UNIT – IV

PROJECT MANAGEMENT
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.
Characteristics of Project Management
Some of the important characteristics of project management are
 Objectives
Every project is started with some objective or goal viz. time, budget, quality,
and quantity, when objectives are fulfilled project cause existing. You can initially
define the objectives of the project what actually need to achieve. Objectives are the
key characteristics of the project where you will see the progress of the project and
time to time analysis will show you the result of how much you have achieved.
 Single entity
A project is one whole thing. This means that in a project although different
people contribute still is recognized as a single entity. The teams are often specifically
assembled for a single project.
 Life Span
No project can be ceaseless and indefinite. It must have one and beyond which
it cannot proceed. Every project is invariably time-bound. At the time of planning,
you will see the time phase of the project where the team can work independently on
the project modules. Let’s consider an example project that is divided into three
modules let’s say A, B, and C. If the total time span of a project is 5 months then you
can set the time span for modules independently like A can complete in 2 months and
also B can complete in 2 months and C can complete in 1 month as per requirement.
 Require funds
Every project needs funds to reach the endpoint. Without adequate funds, no
project can be successfully implemented. Cost estimation is one of the essential
factors for any organization. So, calculating in advance the required funds for the
project will be very impactful.
 Life Cycle
Each project has a life cycle with different stages like start, growth, maturity,
and decay. A project has to pass through different stages to get itself completed. Let’s
consider an example where the project is related to software development then you
can say SDLC (Software Development lifecycle) will be the life cycle of the project
where you will see many stages like planning, defining, designing, building, testing,
and deployment, etc.
 Team Spirit
Team spirit is required to get the project completed because the project
constitutes different members having different characteristics and from various
disciplines. But to achieve common goal harmony, missionary zeal, team spirit is
necessary.
 Risk and Uncertainty
The project is generally based on forecasting. So risk and uncertainty are
always associated with projects. There will be a high degree of risk in those project
which are not properly defined. Only the degree of control over risk and uncertainty
varies with the project being conceived based on information available.
 Directions
Project is always performed according to the directions given by the customers
with regard to time, quality and quantity, etc. The convenience of the supply sides of
economics such as labor availability ore resources and managerial talent etc. are all
secondary concerns, primary being the customer requirement.
 Uniqueness
Each project is unique in itself, and it’s having own features. No two projects
are similar even if the type of organization is the same. The uniqueness of the project
can measure by considering the many factors like objectives, features of the project,
application of the project, etc.
 Flexibility
Change and project are synonymous. A project sees many changes throughout
its life span. These changes can make projects more dynamic and flexible.
 Sub-Contracting
Sub-contracting is a subset of every project and without which no project can
be completed unless it is a proprietary firm or tiny in nature. The more complexity of
 a project the more will be the extent of contracting. Every project needs the help of an
outsider consultant, engineer, or expert in that field.
 Cost
If the quality of the project is to be changed there could be an impact on the
cost of the project. The cost could increase if more resources are required to complete
the project quicker.
Need for Project Management
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.
Advantages of Project Management
 The first and foremost advantage is the fact that a particular project is handled by
separate project manager as he or she will concentrate only on that particular project
that makes it more likely to achieve success.
 Another pro of project management is that it helps the company in achieving
efficiency when it comes to capital, labor, and other operational related expenses as it
keeps a close watch on all the activities of the project which in turn helps the
management in identifying the areas which are revenue leaking and helps the
company in saving lot of capital.
 It helps the company in developing managerial qualities in talented people by
assigning them first small projects and then big projects which in turn create a
favorable atmosphere in the company where people know that there is ample scope
for growth.
 Project management creates a system whereby workflow is measured and accounted
for, ensuring that resources are used judiciously in fulfilling the goals of the project.
This type of planning establishes expectations for staffers, provides clear directives
and builds in procedures for quickly addressing unexpected outcomes.
 Managing projects from start to finish can help control project costs and help a project
manager retain control over his budget, identifying problems or issues before they
turn into roadblocks. This can also help a business ensure on-time delivery, retain
satisfied customers and project an image of competence and professionalism.
 Effective project managers make determinations about appropriate staffing and team
formation in the early stages of project planning. This can help ensure the right people
with the most appropriate skill sets are assigned to tasks within the project, allowing
the company to use its human resources judiciously and effectively.
Disadvantages of Project Management
 The biggest disadvantage of project management is that sometimes it leads to
overlapping of authority and responsibility between the top management and project
management where they have different plans in mind which leads to confusion among
the team members of project and further project suffering.
 Another con of project management is that it may be possible that there is no
competent staff to carry the responsibility of project manager and if management
selects incompetent staff then project will be a failure leading to losses for the
company.
 Another limitation of project management is that suppose the company is working on
10 projects simultaneously then it will require 10 project managers to handle those
projects which is not possible if the company is small and ultimately all projects are
handled by either single project manager or top management itself and thus limiting
the use of project management.
 Overhead. Project Management presents 3 types of overhead: cost overhead,
communication overhead, and time overhead. Cost overhead: Project Management
(that includes hiring, training, etc.) costs money. Communication overhead: Instead of
having the information flow directly from functional managers down to the team
members and back up, it’s all funneled through the Project Manager. Time Overhead:
The communication overhead stated above is one cause of time overhead. For
example, once the requirements are discovered to be false, the team members have to
scrap the implemented part based on the wrong requirements, the Project Manager has
to re-gather the requirements, and finally pass them again to team members for
implementation. Additionally, Project Managers can never accurately assess the
length of any task, and pad their estimates so that they won’t wind up with a late
project.
 Obsession. Methodology obsession: Instead of just “getting the project done”, some
Project Managers become so closed and so protective their own methodology that
they refuse to experiment with another one that might be faster and better for their
current project. Process obsession: Quite a few Project Managers hinder the progress
of the project with their obsession for sticking to the process because of Insecurity and
Fear of loss of control. Stakeholder obsession: Instead of managing the stakeholders’
expectations, requests, and interference, and focusing on getting their support, these
Project Managers try their best to accommodate the stakeholders that is costly and
needless.
Forms of Project management
There are seven primary ones that get used the most often.
1. Waterfall Project Management
 Waterfall project management is easily one of the oldest methods, but still
used by many development teams. This style involves working in waves, with
each step being heavily dependent on the one before it.

