SWAMI VIVEKANAND SUBHARTI UNIVERSITY

A Project Report on

“PROJECT MANAGEMENT”

&

“TRADE UNION”

Submitted By: Vanshaj Lamba

Roll No. : W13640176
Enrollment No. : W1120626159
Master of Business Administration – Second Year
Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION INVENTORY MANAGEMENT

 1. Introduction
Project management is the application of processes, methods, skills, knowledge and
experience to achieve specific project objectives according to the project acceptance
criteria within agreed parameters. Project management has final deliverables that are
constrained to a finite timescale and budget.
We can also say that, Project management is the use of specific knowledge, skills,
tools and techniques to deliver something of value to people. The development of
software for an improved business process, the construction of a building, the relief
effort after a natural disaster, the expansion of sales into a new geographic market.

PROJECT EVALUTION

Project evaluation is the process of measuring the success of a project, program or

portfolio. This is done by gathering data about the project and using an evaluation
method that allows evaluators to find performance improvement opportunities. Project
evaluation is also critical to keep stakeholders updated on the project status and any
changes that might be required to the budget or schedule.
Every aspect of the project such as costs, scope, risks or return on investment (ROI) is
measured to determine if it’s proceeding as planned. If there are road bumps, this data
can inform how projects can improve. Basically, you’re asking the project a series of
questions designed to discover what is working, what can be improved and whether
the project is useful. Tools such as project dashboards and trackers help in the
evaluation process by making key data readily available.
The project evaluation process has been around as long as projects themselves. But
when it comes to the science of project management, project evaluation can be broken
down into three main types or methods: pre-project evaluation, ongoing evaluation
and post-project evaluation. Let’s look at the project evaluation process, what it
entails and how you can improve your technique.

Project Evaluation Criteria

The specific details of the project evaluation criteria vary from one project or one
organization to another. In general terms, a project evaluation process goes over the
project constraints including time, cost, scope, resources, risk and quality. In addition,
organizations may add their own business goals, strategic objectives and other
metrics.

Project Evaluation Method

There are three points in a project where evaluation is most needed. While you can
evaluate your project at any time, these are points where you should have the process
officially scheduled.
1. Pre-Project Evaluation
In a sense, you’re pre-evaluating your project when you write your project charter to
pitch to the stakeholders. You cannot effectively plan, staff and control a new project
if you’ve first not evaluated it. Pre-project evaluation is the only sure way you can
determine the effectiveness of the project before executing it.

2. Ongoing Project Evaluation

To make sure your project is proceeding as planned and hitting all of the scheduling
and budget milestones you’ve set, it’s crucial that you constantly monitor and report
on your work in real-time. Only by using project metrics can you measure the success
of your project and whether or not you’re meeting the project’s goals and objectives.
It’s strongly recommended that you use project management software for real-time
and ongoing project evaluation.

3. Post-Project Evaluation
Think of this as a postmortem. Post-project evaluation is when you go through the
project’s paperwork, interview the project team and principles and analyse all relevant
data so you can understand what worked and what went wrong. Only by developing
this clear picture can you resolve issues in upcoming projects.
Project Evaluation Steps

Regardless of when you choose to run a project evaluation, the process always has
four phases: planning, implementation, completion and dissemination of reports.

1. Planning
The ultimate goal of this step is to create a project evaluation plan, a document that
explains all details of your organization’s project evaluation process. When planning
for a project evaluation, it’s important to identify the stakeholders and what their
short-and-long-term goals are. You must make sure that your goals and objectives for
the project are clear, and it’s critical to have settled on criteria that will tell you
whether these goals and objects are being met.
So, you’ll want to write a series of questions to pose to the stakeholders. These
queries should include subjects such as the project framework, best practices and
metrics that determine success.
By including the stakeholders in your project evaluation plan, you’ll receive direction
during the course of the project while simultaneously developing a relationship with
the stakeholders. They will get progress reports from you throughout the project’s
phases, and by building this initial relationship, you’ll likely earn their belief that you
can manage the project to their satisfaction.

