In the current business scenario where
end users and Customers are very demanding, implementing a project with
reduced budget and stricter deadlines has become a challenging task.
Combined with the organization’s vision of achieving total customer
satisfaction and link project success or failure with the business
process outcomes puts tremendous pressure and responsibility on the
shoulders of project manager. Apart from achieving the desired outcomes
within time and cost constraints project managers are required to
overcome constraints like project complexity, scope creep,
organizational restructuring, technology change and contribute to the
organization process improvements through learning and best practices.
It is imperative that the project managers understand project management
concepts and are equipped with best tools and templates. So what is a
project? As Harold Kerzner in his book “Project Management- A Systems
Approach to Planning, Scheduling, and Controlling” explains:
“A project can be considered to be a series of activities and tasks that:
• Have a specific objective to be completed within certain specifications
• Have a defined start and end dates
• Have funding limits (if applicable)
• Consume resources (i.e., money, people and equipment)”.
According to the PMBOK guide “A project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result”.
Looking
at both these definitions a project has to have very specific scope.
However, requirements within the scope are elaborated over the time
period having specific start and end date of the project. Changes to
requirements and additional requirements which change the scope,
timelines or funding limits of the project are called scope creep and
should be handled through proper Requirement Change Management which we
will discuss later in the book.
A product is manifestation of various
projects taken up over a period of time and conceptualized and
implemented through small projects. A product evolves over a period of
time and should respond to market needs and changes to business
scenarios and should be able to incorporate and respond to political,
economic, social and technological factors at macro level, however, a
project scope is limited and are influenced by the organization internal
factors and the project manager is responsible to implement processes
to contain scope creep. However, requirement change management is
integral to both product and project scenarios.
Operations, on the
other hand, are ongoing and repetitive in nature. Maintenance of any
existing product is an operation which may be planned, executed and
controlled and are constrained by limited resources and consume
resources. Many organizations use terms like “Maintenance Projects”,
however they do not fall into the category of true projects in the sense
that they do not create a unique product, service or result. Some of
the tools, techniques utilized to manage operations may be same as those
of the projects.
Organizations take up various projects in response
to changed needs and strategic directions taken at the organization
level to respond to the market demand, technology change, change in the
internal organization and process to achieve greater efficiency and
service levels. Organizations adopt various programs which is group of
related projects and uses same concepts as project management applied in
a coordinated manner to achieve strategic objectives defined at the
enterprise level. Strategic direction taken at the organization level is
influenced by the external macro environment (includes political,
economic, social and technological factors) and the internal micro
environment (which includes factors like positioning, firm’s resources
and capabilities). Considering that the Strategic goals defined at the
organization level are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant or
realistic and time bound, it is important that the project goals and
measures are aligned to strategic goals.
Project management as a discipline involves various skills and techniques applied to the project using project management tools.
Project Overview
