identify project management skill...

Identify project management skill areas


Inside this reading:What are the nine areas of expertise? 3

Scope management 4Scope planning 4

Cost management 6

Time management 8Defining and sequencing activities 8Estimating activity duration 10Schedule planning and control 10

Quality management 13Planning for quality assurance and control 13

Communication management 16Communication methods 16

Human resource management 18Organisational planning, staff acquisition and team development 18

Procurement management 20

Risk management 22Risk assessment and monitoring 22

Project integration management 24Developing and executing project plans 24Change management 26

Summary 27

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© State of New South Wales, Department of Education and Training 2006 1


2 © State of New South Wales, Department of Education and Training 2006


What are the nine areas of expertise?

According to the Project Management Institute of America (PMI) and most experts in the field, project managers must coordinate activity in nine areas of expertise to successfully manage projects.

All of the major activities that occur during the life cycle of a project are all part of one of the following nine areas of expertise. They are:

Scope management

Communication management

Project integration management

Time management

Cost management

Quality management

Human resource management

Risk management

Before proceeding further, it would be a good idea for you to visit the web site of the Project Management Institute of America at http://www.pmi.org

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http://www.pmi.org/


Scope management

One of the most difficult aspects of project management is defining the scope of a project. The word ‘scope’ means extent or depth. When applied to project management, it refers to how much work there is to do.

Think of a project to build a one-kilometre road from point A to point B. It may cross a straight stretch of flat ground. On the other hand, there may be a river between, requiring a bridge. The scope of the work in the second example would obviously be much greater.

The scope is all work needed to fulfil the project goal, or make the products of the project. It includes all the resources and processes used to do this.

The budget is one of the most important aspects of a project. If there is more money available, you should be able to provide more detail, more volume, higher quality, and so on. Estimating just what you can do with a specific amount of money is what ‘scoping’ is all about.

The project scope must provide a clear and refined description of:

the project goal

what is to be achieved

how is it to be achieved

who will achieve it

when it will be achieved

with what resources it will be achieved.

Once these have been determined, they are written down in a document called a scope statement.

Scope planningScope planning is the greater part of scope management. Scope planning develops the key document that controls the future of the project.

The scope document then developed includes the project charter and the following key sections:

A scope statement that clearly identifies the project goal, objectives, and deliverables.

Constraints. These are normally limiting factors that prevent the project from moving in a particular path.


Identify project management skill areas Assumptions. These are aspects that the project manager builds into

the scope document to allow for any of the uncertainties that may occur.

A list of tasks and deliverables that have to be achieved during the project.

Initial estimates which relate to cost, time and human resource requirements.

A contract statement, which includes the names of people authorised to initiate contract work, sign contracts and completion acceptances.

The details from the scope document will later help develop the project plan that describes all of the activities, resources and schedules required to meet the project goal and objectives. You will continually revisit the scope document during the project life cycle, to check if the project is meeting its objectives and to constantly verify that activities are within the scope of the project.

Scope definition, verification and change control

Scope is defined by breaking down of major project deliverables into many smaller, more manageable tasks, in a work breakdown structure (WBS)

Scope verification requires the formal acceptance of the project, when project manager gets agreement and sign-off from the key stakeholders for the project deliverables.

Scope change control is the formal controlling of any changes that occur to the scope of the project. Here we make sure that all of the changes are agreed to by stakeholders, and are documented and any corrective action that is necessary is taken.

Scope planning and the parts of the scope document are explained in more detail in the Learning Pack: Plan for a simple IT project.

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Cost management

Just as budgets determine scope, cost management is one of the more critical areas of project management. Cost management is making sure the project is completed within the approved budget.

An important part of cost management is being sure that the scope document is as accurate as possible so that budget estimates are realistic. Work cost money. An accurate scope document also helps to make sure that the only work done on the project is within the scope.

It is the project manager’s role to constantly satisfy the needs of the stakeholders while continuously trying to keep costs down and under control.