2. Implementation
While the project is running, you must monitor all aspects to make sure you’re
meeting the schedule and budget. One of the things you should monitor during the
project is the percentage completed. This is something you should do when creating
status reports and meeting with your team. To make sure you’re on track, hold the
team accountable for delivering timely tasks and maintain baseline dates to know
when tasks are due.
Don’t forget to keep an eye on quality. It doesn’t matter if you deliver the project
within the allotted time frame if the product is poor. Maintain quality reviews, and
don’t delegate that responsibility. Instead, take it on yourself.
Maintaining a close relationship with the project budget is just as important as
tracking the schedule and quality. Keep an eye on costs. They will fluctuate
throughout the project, so don’t panic. However, be transparent if you notice a need
growing for more funds. Let your steering committee know as soon as possible, so
there are no surprises.
3. Completion
When you’re done with your project, you still have work to do. You’ll want to take
the data you gathered in the evaluation and learn from it so you can fix problems that
you discovered in the process. Figure out the short- and long-term impacts of what
you learned in the evaluation.

4. Reporting and Disseminating

Once the evaluation is complete, you need to record the results. To do so, you’ll create
a project evaluation report, a document that provides lessons for the future. Deliver
your report to your stakeholders to keep them updated on the project’s progress.
How are you going to disseminate the report? There might be a protocol for this
already established in your organization. Perhaps the stakeholders prefer a meeting to
get the results face-to-face. Or maybe they prefer PDFs with easy-to-read charts and
graphs. Make sure that you know your audience and tailor your report to them.

Benefits of Project Evaluation

Project evaluation is always advisable and it can bring a wide array of benefits to your
organization. As noted above, there are many aspects that can be measured through
the project evaluation process. It’s up to you and your stakeholders to decide the most
critical factors to consider. Here are some of the main benefits of implementing a
project evaluation process.
Better Project Management: Project evaluation helps you easily find areas of
improvement when it comes to managing your costs, tasks, resources and time.
Improves Team performance: Project evaluation allows you to keep track of your
team’s performance and increases accountability.
Better Project Planning: Helps you compare your project baseline against actual
project performance for better planning and estimating.
Helps with Stakeholder Management: Having a good relationship with stakeholders is
key to success as a project manager. Creating a project evaluation report is very
important to keep them updated.

How Project Manager Improves the Project Evaluation Process

To take your project evaluation to the next level, you’ll want Project Manager, an
online work management tool with live dashboards that deliver real-time data so you
can monitor what’s happening now as opposed to what happened yesterday.
With Project Manager’s real-time dashboard, project evaluation is measured in real-
time to keep you updated. The numbers are then displayed in colorful graphs and
charts. Filter the data to show the data you want or to drill down to get a deeper
picture. These graphs and charts can also be shared with a keystroke. You can track
workload and tasks, because your team is updating their status in real-time, wherever
they are and at whatever time they complete their work.
Project evaluation with ProjectManager’s real-time dashboard makes it simple to go
through the evaluation process during the evolution of the project. It also provides
valuable data afterward. The project evaluation process can even be fun, given the
right tools. Feel free to use our automated reporting tools to quickly build traditional
project reports, allowing you to improve both the accuracy and efficiency of your
evaluation process.

Five Critical Success Factors for Project Managers

1. Agree on the project goals. Make sure there is agreement with management, project
sponsors, and other stakeholders on the purpose and goals of the project. What
problem will the project solve? What is the desired end result? What need will the
project fill? Goals should be specific and measurable. Clear measurable goals will
help define the project scope.

2. Develop clearly defined plans with assigned responsibilities and

accountabilities. Developing a plan is more than just entering the tasks into a software
application.  All the deliverables need to be defined along with the necessary tasks to
produce them and any associated risks. Responsibilities should be assigned to the
tasks and deliverables with appropriate due dates and accountabilities.  The planning
process should also include risk management activities and communication
requirements.  Developing the project schedule is only a part of the planning process.

3. Manage the project scope effectively.   The project scope is defined in the goal
setting, and planning stages of a project.  It would be nice if the scope never changed,
but this is the real world!  The project manager must always be on the alert for
changes to the scope and effectively manage those changes.  Are the changes really
necessary for project success or just nice to haves?  What affect will the changes have
on the budget and the schedule?  Has everyone agreed that the change must be done? 
How are the changes tracked?  Managing the scope is one of the more challenging
parts of managing projects.

4.Cultivate constant effective communications.  Determine the communication

channels needed to inform the relevant stakeholders of the progress of the project.
Management and project sponsors may want regular status reports or only the
highlights and the exceptions. Suppliers, clients and/or customers may need
statements of work, contracts, and progress reviews.  The project team will need task
assignments and regular briefings. The frequency and types of communication for
each channel should be defined and managed.  Incorporate this communication plan
into the project plan and then communicate, communicate, communicate!  Many
projects fail because of poor communications.

