Foundation of Project Management

 A project is a series of tasks that need to be completed to reach a desired

outcome. Reaching that desired outcome takes collaboration and careful planning that
keeps the project on track and on budget.

 Project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to meet

the project requirements and achieve the desired outcome. Project management is
valuable to businesses because it helps ensure that a project delivers the expected
outcomes, both on time and within budget. 

 The core aspects of project management we've mentioned, planning and organizing,

managing tasks, and budgeting and controlling costs

 poor project management can lead to:

o 48 percent of projects missing delivery dates, 
o 43 percent missing budget targets
o 31 percent failing to meet an organization's goals.

Project management job categories and common roles 

Introductory-level project management roles

Entry-level project management positions are a great opportunity to get your foot in the door and
learn the ins and outs of how a company operates and manages projects. The lessons you learn
from these experiences are extremely valuable to your growth in project management. Some
entry-level project management positions include:

 Junior Project Manager: Performs all aspects of being a project manager alongside a
more experienced professional.
 Project Administrator: Assists the rest of the project team with administrative tasks. 
 Project/Program Assistant: Supports team members working on a project and offers
administrative support. May perform research or create training documents along with other
jobs as assigned by program leaders.
 Project/Program Coordinator: Participates in hands-on project work and administrative
tasks. Works under a project manager to make sure projects are completed on time and
within budget.
 Project Support Specialist: Works alongside a project manager and team members to
oversee assigned projects. May also be responsible for training and developing employees
to perform designated tasks.
Traditional project management roles

Once you have gained some experience in introductory-level positions, you can explore
traditional project management roles, such as:

 Project Manager: Responsible for the initiating, planning, monitoring, and closing of a
project. Includes industry-specific titles like IT project manager, construction project
manager, or engineering project manager, which utilize skills that are transferable among
industries.
 Project Analyst: Moves a project along by sharing information, providing support
through data analysis, and contributing to strategy and performance. 
 Project Leader/Director: Drives core decision-making and sets the direction for the
project. Usually knowledgeable about the product or deliverable. 
 Project Controller: Primarily responsible for project planning. You are likely to see this
job title in industries like engineering and construction.
 Technical Project Manager: Conducts project planning and management for identified
goals within a company. Ensures that projects are completed to the requirements within a
defined time frame and budget.
 Project Management Office (PMO) Analyst: Manages the progress of complex projects
to ensure timely execution and completion. 

Program and portfolio management roles

As you have learned, project managers are responsible for the day-to-day management of
projects. They shepherd projects from start to finish and serve as a guide for their team. Project
managers must apply the right tools, techniques, and processes to complete the project
successfully, on time, and within budget. 

After you have carried out projects successfully and feel you are ready for a step up in
responsibility, a program manager position may be the next step for you. While a project is one
single-focused endeavor, a program is a collection of projects. Program managers are
responsible for managing many projects. At Google, all project managers are called program
managers because they manage multiple projects simultaneously. 

Successfully implementing programs as a program manager can eventually make you a great fit
for more senior positions, such as a senior program manager or a portfolio manager. A portfolio
is a collection of projects and programs across an entire organization. Portfolio managers are
responsible for portfolios of projects or programs for one client. Over the course of your career,
you might progress from project manager to program manager to portfolio manager roles.

While project, program, and portfolio managers hold different types and levels of responsibility,
they are all project managers. In Course 4 of this certificate program, you will learn more about
differentiating projects, programs, and portfolios.
 Program managers: Manage a group of projects that are related or similar to one
another and handle the coordination of these projects. They facilitate effective
communication between individual project managers and provide support where necessary.
They also help create and manage long-term goals for their organization.
 Portfolio managers: Responsible for managing a group of related programs within the
same organization. They coordinate various programs in order to ensure they are on track
and that the organization is meeting its strategic initiatives. Portfolio managers look at all
projects and programs within the organization and prioritize work as necessary. 

Operational management roles 

In operational management roles, you will get the opportunity to experience several different
departments and how they interact and operate. Operational management roles allow you to
work alongside peers and management from various business segments, giving you an
appreciation for what each segment does on a daily basis. Key elements of project management
include making sure a project is on budget and on schedule. This course, and your experience
as a project manager, will give you the tools to be able to apply those skills to running a
business. Some operational management positions include:

 Operations Analyst: Manages and coordinates research, investigates workflows,

creates business procedures, and recommends changes to improve the project and
company. 
 Operations Manager: Oversees strategic decision-making and rolls out plans of action
based on financial, schedule, and resource reporting. 
 Chief Operating Officer: Responsible for overseeing the day-to-day administrative and
operational functions of a business.

Agile roles

We will discuss the Agile project management approach in depth later, but here are a couple of
the positions you may see that are related to that approach:

 Scrum Master: Coordinates and guides the Scrum team. Knowledgeable in Agile
framework and Scrum and is able to teach others about the Scrum values and principles.
 Product Owner: Drives the direction of product development and progress. 
Some common project management-related buzzwords and skills you could include on your
resume are:

 Analytical  Managing  Project

meetings coordination
 Assertive
 Managing client  Project
 Assessing expectations implementation
outcomes
 Managing conflicts  Project initialization
 Assessing
progress  Managing  Project planning
relationships with
 Attention to detail stakeholders  Project reporting
 Conflict resolution  Managing vendors  Quality control
 Collaborative  Meeting deadlines  Risk assessment
 Coordination  Monitoring  Risk management
 Communication  Multitasking  Solution
development
 Development  Planning
 Strategic planning
 Evaluation  Prioritizing
 Strong
 Executing plans  Problem-solving interpersonal skills
 Financial analysis  Process  Strong verbal
 Impact assessment development communication

 Leadership  Process  Strong written

engagement improvement communication

Project managers shepherd projects from start to finish and serve as guides for their team, using
their impeccable organizational and interpersonal skills every step of the way.

. 
Project managers add value to their teams and organizations in key ways that include
 Prioritization
 Delegation
 Effective communication.

Project managers add value to their teams and organizations through effective prioritization of
tasks required to complete a project. They're experts at helping team members identify and
break down large tasks into smaller steps.

Stakeholders are people who are interested in and affected by the project's completion and
success, like the leader of an organization. 

Project managers use delegation to add value to their teams and organizations by matching
tasks to individuals who can best complete the work.

 
Project managers deliver value through effective communication, both with their team and with
key stakeholders. This refers to being transparent, which means being up front with plans
and ideas and making information readily available. Project managers keep in regular contact
with their team about the progress of the work and help identify areas where a teammate may
need support.

The main ways that project managers can add value to projects and impact organizations, which
include:

 Focusing on the customer

 “Customer” refers to a person or an organization that defines the requirements of
the project and sets important guidelines, such as budget and deadlines.

Asking the customer questions

Let’s discuss how you can focus on the customer in a project. First, sit with the customer and ask
what problem they are trying to solve. You might ask if they have a specific vision of the final
outcome they would like delivered. Sometimes, customers will lean on project managers to find
the solution to their problem. It’s your job to ask questions like:

 What is the problem you would like us to help solve? Example response: The customer
wants help developing a new process that would allow their company to be more efficient.

 How is the problem impacting your organization? Example response: The customer

states that they are losing clients because of their current inefficient processes since clients
are sometimes receiving their orders late.

 What prompted you to ask for help now? Example response: The customer says that
they may lose department funding if they do not improve efficiency. 

 What is your hope for the outcome of this project? Example response: The customer
states that their ultimate goal is to increase the speed at which they fill orders without
sacrificing quality.

 Building a great team

 A successful project manager knows that and takes the time to understand each
person’s motivations, strengths, and weaknesses. Project managers add value to
the project by identifying the right team for the project and enabling the team to
be successful and make decisions. 
 Fostering relationships and communication
 The project managers who add the most value are the ones who take the time to
build relationships, communicate, and treat others with consideration and
respect.
 Managing the project
 When you build teams, each person is generally assigned specific project tasks.
Once each task is done, the person responsible for that task hands that part of
the project over to the next person. Your team members don’t always see the
whole picture and how they impact others in a project. A successful project
manager sees the impacts of each process within the project and communicates
 those impacts to the team. This ensures that everyone working on the project
understands their task goal as well as the big picture goal for the finished
product.
 Breaking down barriers
 A project manager adds value to a project when they break down barriers, allow
their team to innovate new ways to do things, and empower them to share ideas.
As a project manager, you have to model ingenuity and collaboration, and
encourage your team to do the same.

Project managers usually follow a process that involves

 planning and organizing,  budgeting,

 managing tasks,   controlling costs and other factors,
 So that the project can be completed within the approved budget and timeframe.

Project Managers Responsibilities:

 Teaching and Mentoring

o As a project manager, you can serve as a mentor to your team. Mentoring and
teaching others the lessons that you, as a project manager, have learned allows
your team to make better choices and build on your experience. Mentoring also
involves supporting each individual on your team in meeting expectations and
helping them to exceed their own sense of personal potential.
 Empowering the team
o Giving your team the ability to work directly with the stakeholders and their teams
lets them know that you trust and believe in their skills! One of the best things
about empowering your team is getting fresh ideas and passionate employees
willing to help find solutions to problems. Another way you can empower your
team is by delegating responsibilities to them, allowing them to make some
decisions for the project, and using their input in the planning and execution of
the project.
 Building Relationships
o Taking the time to build relationships with your customers, clients, vendors, and
other stakeholders is equally important. Dedicate time to checking in with people
 Controlling change
o As a project manager, you need to remain flexible and adjust to the stakeholders’
needs. However, it is also important to protect your team from constant change
and rework.
 Communicating status and concerns
o With effective communication, you can work together with your team to find
solutions to challenges. Maintaining an open door policy and building trust within
your team and among stakeholders—all while staying positive—will help the
success of the project.
Project Manager’s role within a team:

 You'll need to hold all team members accountable for their assigned tasks. Managing
tasks will help you hold your team members accountable by giving them ownership over
specific pieces of the project. 
 You'll need to ensure that issues and risks are tracked and visible, and be able to
establish escalation paths.Escalation paths means that you should know how you will
communicate risks to the right people at the right time. 
 You'll need to understand and help teammates adopt the right workflows and project
management styles. As the project manager, you'll likely have the best idea of which
style is best for the work. It’s your job to ensure that the team adheres to that style
and the other systems in place. 
 You'll need to collaborate with other teams at the organization to meet the requirements
based on project, scope, schedule, and budget.

A cross-functional team includes team members who have different backgrounds, types of
expertise, and job functions.

