and quality standards. Whatever be the reasons, if we don’t
follow certain processes, it will definitely jeopardize the project.
Here are top 5 reasons why we need to follow processes:
1. To meet the deadlines: This is first and foremost. Many times, there are delays in deploying
the project at the client’s place only because there is no process defined for uploading the
software or patches in the customer’s environment. Important steps like build packaging,
testing the smooth installation are left out if these are not mentioned in a standard to do
checklist, this can cause the team to run around for last minute activities that may result in
more problems identified at the last minute. This inadvertently delays the final delivery of the
project or product to the customer.
2. To maintain the right quality: This one also tops the list and is again related to point 1. The
difference is when certain processes or tasks are missed out and the team goes ahead to install
the software/ product at the customer’s site. This ends up with high number of defects being
raised at the customer end. Some of them can be precarious such as an interactive website not
opening at all for the end user, or incorrect amount of cash being dispensed by the ATM
machine.
3. To ensure productivity: If processes are not maintained and followed, it can result in tasks
or activities being identified in an adhoc manner with managers expecting team to stay late
and complete work that could have been otherwise planned well in advance.
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4. To prevent re-work: Many a times, due to lack of process, the communication between team
members and managers narrow down. Lots of assumptions are made. Tasks are completed
with a different set of objectives in mind. E.g., Software developer ending up writing a code
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that result in performance issues in a mission critical product. This can cause the customer to
wait for a long time, for instance, a financial transaction to happen and can cause a lot of
dissatisfaction to the customer. The team then ends up fixing the problem in the next build or
release cycle causing more re-work.
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5. To avoid blame gaming: All the above points lead to one major effect….Playing the blame
game. Each team puts the blame to the previous team, or puts the blame of bad quality to
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production team. And this goes on in a vicious circle. Add political angle to it, and the project
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goes for a six. While all this could have been easily avoided by simply following right
processes.
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History of Project Management

Until 1900, civil engineering projects were generally managed by creative architects, engineers,
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and master builders themselves, for example, Vitruvius (first century BC), Christopher Wren (1632–
1723), Thomas Telford (1757–1834) and Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806–1859). It was in the 1950s
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that organisations started to systematically apply Project Management tools and techniques to complex
engineering projects.
As a discipline, Project Management developed from several fields of application including civil
construction, engineering, and heavy defense activities. Two forefathers of Project Management
are Henry Gantt, called the father of planning and control techniques, who is famous for his use of
the Gantt chart as a Project Management tool (alternatively Harmonogram first proposed by Karol
Adamiecki) and Henri Fayol for his creation of the five management functions that form the
foundation of the body of knowledge associated with project and program management. Both Gantt
and Fayol were students of Frederick Winslow Taylor. His work is the forerunner to modern Project
Management tools including work breakdown structure (WBS) and resource allocation.
The 1950s marked the beginning of the modern Project Management era where core engineering
fields come together to work as one. Project Management became recognized as a distinct discipline
arising from the management discipline with engineering model. In the United States, prior to the
1950s, projects were managed on an ad-hoc basis, using mostly Gantt charts and informal techniques
and tools. At that time, two mathematical project-scheduling models were developed. The “Critical
Path Method” (CPM) was developed as a joint venture between DuPont Corporation and Remington
Rand Corporation for managing plant maintenance projects. And the “Program Evaluation and Review
Technique” or PERT, was developed by the United States Navy in conjunction with the Lockheed
Corporation and Booz Allen Hamilton as part of the Polaris missile submarine program.
PERT and CPM are very similar in their approach but have some differences. CPM is used for
projects that assume deterministic activity times; the times at which each activity will be carried out
are known. PERT, on the other hand, allows for stochastic activity times; the times at which each
activity will be carried out are uncertain or varied. Because of this core difference, CPM and PERT are
used in different contexts. These mathematical techniques quickly spread into many private enterprises.
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t = 3 mo
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t = 1 mo
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t = 3 mo t = 3 mo
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10 30 50
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B C

t = 3 mo
t = 4 mo
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Fig. 1
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PERT network chart for a seven-month project with five milestones

At the same time, as project-scheduling models were being developed, technology for project
cost estimating, cost management and engineering economics were evolving, with pioneering work by
Hans Lang and others. In 1956, the American Association of Cost Engineers (nowAACE International;
the Association for the Advancement of Cost Engineering) was formed by early practitioners of
Project Management and the associated specialties of planning and scheduling, cost estimating, and
cost/schedule control (project control). AACE continued its pioneering work and in 2006 released the
first integrated process for portfolio, program and Project Management (Total Cost Management Framework).
The International Project Management Association (IPMA) was founded in Europe in 1967, as a
federation of several national Project Management associations. IPMA maintains its federal structure
today and now includes members from on every continent except Antarctica. IPMA offers a Four
Level Certification program based on the IPMA Competence Baseline (ICB). The ICB covers
technical, contextual, and behavioral competencies.
In 1969, the Project Management Institute (PMI) was formed in the USA. PMI published A
Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide), which describes Project
Management practices that are common to “most projects, most of the time.” PMI also offered
multiple certifications.

Review Questions
Q.1. Short Note
(a) Importance of Project Management.
(b) What is Project Management? Explain why it is necessary.
Q.2. Define project and explain its classification.
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Q.3. Explain brief history in Project Management.

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