5. Make sure you have management support.  This ties back to agreeing on clear
project goals.  Management must agree that the project is important, will add value to
the business, or solve a pressing problem.  If management does not see the value of
the project, they will be reluctant to support it.  If management support is missing,
people and funding resources may not be available for the project.  If an organization
has a multitude of projects, management support may be limited to only those key to
the business success.  Lack of management support is a major reason for project
failures.
If you can practice these five critical factors, you will increase the likelihood of
succeeding the next time you manage a project.  In the meantime, I would like to hear
your thoughts about why projects fail or what factors helped you be a successful
project manager.

Critical path method

The critical path method (CPM) is a technique where you identify tasks that are
necessary for project completion and determine scheduling flexibilities. A critical path
in project management is the longest sequence of activities that must be finished on
time in order for the entire project to be complete.
The Critical Path Method (CPM) is a simple but powerful technique for analyzing,
planning, and scheduling large, complex projects. It is used to determine a project’s
critical path—the longest sequence of tasks that must be finished for the entire project
to be complete. 
 CPM, also known as Critical Path Analysis (CPA), identifies dependencies between
tasks, and shows which tasks are critical to a project. 
The Critical Path Method (CPM) is one of the most important concepts in project
management, and certainly among the most enduring. But what is the Critical Path
Method, exactly? This beginner-friendly guide will help you understand the Critical
Path Method and apply it in your projects.
Early iterations of the Critical Path Method can be traced all the way back to the
Manhattan Project in the early 1940s. Given the ambition, scale, and importance of
this world-altering project, scientists - and the managers behind them - developed a
number of techniques to make sure that the project delivered results on time. For
a project management technique, the Critical Path Method has quite an illustrious
history.
One of these techniques was to map out the most important tasks in any project and
use that to estimate the project completion date.

What is the Critical Path Method and what is a Critical Task?

Every project, regardless of its size or budget, has some core tasks that are crucial to
its completion. A task is defined as critical if delaying it will slow down the
completion of the entire project.
Take something as simple as making an omelet.
If you had to create a short recipe for making an omelet, it would look something like
this:
Beat 2 eggs
Heat a pan, add butter/oil when hot
Pour in the beaten eggs and cook for 5 minutes
There are several other tasks you need to perform to make a good omelet. You have to
season the eggs with salt and pepper. Maybe add some vegetables and some cheese.
Perhaps you could flip it on the other side so the eggs are fully cooked through.
However, these activities are in addition to the three core steps in the recipe. Even if
you don’t perform them, you’ll still have an omelet. Not a very good one, but an
omelet nonetheless.
On the other hand, if you forget to beat the eggs, or heat the pan, or cook the eggs,
you won’t have anything but a cold pan and two eggs.
Which is to say, the three steps in the recipe describe the critical tasks necessary to
make the omelet-making project a success.
And the sequence of these steps describes the critical path a new cook must take if he
wants to make an omelet.
This is the Critical Path Method in a nutshell.
Critical Path Method Definition

The Critical Path Method is defined in the Project Management Body of Knowledge
(PMBOK) as follows:
“The Critical Path Method is the sequence of scheduled activities that determines the
duration of the project.”
These scheduled activities must be performed if the project is to be considered a
success. Moreover, they must be completed in a specific order. If you’re building a
house, you can’t construct the walls and then dig the foundation; you have to do it in a
sequence.
The important bit to understand is that the CPM describes the longest sequence of
tasks in the project.
That is, in any project, you’ll have multiple task sequences. The CPM would describe
the sequence that takes the most time.
For example, if you’re building a house, you would have several task sequences as
follows:
Each task takes a different amount of time and resources. It takes more time to build
walls and lay the roof than to install faucets and fixtures.
If you had to figure out the project’s ‘Critical Path’, you would look at the sequence
that takes the most amount of time, like this:
The total time taken to complete the sequence along this critical path would give you
an idea of the project’s minimum duration.
You might undertake several task sequences simultaneously, but if there are any
delays in the critical path sequence, your project will suffer delays as well.
 
The Critical Path Algorithm Explained

At its heart, the Critical Path Method is essentially an algorithm for decision-making.
This algorithm takes a task's start time, its duration, and finish time to figure out
which activities deserve the most attention (i.e. are "critical" for the project).
Let's consider an example to understand the critical path algorithm better.
Suppose you have a list of tasks as shown below. Columns C and D list the tasks that
must be accomplished for the activity to begin, and the duration of the activity,
respectively.

