Introduction to Project Management

1. Introduction to Project Management By Dr. Muhammad Elrabaa

2. General Project Map • Build a plan: • Define a project • Plan project activities  • Plan for and procure resources  • Plan project costs  • Plan for quality and risks  • Plan communication and security  • Optimize a project plan  • Distribute a project plan  

3. Track and manage a project: • Track progress   • Manage a schedule  • Manage resources  • Manage costs   • Manage scope  • Manage risks • Report project status • Close a project: • Review final project information

4. Defining Project Objectives • Define a clear, specific and measurable project objective. Avoid vague objectives such as "Create state-of-the-art deliverables." • A project's objectives may include: • A list of project deliverables. A deliverable is a tangible and measurable result, outcome, or item that must be produced to complete a project or part of a project. Both, project team and project stakeholders must agree on the deliverables before the project can start. Stakeholders are individuals or organizations that are actively involved in the project or whose interests might be affected by the project.

5. Contd. • Specific due dates, both for the ultimate completion of the project and for intermediate milestones. Milestones are reference points marking major events in a project and are used to monitor the project’s progress • Specific quality criteria that must meet. • To begin planning, you make educated guesses and then use those estimates to create your schedule. Project stakeholders can critique them and then formally agree to a set of project assumptions. Update the schedule when you have additional information on these factors.

6. Scope Time Cost • Contd. • List your project's constraints to ensure that all project stakeholders are aware of them and have the opportunity to comment on the list.  Your projects have a specific finish date, scope and perhaps budget (project triangle). • The project's scope is the combination of all project goals and tasks, and the work required to accomplish them.

7. Planning project activities • Define phases and create a task list • A task is a specific activity that has a quantifiable (measurable) outcome and a duration (a beginning and an end). A project is made up of tasks. • A phase is a group of related tasks that complete a major step in the project • A milestone is a reference point marking a major event in a project and used to monitor the project’s progress. • Show the project's organization (using task charts, Gantt charts, network diagrams …etc.) • Organize a project into a master project and subproject files

8. Contd. • Estimate task durations • Set task dependencies and constraints • There are many types of task relationships (e.g. one task can only start when another finishes because it depends on its outcome) • Identify and monitor critical paths (sequence of interdependent tasks that might cause project delays/incompletion) • Create interrelationships between projects (if they exist)