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Introduction to Project Management Objectives: To be able to identify the steps involved in project planning, you will: A:) Plan

a project. You will learn the difference between a project and a program, the constraints common to all projects, the stages of a project life cycle, why a majority of projects fail to meet their objectives, and how project management techniques help overcome these obstacles. B:) Define the scope of the project. Before a project can be started, you should as certain whether or not your organization's process is capable of delivery. You will become familiar with the importance of defining customer requirements, Scope documents, and Work Breakdown Structures [WBS]. C:) Develop a schedule for the project. Once all the required work in a project has been defined, a schedule is developed. You will examine aspects of time management, work effort estimates, calendar selection, network diagrams, task dependency, relationships,and critical path(s). D:) Assign project resources and costs for budget development. Before a schedule or budget can be finalized, resources such as labor, material, and equipment must be identified and assigned. You will learn about resource loading, resource pools, over allocation,individual calendars, cost types and cost loading. E:) Save a baseline for the project. Now that planning for the project is complete, you will use the project baseline to gain formal approval to move the project into the execution phase. F:) Control the execution of a project. You will learn about gathering information and communicating that information to the stakeholders using tools. About Project Management A project is a series of tasks that has a definite start and finish time. It has well defined outcomes or performance goals and consumes scarce resources such as money, personnel, material, and equipment. The Constraints of a Project A project is considered constrained by three functions: 1. Delivery The time schedule for the project. 2. Cost The money, budget, and resources for a project. 3. Quality The customer requirements for the project. These three constraints are closely related in that typically one cannot be changed without impacting at least one of the others. For example, if you want to shorten a schedule, you can hire more resources (which would increase cost),

or reduce customer requirements (which would affect quality). Project Life Cycles A typical project goes through the following stages: Initiation The problem or project definition. Definition The project plan development and approval. Execution The work that is accomplished. Control The work is measured and status reported. Closure The final stage where outcomes are reviewed, financial Obligations, and contracts settled, resources freed up or released. What is Project Management? Project Management is the planning, organizing, scheduling, leading and Controlling of a work activity to reach an objective on time and within budget. Typical Project Problems During the life of a project, you may encounter problems. The problems you may run into are: Dissatisfied customers. Deliverables not understood by project team or customer. Budgets and schedules over or under estimated. Over taxed resources. What Does Project Management Facilitate? Project management facilitates the application of knowledge, tools, techniques, and skills to improve a project's planning, performance measurement, accountability assignment, and risk assessment. All of these tools lead to the meeting of stakeholders' needs and expectations. Stakeholders are individuals or groups that have an interest in the outcome of a project. They can be classified into four categories: 1. Client or customer. 2. Project sponsor or parent organization. 3. Project team. 4. Public government or regulatory agencies.

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