« Work Packages - The Strengths of Prince2™
Elements of Define (DMAIC) »

Putting It All Together - A Project Management Simple Tutorial Wrap-up

July 27, 2008 | Author: PM Hut | Filed under: Project Management for Beginners

Putting It All Together - A Project Management Simple Tutorial Wrap-up (#5 in the series Project Management Big Picture)
By Joseph Phillips

As you know projects are short-term endeavors to create a unique product or service. Projects are out of the normal duties you do as part of your operations. Projects are constrained by time, cost, and scope — and other constraints such as regulations, resources, or even vendors.

The Iron Triangle of Project Management posits that all projects are constrained by time, cost, and scope. If one angle of the project is out whack the whole project suffers.

Projects, and technically even project phases, move through five process groups: initiating, planning, executing, controlling, and closing. Each process group has key activities that lend to a successful project. I believe the most important group is planning. Without planning the project is destined for failure.
What we’ve discussed in this intro to project management is a good foundation for how projects are to operate, their constraints, and a some challenges every project manager faces. On top of this strong foundation there are nine knowledge areas which also affect a project’s success:

  1. Project Scope Management
  2. Project Time Management
  3. Project Cost Management
  4. Project Quality Management
  5. Human Resources Management
  6. Communications Management
  7. Project Risk Management
  8. Project Procurement Management
  9. Project Integration Management

For each of these knowledge areas I’ve written an article which explains their characteristics and how they contribute to your projects.

For now know this: projects are successful based on the ability of the project manager to lead, manage, and motivate the project team to complete the project plan. The project plan supports the vision the project manager has inherited from the project stakeholders. If the project manager and the project stakeholder don’t have the same vision of the desired future state the project is doomed.

Projects fail at the beginning, not the end.

Joseph Phillips is the author of five books on project management and is a, PMI Project Management Professional, a CompTIA certified Project Professional, and a Certified Technical Trainer. For more information about Project Management Training, please visit Project Seminars.

Share this article:
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Google
  • blogmarks
  • LinkedIn
  • Reddit
  • StumbleUpon
  • TwitThis
  • Yahoo! Buzz

Related Articles

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 27th, 2008 and is filed under Project Management for Beginners. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

1 person has left a comment

I enjoyed your overview, Joseph, and concur with your final sentiments. I personally have adopted this philosophy from former President Eisenhower because I feel it is fitting in our world as well:

“In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.”
-Dwight D. Eisenhower

Chris wrote on July 27, 2008 - 9:43 pm | Visit Link

feel free to leave a comment

Comment Guidelines: Basic XHTML is allowed (a href, strong, em, code). All line breaks and paragraphs are automatically generated. Off-topic or inappropriate comments will be edited or deleted. Email addresses will never be published. Keep it PG-13 people!

XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

All fields marked with " * " are required.

Project Management Categories