Project management course : notes

MODULE1:

 Let's start by defining exactly what a project : A project is a unique endeavor, and
usually includes a set of unique deliverables. It's also a temporary pursuit, it has a
defined beginning and an end. Project management is the application of knowledge,
skills, tools, and techniques to meet the project requirements and achieve the
desired outcome.
 Poor project management can lead to 48% of projects missing delivery dates, 43%
missing budget targets, and 31% failing to meet an organization's goals.
 many of our project managers ( at google) are described as program managers
because they manage multiple projects for specific products, teams, or programs.
 What project managers do on a day-to-day basis : Project managers usually follow a
process that involves planning and organizing, managing tasks, budgeting, controlling
costs and other factors. You 'll use different tools, techniques and methodologies
every single day. To ensure that project delivers the expected outcome.
 Creating project plans is a key part of project management. It helps set the tone of
the project, keeps everyone on pace and aligned, and helps move tasks along.
 Managing tasks : Once the project is underway, the project manager helps manage
tasks for the team members and communicates key milestones to the larger team or
customers. This helps keep team members, and customers updated on how the
project is progressing.
 budgeting and controlling costs and other factors : Managing the budget and
controlling costs is a common responsibility that project managers have to
understand to keep the project on track and within budget.
 A project manager can add value in many different ways. Whether that's creating a
new service for customers or modifying an old service so it's more tailored to the
customer's needs. No matter what the task is, a successful project will always add
value. And it's the project manager's job to make sure that project is both valuable
and successful.

Les Gestionnaires de programme : Gèrent un groupe de projets qui sont liés ou similaires les uns aux
autres et s'occupent de la coordination de ces projets. Ils facilitent une communication efficace entre
les différents gestionnaires de projet et apportent leur soutien si nécessaire. Ils contribuent
également à la création et à la gestion d'objectifs à long terme pour leur organisation.

Les gestionnaires de portefeuille : Ils sont responsables de la gestion d'un groupe de programmes
connexes au sein d'une même organisation. Ils coordonnent divers programmes afin de s'assurer
qu'ils sont sur la bonne voie et que l'organisation respecte ses initiatives stratégiques. Les
gestionnaires de portefeuille examinent tous les projets et programmes au sein de l'organisation et
établissent des priorités si nécessaire.

Using buzzwords in your job search : lien du doc

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MODULE2:

what a project manager is and how they use prioritization, delegation, and effective communication
to deliver value to their organizations :

 Project managers add value to their teams and organizations through effective prioritization
of tasks required to complete a project. They're experts at helping team members identify
and break down large tasks into smaller steps.
 Project managers use delegation to add value to their teams and organizations by matching
tasks to individuals who can best complete the work.
 Project managers deliver value through effective communication, both with their team and
with key stakeholders. This refers to being transparent, which means being up front with
plans and ideas and making information readily available.
 In addition to keeping up with teammates, project managers keep in regular contact with
people outside of the team, like company leaders who are invested in the project outcomes.

How project managers impact organizations:

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The roles and responsibilities of a project manager :

 One responsibility that falls under the umbrella of planning and organizing is making use of
productivity tools and creating processes. During the planning and execution of a project, you
might need to use certain tools and develop processes to improve information sharing across
the team; you may also need to create plans, timelines, schedules, and other forms of
documentation to track project completion, and you'll usually need to maintain those
documents throughout the entirety of the project.
 The next task is budgeting and controlling costs, and other factors. As the project is
underway, changes to the plan and budget are bound to come up. Believe me. This will
require you to monitor and manage the budget, track issues and risks as they arise, and
 manage quality by mitigating those issues and risks. One way to do this is by removing
unforeseen barriers that come up.
 Another huge piece of the project manager's role is managing tasks. A project task is an
activity that needs to be accomplished within a set period of time by you, your team, or your
stakeholders. Keeping track of tasks is a great way to help manage the team's workload and
ensure that things are getting done. Keeping track of tasks is also a great tool for
demonstrating progress to people outside the immediate team, like your stakeholders.