Managing cross-functional teams effectively requires the project manager to:

 Clarify Goals
o It is vital to set clear goals for the team and make sure that the team understands
those goals. Be direct and concise, avoiding extraneous details and explanations.
When communicating task or project goals, make sure you define key items,
such as budget, deadlines, quality requirements, or important resources. Ensure
your team members understand task and project goals by encouraging them to
ask questions and clarify information
 Get team members with the right skills
o As the project manager, you must help ensure that your team has the right
people with the right skill sets needed for the project to succeed
 Measure Progress
o Showing your team how much they have accomplished helps keep them
motivated. Take the time to measure and communicate the project’s progress
across the cross-functional team. This helps everyone see the full picture and
recognize their impact on the project.
 Recognize efforts
o As a project manager, it is your job to make sure that each member of your
cross-functional team recognizes the value of their efforts each step of the way.
Learning what makes your team members feel supported, giving and taking
feedback, and being mindful of each individual's background, personal identifiers,
and work style can help mediate some of the differences among team members. 
 Key Competencies of a Project Manager
 Enabling Decision Making
o Lots of the day-to-day decisions within a project will likely fall to you and your
teammates to discuss and agree on. You'll ensure that projects stay on schedule
by gathering information from teammates and using those insights to help the
team make informed decisions. You'll also make sure that those decisions
are communicated to the necessary co-workers, whether that's the immediate
team or company leaders.
 Communicating and escalating
o As a project manager, you'll use your communication skills in just about
everything you do. This might look like documenting plans, sending emails about
the status of the project, or holding a meeting to escalate risks or issues to
stakeholders.
 Flexibility and handling Ambiguity
o As a project manager, knowing how to be flexible when changes are needed is
key
o These flexible planning strategies can help you manage your project during times
of unpredictability: 
 Assess external Constraints like holidays and sick leaves and thus
have extra time in schedule.
 Plan for risk and challenges like replacing someone in team if they quit.
 Calculate float in your schedule.
Float refers to the amount of time a task can be delayed without affecting
subsequent tasks or impacting the project’s timeline. For example,
imagine you are managing a construction project to renovate an office
space. In order to complete the renovation, the following tasks must be
completed in order: drywall installation, cabinet installation, plumbing and
electric installation, and floor installation. However, since tasks such as
painting and decorating can be completed at any time after the drywall is
installed and the subsequent tasks do not rely on their completion, these
tasks could be delayed. Identifying tasks such as these and calculating
the float they provide can help you determine where you can change the
order of tasks or juggle resources if needed.
 Strong Organizational Skills
o The role of a project manager requires using a lot of different processes to keep
the project on track. Having strong organizational skills means having the ability
to organize these processes and the core elements of a project to ensure nothing
gets lost or overlooked.

Project managers hire the experts and help put all the pieces of the project together. Project
managers don’t need to be experts in every field.   

To be a successful project manager at any organization—regardless of whether you have

worked there previously—it is essential to master the skills, tools, and techniques of project
management.
ABOUT INTERPERSONAL SKILLS IN PROJECT MANAGER

Influencing without authority, which refers to a project manager's ability to guide teammates

to complete their assigned work without acting as their direct managers. 

There's a few key interpersonal skills that you can use to accomplish this and guide the project
outcomes, even without the authority of being your teammates' boss. These skills include
 Communication 
o Communication can include checking in with teammates to understand how
they're progressing on a task and providing clear feedback on the quality of a
teammate's work.
 Negotiation
o You’ll need to use your negotiation skills often with your teammates
and stakeholders to balance their needs and what is best for the project.
 Conflict mediation
o This might involve setting up a meeting with two teammates who are struggling to
agree upon the best way to handle a shared task.
 Understanding motivations.
o This means getting to know your teammates and figuring out what pushes them
to do their best work. Understanding motivations might also include learning how
your teammates prefer to receive feedback, and how they like to
receive recognition for doing a great job.

THE PROJECT LIFE CYCLE / STRUCTURE OF THE PROJECT

The project life cycle can be distributed in 4 categories
 Initiating the project
o This involves discussing the project goals with the clients to obtain a better
insight of their needs and thus properly identifying the skill set required, the
timeline and the cost estimation.
 Making a plan
o Having a plan in place ensures that all team members and stakeholders are
prepared to complete their tasks. One creates a schedule to account for all
resources, materials, and tasks needed to complete the project. 
 Executing and completing the tasks
o Here the team puts plan in motion by executing the work. The project manager
helps break down any barriers that would slow or stop the team from completing
their tasks. It is also his responsibility to communicate schedule and quality
expectations.
 Closing the project
o Here the team discusses and documents the lessons learned from the project.
What worked well, and what could work better next time? The project manager
also puts together a small lunch gathering for his team to celebrate and recognize
their hard work. 

Initiate the project

In this phase, ask questions to help set the foundation for the project, such as:

 Define Project goals and identify the stakeholders

  Determine the resources, people, equipment and other details required in the project
 Get project approval

Make a plan
In this phase, make a plan to get your project from start to finish. 

 Create Budget  Determine each person’s role and

 Set the Schedule responsibilities
 Establish your team  Plan for risk and changes
 Establish Communication

Execute the project

In this phase, put all of your hard work from the first two phases into action.
 Monitor your project team as they complete project tasks i.e. managing the progress. 
 Break down any barriers that would slow or stop the team from completing tasks. 
 Help keep the team aware of schedule and deliverable expectations.
 Address weaknesses in your process or examine places where your team may need
additional training to meet the project’s goals.
 Adapt to changes in the project as they arise.
Close the project
 Identify that your team has completed all of the requested outcomes. 
 Release your team so they can support other projects within the company.
 Take time with your team to celebrate your successes!
 Pass off all remaining deliverables and get stakeholder approval.
 Document the lessons you and your team learned during the project.
 Reflect on ways to improve in the future.
Project Management Methodologies
 A project management methodology is a set of guiding principles and processes for
owning a project through its life cycle.

  Project management methodologies help guide project managers throughout a project

with steps to take, tasks to complete, and principles for managing the project overall.

These are of two types:

 Linear  Iterative
 Linear means the previous phase or task must be completed before the next can start. A
linear approach would work well for a project like building a house.

 Linear projects don't require many changes during development and have a clear
sequential process.

 Iterative projects allow for more flexibility and anticipate changes. You're able to test out
parts of the project to make sure they work before the final result is delivered, and you
 can deliver parts of the project as they are completed, rather than waiting for the entire
project to be done.

Waterfall (traditional approach) and Agile Methodoligies

Waterfall refers to the sequential ordering of phases. Waterfall has a linear approach.

When would you want to use a Waterfall approach to project management? 

 when the phases of the project are clearly defined
 when there are tasks to complete before another can begin
 when changes to the project are very expensive to implement once it's started.

Agile refers to moving quickly and easily or willing to change and adapt. Ex : Building a website

The phases of an Agile project also follow the project life cycle stages we described earlier.
However, rather than having to always go in order or wait for one phase to end before starting
the next, Agile project phases overlap and tasks are completed in iterations, which in Scrum, are
called sprints.

Projects that are best suited for an Agile approach are those where
 the client has an idea of what they want but doesn't have a concrete picture in mind
 they have a set of qualities they'd like to see in the end result but aren't as concerned
with exactly what it looks like. 
 Another indicator that a project may benefit from Agile is the level of high uncertainty and
risk involved with the project.
Lean and Six Sigma Methodologies

Lean
Lean methodology is often referred to as Lean Manufacturing because it originated in the
manufacturing world. The main principle in Lean methodology is the removal of waste within an
operation. By optimizing process steps and eliminating waste, only value is added at each phase
of production.  

Today, the Lean Manufacturing methodology recognizes eight types of waste within an
operation: defects, excess processing, overproduction, waiting, inventory, transportation, motion,
and non-utilized talent. In the manufacturing industry, these types of waste are often attributed to
issues such as: 

 Lack of proper documentation

 Lack of process standards
 Not understanding the customers’ needs
 Lack of effective communication
 Lack of process control
 Inefficient process design
 Failures of management

These same issues create waste in project management. 

Implement Lean project management when you want to use limited resources, reduce waste,
and streamline processes to gain maximum benefits. 

You can achieve this by using the pillars of the Lean 5S quality tool. The term 5S refers to the
five pillars that are required for good housekeeping: sort, set in order, shine, standardize, and
sustain. Implementing the 5S method means cleaning up and organizing the workplace to
achieve the smallest amount of wasted time and material. The 5S method includes these five
steps: 

1. Sort: Remove all items not needed for current production operations and leave only the
bare essentials. 
2. Set in order: Arrange needed items so that they are easy to use. Label items so that
anyone can find them or put them away. 
3. Shine: Keep everything in the correct place. Clean your workspace every day.
4. Standardize: Perform the process in the same way every time. 
5. Sustain: Make a habit of maintaining correct procedures and instill this discipline in your
team.

Within the Lean methodology, 5S helps you boost performance.

The final concept of Lean uses a Kanban scheduling system to manage production. The Kanban
scheduling system, or Kanban board, is a visualization tool that enables you to optimize the flow
of your team’s work. It gives the team a visual display to identify what needs to be done and
when. The Kanban board uses cards that are moved from left to right to show progress and help
your team coordinate the work. 
Kanban boards and 5S are core principles of the Lean methodology. They can help you
successfully manage your project. Now let’s analyze the Six Sigma method and learn when is the
best time to use it. 

Six Sigma
Six Sigma is a methodology used to reduce variations by ensuring that quality processes are
followed every time. The term “Six Sigma” originates from statistics and generally means that
items or processes should have 99.9996% quality.

The seven key principles of Six Sigma are:

1. Always focus on the customer.

2. Identify and understand how the work gets done. Understand how work really happens.
3. Make your processes flow smoothly.
4. Reduce waste and concentrate on value.
5. Stop defects by removing variation.
6. Involve and collaborate with your team.
7. Approach improvement activity in a systematic way.

Use this methodology to find aspects of the product or process that are measurable like time,
cost, or quantity. Then inspect that measurable item and reject any products that do not meet the
Six Sigma standard. Any process that created unacceptable products has to be improved upon.  

Now that you understand both Lean and Six Sigma, let's see how they come together to improve
the performance of your project!
Lean Six Sigma 
After both Lean and Six Sigma were put into practice, it was discovered that the two
methodologies could be combined to increase benefits. The tools used in Lean, such as Kanban
boards and 5S, build quality in processes from the beginning. Products developed using Lean
methods are then inspected or tested using Six Sigma standards. The products that do not meet
these standards are rejected. 

The largest difference between these methodologies is that Lean streamlines processes while
Six Sigma reduces variation in products by building in quality from the beginning and inspecting
products to ensure quality standards are met.

Phases of Lean Six Sigma Methodology: (DMAIC – strategy for process improvement)

 Define
o Before you begin working on tackling the issue, you're going to need to define the
project goal and talk to stakeholders about expectations for the project.
 Measure
o DMAIC focusses on data
o Here you want to map out the current process and locate exactly where the
problems are and what kind of effect the problems have on the process. 
 Analyze
o Here, you'll begin to identify gaps and issues.
o Data analysis is important for project managers regardless of which method you
choose and we will learn more about that in an upcoming course. 
 Improve
o This is the point where you present your findings and get ready to start making
improvements.
 Control
o Controlling is all about learning from the work you did up front to put new
processes and documentation in place and continue to monitor so the company
doesn't revert back to the old, inefficient way of doing things. 

