PROJECT MANAGEMENT & PLANNING TERMS
Project management is a discipline of planning, organizing and managing resource
to bring about the successful completion of specific project goals and objectives
Project is a unique set of coordinated activities with definite starting and finishing points
undertaken by an individual or organization to meet specific objective with defined
“Schedule” ,’’ Cost”, and Resources (Quality or Performance)
Project criteria are known as CTR which means
C=Cost,
T=time,
R=Resources
The Project development stages or Project Cycle are of 5 elements
which are:
Initiation
Planning(designing)
Execution(production)
Monitoring(controlling)
Closing.
Initiation Stage
This is the 1st stage in the project which includes
Identification of business problems
Solution defined
Feasibility study conducted
Recommendation and Approval
Planning Stage
This is a 2nd Stage in the project which includes:
Project Integration management Plan
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Project scope management plan
Time management Plan
Project cost management Plan
Quality management Plan
Human Resource management Plan
Communication management plan
Risk management plan
Procurement management plan
Execution Stage
This is the 3rd stage in the project which includes:
Coordinating people and Resource
Integration and performing the activities in line with project plan
Project Integration management Plan is primarily concerned with effectively integrating
the processes among the project management processes groups that are required to
accomplish project objectives within an organization's defined procedures.
Project Scope management Plan includes the processes required to ensure that the
project includes all the activities and tasks required to complete the project successfully.
Project scope management is primarily concerned with defining and controlling what is and
is not included in the project.
Time management Plan includes the process required to accomplish timely completion of
the project.
Project cost management Plan includes the processes involved in planning, estimating,
budgeting & controlling cost so that the project can be completed with the approved budget.
Project Quality management Plan include all the activities of the performing organization
that determine quality policies, objectives & responsibilities so that the project will satisfy
the needs for which it was under taken.
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Human Resource management Plan includes the process that organized and manages
the project team. The project team is comprised of the people who have assigned roles &
responsibilities for completing the project.
Communication Management Plan is a groups of processes required to ensure timely
and appropriate development, collection, dissemination, storage, and ultimately, disposition
of project information
Risk management Plan involves identifying, analyzing, and taking steps to reduce or
eliminate the exposures to loss faced by Projects and Organization. Example includes
accidents during the project.
Procurement management Plan includes the processes to purchase or acquire the
product, services or results needed from outside the project team to perform work.
Stakeholders are individuals or groups with an interest in the project, programme or
portfolio because they are involved in the work or affected by the outcomes.
Most projects, programmes and portfolios will have a variety of stakeholders with different,
and sometimes competing, interests. These individuals and groups can have significant
influence over the eventual success or failure of the work.
Stakeholder management is a set of techniques that harnesses the positive influences
and minimizes the effect of the negative influences. It comprises four main steps:
Identify stakeholders;
Assess their interest and influence;
Develop communication management plans;
Engage and influence stakeholders.
Schedule: The timing and sequence of tasks within a project. A schedule consists mainly
of tasks, task dependencies, durations, constraints, and time-oriented project information.
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Slippage: The amount of time that a task has been delayed from its original baseline
plan. The slippage is the difference between the scheduled start or finish date for a task
and the baseline start or finish date
Gantt chart: A view or part of a view that represents project information graphically. For
example, the Gantt chart view consists of a sheet and a chart pane where tasks are
represented as horizontal bars.)
Phase: A group of related tasks that completes a major step in a project.)
Critical task or Activity: A task that must be completed on schedule for the project to
finish on time. If a critical task is delayed, the project completion date might also be
delayed. A series of critical tasks makes up a project's critical path.).
Milestone: A reference point marking a major event in a project and used to monitor the
project's progress. Any task with zero duration is automatically displayed as a milestone;
you can also mark any other task of any duration as a milestone.)
Critical path: The series of tasks that must be completed on schedule for a project to
finish on schedule. Each task on the critical path is a critical task.
The critical path is also the longest path through the network diagram and has the least
amount of slack or float
Slack: The amount of time that a task can slip before it affects another task or the
project's finish date.
Free slack is how much a task can slip before it delays another task.
Total slack is how much a task can slip before it delays the project.)
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Free slack: The amount of time that a task can be delayed without delaying its successor
tasks. For a task without successors, free slack is the amount of time that the task can be
delayed without delaying the finish date of the project.)
Total slack: The amount of time that the finish date of a task can be delayed without
delaying the finish date of the project.)
4 types of Dependencies or Precedence relationship.
Start to start
Finish to start
Start to finish
Finish to finish
Resources: The people, equipment, and material that are used to complete tasks in a
project.)
Techniques for Shortening a Project Schedule
• Shorten durations of critical tasks by adding more resources or changing their scope
• Crashing tasks by obtaining the greatest amount of schedule compression for the
least incremental cost
• Fast tracking tasks by doing them in parallel or overlapping them
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Original
schedule
Shortened
duration thru
crashing
Overlapped
Tasks or fast
tracking
Buffers and Critical Chain
• A buffer is additional time to complete a task
• Critical chain schedule removes buffers from individual tasks and instead creates
– A project buffer, which is additional time added before the project’s due date
– Feeding buffers, which are addition time added before tasks on the critical
path