Cost management processes, outlined below, include:

resource planning

cost estimating

cost budgeting

and cost control

Resource planning

The project manager must determine and list in detail of exactly what resources are required and in what quantities, to complete all of the project activities. Resources can include people, machinery, facilities, and materials. To make sure that this list is as accurate as possible it is important that resource estimates are made by people with experience and expertise in similar projects and in the use of the resources being estimated.

Cost estimating

Once resources are listed and detailed, the cost of each resource is approximated. A detailed list of cost estimates would then by accompanied by a cost management plan. A project manager must take cost estimates seriously to complete projects within budget.

Cost budgeting

Budgeting involves allocating the overall cost estimate to the individual work items to establish a baseline for measuring and tracking performance. The work breakdown structure (WBS), and the project schedule are both


Identify project management skill areasused to do this. The result is a cost baseline that is used to track expenditure throughout the project. The cost baseline accurately maps out the expected costs against activities and resources and allows for regular measurement and reviews.

Cost control

Cost control involves controlling changes to the project budget by means of revised cost estimates, budget updates, corrective actions and completion estimates. Expenditure is constantly monitored against the cost baseline produced in budgeting. Cost estimates can be revised and the cost baseline modified—but only under strict change control.

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Time management

Time management for timely completion of a project is not an easy thing to accomplish, with so many aspects to it, yet especially for projects that affect business operations and even profit; it is also a critical area.

The main processes of time management can be broken down into:

activity definition

activity sequencing, including the use of network diagrams

activity duration estimates

schedule planning and control.

Defining and sequencing activitiesActivity definition involves identifying all of the specific activities or tasks for the project. A task is an element of work that is contained in the work breakdown structure found in the scope document that was developed at part of scope management.

Each task has:

an expected duration

an estimated cost

resource requirements.

Activity definition usually results in a very detailed work breakdown structure from which the project team has a complete understanding of the work that is required to achieve the project deliverables.

Activity sequencing

Activity sequencing involves identifying and documenting relationships between project activities. These relationships are also known as dependencies. Dependencies can be of three types:

mandatory, such as software testing that cannot occur until software is written

discretionary, for example if the project manager decides that ordering of certain resources will not be done until funds are made available


Identify project management skill areas external, such as in the installation of a new computer system that

may depend on the delivery of software from a vendor.

Once you have determined all of the task dependencies, the sequencing of the tasks can be done with something as simple as a list for small projects. However as the projects get larger the preferred method of showing the activity sequence is to use a network diagram.

Network diagrams

A network diagram is a schematic display of the logical relationships between tasks as shown in the simple example in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Example of a precedence diagram method (PDM) network diagram

There are several types of network diagrams, but those most commonly used are the PDM (as above) and the arrow diagram method (ADM).

Figure 2: An example of an ADM network diagram

It is outside of the scope of this topic to discuss these methods in detail, but basically, they are read from left to right and follow the same rules:

all predecessors must be to the left of their successor tasks

there are no loops or backward flow sequences

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Identify project management skill areas all nodes except ‘start project’ and ‘end project’ have at least one

predecessor and one successor node and therefore there are no ‘orphan’ nodes

a path is a sequence of tasks from the start to the finish

each network may have several paths from start to finish.

The critical path is the sequence of tasks that forms the longest duration of the project, based on the task work estimates. A delay in any of the tasks and all tasks that are on this path affect the final completion date.

Estimating activity durationAfter the sequence of tasks is set, the next thing is to estimate the duration of the activities. The duration is the actual time that is needed to do the work of a task plus the elapsed time of the activity. For example it may take two days or 14 hours of work to install a new server, but the duration of the activity may be four days because the assigned person may only do 3.5 hours a day on the task. The activity may also take longer because of public holidays and weekends.

To complete the duration estimates you need to know:

the detailed activity list

the sequence of the activities

the availability of resources

the skill levels of the personnel

any constraints and assumptions that have been made

any historical information from previous projects.

The results then are:

a detailed list of activity durations

a document describing the background of the estimates

updates to the work breakdown structure.