An Overview of methodologies
1. Agile
One of the more recognizable project management methodologies, Agile is best suited for
projects that are iterative and incremental. It’s a type of process where demands and
solutions evolve through the collaborative effort of self-organizing and cross-functional
teams and their customers. Originally created for software development, it was established
as a response to the inadequacies of the Waterfall method (info on it later below), the
processes of which did not meet the demands of the highly competitive and constant
movement of the software industry.

Agile project management stems from the values and principles of the Agile Manifesto. A
declaration cemented in 2001 by 13 industry leaders, its purpose is to uncover better ways of
developing software by providing a clear and measurable structure that fosters iterative
development, team collaboration, and change recognition.

Made up of four fundamental values and 12 key principles, here’s what they are:

Values

1. Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

2. Working software over comprehensive documentation

3. Customer collaboration over contract negotiation

4. Responding to change over following a plan

Principles

1. Customer satisfaction through early and continuous software delivery

2. Accommodate changing requirements throughout the development process

3. Frequent delivery of working software

4. Collaboration between the business stakeholders and developers throughout the

project

5. Support, trust, and motivate the people involved

6. Enable face-to-face interactions

 7. Working software is the primary measure of progress

8. Agile processes to support a consistent development pace

9. Attention to technical detail and design enhances agility

10. Simplicity

11. Self-organizing teams encourage great architectures, requirements, and designs

12. Regular reflections on how to become more effective

Because of its adaptiveness, Agile methodology is commonly used to deliver more complex
projects. It uses six main deliverables to track progress and create the product which are the
product vision statement, product roadmap, product backlog, release plan, Sprint backlog,
and increment. With these features, it establishes itself as a methodology that places an
emphasis on collaboration, flexibility, continuous improvement, and high quality results.

Best suited for: Projects that require flexibility and have a level of complexity or uncertainty.
For instance, a product or service that hasn’t been built by the team.

Agile is a methodology that has methodologies within itself, such as Scrum and Kanban.
While some may argue that they should be considered more as frameworks, they are used to
develop and deliver a product or service and carry their own set of characteristics and
terminology which I think makes them worthy enough to be included on this list.

2. Scrum
Scrum is comprised of five values: commitment, courage, focus, openness, and respect. It’s
goal is to develop, deliver, and sustain complex products through collaboration,
accountability, and iterative progress. What distinguishes Scrum from the other Agile project
management methodologies is how it operates by using certain roles, events, and artifacts.

Scrum team  roles

 Product owner: Product expert who represents the stakeholders, and is the voice of
the customer.
  Development team: Group of professionals who deliver the product (developers,
programmers, designers).

 Scrum master: Organized servant-leader who ensures the understanding and

execution of Scrum is followed.

Scrum events

 Sprint: Iterative time boxes in which a goal is accomplished. Time frame does not
exceed one calendar month and are consistent throughout the development process.

 Sprint planning: Where the entire Scrum team get together — at the beginning of
every Sprint — to plan the upcoming sprint.

 Daily Scrum: 15 minute time boxed meeting held at the same time, every day of the
Sprint, where the previous day’s achievements are discussed, as well as the
expectations for the following one.

 Sprint review: An informal meeting held at the end of every Sprint where the Scrum
team present their Increment to the stakeholders, and discuss feedback.

 Sprint retrospective: A meeting where the Scrum team reflect on the proceedings of
the previous Sprint and establish improvements for the next Sprint.

Scrum Artifacts

 Product backlog: Managed by the Product Owner, it’s where all the requirements
needed for a viable product are listed in order of priority. Includes features, functions,
requirements, enhancements, and fixes that authorize any changes to be made to the
product in future releases.

 Sprint backlog: A list of the tasks and requirements that need to be accomplished
during the next Sprint. Sometimes accompanied by a Scrum task board, which is used
to visualize the progress of the tasks in the current Sprint, and any changes that are
made in a ‘To Do, Doing, and Done’ format.

Best suited for: Projects that consists of teams of less than seven people who need a flexible
approach to delivering a product or service.

3. Kanban
Kanban is another popular Agile framework that, similar to Scrum, focuses on early releases
with collaborative and self-managing teams. A concept that was developed on
the production line of Toyota factories in the 1940s, it is very visual method that aims to
deliver high quality results by painting a picture of the workflow process so that bottlenecks
can be identified early on in the development process. It operates on six general practices,
which are:

1. Visualization

2. Limiting work in progress

3. Flow management

4. Making policies explicit

5. Using feedback loops

6. Collaborative or experimental evolution

Kanban achieves efficiency by using visual cues that signal various stages of the
development process. The cues involved in the process are a Kanban board, Kanban cards,
and even Kanban swimlanes for those looking for that extra bit of organization.

 Kanban board: What’s used to visualize the development process, a Kanban board
can be either physical (a whiteboard, sticky notes, and markers) or digital (like
Zenkit’s online project management tool).

 Kanban cards: Each Kanban card depicts a work item/task in the work process. Used
to communicate progress with your team, it represents information such as status,
cycle time, and impending deadlines.

 Kanban swimlanes: Flowing horizontally, Kanban swimlanes are a visual element on

the board that allows you to further distinguish tasks/items by categorizing them.
Their purpose is to offer a better overview of the workflow.

While there are no set rules of Kanban per-se, it works by using a Kanban board to represent
the stages of development from the beginning when ideas are produced, to the work in
progress, to when the work has been completed. The board’s basic structure is three
columns labelled as ‘To-Do, Doing, and Done’ — which is rather self-explanatory.
 If
Kanban is the project management methodology of choice, you get to use one of these!

Like most Agile frameworks, Kanban made its mark within the software development
industry. However, due to its flexibility it has gained traction in other industries, and is one of
a few project management methodologies that can be applied to any project that requires
continuous improvement within the development process.

Best suited for: Like Scrum, Kanban is fitting for projects with smaller teams, who need a
flexible approach to delivering a product or service. Kanban is also great for personal
productivity purposes.

4. Lean
Lean methodology promotes maximizing customer value, while minimizing waste. It aims to
create more value for the customer by using fewer resources. Stemmed from the Japanese
manufacturing industry, its values suppose that ‘as waste is eliminated, quality improves
while the production time and cost are reduced.’

It identifies three types of waste; muda, mura, and muri, also known as the 3Ms.

Muda

Muda is about getting rid of waste, and refers to an activity or process that does not add
value. It can either be something that is a physical waste of your time or something that is a
waste of your resources. Characterized as seven original wastes, they are:
 1. ‘Transport: The movement of product between operations and locations.

2. Inventory: The work in progress (WIP) and stocks of finished goods and raw materials
that a company holds.

3. Motion: The physical movement of a person or machine whilst conducting an

operation.

4. Waiting: The act of waiting for a machine to finish, for a product to arrive, or any
other cause.

5. Overproduction: Over producing product beyond what the customer has ordered.

6. Over-processing: Conducting operations beyond those that customer requires.

7. Defects: Product rejects and reworks within your processes.’

Mura

Mura is about eliminating variances in the workflow process at a scheduling and operation
level so that everything flows evenly. For example, when publishing a magazine, if an editor
spends too much time editing an article, it means that the design team will have less time to
create the spread before the publishing deadline comes. Therefore, you would reduce the
editing time and ensure every department’s timeframe spent on the article is the same.

Muri

Muri is about removing overload so that the nothing slows down. It refers to managers and
business owners imposing unnecessary stress on their employees and processes due to
things such as poor organization, unclear ways of working, and using incorrect tools.

Instead of implementing certain processes, Lean is more about adhering to a set of

principles. The five main principles are; specify value by the customer, identify steps in the
value stream, make product flow continuously, allow customers pull value from the next
upstream activity, and manage towards removing unnecessary steps.

Best suited for: Often mistaken for specializing in manufacturing industries, Lean

methodology is ideal for any business or organization that is not looking for a process as
such, but is interested in transforming how they conduct doing business.
5. Waterfall
One of the more traditional project management methodologies, Waterfall is a linear,
sequential design approach where progress flows downwards in one direction — like a
waterfall. Originating in the manufacturing and construction industries, its lack of flexibility in
design changes in the earlier stages of the development process is due to it becoming
exuberantly more expensive because of its structured physical environments.

The methodology was first introduced in an article written in 1970 by Winston W.

Royce (although the term ‘Waterfall’ wasn’t used), and emphasizes that you’re only able to
move onto the next phase of development once the current phase has been completed. The
phases are followed in the following order:

1. System and software requirements

2. Analysis

3. Design

4. Coding

5. Testing

6. Operations

Waterfall is a project management methodology that stresses the importance of

documentation. The idea is that if a worker was to leave during the development process,
their replacement can start where they left off by familiarizing themselves with the
information provided on the documents.

Pre-Agile saw the Waterfall methodology being used for software development, but there
were many issues due to its non-adaptive design constraints, the lack of customer feedback
available during the development process, and a delayed testing period.

Best suited for: Larger projects that require maintaining stringent stages and deadlines, or
projects that have been done various times over where chances of surprises during the
development process are relatively low.
6. Six Sigma
Six Sigma is project management methodology first introduced by engineers at Motorola in
1986. It aims to improve quality by reducing the number of errors in a process by identifying
what is not working and then removing it from the process. It uses quality management
methods, which are mostly empirical and statistical, as well as the expertise of people who
are specialists in these methods.

There are two major methodologies of Six Sigma carried out by Six Sigma Green Belts and
Six Sigma Black Belts, and are supervised by Six Sigma Master Black Belts. They are DMAIC
which is used for improving business processes, and DMADV which is more for creating new
processes, products or services. The letters stand for:

‘Define the problem and the project goals

Measure in detail the various aspects of the current process
Analyze data to, among other things, find the root defects in a process
Improve the process
Control how the process is done in the future’

‘Define the project goals

Measure critical components of the process and the product capabilities
Analyze the data and develop various designs for the process, eventually picking the best
one
Design and test details of the process
Verify the design by running simulations and a pilot program, and then handing over the
process to the client’

There is also a Lean Six Sigma methodology which is committed to improving team

performance by systematically eliminating waste and reducing variation.

Best suited for: Larger companies and organizations that want to improve quality and
efficiency through a data-driven methodology.
7. PMI/PMBOK
PMI stands for the Project Management Institute which is a not-for-profit membership
association, project management certification, and standards organization. Through the PMI,
comes the PMBOK which is not quite a methodology but a guide detailing a set of standards
that characterize project management.

PMBOK stands for the Project Management Body of Knowledge and is a set of standard
terminology and guidelines for project management. It states that there are five process
groups that are prevalent in almost every project. They are;

1. Initiating: Defining the start of a new project or new phase of an existing project.

2. Planning: Where the scope of the project, objectives, and how the objectives will be
achieved.

3. Executing: Actually doing the work defined in the project management plan.

4. Monitoring and Controlling: When you need to track, review, and regulate the
progress and performance.

5. Closing: Concluding all activities across all Process Groups to formally close the
project or phrase.

Along with this, it includes best practices, conventions, and techniques that are considered
the industry standard. Regularly updating their guide to ensure that they echo the most up-
to-date project management practices, the PMBOK is currently up to its sixth edition which
was published in print and online in 2017.

