Introduction to Project and Project management topics.

- Concept of project: Project is a temporary unique and progressive attempt or endeavour made to produce some kind of tangible or intangible result, it is an integrated effort made for achievement of certain objective within certain time. It includes a series of interrelated tasks that are planned for execution over a fixed period of time and within certain requirements and limitations such as cost, quality, performance and others.

- Characteristics of a project: project has several characteristics. The main characteristics of project includes the following features:

1.       set of objectives: a project has mission or a set of objectives to be achieved with in a distinct time, cost and technical performance. Once the mission is achieved project is treated as complete.

2.       Ownership: every project has an owner. Who in the private sectors can be an individual or a company. In the public sector government or government undertaking, and in a joint sector organisation, the ownership of a project can be represented by a partnership of public and private sector .

3.       Terminal stage: a project cannot continue forever. It has to terminate at some time or the other. the set of objective indicates the terminal stage of the project.

4.       Teamwork: every project is planned, managed and controlled by an assigned team, the project team to achieve the objective as per  specification,

5.       uniqueness: a project is unique and no two project is similar, even though the inputs, processing, and the results of two projects are identical. The nature of an organisations, and available infrastructures, location of the project, the people associated with a project make project unique.

6.       Risk and uncertainty: every project has risk and uncertainty associated with it. The risk is perceived to be variability of actual returns from the estimated returns and uncertainty about future leads to variations in returns. The degree of risk and uncertainty also vary during the life cycle of a project. An ill-defined project has a high degree of risk and uncertainty in comparison of a well-defined project.

7.       Subcontracting: a substantial portion of each and every project is performed by subcontracting. the greater the complexity of a project, the greater will be the extent of work performed by subcontractor.

8.       Customer specific: project is always customer specific the requirements and constraints within which project is executed are generally stipulated by the customer or are planned. Considering the beneficiary customer.

9.       Life cycle: every project has a start and a terminal point .characteristics of life cycle represented by growth, maturity decay, the organisation of project changes as it passes through this cycle.

10.   Management of change: changes is a natural phenomena with every project throughout its life-cycle. Project very during its life span in term of technology, equipment, material machinery, people, work ethics and organisation culture. Some changes in these variables may not have any major impact, but some other may change the very nature of project. Therefore, the interrelationship and management of change between these variable is required for successful completion of a project.

11.   Unity in diversity: a project is a complex set of thousands of different activities which remains interrelated with each other. Although these activities which remains interrelated with each other, although this activity differ in terms of materials, machine, equipments, technology, people, ethics, work culture etc. At these are essentially interrelated during different stages of project.

-          - Project management: Project management is a carefully planned and organised effort to accomplish successful project. Project is a temporary unique and progressive attempt or endeavour to produce a specific result.

Project management includes developing a project plan, which includes defining and conforming the project goals and objectives, identifying task and how goals will be achieved. Quantifying the resources needed , determining budget and timelines for a completion. It also includes managing the implementation of the project plan, along with operating regular to ensure that there is accurate and objective information on performance related to the plan and the mechanism to implement recovery action when necessary. Project usually follows major features or stages, including feasibility, defining, project planning, implementation, evaluation and support / maintenance.

- Benefits of project management.

1.       Better efficiency in delivering services: project management provides a roadmap that is easily followed and leads to project completion. Once we know what to avoid the bumps and pots holes, it stands to reason that we are going to be working smarter and not harder and longer.

2.       Improved customer satisfaction: whenever you get a project done on time and under budget, the client walk away happy in a happy client is one you will see again.

3.       Improved growth and development within team: positive results not only command respect, but more often than inspire team to continue to look for ways to perform more efficiently.

4.       Greater standing and competitive edge: this is not only a good benefit of project management within the workplace but outside of it as well; Word travels fast and there is nothing like superior performance to secure your place in the marketplace.

5.       Opportunities to expand your services: a by-product of greater standing, greater performance lead to more opportunities to succeed.

6.       Increased in quality: because of better efficiency and better strategies, we can achieve said goals with specific time and cost parameter.

7.       Greater flexibility: perhaps one of the greatest benefit of project management is that it allows for flexibility. smarter decision and direction help to adapt according to environment.

8.       Change management: change is a natural phenomena with every project throughout its life-cycle, project very during its life span in term of technology, equipment, material,machinery people, work ethics and organisation culture. Some changes in these variables may not have any major impact, but some others may change the very nature of a project. Therefore, the interrelationship and management of change between these variable is required for successful completion of a project.