Responsibilities that utilize interpersonal skills

Interpersonal skills are the behaviors you use to interact with others, such as communication,
active listening, and leadership.

Teaching and mentoring : When you take the time to fully explain the expectations, you eliminate
rework, confusion, and frustration. Mentoring and teaching others the lessons that you, as a project
manager, have learned allows your team to make better choices and build on your experience.

Building relationships : Taking the time to build relationships with your customers, clients, vendors,
and other stakeholders is equally important. Dedicate time to check in with people. Pay attention to
the insights they offer you about their work style since their actions can inform how to most
effectively interact with them.

Controlling change : As a project manager, you need to remain flexible and adjust to the
stakeholders’ needs. However, it is also important to protect your team from constant change and
rework. A good way to do this is by documenting the initial expectations of the project and clearly
identifying the changes being requested. It is also helpful to understand the budget and schedule
impact of the changes and make sure that the stakeholders understand those impacts. As the project
manager, you are responsible for protecting your team.
Empowering your team : Another way you can empower your team is by delegating responsibilities
to them, allowing them to make some decisions for the project, and using their input in the planning
and execution of the project. Effective mentoring often leads to more empowered teams.

Communicating status and concerns : The project manager sets the tone for the project. Maintaining
an open door policy and building trust within your team and among stakeholders—all while staying
positive—will help the success of the project.

A project manager’s role within a team:

 First, you'll need to hold all team members accountable for their assigned tasks.
Managing tasks will help you hold your team members accountable by giving them
ownership over specific pieces of the project.
 Second, you'll need to ensure that issues and risks are tracked and visible, and be able
to establish escalation paths. Now by escalation paths, I mean that you should know
how you will communicate risks to the right people at the right time.
 Third, you'll need to understand and help teammates adopt the right workflows and
project management styles. As the project manager, you'll likely have the best idea of
which style is best for the work. It's your job to ensure that the team adheres to that
style and the other systems in place.
 And fourth, you'll need to collaborate with other teams at the organization to meet the
requirements based on project, scope, schedule, and budget. In other words, a project
may affect not only your team, but other teams at an organization, as well as, say, the
marketing or the finance team. So you'll need to work with those teams to ensure that
everyone is happy with the project outcomes.

Working with cross-functional teams :

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Core skills of a project manager :

 Enabling decision-making : You can help team members feel empowered from the
start of your project by making the decision-making process collaborative. For
example, state the goals of specific deliverables and elicit input from your team on
how to achieve those goals. You may have an idea of how you would like certain tasks
to be accomplished, but your team members may have more creative or efficient
approaches. Empowering your team to express their opinions and make their own
decisions allows you to focus on the overarching management tasks and prioritize
them in order of importance. Additionally, when you allow team members to have a
voice in decisions, it helps foster an environment of responsibility, accountability, and
team closeness.
 Communicating and escalating : Project management requires clearly communicating
project goals and expectations, team member roles and responsibilities, and constructive
 feedback. Knowing how to effectively communicate and when to escalate issues to
management is key to keeping you, your team, and your organization on the path to success.
When escalation is required, try to approach management with both the problem and the
potential solution or suggestions. This will show that you’re taking initiative as a project
manager.
 Strong organizational skills : If you demonstrate that it is important for you, as a leader, to
stay organized through efficient tracking and communications, your team will follow suit. One
way to do this is by utilizing the abundance of organizational tools available, such as:
 Planning and scheduling software (templates, workflows, calendars)
 Collaboration tools (email, collaboration software, dashboards)
 Documentation (files, plans, spreadsheets)
 Quality assurance tools (evaluations, productivity trackers, reports)
 You may need to experiment with different organizational approaches to determine what
works best for you and your team.