Best suited for: Because it’s more of a reference guide than an actual project management
methodology, you can’t implement PMI/PMBOK to a project. However, it can be used for
when you want to weigh in on the best practices for your project.
Organizational Structure
Organizational structure refers to the way a company or organization is arranged or
structured. This structure also tells you how job tasks are divided and coordinated and how all
the different members of the organization relate to one another.

TYPES OF Organizational Structures

 Classical Organizational Structure
o The Classic organizational structure is a top-down hierarchy system,
where a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) has direct authority over several
department managers. The department manager has direct authority over
several other sections of employees.
o This system requires communication both up and down the ladder.
o Classic organizations are also referred to as functional organizations
because the organization is divided into departments based on function.
Each department is led by a functional manager, and employees are
grouped according to the functions of their role.
 Matrix

Organizational Structure
o The Matrix structure differs from the Classic structure in that the
employees have two or more managers. In Matrix structures, you still
have people above you, but you also have people in adjacent
departments with whom you will need to communicate on your work
progress.
Within both of these types of structures, there is sometimes a group devoted specifically to
program management with the organization: the Project Management Office.

What is a PMO?
A Project Management Office, or PMO, is a group within an organization that defines, sets, and
helps maintain project management standards and processes throughout that organization. It
often acts as a coordinated centre for all of the organization’s projects, helping them run more
smoothly and efficiently.

The main functions of a PMO include:

 Strategic planning and governance

This is the most important function of a PMO. This involves defining project criteria, selecting
projects according to the organization’s business goals, and then providing a business case for
those projects to management. 

 Best practices

PMOs help implement best practices and processes within their organization. They also share
lessons learned from previous successful projects. They help ensure consistency among their
organization’s projects by providing guidance about processes, tools, and metrics.

 Common project culture 

PMOs help set common project culture practices by training employees about optimal
approaches and best practices. This helps keep project management practices consistent and
efficient across the entire organization. 

 Resource management

PMOs are often responsible for managing and allocating resources—such as people and
equipment—across projects throughout the organization based on budget, priorities, schedules,
and more. They also help define the roles and responsibilities needed on any given project.
PMOs provide training, mentoring, and coaching to all employees, but project managers in
particular. 
  Creation of project documentation, archives, and tools

PMOs invest in and provide templates, tools, and software to help manage projects. They also
play an important role in maintaining their organization’s project history. Once a project closes,
they archive all of the documents created during the project for future reference and to capture
lessons learned.

Organizational Culture

 
 Organizational culture is in part the values employees share, as well as the
organization's values, mission, history, and so on. 
 In other words, organizational culture can be thought of as the company's personality.
 Understanding an organization's culture will help you navigate your team more effectively
toward achieving the project's goal.

Some Questions to determine or identify the Organizational culture

Learning Organization’s Mission and Values will help an individual to get a better understanding
of the prevailing culture.

Change Management
Change management is the process of delivering a completed project and getting people to
adopt it. When project managers understand change management, and their role in the process,
it helps to ensure a smooth roll out and easier adoption.

Concepts of Change Management:

 Create a sense of ownership and urgency

o Ownership means getting others to feel they are empowered to take
responsibility for the successful completion of their tasks. Urgency means getting
them to understand that the project is important and to identify what actions need
to be taken to move the project along. When team members feel a sense
of ownership and urgency around a project, it increases interest, motivation, and
engagement with the project outcome.
 Figure out the right combinations of skills and personalities
 Effective Communication
 INITIATION OF PROJECT
Cost Effect Analysis
It is the process of adding up the expected value of a project (the benefits) and
comparing them to the dollar costs. To do this, you will work with stakeholders to consider a few
questions. 

Purpose of this analysis:

 To determine if the project is sound, justifiable and feasible by figuring out if its
benefits outweigh costs.

 To offer a baseline for comparing projects by determining which project’s benefits

are greater than its costs.

Advantages:

 A cost-benefit analysis can minimize risks and maximize gains for projects and
organizations.
 It can help you communicate clearly with stakeholders and executives and keep your
project on track.
 Because this type of analysis uses objective data, it can help reduce biases and keep
stakeholder self-interest from influencing decisions. 
 Comparing a project’s benefits to its costs can help you make a strong business case to
stakeholders and leadership and ensure your organization pursues the most profitable or
useful projects.
 Organizations use cost-benefit analyses to reduce waste and invest their resources
responsibly.

To determine the benefits of a project, those questions might include: 

 What value will this project create? 

 How much money could this project save our organization? 
 How much money will it bring in from existing customers? 
 How much time will be saved? 
 How will the user experience be improved?

And to determine the costs of the project, those questions might include: 

 How much time will people have to spend on this project? 
 What will be the one-time costs? 
 Are there any ongoing costs? 
 What about long-term costs?

 Customer satisfaction. Will the project increase customer retention, causing them to
spend more on the company’s products or services? 
 Employee satisfaction. Is the project likely to improve employee morale, reducing
turnover? 
  Employee productivity. Will the project reduce employee’s overtime hours, saving the
company money?
 Brand perception. Is the project likely to improve the company’s brand perception and
recognition, attracting more customers or providing a competitive advantage?

Calculating costs and benefits

The process of calculating costs and benefits is also called calculating return on investment, or
ROI. There are many ways to determine a project’s ROI, but the easiest way is to compare the
upfront and ongoing costs to its benefits over time.

In this formula, G represents the financial gains you expect from the project, and C represents
the upfront and ongoing costs of your investment in the project.

Key Components of Initiation

 Goals
o A desired outcome of the project that is clear and specific. The goal is what
you've been asked to do and what you're trying to achieve. 
 Scope
o This is the process to define the work that needs to happen to complete the
project.
 Deliverables 
o These are the tangible and intangible outcomes of a project. A deliverable is
something what gets produced or presented at the end of a task, even or
process. Deliverables helps quantify and realize the impact of the project.
 Success criteria
o Success criteria are the standards by which you measure how successful a
project was in reaching its goals.
 Stakeholders
o They're the people who both have an interest in and are affected by the
completion and success of a project. As a result, they're often instrumental
in determining the goals, objectives, deliverables, and success criteria of a
project, from coming up with the idea to outlining their expectations of its results.
 Resources
o Resources generally refer to the budget, people, materials, and other items that
you'll have at your disposal.

Project Charter
 A project charter is a document that contains all the details of a project. 
  Project charters clearly define the project and its goals, and outline what is needed to
accomplish them.
 A project charter allows you to get organized, set up a framework for what needs to be
done, and communicate those details to others

Goals
SMART Method of Goals
 Specific
o What do I want to accomplish?
o Why is this a goal?
o Who is involved?
o Where the goal should be delivered?
o To what degree?
  Measurable
o How much? How many? Or how will I know when it’s
accomplished?
 Use Metrics and Benchmarks
 Attainable
o Can it be reasonably reached?
o How can it be accomplished?
 Relevant
o Does the goal make sense?
o Is the goal worthwhile?
o Is it the right time?
 Time-bound
o Has a defined deadline or clear time frame

What are OKRs?

OKR stands for objectives and key results. They combine a goal and a metric to determine a
measurable outcome.

Objectives Key Results

Defines what needs to be achieved The measurable outcomes that objectively define when the objective

Describes a desired outcome

Company-wide OKRs are used to set an ultimate goal for an entire organization, while
team, department, and project-level OKRs describe the focused results each group will need to
achieve in order to support the organization

Strong objectives meet the following Strong key results meet the following
criteria. They are: criteria:

 Aspirational  Results-oriented—not a task

 Aligned with organizational goals  Measurable and verifiable
 Action-oriented  Specific and time-bound
 Concrete  Aggressive yet realistic
 Significant
Scope
 Boundaries of the project (Timeline, Budget, Resources)
 Here are a few more helpful questions to add to the list. 
o Where did the project come from? 
o Why is it needed?
o What is the project expected to achieve? 
o What does the project sponsor have in mind? 
o Who approves the final results? 

In-Scope

Tasks that are included in the project and contribute to the project's overall goal are
considered to be in-scope.

Out-of-Scope

Tasks that aren't included are called out-of-scope.

Scope creep

Changes, growth, and uncontrolled factors that affect a project scope at any point
after the project begins are referred to as "scope creep."

Project Management Triple

Constraint
Also referred to as the “Project Management
Triangle” or the “Iron Triangle”, the Triple
Constraint represents the relationship between a
project’s scope, time, and cost. 

Project Launch

Delivering the final result of your project to the client or user is what's called a project launch.

Landing

Landing is when you actually measure the success of your project using the success criteria
established at the outset of the project.
Success Criteria

 The success criteria will tell you whether or not the project as a whole was successful. 
 They are the specific details of your goals and deliverables that tell you whether you've
accomplished what you set out to do. 
 They are the standards by which the project will be judged once it's been delivered to
stakeholders and customers.
  Defining success criteria also clarifies for your team what they're trying to accomplish
beyond just launching something to users.

Determining Project Success

 Identify the measurable aspects of your project

 Get clarity from stakeholders on the project requirements and expectations.

Choosing a Project Team

What to consider?

 Required roles
 Team size
 Necessary skills
 Availability
 Motivation

Defining Project Roles

Project sponsor

A project sponsor is the person who is accountable for the project and who ensures the
project delivers the agreed upon value to the business. Sometimes they fund the project

Team Members

Team members are the heart of the operation. They're the people doing the day to day
work and making the project happen.

Customers

The customers are the people who will get some sort of value from a successfully landed
project. Since the project aims to deliver something useful to the customers, the customer's
needs usually define the project's requirements.

Users

Users are the people that ultimately use the product that your project will produce.

Stakeholders
 Stakeholders are anyone involved in the project; those who have a vested interest in the
project's success. Primary stakeholders are people who expect to benefit directly from the
project's completion, while secondary stakeholders play an intermediary role and are indirectly
impacted by the project.

Project Manager

Person who plans, organizes and oversees the whole project.

Stakeholder Analysis Steps: (POWER GRID)

o Make a list of all the stakeholders the project impacts

o Determine the level of interest and influence for each stakeholder
 Influence measures how much power a stakeholder has and how
much the stakeholder's actions affect the project outcome.
o Assess stakeholders’ ability to participate and then find ways to involve them

Stakeholder buy-in

Stakeholder buy-in is the process of involving these people in decision-making to

hopefully reach a broader consensus on the organization's future. To get stakeholders to buy in
on the project, you'll have to pay particular attention to your high-impact stakeholders and make
sure they feel looped in. You'll want to explain to them how the project will help them
achieve their goals, and you want to have their support later on if any issues come up.
RACI CHART [Responsibility Assignment Matrix (RAM)]
A RACI chart can be an extremely effective way to define project roles, give direction to
each team member and stakeholder, and ensure work gets done efficiently.