While waterfall style is much slower than its counterparts, it can be useful for
those looking to have a lot of structure or predictability. Unfortunately, it can
result in numerous hang-ups, especially if bugs are detected during a later step in
the process and previous steps must be revisited.
2. Agile Project Management
Agile is a faster and more versatile solution to the dated waterfall model. Agile
isn't a precise project management methodology, but a mindset or ethos that is
applied to other versions of project management. It involves working in smaller
chunks, or sprints, that allow projects to pivot when needed.
3. Scrum Project Management
Scrum is the epitome of agile. It's fast, very small in scope, and able to turn on
a dime. Scrum is all about using sprints to accomplish projects in small pieces,
often based on a one-month timetable. Scrum is great for smaller teams that are
looking to iterate quickly.
4. Kanban Project Management
Kanban is another variant of agile project management. Unlike Scrum, which
is focused on time-based pieces, Kanban is all about organization. To accomplish
this, Kanban looks primarily at the number of tasks that go into any process and
how they can be streamlined, reduced, and so on. This is an especially great model
for those with a factory-like output that doesn't vary.
5. Lean Project Management
Lean management is similar to Kanban in that it's all about process, but it has
an even higher emphasis on trimming the fat. Lean is all about focusing on a
customer-first mindset and how processes can be stripped away to deliver the best,
most affordable, timely experience for customers.
6. Six Sigma Project Management
The Six Sigma method focuses on improving the quality of a project's output.
This is especially helpful if you've undergone a lean management style and found
the end result less than satisfactory, as Six Sigma emphasizes creating a better end
 result for the customer. This method can be tacked onto other management styles,
and is a great way to refine.
7. PRINCE2 Project Management
The PRINCE2 method is often used by private sectors in the government, and
is focused on efficiency and minimizing risks and errors. This detail-focused
method is all about chunking projects up into product-based steps that can be
tackled one at a time, ensuring no stone is unturned anywhere in the process.
Project Planning
Project planning is a discipline addressing how to complete a project in a certain
timeframe, usually with defined stages and designated resources. One view of project
planning divides the activity into these steps:
1. Think of your plan as a roadmap for stakeholders
Every project needs a roadmap with clearly defined goals that should not
change after the first phase of the project has been completed. All stakeholders
benefiting from the outcome or involved in executing the project should be named
and their needs stated during the initial project planning process.
2. Break the project into a list of deliverables
Develop a list of all deliverables. This list should break down the larger
project into smaller tasks that can be assigned to specific team members, and you
should include estimated deadlines associated with each deliverable or task.
3. Talk to your team
Identify by name all individuals and/or organizations involved in each
deliverable or task, and describe their responsibilities in detail. Otherwise,
miscommunication can lead to delays and situations where team members may have
to redo their work.
4. Identify risks
Determine the risks involved in your project. Think through what you’ll do if
something takes much longer than expected, or if costs end up being much more than
you initially anticipated.
5. Create a budget
Attached to your list of milestones and deliverables should be information
about the project cost and estimated budget. Resist the urge to assign large dollar
amounts to big projects without identifying exactly how the money is intended to be
spent. This will help your team understand the resources they have to work with to get
 the job done. When you’re setting your initial budget, these numbers might be ranges
rather than absolutes.
6. Add milestones
Use your list of deliverables as a framework for adding milestones and tasks
that will need to be completed to accomplish the larger goal. Establish reasonable
deadlines, taking into account project team members’ productivity, availability, and
efficiency.
7. Set progress reporting guidelines
These can be monthly, weekly, or daily reports. Ideally, a collaborative
workspace should be set up for your project online or offline where all parties can
monitor the progress. Make sure you have a communication plan—document how
often you’ll update stakeholders on progress and how you’ll share information—like
at a weekly meeting or daily email.
Project Control
Project Controls is a process that encompasses the resources, procedures, and tools for
the planning, monitoring, and controlling of all phases of the capital project lifecycle. This
includes estimating, cost and schedule management, risk management, change management,
earned value progressing, and forecasting.
Importance of Project Control
Some reasons why projects might go off track without project controls include:
 People: Without project controls, questions may arise about who’s available to work
on a project, who’s in charge of which roles and responsibilities, and who should take
ownership of specific tasks during project development.
 Quality: The project control process ensures that expectations are met, items in every
project phase are complete, and everything works along the way.
 Cost: When the project cost isn’t controlled, unforeseen fees may occur because of
changes from stakeholders or miscalculations during project planning.
 Time: Monitoring project time prevents issues like schedule delays, shifting
priorities, and clashes in resources, which can lead to unsatisfactory project results.
Project Management Controls
1. Schedule
Increasing visibility into your project schedule helps you know you’re
proceeding along your project timeline. To do this, make sure you’re tracking all of
 your project work in one place, like a project management tool. That way, you can get
at-a-glance insight into your tasks, deadlines, and dependencies. Plus, you can put
project milestones in place as checkpoints to gauge your progress.