Schedule planning and controlNow we can put together the schedule using the outputs of all the previous time management activities. The desired result is to have a realistic project schedule that will provide a baseline for monitoring and measuring the project performance.

Tools available to help with this process are discussed briefly below and in more detail in a later topic.


Identify project management skill areasGantt charts

Gantt charts are the most common means for displaying project schedule information. Gantt charts use a list of tasks. Activities are represented as a series of horizontal bars under a calendar scale. Figure 3 is an example.

Figure 3: An example of a Gantt chart

Critical path and PERT analysisCritical path analysis is a technique for calculating the duration of the project by analysing and calculating the duration of the longest path, the critical path, through the project.

PERT analysis is a technique that is used when there is a high degree of uncertainty about the individual activity duration estimates. PERT calculates the critical path method but uses a statistically weighted average duration estimates.

Schedule control

There are many reasons to amend of change a project schedule and many issues arise from doing so. This is why a realistic project schedule is important to successful project management. Strong leadership is important to make sure that project schedules are met.

There is constant pressure to shorten schedules and delivery dates, so you will need to have strong negotiation skills to maintain control of the project timetable.

The importance of correctly negotiated and realistic milestones in the scope document will be the measuring tool for any rescheduling requests. Requests for changes in the schedule should go through a change management process, be assessed for relevance and impact, and then approved by a properly implemented change control group.

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Quality management

Quality control is the means of consistently meeting the negotiated expectations of stakeholders in a project. It is something that every organisation strives to achieve to give it a competitive edge in industry. Quality objectives are often expressed in a policy document that reflects the standards the organisation wishes to achieve and the responsibilities associated in meeting those objectives. Project management needs to follow organisational policy in this regard.

Quality management is perhaps the most difficult area of expertise in project management to define. It helps to remember that the customer ultimately decides if quality is acceptable, the basis for quality exist in the original intentions of the project. Quality control is otherwise a continuous process of evaluation and improvement.

Project quality management has three main processes.

Quality planning includes identifying which quality standards are required and how to measure and satisfy them.

Quality assurance involves the regular evaluation of overall project performance against the relevant quality standards. This process also requires senior management to take the lead in accepting responsibility for quality during the project.

Quality control involves monitoring specific project deliverables to ensure that they meet the relevant standards and identifying ways to improve overall quality.

Planning for quality assurance and controlAt the start of a project it is critical to plan for quality assurance and control of the activities and products that will result. Planning for quality involves a simple three-part process.

Identifying all quality stakeholders in the project such as the sponsor, functional managers, suppliers, end-users, and you as the project manager. You will then meet with all interested parties and determine their expectations of quality, and get agreement on the objectives and standards for the project.

Determining quality objectives based on the stakeholders requirements. These are statements that broadly describe the quality outcomes that will be achieved.


Identify project management skill areas Determining quality standards and levels of achievement that

must be met must during the project. These are developed to support the quality objectives set by the stakeholders and may also be set by industry benchmarks, such as ISO 9000.

The project manager must make sure that quality standards are incorporated into the project plan and that there are tasks and milestones in the schedule to measure quality at the appropriate time.

For example, if one quality standard required by the stakeholders were that all screens in an application have the same navigation tools, then the appropriate time to check this would be at the end of development and before production of a final version. A simple task of going through each page and checking for consistency would do the trick.

Quality assurance

For large projects, a quality assurance group may be formed, and for smaller projects quality assurance may fall to one person. Quality assurance includes all of the activities related to satisfying the relevant and agreed quality standards that have been set for the project. Another goal of quality assurance is continual quality improvement.

Quality assurance is usually determined by ISO 9000 standards, which are a series of international guidelines on quality management. If a company has ISO 9000 accreditation then these guidelines are part of normal business.

Quality audits

Quality audits are a review of specific quality management activities and are one of the tools of quality assurance. Here project plans and design specifications are reviewed to ensure that all the steps of the development process are being carried out correctly. As project activities when they are completed are usually formally documented, they are also one measure of quality.

Quality control and continuous improvement

One of the main goals of quality control is to improve, and there are three main outputs from quality control evaluation.