There are four types of participation included in a RACI chart. These are:

responsible, accountable, consulted, and informed. 
  Responsible refers to those doing the work to complete the task. 
 Accountable refers to those making sure the work gets done. Only one person is
generally placed accountable to avoid any confusion for a task.
 Consulted includes those giving feedback, like subject matter experts or decision-
makers. 
 Informed, which includes those just needing to know the final decisions or that a task is
complete. 

Why projects fail: Initiation missteps

 Unclear expectations  Lack of resources
 Unrealistic expectations  Scope creep
 Miscommunication

Essential Project Resources

 Budget
o An estimate of the amount of money a project will cost to complete
 People
o Resources include the people who help execute the tasks of a project
 Materials
o These are items you need to help to the project done

Tools are aids that make it easier for a project manager or team to manage resources and
organize work. They help you do things like track tasks, manage budgets, and collaborate with
teammates.

Project Documentation
 o Clear and consistent documentation can ensure transparency and clear communication.
o Documentation also helps preserve decisions made early on in the project and can serve
as a reference point for team members who might join later in the project life cycle.
Common types:

o Project Proposal
o A form of documentation that persuades a stakeholder to begin a project
o The proposal kicks off the initiation phase by influencing and persuading the
company to move forward with the project.
o The proposal is only used at the earlier stages.

o Project Charter
o A formal document that clearly defines the project and outlines the
necessary details needed to reach its goals.
o Its goal is to more clearly define the key details of the project. 
o A charter will often serve as a point of reference throughout the life of a
project.
o A project charter makes clear that the benefits of the project outweighs
the costs of the project.

Project charters will vary but usually include some combination of the following key information:

o introduction/project summary o major requirements or key

deliverables
o goals/objectives 
o budget
o business case/benefits and
costs o schedule/timeline or milestones
o project team o constraints and assumptions
o scope o risks
o success criteria o OKRs
o approvals
Here are some important considerations and keys to successfully introducing new tools:

 Discuss the tool early and often, if possible

 Ask for feedback from key stakeholders.
 Involve the key stakeholders in demonstrations as you get closer to making the
final decision on the project tracking tool.
 Ensure the tool is fully functional before the team is introduced to it.
 Set up training for the tool as needed before you ask the team to actually use it.

 Email and chat

GLOSSARY OF COURSE 2
A
Adoption: Refers to how the customer uses and adapts a product or service without any
issues

Asana: A work management platform that helps teams plan and coordinate their work;
useful for building project plans, assigning tasks, automating workflows, tracking progress,
and communicating with stakeholders

B
Benchmark: A point of reference

Benefits: Expected gains of a project

Budget: An estimate of the amount of money a project will cost to complete

Business case: The reason for initiating a project

C
Collaboration tools: Tools used to quickly and efficiently check in with team members on
questions, comments, and other topics related to a project

Cost-benefit analysis: The process of adding up the expected value of a project—the

benefits—and comparing them to the dollar costs

Customers: The people who will get some value from a successfully-landed project

D
Deliverable: A tangible outcome from a project; what gets produced or presented at the end
of a task, event, or process

Docs: A digital word processing application

E
Engagement: Refers to how often or meaningful customer interaction and participation is
over time

I
Influence: Measures how much power a stakeholder has and how much the stakeholder’s
actions affect the project outcome

Initiation: The first phase within the project life cycle, followed by planning, executing, and
closing
In-scope: Tasks that are included in the project plan and contribute to the project’s goal

Intangible benefits: gains that are not measurable or quantifiable, such as customer or
employee satisfaction or brand recognition

Intangible costs: a cost that cannot easily be quantified, such as loss of employee morale
or brand damage.

Interest: Refers to how much the needs of the stakeholder will be affected by project
outcomes

K
Key stakeholders: The people with the highest amount of influence on and interest in a
project; also called "key players"

L
Land: To measure the success of a project using the success criteria established at the
outset of the project

Launch: To deliver the final result of a project to the client or user

M
Materials: Items needed to help get the project done

Metrics: Data used to measure something, like numbers or figures

O
Objectives and key results (OKRs):  A combination of a goal and a metric to determine a
measurable outcome

Out-of-scope: Tasks that are not included in the project plan and don’t contribute to the
project’s goal

P
Power grid: A two-by-two grid used for conducting a stakeholder analysis; shows
stakeholder interest in the project versus their influence over the project

Primary stakeholders: People who will benefit directly from a project’s success

Productivity tools: Tools used to manage project tasks, including word processing
software, spreadsheets, and presentations

Project charter: A document that clearly defines the key details of a project

Project goal: The desired outcome of a project

Project manager: The person who plans, organizes, and oversees the whole project

Project proposal: Documentation written at the beginning of a project; kicks off the initiation
phase by influencing and persuading the company to move forward with the project

Project sponsor: The person who’s accountable for the project and who ensures the project
delivers the agreed-upon business benefits

R
RACI chart: A visual that helps to define roles and responsibilities for individuals or teams to
ensure work gets done efficiently; lists who is  "responsible," "accountable," "consulted," and
"informed" for project tasks

Return on investment (ROI): A metric used to calculate the return on an investment relative
to its cost.

Resources: The budget, people, materials, and other items needed for a project

S
Scheduling and work management software: Tools used for assigning tasks to multiple
teammates and for tracking and visualizing progress; most useful for bigger projects with a
larger number of tasks and a bigger team of people to manage

Scope: The boundaries of a project; an agreed-upon understanding as to what is included or

excluded from a project

Scope creep: Changes, growth, and uncontrolled factors that affect a project’s scope at any
point after the project begins

Scope management: Understanding and negotiating how changes will be evaluated,

accepted, and performed

Silo: A situation in which the knowledge and responsibility for a task falls on one person

Secondary stakeholders: People who are indirectly impacted by a project’s success

Slides: Google’s digital presentation application

SMART goals: A method to evaluate goals; states that goals should be "specific,"
"measurable," "attainable," "relevant," and "time-bound"

Spreadsheet: A tool used for organizing, transforming, visualizing, and manipulating

information; useful for a wide range of tasks, such as creating timelines, building charts,
managing budgets, and tracking tasks

Stakes: The important parts of a business, situation, or project that might be at risk if
something goes wrong
Stakeholders: Anyone involved in the project who has a vested interest in the project’s
success

Stakeholder analysis: A visual representation of all the stakeholders that illustrates which
stakeholders are taking on which responsibilities; also called “stakeholder mapping”

Stakeholder buy-in: The process of involving stakeholders in decision-making to hopefully

reach a broader consensus on the organization's future

Steering committee: The most senior decision-making body on any project; they have the
authority to make changes to the budget and approve updates to the timeline or scope

Success criteria: The standards that measure how successful a project was in reaching its
goals

T
Team members: The people doing the day-to-day work and making the project happen

Tools: Aids that make it easier for a project manager or team to manage resources and
organize work

Triple constraint: The combination of the three most significant restrictions of any project:
scope, time, and cost.

Project Planning: Putting it all together

  Planning helps you map out the full project. 
 It helps you understand the work needed to achieve your goals. 
 Planning also helps coordinate efforts and timelines with other teams, contractors, and
vendors. 
 It gives you time to identify and prepare for risks that could impact your project.
 Helps to get Buy-in from key members of the project team.
 Demonstrates the stakeholders that the team is taking care to start the project with a
detailed plan.

Key elements of planning stage

 Schedule
o The project timeline, which includes the start date, the end date, and dates
for events in between
 Budget
o It accounts for the total cost to complete the project.
 Risk Management plan
o Searching for possible problems related to the project and planning ahead to
mitigate these risks.

A project kick off meeting is the first meeting in which a project team comes together
to ground everyone in a shared vision, gain a shared understanding of the project's goals and
scope, and to understand each person's individual roles within the team.
 Project Team members, Stakeholders, Sponsors can be invited

Why Meeting?
 To establish shared vision
 Align on scope
 Build team rapport
 Ask questions and offer insights
 Set expectations

Meeting Agendas

 Introductions to build team rapport

 Background of the project
 Goals and Scope of the project
 Roles of Members
 Collaborations
 What comes next
 Questions

Project Milestone

 A project milestone is an important point within the project schedule that indicates

progress and usually signifies the completion of a deliverable or phase of the project.
Project Task
 An activity that needs to be accomplished within a set period of time.

Importance of Setting Milestones

 Setting milestones gives you a clear understanding of the amount of work your project
will require.
 Milestones help keep your project on track.
 Milestones help uncover areas where you might need to adjust scope, timelines, or
resources to meet your goals.
 Reaching milestones can seriously motivate your team, and illustrate real progress to
your stakeholders
 Milestones also serve as a great check-in point to highlight your progress to
stakeholders.

How to set milestones

1. Evaluate your project as a whole
2. Once the milestone is determined, assign a deadline for each milestone

 Note :
o Don’t set too many milestones.
o Don’t mistake tasks for milestones.
o Don’t list your milestones and tasks separately.

Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

A WBS is a deliverable-oriented breakdown of a project into smaller components. A tool
that sorts the milestones and tasks of a project in a hierarchy, in the order they need to be
completed.
 A Tree diagram can be used.

Components of a Project Plan

 Tasks
 Milestones
 People
o It's important that each team member understands their role and the tasks they're
responsible for completing.
 Documentation
o RACI charts, Charter, Budget and Risk Management plans
 Time
o The estimated time includes dates on which tasks should be started and
completed and the dates when you hope to reach various milestones. 
o It also includes the start and end dates of the project, which are important
in determining which resources you'll need and when you'll need them.

Time Estimation
A prediction of the total amount of time required to complete a task.

Effort Estimation
A prediction of the amount and difficulty of active work required to complete a task.

Buffer
 Extra time added to the end of a task or project to account for unexpected slowdowns
or delays in work progress.

Capacity
The amount of work that the people or resources assigned to the project can
reasonably complete in a set period of time.

Capacity planning
Refers to the act of allocating people and resources to project tasks, and determining
whether or not you have the necessary resources required to complete the work on time

Critical Path
 The list of project milestones you must reach in order to meet the project goal on
schedule, as well as the mandatory tasks that contribute to the completion of each
milestone.
 Tasks on Critical path should have 0 float.
 Steps to determine a critical path;
o Capture all the tasks
o Set dependencies (identify which tasks can be performed in parallel of series)
o Create a network diagram
o Make time estimates
o Find critical path (Forward pass and Backward pass methods)
https://www.workamajig.com/blog/critical-path-method

Float/ Slack
The amount of time one can wait to begin a task before it impacts the project
schedule and threatens the project outcome.

Soft skills for accurate estimation

 Asking the right questions (asking open ended questions (not a yes or no que))
 Negotiating effectively
 Practicing empathy

Anchor
An anchor of a good project plan is a clear schedule, containing all the tasks of a
project, their owners, and when they need to be completed.