2. Resource
Every project depends on resources—things like time, money, or project team
member availability. Resource management is a critical part of the project control
process because it is your team’s chance to effectively control costs and monitor your
available time and materials. Cost estimating and resource planning during project
initiation can also help you stay within budget.
3. Risk
Project risk management is a crucial project control to proactively identify and
prevent risks from derailing your project. The best way to do this is with a risk
register, where you rank potential risks by priority and assess how to manage them
accordingly.
4. Change
Change control is one of the best ways to prevent project scope creep, which
can lead to timeline delays, increased budget, and project defects. When you
implement a change control process, you’ll feel prepared for any project changes that
come your way.
5. Performance
Performance management is the broad process of monitoring your project’s
success. The simplest way to do this is to set key performance indicators (KPIs) to
assess project performance. These may include tracking costs against baselines, on-
time completion, billed hours, and return on investment.
Human Aspects of Project Management
One of the biggest challenges project managers face is balancing, organizing, winning,
overcoming, placating, supporting, guiding, leading, and as appropriate, modifying the
human aspects involved with the project. The key areas to be addressed include:
 Project sponsorship and leadership
 The organization structure and culture
 The project team
 Communication
The Network of Relationships
Pre-requisites for successful Project Implementation
The more important ones appear to be as follows –
1. Adequate formulation:
often project formulation is deficient because of one or more of the following
shortcoming:
 Superficial field investigation;
 A cursory assessment of input requirements;
 Slip-shod methods used for estimating costs and benefits;
 An omission of project linkages;
 Flawed judgments because of the lack of experience of expertise;
 Undue hurry to get started;
 Deliberate over-estimation of benefits and under-estimation of costs.
2. Sound project organization:
A sound organization for implementing the project is critical to its success. The
characteristics of such an organization are:
 It is led by a competent leader who is accountable for the project performance;
 The authority of the project leader and his team is commensurate with their
responsibility;
 Adequate attention is paid to the human side of the project;
 Systems and methods are clearly defined;
 Rewards and penalties to individuals are related to performance.
3. Project implementation planning:
Once the investment decision is taken and often even while the formulation and
appraisal are being done, it is necessary to do detailed implementation planning before
commencing the actual implementation. Such planning should seek to:
  Develop a comprehensive time plan for various activities like land acquisition, tender
evaluation, recruitment of personnel, constriction of the building, erection of plant,
arrangement for utilities, trial production run, run, etc.
 Estimate meticulously the resources requirements (manpower, materials, money, etc.)
for each period to realize the time plan;
 Define properly the inter-linkages between various activities of the project;
 Specify cost standards.