Since the project manager's goal is to complete the project as quickly as possible
(without compromising on quality, of course), we'll try to find the earliest finish time
for each activity.
To do this, organize all tasks into a flowchart and note their durations next to the task
ID. The arrows indicate the sequence of activities. We'll mark the Earliest Start (ES)
time to the left of the activity, and the Earliest Finish (EF) time to the right.:
Mark the Start Time (S) to the left and right of the first activity. Usually, this would be
0.
Now mark the Earliest Start (ES) time of each activity. This is given by the largest
number to the right of the activity's immediate predecessor (i.e. its Earliest Finish
time, or EF).
If the activity has two predecessors, the one with the later EF time would give you the
ES of the activity.

The EF of an activity is given by its Earliest Start time (ES) and its duration (t), i.e.
ES + t.
Thus, if an activity's ES is 20 and will last for 10 days, its EF will be 30.

Mark all these figures in the flowchart.

The longest path will be the “critical path”.
The final figure to the right of the last task in the sequence will give you the minimum
time the project will take to finish.
 
Float or Slack in Project Management
A concept related to, and crucial for using the Critical Path Method is float or slack.
In project management, “float” defines the amount of time a task can be delayed
without causing a delay in:
Any subsequent, dependent tasks - called “free float”
Any delay in the overall project - called “total float”
Any activity or task on the critical path has zero float. That is, you can’t delay it at all
without causing a delay in the project or dependent tasks.
However, there are plenty of other activities in the project that can be delayed. The
quantification of this delay is called the “float”.
For example, when you’re making an omelet, “Heating the pan” has zero float since it
is on the critical path.
Seasoning the eggs, however, has a lot of float. You can add salt to the raw egg
mixture, while the eggs are cooking, and even after they’ve cooked.
Importance of slack should not be understated. Calculating the float or slack of all
activities in the project is crucial for better distribution of resources.
If an activity has high float, you can divert its resources to a higher priority task.
Generally speaking, high float activities will be lower down the priority list, while
those on the critical path (aka ‘zero float’ activities) will get prime attention.
 
DEALING WITH CONTINGENCIES AND CONSTRAINTS

Rare is the project that goes according to plan. You will invariably have delays, scope
changes, and client demands that will force you to hasten some activities and delay
others.
The Critical Path Method includes several measures to deal with such contingencies:

1. Fast Tracking
Fast tracking is the process of running multiple activities on the critical path in
parallel in order to reduce overall project time.
Fast tracking is only possible for activities which don't have "hard" dependencies, i.e.
they don't depend completely on their predecessors to start.
For example, you need to dig the foundation before you can build the walls of a
house. But while you're doing the digging, you can also buy bricks and mix the
cement.
Thus, while "build walls" is dependent on "dig foundation", you can run "buy bricks"
and "mix cement" in parallel to digging the foundation.
Obviously, fast tracking requires additional resources. It can also impact overall
quality since you're distributing resources to multiple tasks. Good resource
management will come in particularly handy in situations where you need to run
activities in parallel.
 
2. Crashing
What if you need to rush an activity because of an early deadline?
In such a situation, you can allocate additional resources to the activity to bring it to
completion faster.
This process is called 'crashing'.
Having a crash durations is useful in activities which:
Benefit from having additional resources, i.e. follow a linear relationship between
resources and time to completion.
Can utilize resources from activities with high floats. Since there is significant "slack"
in these activities, you can delay them without jeopardizing the project
Crashing is generally not recommended barring emergencies since it can impact
activities on and outside the critical path. If you have to do it, however, divert
resources from high float tasks, not those on the critical path.
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF THE CRITICAL PATH METHOD ?