Gantt chart
 A horizontal bar chart that maps out a project schedule.
 They are highly visual representation of a project’s tasks, with clear breakdowns of
who’s responsible for the work and when those tasks are due.
Budget and Procurement
Project Plan best practices
 Carefully review deliverables, milestones, and tasks
 Give yourself time to plan
 Recognize and plan for the inevitable
 Stay curious
 Champion your plan

Project Budget
 The estimated monetary resources needed to achieve the project’s goals and
objectives.
 It is set in the Initiation phase of the project.
 It is done in conjunction with scheduling.

When creating a budget, a project manager must account for:

 Understanding stakeholder needs
 Budgeting for surprise expenses
 Maintaining adaptability
 Reviewing and reforecasting throughout the project

Contingency Budget (Buffer)

Money that is included to cover potentially unforeseen events that aren’t
accounted for in a cost estimate but have a probability to occur.

Baseline Budget
 A baseline budget is an estimate of project costs that you start with at the
beginning of your project.

Cost of Quality
Costs that are incurred to prevent issues with products, processes, or tasks.
 Prevention costs
 Appraisal costs
 Internal failure costs
 External failure costs

Budget Setting Methods

o Historical data
 Comparing to past similar projects
o Leverage experts
 Gathering insights of colleagues
o Bottom-up approach
o Confirm accuracy
o Baseline

Cost Control
Practice where a project manager identifies factors that might impact their
budget and then creates effective actions to minimize variances

Actual Cost must reach equal to estimated cost

TCO (Total Cost Ownership)

TCO takes into account multiple elements that contribute to the cost of an
item. It factors in the expenses associated with a product or service over its lifetime,
rather than just upfront costs.

Cash Flow
The inflow and outflow of cash on the project.

CAPEX (Capital Expenses)

 CAPEX (capital expenses) are an organization's major, long-term, upfront expenses, such
as buildings, equipment, and vehicles.
 They are generally for assets that the company will own and keep.
 The company incurs these expenses because they believe they will create a benefit for the
company in the future. 
OPEX (Operating Expenses)
 OPEX (operating expenses) are the short-term expenses that are required for the day-to-
day tasks involved in running the company, such as wages, rent, and utilities. They are often
recurring.  
Management Reserves
  Management reserves are used to cover the costs of unknown risks.
 Contingency reserves are an estimated amount, whereas management reserves are
generally a percentage of the total cost of the project.

Procurement
Obtaining all of the materials, services, and supplies required to complete the
project.

Vendors
Individuals or businesses who provide essential goods and services

Steps of Procurement

1. Initiating
a. Planning process what help you might need to achieve goal
including materials, resources
2. Selecting
a. Which vendors to reach for the supplies.
3. Contract Writing
a. Contracts are developed reviewed and signed.
4. Control
a. Making payments and maintaining and ensuring quality

5. Completing
a. Measuring success

Agile Procurement Management

 Collaborative with both the project team and the supplier
 Emphasis on the relationship between these parties
 Project team plays a larger role in identifying what needs to be procured
 Living contract

Traditional Procurement Management

 Focus on standard contracts with clear terms and deliverables
 Project manager may be responsible for end to end procurement
 Contracts may feature length and extensive documentation

Types of Procurement Documents

1. Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA)

  A document that keeps confidential information within the
organization
2. Request for Proposal (RFP)
 A document that outlines the details of the project.
3. Statement of Work (SOW)
 A document that clearly lays out the products and services a
vendor or contractor will provide for the organization

According to the PMI's Code of Ethics, honesty,

responsibility, respect, and fairness are the values that drive ethical
conduct for the project management profession.

Ethical Trap
An ethical trap is an ethical dilemma that causes us to make a certain
decision without regard for our ethical principles. Project managers must take
precautions to ensure that they and their suppliers are following ethical principles
during the procurement process. Various types of ethical traps:

 Corruption and bribery

 Sole supplier sourcing
 Interactions with state-owned entities

Avoiding ethical traps

 Understand the legal requirements for your procurements

 Stick to your ethical codes
 Test your ethics (ask yourself question)
o Shame: Would you be ashamed if someone knew what you did?
o Community: Would you want your friends to know the decision you made? 
o Legal: Would you face legal action if you took this action? 
o Situation: Would your actions be justified in this situation?
o Consequence: Will the outcome be worth your actions? 

Risk Management
Risk is a potential event which can occur and can impact the project.
An opportunity is a potential positive outcome that may bring additional value to a
project.

An Issue is known or real problem that can affect the ability to complete a task.
Risk Management is the process of identifying and evaluating potential risks and issues that
could impact a project. It helps with

 What could go wrong?

 Who you’ll need to consult
 How the risk could be mitigated?

Steps involved in Risk Management:

 Identify the risk

o The first phase of the risk management process is to identify and define potential
project risks with your team.
 Analyse the risk
o After identifying the risks, determine their likelihood and potential impact to your
project. Serious risks with a high probability of occurring pose the greatest threat.
 Evaluate the risk
o Use the results of your risk analysis to determine which risks to prioritize.
 Treat the risk
o Make a plan for how to treat and manage each risk.
 Monitor and control the risk
o Assign team members to monitor, track, and mitigate risks if the need arises.
Cause and Effect diagram (Fishbone / Ishikawa diagram)

Risk Register is a table or chart that contains a list of risks.

Risk Assessment is a stage of risk management where qualities of a risk are

estimated or measured.

Impact refers to the damage a risk could cause, if it occurs.

  It is determine on a scale of high, medium and low.

Inherent risk is the measure of a risk, calculated by its probability and impact.

Risk appetite is the willingness of an organization to accept the possible

outcomes of a risk.

Common types of Risks:

 Time risk
o The possibility that project tasks will take longer than anticipated
to complete
 Budget risk
o The possibility that the costs of a project will increase due to poor
planning or expanding the project’s scope.
 Scope risk
o The possibility that a project won’t produce the results outlined in
the project goals.
 External Risk
o Risks resulting from factors outside the company that you have
little to no control over.
 Single point of failure
o A risk that has the potential to be catastrophic and halt work
across a project.
 Dependency
o A relationship between two project tasks, where the start or
completion of one depends on the start or completion of the
other.
o Internal Dependency
 It refers to dependencies within the project that you and
your team have control over.
o External Dependency
 Dependencies that you have no control over.

Finish to Start (FS)

In this type of relationship between two tasks, Task A must be completed before Task B can
start. This is the most common dependency in project management. It follows the natural
progression from one task to another.

Example: Imagine you are getting ready to have some friends over for dinner. You can’t start
putting on your shoes (Task B) until you’ve finished putting on your socks (Task A). 
Task A: Finish putting on your socks. →Task B: Start putting on your shoes.

Finish to Finish (FF)

In this model, Task A must finish before Task B can finish. (This type of dependency is not
common.)

Example: Earlier in the day, you baked a cake. You can’t finish decorating the cake (Task B)
until you finish making the icing (Task A).
Task A: Finish making the icing. →Task B: Finish decorating the cake.

Start to Start (SS)

In this model, Task A can’t begin until Task B begins. This means Tasks A and B start at the
same time and run in parallel.
Example:  For dinner, you are making pasta. You can’t start cooking the pasta (Task B) until the
water starts boiling (Task A).  
Task A: Start boiling the water. →Task B: Start cooking the pasta.

Start to Finish (SF)

In this model, Task A must begin before Task B can be completed.

Example:   One of your friends calls to tell you he’ll be late. He can’t finish his shift (Task B) and
leave work until his coworker arrives to start her shift (Task A). 
Task A: Your friend’s coworker starts her shift. →Task B: Your friend finishes his shift.

Common ways to deal with a risk:

 Avoid the risk

o Avoid the risk by taking action that will eliminate the possibility of
risk.
 Accept the risk
o Accept the risk by accepting the possibility that this risk can
happen.
 Reduce or control the risk
o By determining potential options to address it.
 Transfer the risk
 o By shifting the risk from one party to another.

Decision Tree

A flow chart that helps visualize the wider impact of a decision on the
rest of a project.

Risk Management plan

 It is a living document that contains information regarding high level

risks and the mitigation plans for those risks.
 The risk management plan should be updated regularly to add newly-
identified risks, remove risks that are no longer relevant, and include any
changes in the mitigation plan.

Communicating risks to stakeholders depends on the severity of the risk

 Low level risks : Emails can work

 Medium level risks: Direct email between yourself and stakeholder with detailed
information.
 High level risks: Thorough and direct level of communication.

Risk Exposure is a way to measure the potential future loss resulting from a specific activity
or event.

ROAM analysis to analyze, prioritize, and manage risks that have already become issues. It's a
great tool to keep teams organized, so they know what needs to be done to keep the project
moving forward.

In a ROAM analysis, you identify project issues and put them into one of the following four
categories:
 Resolved: The issue has been eliminated and no longer poses a problem.
 Owned: The issue has been assigned to a team member who will monitor it through to
completion.
 Accepted: The issue is minor or cannot be resolved, so the team chooses to accept and
work around it.
 Mitigated: The team has taken action to reduce the impact of the issue (or reduce the
likelihood of a risk that has not yet materialized).
Organizing communication and documentation
Communication

 The flow of information and includes what is shared, how it’s shared, and with who.
 It needs to happen over the entire life cycle of the project.

Tips for effective communication:

 Recognize and understand individual differences

 Brainstorm and craft the appropriate message
 Deliver your message
 Obtain feedback and incorporate that feedback going forward

Communication Plan Organizes and documents the process, types, and expectations of
communication for the project.

 Who needs to be communicated?

 What’s the best way of communication
 Why are we communicating?
 How often should be communication done?

Advantages of planned communications

 Improves communication overall

 Keeps people engaged and motivated
 Gets stakeholders involved in effective conversations

Advantages of Project documentation

 Makes communication more streamlined, quicker and easier.

 It provides visibility and accountability
 Helps to ensure there is no room for miscommunication or misinformation
 Restricts the usage as per requirement
 Helps ease in continuity

Knowledge Management is a way of ensuring that project data can be accessed in the
future by others who need it for informing decisions or planning similar projects.

Personally Identifiable Information (PII)

 Information that could be used on its own to directly identify, contact or precisely
locate an individual.

Resume Building
Tailoring a resume for project management

As you prepare for your job search, you will need to create or update your resume to reflect your
experience in order to apply for project management roles. You have learned so much during this
course, and it is important that your resume reflects that. An effective resume highlights your
skills and experience and is tailored to the position you are applying for. Let’s explore how to
make your resume stand out by incorporating your new project management skills and your
previous experience. 