4. Advance action:
When the project appears prima facie to be variable and desirable, advance action on
the following activities may be initiated:
a) Acquisition of land,
b) Securing essential clearance,
c) Identify technical collaborators/consultants,
d) Arranging for infrastructure facilities,
e) Preliminary design and engineering, and,
f) Calling of tenders.
5. Timely availability of funds:
Once a project is approved, adequate funds must be made available to meet its
requirements as per the plan of implementation, it would be highly desirable if funds are
provided even before the final approval to initiate advance action.
6. Judicious equipment tendering and procurement:
To minimize time over-runs, it may appear that a turnkey contract has obvious
advantages. Since these contracts are likely to be bagged by foreign suppliers, when
global tenders are floated, a very important question arises. How much should we rely on
foreign suppliers and how much should we depend on indigenous suppliers? It should
focus sharply on the critical aspects of project implementation. It must lay more emphasis
on physical milestones and not on financial targets.
Network Techniques of Project Management
PERT and CPM are techniques of Project management useful in the basic managerial
functions of planning, scheduling and control. PERT stands for Programme Evaluation and
Review Technique and CPM are the abbreviation for Critical Path Method. These days the
projects undertaken by business houses are very large and take number of years before
commercial production can start.
The techniques of PERT and CPM help greatly in completing the various jobs on
schedule. They minimize production delays, interruptions and conflicts. These techniques are
very helpful in coordinating various jobs of the total project and thereby expedite and achieve
completion of project on time.

Project Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT):

PERT is appropriate technique which is used for the projects where the time required
or needed to complete different activities are not known. PERT is majorly applied for
scheduling, organization and integration of different tasks within a project. It provides the
blueprint of project and is efficient technique for project evaluation .
Creating a PERT Chart
A flowchart is used to depict the Project Evaluation Review Technique. Nodes
represent the events, indicating the start or end of activities or tasks. The directorial lines
indicate the tasks that need to be completed, and the arrows show the sequence of the
activities.
There are four definitions of time used to estimate project time requirements:
 Optimistic time – The least amount of time it can take to complete a task
 Pessimistic time – The maximum amount of time it should take to complete a task
 Most likely time – Assuming there are no problems, the best or most reasonable
estimate of how long it should take to complete a task.
 Expected time – Assuming there are problems, the best estimate of how much time
will be required to complete a task.
Terms used in PERT chart
 Float/Slack – Refers to the amount of time a task can be delayed without resulting in
an overall delay in completion of other tasks or the project
 Critical Path – Indicates the longest possible continuous path from the start to the
end of a task or event
 Critical Path Activity – Refers to an activity without any slack
  Lead Time – Refers to the amount of time needed to finish a task without affecting
subsequent tasks
 Lag Time – The earliest time by which a successor event/task can follow a prior
event/task
 Fast Tracking – Refers to handling tasks or activities in parallel
 Crashing Critical Path – Shortening the amount of time to do a critical task