In its September 1963 issue, Harvard Business Review had this to say about the
Critical Path Method:
“Recently added to the growing assortment of quantitative tools for business decision
making is the Critical Path Method—a powerful but basically simple technique for
analyzing, planning, and scheduling large, complex projects.”
Since then, this method has established itself firmly in the theory and practice of
project management. And for good reason - using the Critical Path Method offers
countless benefits:
Reduce delays: The Critical Path Method helps identify the most important sequence
of tasks in a project. Managers can use this information to reduce delays by
optimizing the work along the critical path, proactively preventing delays before they
occur.
Visualize dependencies: The CPM depends on listing all tasks associated with a
project and their dependencies. The chart thus created can help you visualize all
dependencies and prioritize tasks accordingly. Visualizing a Critical Path Method
schedule can also simply give all stakeholders and resources a general roadmap of
what to expect in any given CPM-driven process.
Improve organization: In complex projects, the CPM helps break down deliverables
into sequences, and sequences into tasks. This, along with the focus on visualizing
dependcies, mapping constraints, and defining the critical path of tasks drastically
improves project organization, ultimately making projects more manageable.
Optimize efficiency: By mapping the critical path, project managers get a better idea
of important tasks in the project. They can use this information to allocate
resources more efficiently, adding/removing resources depending on the task's
importance.
Float calculation: Float, as we'll learn below, defines how much a task can be delayed
without impacting the project schedule. This is an important part of the Critical Path
Method. Calculating the float can help you distribute resources more effectively while
being better prepared for any unforeseen issues that may arise at any point throughout
the project.
If you’re a project manager - or aspiring to be one - there is another reason to
understand the Critical Path Method: it is a core part of the PMP exam. You can’t
really hope to be a certified project management professional without a deep
understanding of this method.
In the next section, I’ll do a deep dive into CPM and show you how to use it in your
projects.
 What is Performance Analysis?
Performance Analysis is the process of studying or evaluating the performance of a
particular scenario in comparison of the objective which was to be achieved.
Performance analysis can be do in finance on the basis of ROI, profits etc. In HR,
performance analysis, can help to review an employees contribution towards a project
or assignment, which he/she was allotted.
 
The performance analysis step consists of 3 basic steps:

1. Data Collection: It is a process by which data related to performance of a program

is collected. They are generally collected in a file, it may be presented to a real user in
a real time. The basic data collection techniques are:
a. Profiles: It records the time spent in different parts of the program. This process in
very important for highlighting performance problems. They are gathered
automatically.
b. Counters: It records frequencies or cumulative number of events. It may require
programmer intervention.
c. Event: It records each occurrence of various specified events. It thus produces a
large number of data. It can be produced automatically or with programmer
intervention.

2. Data Transformation: It is applied often to reduce the volume of data. For example,
a profile recording the minutes spent in each sub routine job on each processor might
be transformed to determine minutes spent in each subroutine on each processor and
the standard deviation from this mean.

3. Data Visualization: Although data reduction techniques can recue the volume of

data, it is often necessary to explore raw data. This process can benefit much more
from the use of data visualization techniques.
When a particular tool is selected for a particular task, the following issues are
considered:
a. Accuracy: Performance data that we get using the sampling technique are less
accurate than data we get using counters or timers.
b. Simplicity: The best tools are that collect data automatically without much
programmer intervention.
c. Flexibility: A flexible tool can be extended to collect additional information or to
provide multiple views of the same data.
d. Intrusiveness: We need to take into account the overheads when analyzing data.
e. Abstraction: A good performance tool allows that data to be judged at a level of
abstraction which is suitable for the programming model of parallel programs.
 
The Benefits of Cost Accounting in Project Management

To be successful, business leaders need to have a good understanding of the total

profits and losses for their organization. For even greater success, detailed visibility
into profits and losses for every profit center, department and project within the
business is critical.
Thankfully, with cost accounting functionality in a modern Enterprise Resource
Planning (ERP) system, gaining detailed costing information about your current
operations is easy. With an integrated solution like an ERP, you can better plan your
company’s financials, manage operating costs, support lean accounting and accurately
allocate resources.
Below, we look at the benefits of cost accounting and how modern ERP software can
help businesses like yours better manage project costs, revenues and budgets for your
projects.

The Benefits of Cost Accounting

1. Cost Accounting Helps Businesses Accurately Ascertain Costs

Cost accounting enables management to accurately account for costs by factoring in
both variable and fixed costs. It assists in the cost assessment of all facets of a
business, including the cost of processes, products, projects and contracts. To do this,
cost accounting relies on various techniques such as job costing, standard costing and
process costing.

2. Cost Accounting Can Improve Cost-Efficiency

Perhaps the greatest benefit of implementing cost accounting is its ability to reduce
costs and improve cost-efficiency without reducing the level of production. It can
streamline processes to help identify waste factors, such as wasted time or surplus
resources. Doing so enables you to cut back in key areas and improve the cost-
effectiveness of your operations.
3. Cost Accounting Forms the Foundation of an Effective Budget Plan

Budgets are the most crucial aspect of resource planning, and cost accounting forms
the very foundation of a successful budget. It can provide the framework for
determining the actual cost of all business processes, the cost of each department,
operating costs and production costs. Together, these can be used to inform accurate
budgeting for businesses.