- Phase of project life-cycle;

A project is a temporary unique and progressive attempt or endeavour made to produce some kind of tangible or intangible result (a unique product, service, benefit, competitive advantages etc) project is a temporary and it has a beginning and end. It starts and goes through different phases and finally ends, this is called life-cycle. Life cycle of project becomes different according to nature of the project. Even the life cycle of similar nature project may be different based on time, place and environment. Generally, when the phase ends next phase starts in a project.  In some projects other phase starts even before completion of any earlier phase. There are four phase of project life-cycle

1.       conceptual phase: it is the first phase of project life-cycle, during conceptual phase, the project needs and purposes identified. Conceptual decisions are taken on what is the problem, how to solve it, how much it cost, how long it needs, what type of machinery or tools are needed, from where to collect financial resources, what are the special objectives of the project etc, this phase indicates the success or failure of project, so the project operators should be careful in this phase.

The important task in this phase are

defined and explained the project, need and purpose.

State the problem to be solved by the project.

Identify the project solution.

Lists the benefits to be gained upon successful project completion.

develop the project concept.

Perform feasibility analyses to prove the project is technically feasible and economically viable.

Identify how the project relates to other dependent project running in parallel.

Set security to the project.

Defined options to proposed solution.

2.       Planning and organizing phase: the second phase will include a detailed identification and assignment of each task until the end of the project. In this state, the team identifies all of the work to be done. The projects, tasks and resource requirements are identified, along with the strategy for project. A project plan is created, outlining the activities, task, dependencies and time frames. The project manager coordinate The preparation of a project budget by providing cost estimate for the labor, equipment and material costs.

The basis task in the planning phase of a project.

Define the scope through decomposing project work into smaller action items, such as tasks and activities.

Develop the project schedule based in activity duration estimates.

Create the risk management plan based on the risk assessment.

Identify types and quantity of resources (labor, fund technology, inventory, land, etc) required for the project.

Develop a budget sheet based on cost objectives.

Create the communication plan.

Determined the controls, including tracking pussy dudes reporting rules change management process is you.

Design the quantity management plan.

Develop the procurement plan.

Like the handover plan that explains deliverance and acceptance criteria and how to hand over the product to the customer

prepare the project plan that is based on the data of the subsidiary  plan.

3.       Implementation phase: in this phase, the improved project plan is converted into reality to achieve the project objective. The implementation phase is the most important phase takes more than 89% of the time of project. It is important to maintain control and communication. Progress is continuously monitored and appropriate adjustments are made and recorded a variation from the original plan.

It includes the fun task.

Start executing the project plan.

•        Monitored and controlled changes made to the key parametres such as scope, time, cost, quality, risk

•        management stakeholders expectations and communication.

•        Report performance through starters, reports and meeting

•        manage various requests

•        confirm the planned results are produced

4. Termination or closure phase: all the objectives of the project are achieved in this phase. Necessary documents, files, reports, including all the properties of the project is handed over to the concerned body customer. Satisfaction is given priority. Bank accounts of the project are closed and final audit is done. Employees and workers are given good by and the project is closed

- Project environment:   Project operates in dynamic environment. Environment consists of forces that influence the projects ability to achieve its objective. in order to achieve the goals, project must continuously adopt to its environment. Failure to adopt to the environment is a major cause due to which project fails.

Project environment can be classified into.

Internal environment

task environment

external environment

internal environment: it is located within the project. It is controllable by the project. It provides strength and weakness to the project. The forces in the internal environment consists of

project objective: objective is the desired outcomes or in the result of the project project must be focused on objective. It's ceases to exist when the objective is achieved.

Constraints: a project operates within the constraints of cost, time and quality. They determine the scope and boundaries of the project.

Structure: a project is a temporary organisation organisation structure is overall framework for different roles, functions and authority. It includes individual groups unique and relationship between them. It provides a hierarchy for effective flow of instruction and feedback within the project organisation

resources: Project have a human and nonhuman resources, the human resources includes specialized experts and managerial personnel. Research availability sets a limit on project activities

Task environment: the task environment of a project is made of of stakeholders. They are either involved in the project or other interest are affected by the project they affect the project activity project cannot control the tax environment, but can directly influence it.