 Flexibility : All project managers need the ability to adapt and overcome changes and
challenges. Let’s further explore why flexibility is such a critical project management skill and
discuss how it can help prepare your team for change, mitigate risks, and handle ambiguity.
Change is inevitable, and the more flexible you are as a project manager, the more successful
you will be throughout your career. These flexible planning strategies can help you manage
your project during times of unpredictability:
 Assess external constraints. When planning your project, take external events into account,
such as national holidays and team member vacations and sick leave. Leaving extra time in
the schedule for these inevitable events up front can help minimize the impact to your
project.
 Plan for risks and challenges. If you consider the risks that may occur, you may be able to find
solutions for them in advance. For example, what if someone on your team gets sick or
decides to quit? Are you able to replace them within the company? If not, can you hire an
independent contractor? Come up with a list of people who may be able to join your team if
one of your team members becomes unavailable. You can also assess risks by looking at
historical data. Review your past projects and examine the challenges you faced. Then
evaluate if similar challenges could occur in this project and prepare accordingly. We will
discuss risk management at length later in this program.
 Calculate “float” in your schedule. Float, or slack, refers to the amount of time you can wait
to begin a task before it impacts the project schedule and threatens the project outcome.
Identifying float in your schedule can help with resource management, scheduling, and
keeping your project on track. You will learn more about calculating float in a later course,
when we discuss creating a critical path for your project tasks.

Handling ambiguity : Ambiguity can be a big challenge in managing projects. Project managers often
face ambiguity in goals, requirements, schedules, vision, or other areas related to the project. Your
team will look to you to lead during times of ambiguity and change, and flexibility is especially
important during these instances. Here are some different ways to help your team deal with
ambiguity:

 Keep calm. In uncertain times, handling ambiguity with grace and poise will help inspire the
members of your team to do the same.
  Express empathy. As a project manager, it is important to try to understand what your team is
thinking and feeling, especially during times of ambiguity. Let your team members know that
you care about the challenges they are facing and are there to support them.

 Communicate what you know clearly. Define the aspects of the project that are confirmed
and will not change. This helps your team get a better sense of what to expect, regardless of
any aspects of the project that are still unknown or changing.

 Make decisions and stick to them. Try not to second-guess your decisions in front of your
team since this can lead to greater uncertainty. If you need to change course, clearly explain
why you have chosen to do so to your team.

 Trust the expertise of your team. Increase clarity by having everyone on your team discuss
what they already know or believe to be true about components of your project, such as
what is involved in specific tasks or resources needed, based on their areas of expertise.
Then, discuss what you still don’t know and brainstorm ways to gather more information.

An event planning team of five is tasked with planning a corporate retreat for a business with 85
employees. This retreat involves hundreds of to-dos, a large budget, client-initiated changes, and
important discussions with the client. The project manager knows there is a lot to do, and they are
ready to lead the way.

Right from the beginning of the project, the project manager creates a spreadsheet to track what
needs to get done in the project, and what teammates are working on. They also send status update
emails twice per week to the stakeholders.

The project has a $100,000 budget. There are many items to purchase and rent, including venue
space, retreat materials, food, chairs, and tables. The project manager allows each one of their
teammates up to $3,000 in expenses, with anything over requiring an approval.

Shortly after the project begins, the client decides they want to slightly change the theme of the
project to focus on the future instead of the past. The project manager has to work with several team
members to implement the changes which include graphic design, retreat materials, and signage.

Throughout the process of changing the theme of the retreat, the project manager works closely with
the client by phone, email, chat, and video to ensure that the theme updates meet their
expectations.

There is an award-ceremony dinner at the end of the retreat. The deadline to finish scheduling the
dinner is in two days. Several crucial decisions need to be made: the menu, lighting, and presentation
music. To make sure the deadline is met, the project manager has a video meeting with the client to
ensure the dinner choices meet their expectations.

MODULE3:
The project life cycle

Initiate the project

In this phase, ask questions to help set the foundation for the project, such as:

 Who are the stakeholders?

 What are the client’s or customer’s goals?

 What is the purpose and mission of the project?

 What are the measurable objectives for the team?

 What is the project trying to improve?

 When does this project need to be completed?

 What skills and resources will the project require?

 What will the project cost? What are the benefits?

Make a plan

In this phase, make a plan to get your project from start to finish.

 Create a detailed project plan. What are the major milestones? What tasks or deliverables
make up each milestone?