Tailor the content

 Identify what is important to the potential employer. What does the employer want to
know about you? Make sure that you carefully read the job description and notice which
skills are mentioned. You can also read several job descriptions for the same type of role to
identify which skills and requirements show up frequently. For instance, although specifics
will vary by role and employer, many project management-related roles require the ability to
effectively organize and coordinate across teams and projects, manage multiple tasks
simultaneously, and communicate effectively. You should take note of these skills and be
sure to highlight them using similar terms on your resume. 
 Create one master project management resume to edit and tailor to each job
application. You should make sure that the order of your skills and qualifications matches
the job description. In doing this, you are making sure that the things that are most
important to the employer are at the top. 
 Match the language used in the job description. Some employers use automation
software to filter resumes. If the job description uses keywords like procurement and risk
management, make sure your resume uses those keywords, too. 
 Use project management terminology.  This will help the person reading your resume
understand how your past experience is relevant to a project management position. 
 Decide what not to include on your resume. You may have some skills that are
important to you, but those same skills may confuse or distract the hiring managers reading
your resume. 
 Highlight how your past experience and skills are relevant to project management.
If you have been working as a construction foreman but want to begin managing
construction projects, your planning and staff management skills will be essential in your
new role. Make sure to point out how those skills will be beneficial to the employer. 
Choose an appropriate format
No matter what layout or template you choose for your resume, there are several things you
should keep in mind 

 The design of your resume should be simple and easy to understand for both human and
artificial intelligence readers. You don’t want your resume to be discarded before a real
person has a chance to read it! 
 Your resume should be easy to read and should convey all of the important information
in short bullet points. 
 Your resume should be one- to two-pages long and contain only the last ten to fifteen
years of relevant experience. It is appropriate to use two columns on a one-page resume,
but if your resume is two pages, be sure to use the entire width of the page. 

Update the relevant sections

Once you have determined the appropriate format for your resume, you will need to update each
of your resume’s major sections, which include:

 Contact information
 Professional summary
 Core competencies
 Professional experience
 Education and certifications

Pro tip: Resumes should be written in the third person and should not contain personal
pronouns. 
Let’s discuss how to incorporate your new skills into these sections of your resume.

Contact information

Your header should contain your contact information and should go at the top of your resume. 

 Your header should include the following information:

 Your name in a larger font than the rest of your resume
 The city and state you live in (you do not need to include your street address for privacy
purposes)
 Your phone number and a link to your email address
 Link to your LinkedIn profile URL
 Links to any other personal websites or portfolios, if applicable to the role you are
applying for
 Your header should be relevant, simple, and easy to read. Here is an example of a
resume header:
Professional summary

Below your header, include a professional summary.

 Use your summary to set the tone. Your summary should be one to three lines and
should clearly state why you are the best candidate for the position. It should highlight the
most important things you want the reader to know about you. If you are applying for a new
role, you will want to update your industry specialty. You likely have experience that can be
related to project management, and you will want to incorporate that relevant experience
into your new professional summary. Make sure you tailor your description of yourself to the
role you are applying for. 
 Merge the description of the role you are applying for with your past experience.
Here is an example: 
 Project manager with two years of demonstrated success in a project scoping and
planning. Skilled in cross-functional collaboration and project execution. Articulate
communicator who thrives in a results-driven collaborative environment.
 Use keywords from the job description to describe yourself. If the job description
states that the company is looking for a candidate with knowledge of both traditional and
Agile approaches, you should add that to your resume—you have gained that knowledge
with this certification.

Once you have your professional introduction, your next sentence should explain how your
unique expertise will make you valuable to the employer. 
Pro tip: Don’t forget to use this section to highlight something that makes you stand out from
other applicants. Use an accomplishment from a previous role to show the employer what you
can offer them. Take a look at this example of a professional summary section:

Solutions-driven individual with experience in solving complex problems, working with cross-
functional teams, and executing strategies. Proficient in managing supplier relationships,
administering contracts, and learning new technologies. Highly effective at coaching and mentoring
Agile teams.
Now that you have your heading and professional summary updates, let’s move on to the core
competencies section of your resume.

Core competencies

Your core competencies should be a bulleted list of the most relevant skills applicable to the
position you are applying for. 
Pro tip: Scan the job description for core competencies you have gained during this certification,
as well as your past experience, and use those skills as bullet points in this section. Make sure to
keep this section relatively short, with four to eight bullets. Here is an example of a project
management resume core competencies section:

Project management
Contract management Risk
planning Project scoping and
planning Process
improvement

Now that you have

highlighted who you are and
what makes you the best
candidate for the job, it is time to tell the story of what you have accomplished throughout your
career in the professional experience section.

Professional experience

The professional experience section of your resume provides a summary of the roles and
positions you have held in your career. List at least three positions in reverse chronological order
and only include what is most relevant to the position you are applying for. 
Your professional experience will not change much from previous resumes, because you can’t
change the past roles you have held. However, you can possibly rewrite some of your bullets to
relate them to project management. For example, let’s say you worked as a retail store general
manager for the last five years and would like to transition to a project manager role at the
corporate level. You might include bullets like the following examples:

 Managed five employee schedules and store budget of $50,000

 Led a team of ten employees and received “Store of the Year” award
 Planned, procured, and reconciled inventory shipping and receiving

Make sure you are tying the industry lingo back to your previous experience to show the reader
—usually a hiring manager—how your skills relate to project management.Use terms like
developed, tracked, managed, and monitored to show the reader that your past experience
translates to a project management role. 
Pro tip: Make sure your resume conveys how your past accomplishments are valuable to the
role you are applying for. Show the reader how you can make a difference in their organization.
An easy way to remember this is through the P.A.R.I.S. framework:

 Problem that needed to be solved

 Action(s) I took
 Result of action(s) 
 Impact on project (users, quality, etc.) 
 Supporting evidence (awards, bonus, etc.) 

Below is an example of a professional experience section from a project manager’s resume:

Operations Manager, Auto-WNN

Company, New York, NY
(December 2019 - Present)
Oversaw the end-to-end
development of a training
program to address attrition
rates within the first two
months. This resulted in 100 new
employees onboarded with 95%
satisfaction and a reduction in
training time by 10% year-over-
year Led task force of five people
to create and test materials
within 3 month period Managed
annual operating budget of $100,000, as well as $50,000 vendor budget Implemented work
management software to plan project and communicate daily tasks to 20+ employees And Teacher’s
Assistant, NY Locals, Greenpoint NY (August 2017 - December 2019) Supervised 50 classes of 30 high
school students on my own Mentored students in groups and one-on-one on college prep and
personal development Created weekly lesson plans, annual budget reports, and homework packets,
which averaged a 98% completion rate

Education and certifications

Now that the majority of your resume has been updated with your new skills and knowledge, it is
time to update your Education and Certifications section. In this  section of your resume, you
should include any degrees beyond your high school diploma in reverse chronological order. For
each degree, list the degree you earned, institution, location, and date of graduation. This section
should also list any professional certifications or credentials you hold. It is here where you will list
this new project management certification. Here is an example of an education and credentials
section of a project management resume:
Google Project Manager Certificate, 2020 KC Community College, B.A. in History, Central, IL 2018

Your resume is now updated and ready to use for project management position applications! You
have revised your professional summary, added newly-acquired core competencies, related past
professional experience to project management, and added this certification to your resume. 
Pro tip: It is always a good idea to have someone review your resume for any spelling or
grammatical errors. Recruiters and hiring managers often toss resumes aside that contain typos.
Once you are sure your resume is error-free, it is time to start your job search! 

Course 3 Glossary

B
Backward pass: Refers to starting with a final task or milestone and moving backwards
through the schedule to determine the shortest path

Baseline: The dollar amount used to measure against to find out whether a project is on
track or not and to measure the success of the project

Baseline a budget: The act of creating a fixed reference point of spending to measure and
compare a project’s progress against

Bottom-up approach: Thinking about all the parts of a project from the beginning to the
end--including making a list of anything that comes with an associated cost--and adding all
of it together

Budget: The estimated monetary resources needed to achieve the project's goals and
objectives

Budget pre-allocation: A situation where a budget is set before the project begins

Budget risk: The possibility that the costs of a project will increase due to poor planning or
expanding the project’s scope
 
Buffer: Extra time added to the end of a task or project to account for unexpected
slowdowns or delays in work progress

C
Capacity: The amount of work that the people or resources assigned to the project can
reasonably complete in a set period of time

Capacity planning: Refers to the act of allocating people and resources to project tasks and
determining whether the necessary resources required to complete the work on time have
been acquired

CAPEX: Capital expenses; refers to expenses which businesses incur to create a benefit in
the future
Cash flow: The inflow and outflow of cash on a project

Cause-and-effect diagram: A visual that shows the possible causes of an event or risk;
also known as a fishbone diagram

Communication: The flow of information; includes everything that’s shared, how it’s shared,
and with whom

Communication plan: A document that organizes the process, types, and expectations of
communications for a project

Contingency budget: Money that is included to cover potentially unforeseen events that
aren’t accounted for in a cost estimate

Contingency reserves: Money added to the estimated project cost to manage identified
risks

Cost of quality: Costs that are incurred to prevent issues with products, processes, or tasks

Cost performance index (CPI): The ratio of the percentage complete to the actual costs

Cost Variance (CV): The difference between the amount of budget expected to be spent on
versus what is actually spent for work completed at a point in time

Critical path: The list of project milestones that must be reached in order to meet the project
goal on schedule, as well as the mandatory tasks that contribute to the completion of each
milestone

D
Decision tree: A flowchart that helps visualize the wider impact of a decision on the rest of a
project

Dependency: A relationship between two project tasks, where the start or completion of one
depends on the start or completion of the other

Dependency graph: A visual representing the dependencies in the flow of work during a
project

Direct costs: Costs that occur directly in a project

E
Earliest start date: The earliest date in which working on a task can begin

Earned value management (EVM): A technique where a project’s performance or actuals

for budget and schedule are regularly monitored against the planned budget and schedule

Effort estimation: A prediction of the amount and difficulty of active work required to
complete a task
Empathy: A person’s ability to relate to the thoughts and feelings of others

Ethical trap: An issue that may cause a person to make unethical choices

F
Finish-to-finish (FF): In this type of dependency relationship, the first task must be
completed before the second task can be completed

Finish-to-start (FS): In this type of dependency relationship, the first task must be
completed before the second task can start

Fishbone diagram: A visual that shows the possible causes of an event or risk; also known
as a cause-and-effect diagram

Fixed contract: A contract that is paid for when certain milestones are reached

Fixed costs: Costs that won’t change over the course of a project

Fixed start date: The date on which work on a task must start in order to achieve a goal

Float: The amount of time that can be waited to begin a task before it impacts the project
schedule and threatens the project outcome, also known as slack

Forecast: A cost estimate or prediction over a period of time

Forward pass: Refers to starting at the beginning of a project task list and moving forward
towards the end of the project

G
Gantt chart: A horizontal bar chart that visually maps out a project schedule and tasks, with
clear breakdowns of who’s responsible for the work and when those tasks are due

H
High-level risk: A risk that is serious and can affect the overall success of a project;
requires direct communication with stakeholders to go over plans to mitigate and address