The elements of project task environment are

a.       customer: project is custom made. It satisfies the needs of the customer. The customer specifies the term of reference, the customer greatly influences the project. The project should be focused on customer needs.

b.      Contractor: a project involves highly labor of contracting and subcontracting the greater the complexity, the greater the level of contracting, the constructors influence project progress

c.       consultants: the project activities requires professional expertise. So consultants are higher for various activities during the Friend Feed does consultants influence the project activities directly through the professional services.

d.      Suppliers: projects depend on supplier for procurement of equipment, materials, service and labor ,they affect efficiency, quality and settled of project through the delivery timing ,projects will build a good relationship with suppliers

e.      government: the policies, attitude and facilisation by government support or constraints, projects. Projects will comply with government regulation and directions. This should be environment friendly

f.        financiers: the financiers of the project can be owners, shareholders, institution or foreign donors. They greatly affect fund mobilization for the project.

g.       Competitors: competition requires companies to become more efficient in order to compete. Thus competition affects the project

h.      Labor unions: Unionization is increasing in project. Labor relation need to be effectively managed by project. Industrial disputes leading to strikes or lockout can adversely affect project progress.

3. External Environment: It is located outside of project. It cannot be controlled. The project can indirectly influence it. the force of external environment are
a. Economic environment: Economic growth rate, income distribution, economic health , inflation , fiscal policies, and foreign aid are important economic forces in the project environment which affect project activates
b. Technological environment: the level of technology, pace of technological change and changes in wok method greatly affect projects. Computerization, robotization , automation and information technology have had profound impact on projects
c. Political legal Environment: Politics of local, national and international government and the regulatory agencies of the government affect project activities. Uncertain political climate is bad for project's health
d. social cultural environment: project should be sensitive to socio cultural change. The forces can be demographics, life style, social values, tradition, belief, religion, attitude, art culture etc. Such forces affect the project team and the stake holders of the project

- Skill requirement of project manager
1. Techniqal skill:
a. He should able to understand technology involved in project
b. Evaluate technical concepts and solution
c.Communicate in technical terms with project team
2. Management skills
a. Planning and control skills
b. Organization skills
c. Decision making skills

d. Human resource management skill
e. Leadership skills
f. Budgeting skills
3. Human skill: they are ability to get along with people and get the jobs done through people
4. Conceptual skill: its refers to to the ability to form concept, such skills includes thinking creativity, formulating abstractions, analyzing complex situation., solving problems etc
5. Team building skills:they are ability to integrate people from many disciplines and department into an effective team.

- Project Manager Responsibilities
A project manager is the person who has the overall responsibility for the success of projects. Below is responsibilities list for a project manager.

* Manage the project taking into account integration across all areas.
* Engage with stakeholders.
* Develop Project Plan.
* Direct project resources.
* Monitor and manage the project

schedule.
* Monitor and manage the project budget.
* Monitor and manage the project risk.
* Deal with operational issues.
* Organize steering committee meetings, including ensuring that minutes will be taken.
* Report to the steering committee, raising strategic issues.
* Prepare Project Status Reports and Project Change Requests for the steering committee.
* Ensure project meets requirements and objectives .
* Manage project team members.
* Negotiate and resolve issues as they arise across areas of the project and where they impact on other activities, systems and projects.
* Look after the interests of the project team.
* Organize and chair project reference group meetings, as appropriate.
* Communicate project status to project sponsor, all team members, and other relevant stakeholders and involved parties .
* Maintain project documentation.

Categories or Classification of Project:
A project is a temporary unique and progressive attempt or endeavor made to produce some kind of a tangible or intangible result.There are several types of project , they are
a. labor intensive project
b. capital intensive project
c. Indigenous project
d. Joint venture project
e. Bilateral project

a.       Labor intensive project: if the activities of project depend on labor, it is called labor intensive project. Labor intensive project are usually operated in developing countries. The success of project depends on the efficiency of labor. Skilled and efficient works are given high priority.

b.       Capital intensive project: if the activates of a project depend on modern technology or automatic machine it is called capital intensive project. Usually developed countries use huge capital , sophisticated technology and skilled manpower to run project

c.       Indigenous project: the project which is operated with a country's own tradition, vision, thought and style is called indigenous project. It is totally local or home country project. Indigenous project helps to protect tradition and culture of the country.

d.      Joint venture project: the project established with the joint effort and investment of two or more persons, firms or countries is joint venture project. So joint venture project may be indigenous or foreign.

e.      Bilateral Project: the project which is operated with special agreement between two counties is called bilateral project. Bilateral project helps to build bilateral relationship in between two different countries and accelerates economic growth of the country.

f.        Multilateral project: the project which is operated with special agreement between two or more countries is called multilateral project. Group of developed countries operate such projects in developing countries for the development of health , education communication , irrigation and so on example: UNDP, WHO,UNICEF  etc