4. Cost Accounting Can Inform Better Decision Making

With cost accounting, you can thoroughly evaluate all strategies within your business,
including cost-volume-profit analysis, investment appraisals, level of production and
the profitability of products. This can improve decision-making abilities, as financial
decisions will be driven by accurate assessments of all financial influences.

5. Cost Accounting Can Guide Pricing

By factoring in all variables such as supply and demand, market conditions and
competing businesses, cost accounting can help in determining appropriate pricing of
products, as well as the cost of producers. Using standard costing is a valuable part of
this process, as it allows you to work with real figures and not estimates. 

6. Cost Accounting Improves Departmental Accountability

By accurately assessing the costs associated with all aspects of business, leaders can
develop targets for each department, as well as periodic milestones. This will improve
financial accountability, providing each department with the blueprint it needs to
remain within its budget.

Why is There a Need For Project Management?

Project consume resources of time and money. Without project management, how
could you tell how many resources have been consumed and were they consumed
productively or effectively for the company? These are the top ten benefits of project
management that will help you to answer the questions.
1. Control Scope Creep and Manage Change
Small changes in demands occur on every project. They come from management, the
customer, your project team, suppliers, or other stakeholders. Individually, they may
appear acceptable, but collectively these project demands can add up to a significant
project expansion (referred to as “scope creep”) that can overrun your budget. With
project management, if the manager effectively manages the scope of their project,
they have a better than even chance of effectively managing project resources — time,
money, etc. — and managing change.
2. Deliver Project Results On Time and On Budget

The project management process starts with a well thought out business case
justification that usually includes some type of cost calculation associated with Return
On Investment (ROI). Once these measures are established, it is up to the project
manager to ensure that on-time, on-budget performance is maintained; otherwise, the
project will never produce the expected results. That’s what good project management
is all about, and why there’s a need for project management.
3. Focus the Project Team on the Solution
The project team can easily drift off topic and spend too much time on the wrong
tasks. A good project manager keeps the project team focused by using a clear and
concise project charter, resolving barriers, or shielding the team from unnecessary
interference.
4. Obtain Project Buy-In from Disparate Groups
As President Lincoln once said, “Public sentiment is everything. With it, nothing can
fail; without it, nothing can succeed.” A good project manager uses the tools in
the initiation phase of project management to collect user requirements, project
constraints, and a feasibility study to build a strong business case justification. Using
input from various sources, the project manager overcomes dissent and obtains buy-
in by communicating the project benefits as the different stakeholder groups see them.
5. Define the Critical Path to Optimally Complete your Project
Every project is made up of a series of connected activities, each of which has its own
constraints. The project manager identifies the critical path of activities — the optimal
sequence of actions that best ensure the project’s successful completion.
6. Provide a Process for Estimating Project Resources, Time, and Costs

Using project management software, previous project experiences, and a solid project
initiation phase can provide the discipline needed to reduce project estimating errors,
increasing the likelihood that the project will finish on time and on budget.
7. Communicate Project Progress, Risks, and Changes
As a project progresses, stakeholders must be kept informed of the outcomes,
changes, stumbling blocks, or successes that the project experiences. The need for
project management exists partly because it creates a project communication plan to
address these communication issues, provide a format, and lay out a process for
execution.
8. Surface and Explore Project Assumptions
All projects are based on assumptions to some extent. A good project manager delves
into user requirements, project constraints, and management expectations to
understand what is said and what is not said. Relying on too many unconfirmed
assumptions can invalidate a project schedule or, worse, sink the project.

9. Prepare for Unexpected Project Issues

Every project runs into unforeseen issues, such as changes in market conditions, and
is hit with random cause variability. Experienced project managers plan for the
unexpected by lining up alternative courses of action.
10. Document, Transfer, and Apply Lessons Learned from Your Projects
The last phase of project management focuses on “closing out” the project. The
project manager reviews how well each prior phase — project initiation, project
planning, project execution, and project monitoring and control — was performed. As
part of good knowledge management, all project review notes should be dissected and
analyzed for patterns, trends, and opportunities for improvement. These “lessons
learned” should be documented and communicated to other project managers before
starting the next project.