 Build out the schedule so you can properly manage the resources, budget, materials, and
timeline. Here, you will create an itemized budget.

Execute the project

In this phase, put all of your hard work from the first two phases into action.

 Monitor your project team as they complete project tasks.

 Break down any barriers that would slow or stop the team from completing tasks.

 Help keep the team aware of schedule and deliverable expectations.

 Address weaknesses in your process or examine places where your team may need additional
training to meet the project’s goals.

 Adapt to changes in the project as they arise.

Close the project

In this phase, close out the project.

 Identify that your team has completed all of the requested outcomes.

 Release your team so they can support other projects within the company.

 Take time with your team to celebrate your successes!

 Pass off all remaining deliverables and get stakeholder approval.

 Document the lessons you and your team learned during the project.
  Reflect on ways to improve in the future.

The project management ethodologies : Understanding the fundamentals of—and differences

between—these common project management approaches can help you demonstrate your project
management knowledge during an interview. It can also help you evaluate a project to determine the
right approach when working on the job.

Waterfall and Agile are implemented in many different ways on many different projects, and some
projects may use aspects of each. The chart below briefly describes and compares Waterfall and Agile
approaches. You can use it as a quick reference tool, but be aware that in practice, the differences
between these two approaches may not always be clearly defined.

Waterfall and Agile Comparison

Waterfall Agile

Scrum Master acts primarily as a

Project manager serves as an active leader facilitator, removing any barriers the
Project
by prioritizing and assigning tasks to team team faces. Team shares more
manager's role
members. responsibility in managing their own
work.

Project deliverables and plans are well- Planning happens in shorter iterations
established and documented in the early and focuses on delivering value quickly.
Scope stages of initiating and planning. Changes Subsequent iterations are adjusted in
go through a formal change request response to feedback or unforeseen
process. issues.

Time is organized into phases called

Follows a mostly linear path through the
Sprints. Each Sprint has a defined
Schedule initiating, planning, executing, and closing
duration, with a set list of deliverables
phases of the project.
planned at the start of the Sprint.

Costs are kept under control by careful

Costs and schedule could change with
Cost estimation up front and close monitoring
each iteration.
throughout the life cycle of the project.

Team solicits ongoing stakeholder input

Project manager makes plans and clearly
and user feedback by testing products
Quality defines criteria to measure quality at the
in the field and regularly implementing
beginning of the project.
improvements.

Project manager continually communicates

progress toward milestones and other key Team is customer-focused, with
Communication indicators to stakeholders, ensuring that consistent communication between
the project is on track to meet the users and the project team.
customer’s expectations.

Stakeholders Project manager continually manages and Team frequently provides deliverables
 Waterfall Agile

to stakeholders throughout the project.

monitors stakeholder engagement to
Progress toward milestones is
ensure the project is on track.
dependent upon stakeholder feedback.

Lase9 of PM methodologies :

[Link]
#what-is-a-project-management-methodology

Question 1

In this exercise, you will read a scenario and identify the six key components of project initiation:

 Goals

 Scope

 Project deliverables

 Success criteria

 Stakeholders

 Resources

Start by reading the scenario:

Imagine you are a project manager at an educational software company. You’re assigned a new
project to develop a digital grading platform for a local high school. Before beginning the project, you
meet with teachers, school administrators, the school IT department, and the district superintendent
to discuss the project and get their input.

During these meetings, you organized your thoughts by writing down project key components that
the stakeholders have requested. Your notes on the key components are:

 $150,000 maximum budget

 Team: can add one member from the school IT department

 Platform should allow teachers to enter grades and allow students/parents to view grades

 Need full teacher buy-in at high school: 100% adoption within next nine months

 Project should focus only on the digital grading platform and NOT impact other digital
platforms (ex. attendance, school lunch payments)
  Overall, the school is seeking a platform for digital grading

The next step in the project is to organize the key components into a project charter. You will then
present the charter to the individuals involved with the project. The project charter ensures everyone
is aligned before planning and then executing the project.