Acceptance decisions determine which of the products of the project are accepted or rejected by stakeholders.

Rework directives are actions taken to bring products up to stakeholder expectations when they have failed to meet quality measurement.

Process adjustments correct or prevent further quality problems that have been identified. Adjustments can be procedure change, supply improvement, material change or increased resource allocation.

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Identify project management skill areas There are many tools and techniques that use statistical sampling methods to analyse quality in a continuous way. Theses will usually use data tables or graphs to show variance from an expected level, and while you may read of them in recommended textbooks, they are beyond our scope here.



Communication management

Effective communication is critical to a project’s success.

Communication management refers to skills and techniques applied to ensure that all stakeholders and members of a project team receive the information they need, when they need it. It is about gathering, generating and distributing information, as well as the storage of all project information.

Be aware that too much information is not necessarily a good thing, while keeping the following in mind:

Keep progress reports simple and easy to read

Distribute reports to the right people

Remember that stakeholders have an interest in project costs as well as overall progress

Keep project team members informed of the status of task completions and progress against task lists.

All this needs to be done on a regular basis. The three ‘w’ approach to good communication skills can be applied to good effect in achieving this. Determine:

Who needs to know what

When they need to know it

What format they want the information in.

Communication methods

Formalising lines of communication

After assembling the staff for the project, the next task is to formalise lines of communication. This might be done by means of a chart that shows the hierarchy of all team members and the communication lines between each person, and which includes the project manager communication to stakeholders.

For a larger and more complex project, an organisation chart might be used while simple projects may require a less complex flow chart.

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Identify project management skill areas Methods of communication and reports

All communication might be seen to be in one of three categories:

essential communications, which include status reports, budget reports, legal issues, and personnel issues

should-know communications, usually meant for the project team, which include project team assignments, work package contents and task schedules

promotional communication, which might relate the project to product branding, launch brochures and so on.

Once lines of communication are understood, communication management might include a plan with:

a list of all required communications

the target for each communication

the method of each communication

the frequency of the each communication

those responsible for each communication.

The project manager usually specifies what formal and informal methods of communication are acceptable during a project. Informal means can include phone calls, email and memorandums, while formal communication includes such things as letters, status review meetings and formal presentations to the stakeholders.

Generating reports as a means of necessary communication is usually a two-stage process. Firstly team members are given a template of a progress report to be completed according to a schedule. Information on these periodic progress reports can then be summarised and submitted as status reports to key stakeholders and functional managers.

Reports are used to identify delays in activities, issues that team members are facing and also risks. From these reports you can create contingency plans and make any necessary changes to the overall project plan.



Human resource management

People are the most demanding and yet the most important resource in any project.

Human resource management is making the most effective use of people on a project, including stakeholders, customers, team members, suppliers and support staff. Strong general management skills in communication, people management and leadership are required to manage human resources for projects.

The main processes involved are:

Organisational planning, by identifying, assigning, and documenting project roles, responsibilities and reporting relationships. Key elements can include job assignment lists, an organisational chart for the project, and a staffing management plan.

Staff acquisition, by getting the right people for the job assigned and working on the project.

Team development, by the building of individual and team skills.

Organisational planning, staff acquisition and team development

Organisational planning

Before creating the project organisation chart the project manager will refer to the scope document and make sure that the work is broken down into manageable components. Work assignments might then be allocated to organisational units within a company, or to individuals on a project team. The project organisation chart would then show the units or individuals responsible for the various tasks.

When this is done, a staffing management plan might then describe when and how people will be added to and taken away from the project team.

Staff acquisition

Determining where project team members will come from (be they internal staff of external to an organisation) is not the sole responsibility of the

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Identify project management skill areas project manager. The company may have policies that govern this process. However, having completed the project plan and a staff management plan for the project, you would then:

determine the skills required for each activity

communicate with functional managers to determine if any of their staff have the appropriate skills for the project and are available for the duration of the project

select the right team members, either internally or externally

assign activities to each team member

communicate the appropriate chain of command.