Implementation of PERT Chart

 Identify the different tasks needed to complete a project. Make sure to add these in the
right order and indicate the duration of each task.
 Create a network diagram. Use arrows to represent the activities and use nodes as
milestones.
 Determine the critical path and possible slack.
Advantages of PERT
Here are several benefits of using PERT in project management:
 It helps maximize the use of resources.
 It makes project planning more manageable.
 It’s useful even if there is little or no previous schedule data.
 It enables project managers to better estimate or determine a more definite completion
date.
Disadvantages of PERT
Like any other method, PERT comes with its share of limitations:
 In complex projects, many find PERT hard to interpret, so they may also use a Gantt
Chart, another popular method for project management.
 It can be tedious to update, modify, and maintain the PERT diagram.
 It entails a subjective time analysis of activities and, for those who are less
experienced or are biased, this may affect the project’s schedule.
Critical Path Method (CPM):
 CPM is a technique which is used for the projects where the time needed for
completion of project is already known. It is majorly used for determining the approximate
time within which a project can be completed. Critical path is the largest path in project
management which always provide minimum time taken for completion of project.
Why to use CPM?
 Improves future planning: CPM can be used to compare expectations with actual
progress. The data used from current projects can inform future project plans.
 Facilitates more effective resource management: CPM helps project managers
prioritize tasks, giving them a better idea of how and where to deploy resources.
 Helps avoid bottlenecks: Bottlenecks in projects can result in lost valuable time.
Plotting out project dependencies using a network diagram, will give you a better idea
of which activities can and can’t run in parallel, allowing you to schedule accordingly.
CPM Key Elements
Before we learn the steps to calculate the critical path, we’ll need to understand some
key CPM concepts.
 Earliest start time (ES): This is simply the earliest time that a task can be started in
your project. You cannot determine this without first knowing if there are any task
dependencies
 Latest start time (LS): This is the very last minute in which you can start a task
before it threatens to delay your project schedule
 Earliest finish time (EF): The earliest an activity can be completed, based on its
duration and its earliest start time
 Latest finish time (LF): The latest an activity can be completed, based on its
duration and its latest start time
 Float: Also known as slack, float is a term that describes how long you can delay a
task before it impacts its task sequence and the project schedule. The tasks on the
critical path have zero float, because they can’t be delayed.
Critical Path Examples
Here’s an example of a CPM diagram. Although it’s high-level, it can help you
visualize the meaning of a critical path for a project schedule. For now, we’ll use this critical
path diagram to explain the elements that make up the CPM method.
 As you can see in this critical path diagram, project activities are represented by
letters and the critical path is highlighted in green. Tasks F, G and H are non-critical activities
with float or slack. We can also identify task dependencies between the critical path
activities, and also between activities (A, F and G) or (A, H and E), which are parallel tasks.

Steps in identifying Critical path

Here’s how to calculate the critical path in 8 steps.
1) Collect Project Activities
Use a work breakdown structure to collect all the project activities that lead to the
final deliverable.
2) Identify Task Dependencies
Figure out which tasks are dependent on other tasks before they can begin.
Use your judgement and your team members’ feedback. Failing to define task
dependencies correctly makes the critical path method useless.
3) Create a Critical Path Diagram
A critical path analysis chart, or network diagram, depicts the order of
activities.
4) Estimate Timeline
To use the critical path method, you’ll need to estimate the duration of each
task. Use data from past projects and other sources of information such as subject
matter experts.
5) Use the Critical Path Algorithm
The critical path algorithm has two parts; a forward pass and a backwards
pass.
Forward Pass
 Use the network diagram and the estimated duration of each activity to
determine their earliest start (ES) and earliest finish (EF). The ES of an activity is
equal to the EF of its predecessor, and its EF is determined by the formula EF = ES +
t (t is the activity duration). The EF of the last activity identifies the expected time
required to complete the entire project.
Backward Pass
Begins by assigning the last activity’s earliest finish as its latest finish. Then
the formula to find the LS is LS = LF – t (t is the activity duration). For the previous
activities, the LF is the smallest of the start times for the activity that immediately
follows.
6) Identify the Float or Slack of Each Activity
Use this formula to determine the float or slack of each task. Float = LS – ES
7) Identify the Critical Path
The activities with 0 float make up the critical path. All of these critical path
activities are dependent tasks except for the first task in your CPM schedule. All
project tasks with positive slack are parallel tasks to the critical path activities.
8) Revise During Execution
Continue to update the critical path network diagram as you go through the
execution phase. These critical path analysis steps determine what tasks are critical
and which can float, meaning they can be delayed without negatively impacting the
project schedule. Now you have the information you need to plan the critical path
schedule more accurately and have more of a guarantee you’ll meet your project
deadline.