Employing project staff from outside the organisation, when needed, is called procurement and will be covered later in this topic.

Selecting the right candidates

A project team may be compared with work teams in other contexts, such as in a department or unit of an organisation. In selecting any staff, it is important they:

are committed to the project goal and its completion

are flexible in changing work activities from one task to another and varying working hours

have technical competence and task orientation

are able to work with schedules and resource constraints

are a team player (not self-oriented)

can work across areas and if necessary with two or more bosses

are open to suggestions and willing to admit error and be corrected

know and have experience with project management tools.

Team development

While the project manager is responsible for costs, resources, and deliverables, just as important is the responsibility to build a cohesive and effective project team by providing a positive and supportive working environment. Your people are the most important resource of the project, without them you will fail. A project manager must apply all the best principles of communication, leadership and organisation to do this. In leading it is their job to listen, support, resolve conflicts, motivate, train, advise, counsel and to recognise and reward achievement.



Procurement management

Procurement is acquiring goods and services needed to complete a project on time and within budget from outside of an organisation, when those resources are not available in-house. Another term for this is out-sourcing.

The types of goods and services procured in a project might include:

contractors

specialists in the field, such as network consultants

training aids and equipment

quality auditors

computers and other technical equipment

technical writers.

Many organisations have procurement policies in place. However the main processes are plans for procurement and solicitation, and the administration of contracts.

Procurement planning

Procurement planning is determining what you need, when you need it, what you need to outsource and why. To make such plans the project manager will review the work breakdown structure, staffing levels, cost estimates and schedules. A procurement management plan may be part of the overall project plan.

Solicitation and source selection

Solicitation is obtaining (soliciting) quotes, offers and proposals both formally and informally depending on the size of the project. This might be done by means such as by advertising for tenderers for work for larger projects or by developing documents that identify potential sources and evaluation criteria, such as a ‘request for proposal’ (RFP) issued by the organisation to outside suppliers, which will usually have a statement of the work required, location, time frame, acceptance criteria and any special requirements that apply. Source selection is choosing from the prospective suppliers and then negotiating and signing contracts.

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Identify project management skill areas Contract administration

Contract administration is the management of the supplier relationship in terms of performance, payment, and contract modifications. Once you have reached an agreement with the supplier/contractor, a contract is written and signed. From that point on, the contract needs to be monitored and controlled to make sure that the performance of the supplier or contractor is acceptable. Outsourcing should never be done without appropriate contracts being signed and authorised.

‘Contract closure’ is the settlement of the contract process and involves product verification against criteria, formal acceptance and final payment.

A project usually manages more than one contractor or supplier at a time, and must ensure that all contractors are working within the schedule and meet baseline requirements for the project. A project manager must also monitor the quality of the contractors work by ensuring it meets the organisational or project quality standards.



Risk management

Risk is a potential problem or constraint that may affect the outcome of a project. For example high risk comes about when:

a similar project has not been undertaken before (with no history to review etc)

new technology is being developed

many new staff and contractors need to be hired.

Risk management recognises, assesses and reduces risk in the life cycle of a project. It is important to understand the level of risk for a project. Once risk is assessed, appropriate control and monitoring procedures can be put in place to test the project at each phase. Risk management should begin at the project definition stage so that assumed risks can be included in the project scope document.

There are many textbooks on risk management and it is beyond the scope of this topic to cover it in any more detail here than an outline of the subject.

Risk assessment and monitoringThere are risks associated with each of the nine areas of project management expertise. They range from poor task time estimation, insufficient cost budgets, and ineffective recruitment of skilled personnel, to even ignoring risk management itself.

Sources of risk might be grouped into two broad categories:

project risks, which deal with the technical area of projects such as cost, time, materials, resources, and people

process risks, which deal with the procedures, team work and communication, of the project.

Risk is part of projects and it is inevitable that you will have to deal with risk during the life of a project. Risk is a continuous factor and there should be regular review of potential risks. Risk assessment involves:

identifying potential risks

analysing risks

prioritising risks.

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Identify project management skill areas Identifying risk—risk audits

A project risk database should be established to record details of risks assessed. An example of a risk audit log is shown in Figure 4. It is used to gather information for a risk database and highlights at what stage various risks may arise. This database would be reviewed regularly.

Figure 4: A project risk audit log

Having completed a risk database, or having used some other way to itemise and record and assess potential risks, you can then develop contingency plans to prevent these risks affecting the project. The contingency plans include allocating responsibility to team members to monitor and report on risk-changing characteristics.

If risks become real issues, then these need to be monitored. Appropriate action must be taken to correct them and to bring the project back on track. The type of correction taken depends on the project, the impact and the style of management. The important thing is to be aware of all possible risks so to be prepared and limit the impact if they occur.



Project integration management

As project manager you must remain focussed on the big picture at all times to steer the project team towards successful completion. You must ensure all elements and plans of the project come together at the right time.

Integration management is the overall coordination of all areas of expertise in project management, throughout the whole project life cycle. The main processes or areas involved are.

Project plan development, which involves bringing together the results of all of the other planning processes. The result is one integrated clearly defined document called the project plan.

Project plan execution involves the carrying out of the project plan by performing all of the activities that are contained in the plan.

Integrated change control is the co-ordination of all changes across the entire project.

Developing and executing project plansThe project plan is used to guide and measure performance though the project life cycle. This document is developed through a repetitive process and in the end it contains all of the vital information in relation to schedules, team members, activities, resources and procurement needs. It is used to co-ordinate all of the input plans and control documents from the other areas of expertise such as cost management, risk management and time management.

Most of time and budget on a project is spent on execution—the process for managing and performing all of the work required. Good project plan execution requires skill in all of the general management principles, planning, organising, controlling, leading, and communicating, to succeed. Product skills and knowledge are also critical because the project team must have the required expertise to produce the deliverables of the project.

As you have worked through this topic, no doubt it has struck you, that a project manager must be skilled indeed—not only in each of the areas of expertise, but in integrating them. Figure 5 on the next page illustrates this, and Table 1 to follow summarises the processes, inputs, tools and techniques involved.

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Figure 5: The project plan integrates all areas of expertise

Table 1: A summary of project integration inputs, tools and techniques and outputs

Project plan development

Project plan execution Overall change control

Inputs Other planning outputs

Historical information

Organisational policies

Constraints Assumptions

Project plan Supporting detail Organisational

policies Corrective actions

Project plan Performance

reports Change requests

Tools and Techniques

Project planning methodology

Stakeholder skills and knowledge

Project management information system

General management skills

Product skills and knowledge

Work authorisation system

Status review meetings


Organisational procedures

Change control system

Configuration management

Performance measurement

Additional planning


Outputs Project plan Supporting detail

Work results Change requests

Project plan updates

Corrective actions

Lessons learned



Change managementThe three main focuses of change control throughout the life cycle of the project are:

identifying that a change is necessary and making sure that the change is beneficial

determining that a change has taken place

managing the actual changes as they occur.

Change control is also called change management, and in a project it can use a formal documented process called a change control system. The aim of change management is to:

maintain the integrity of the performance measurement baselines (all changes must be reflected on the scope and time line)

ensure that changes required to the product scope are reflected in the scope definition.

A project change request form can be used for all requests for a change in the project. Such requests might be submitted to the project manager for consideration and processing. The form should include space for:

a request number (for tracking)

the name and phone number of the client

the date of the request

the change and reason for the change

project manager’s approval or denial

reasons for denial

special conditions attached to the approval

the project manager’s signature

a summary of the affect of change on the project in regard to technical issues, budget, deadlines, and other projects

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Summary

Project management is a method and a set of techniques based on accepted principles of general management used to plan, estimate, organise and control work activities of a project. Projects have a life cycle that is made up of several phases of activity which are broadly grouped into planning and implementation processes.

In this topic you have learned that all activities in the project life cycle fall into areas of expertise, and those areas must be integrated to successfully develop and execute project plans, and to control changes throughout the life of a project.


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