I
Impact: The damage a risk could cause, if it occurs; determined on a scale of high, medium,
or low

Indirect costs: Costs that can’t be linked directly to a project

Inherent risk: The measure of a risk, calculated by its probability and impact
Issue: A known and real problem that can affect the ability to complete a task

K
Kanban board: A visual tool used to manage tasks and workflows

Kickback: A corruption scheme where a certain percentage of an awarded contract is

offered to an official who can ensure that their company wins the bid

Knowledge management: A way of ensuring that project data can be accessed in the
future by others who need it for informing decisions or planning similar projects

L
Leverage experts: Refers to gathering experts' insights to do something more effectively

Low-level risk: A risk that may not greatly impact the project and may have a low probability
of occurring, so a project manager may or may not communicate it to stakeholders

M
Management reserves: A percentage of the budget set aside for unknown risks

Medium-level risk: A risk that requires direct communication with stakeholders and should
be treated as urgent, as it will most likely impact the project

Milestone: An important point within the project schedule that indicates progress and
usually signifies the completion of a deliverable or phase of the project

N
Need-to-know basis: Telling someone facts they need to know at the time they need to
know them, and nothing more

Network diagram: A visual that sequences project tasks in order of dependencies

Non-disclosure agreement (NDA): Document that keeps confidential information within the
organization

O
Open-ended question: A question that cannot be answered with a yes or no

OPEX (operating expenses): Refers to expenses which are required for day-to-day tasks
within the company

Optimism bias: When a person believes that they are unlikely to experience a negative
event
P
Parallel tasks: Tasks that can happen at the same time as other tasks

Personally identifiable information (PII): Information that could be used on its own to
directly identify, contact, or precisely locate an individual; includes email addresses, mailing
addresses, phone numbers, precise locations, full names, and usernames

Planning fallacy: Describes people's tendency to underestimate the amount of time it will
take to complete a task, as well as the costs and risks associated with that task

Planning phase: The second phase of the project life cycle; includes the schedule, the
budget, and the risk management plan

Probability and impact matrix: A tool used to prioritize project risks

Probability: The likelihood that a risk will occur

Procurement: Obtaining all of the materials, services, and supplies required to complete the
project

Project budget: The estimated monetary resources needed to achieve the project's goals
and objectives

Project buffer: Extra time tacked onto the end of a project

Project kick-off meeting: The first meeting in which a project team comes together to
ground everyone in a shared vision, gain a shared understanding of the project’s goals and
scope, and understand each person’s individual roles within the team

Project management baseline (PMB): A clearly-defined fixed starting point for your project
that includes the scope, budget, and schedule

Project plan: Helps document the scope, tasks, milestones, and overall activities of a
project; generally contains these five basic elements: tasks, milestones, people,
documentation, and time

Project task: An activity that needs to be accomplished within a set period of time

R
Reforecast: Creating a separate revised budget based on how a project is tracking

Request for proposal (RFP): Document that outlines the details of a project

Reserve analysis: A method to check for remaining project resources

Resource cost rate: The cost of a resource

Risk: A potential event which can occur and impact a project

Risk appetite: The willingness of an organization to accept the possible outcomes of a risk
Risk assessment: The stage of risk management where qualities of a risk are estimated or
measured

Risk management: The process of identifying and evaluating potential risks and issues that
could impact a project

Risk management plan: A living document that contains information regarding the identified
risks, estimates of their probability and impact, and the mitigation plans for those risks

Risk register: A table or chart that contains a list of risks

Root cause: The initial cause of a situation that introduces a risk

S
Schedule: The project timeline, which includes the start date, the end date, and dates for
events in between

Schedule performance index (SPI): The ratio of the percentage of work complete to the
planned budget for the planned work 

Schedule variance (SV): The difference between the amount of work expected to have
been completed and the amount actually completed at a given point in time

Scope risk: The possibility that a project won’t produce the results outlined in the project
goals

Sequential tasks: Tasks that must be completed in a specific order

Single point of failure: A risk that has the potential to be catastrophic and halt work across
a project

Soft skills: Personal characteristics that help people work effectively with others

Sole-supplier sourcing: When a company restricts the bidding process to one supplier,
preventing competition

Start-to-finish (SF): In this type of dependency relationship, the first task must begin before
the second task can be completed

Start-to-start (SS): In this type of dependency relationship, the second task can't begin until
the first task begins

Statement of work (SoW): A document that clearly lays out the products and services a
vendor or contractor will provide for the organization

Subtasks: Smaller tasks that are required to complete a larger task

Subject matter expert (SME): A team member with a deep understanding of a particular
job, process, department, function, technology, machine, material, or type of equipment
Summary task: A header at the top of a project plan that describes a collection of subtasks

T
Task buffer: Extra time tacked on to a specific task

Time and materials contract: Contract paid monthly based on the hours worked and other
fees associated with the work, like travel and meals

Time estimation: A prediction of the total amount of time required to complete a task

Time risk: The possibility that project tasks will take longer than anticipated to complete

Timephase a budget: The act of spreading budget items out over the duration of a project

Total cost of ownership (TCO): The total cost of a project, from the initiation phase through
completion

V
Vendors: Individuals or businesses who provide goods and services to the project

W
Work breakdown structure (WBS): A tool that sorts the milestones and tasks of a project
in a hierarchy, in the order they need to be completed
 Project Execution
Tracking is a method of following the progress of project activities.

 Makes key product information transparent

 Centralizes project information
 Keeps all team members and stakeholders to meet deadlines and goals
 Helps in identifying issues that can derail the project
 Builds confidence within the team

Deviation is anything that alters your original course of action. Deviations from
the project plan can be positive or negative.
Common items to track

 Project Schedule
 Status of action items, key tasks and activities
 Progress toward milestones
 Costs
 Key decisions, changes, dependencies and risks to the project

Some common Tracking tools

 GANTT chart
o Useful for staying on schedule
o Useful for projects with many dependencies, tasks, activities or
milestones.
o Useful for large project Team
 Roadmap
o Useful for high level tracking of large milestones
o Useful for illustrating how a project should evolve over time
 Burndown chart
o Useful for projects that require, broken down look at each task
o Useful for projects where finishing on time is the top priority

Key
components of a project
status report
A project status report gives an overview of all of the project’s common elements and
summarizes them in a snapshot. It is an efficient communication tool to convey the latest status
in one place for the team and stakeholders.
Most status reports contain the following components:
 Project name: The project name should be specific to the purpose of the project so that
the overall goal of the project can be understood at-a-glance. 
 Date: You will create project status reports many times during the course of a project’s
implementation phase. Reports can be created weekly or monthly—it all depends on the
stakeholders’ needs and pace of the project. Adding the date to each status report acts as a
reference point for your audience and also creates a history log of the project’s status over
time.
 Summary: The summary condenses the project’s goals, schedule, highlights, and
lowlights in one central place for easy stakeholder visibility. Usually, the summary section will
be followed by, or grouped with, the timeline summary and the overall project status.
 Status: As you can imagine, status is a crucial piece. The status of the project illustrates
your actual progress versus your planned progress. In project management, a common way
to depict this is through RAG (red, amber, green), or Red-Yellow-Green, status reporting.
RAG follows a traffic light pattern to indicate progress and status. Red indicates that there
are issues that need resolution and that the project may be delayed or go significantly over
budget. Amber/Yellow means that there are potential issues with schedule or budget, but
that the issues can likely be resolved with corrective actions. And green means the schedule
and budget are doing fine and that the project is on track. You can use RAG to indicate the
overall project status, as well as milestone status. Every project team and stakeholder may
have a slightly different perspective on what the colors mean and how urgent it is to
escalate issues when they see an amber/yellow or red status, so it’s important to make sure
everyone understands what the different color statuses mean for your project.
 Milestones and tasks: A summary of the project’s major milestones thus far and current
tasks, helps the team and stakeholders easily visualize the progress of those elements. In a
project plan, you will typically depict the tasks and milestones as ‘not started,’ ‘in progress’
or ‘completed’ at an item-by-item level. But, in the project status report, it is common to
summarize these items into two categories to better communicate the status. You’ll use key
accomplishments to detail what has happened, and upcoming to detail what big
milestones you will accomplish next.
 Issues: The issues include your projects’ current roadblocks and potential risks. Status
reports are an important opportunity to set expectations with your stakeholders. If your
project status is red or amber, you
can flag what is preventing you
from being where you planned to
be. You can also use this
opportunity to state your plan to
get the project back to green, and
ask for any resources or help you
may need to do so.
Change is anything that alters
or impacts the tasks,
structures, or processes within
a project.
Types of changes

 New or changing dependencies

 Changing priorities
 Capacity and people
 Limitations in budget and resources
 Scope creep
  Force majeure (Major external crisis)

Dependencies are the links that connect one project task to another and are often
the greatest source of risk to a project.

 Internal dependency is the relationship between two tasks within the same
project
 External dependency refers to the tasks that are reliant on outside factors,
like regulatory agencies or other projects.
 Mandatory dependency are the tasks that are legally or contractually
required.
 Discretionary dependency are tasks that could occur on their own, but the
team chose to make them reliant on one another.

Dependency Management is the process of managing interrelated tasks and resources within the
project to ensure the overall project is completed successfully, on time, and in budget

 Proper identification
 Recording dependencies
 Continuous monitoring and control
 Efficient communication

Communicating issues to the stakeholders

Escalation is the process of enlisting the help of higher level project leadership or
management to remove an obstacle, clarify or reinforce priorities, and validate next steps.

 Act as checks and balances

 Generate speedy decision making
 Reduce frustrations
 Encourage participation

A project manager should escalate an issue at the first sign of critical problems in a
project. Critical problems may:

 Cause a delay on a major project millstone

 Cause budget overruns
 Can result in the loss of a customer
 Push back the estimated project completion date

Escalation also helps in preventing:

 Trench wars
o This occur when two peers or groups can’t seem to come to an
agreement, and neither party is willing to give in.
 Bad compromise
Quality Management and Continuous improvement
Quality is when you fulfil the outlined requirements for the deliverable and meet or
exceed the needs or expectations of your customers.
Concepts of Quality Management

 Quality Standards
o Provides requirements, specifications, or guidelines that can be used to
ensure that products, processes, or services are fit for achieving the
desired outcome.
o https://asq.org/quality-resources/learn-about-standards
 Quality Assurance
o Evaluating if your project is moving towards delivering a high-quality
service or product.
 Quality Planning
o The actions of the project manager or the team to establish a process
for identifying and determining exactly which standards of quality are
relevant to the project as a whole.
o https://asq.org/quality-resources/quality-plans
 Quality Control
o Involves monitoring project results and delivery to determine if they are
meeting desired results or not.
o https://asq.org/quality-resources/quality-assurance-vs-control

Measuring Customer Satisfaction

 Feedback Surveys
o A survey in which users provide feedback on features of your product
that they like or dislike
 User acceptance Test (UAT) (Beta test)
o A test that helps a business make sure a product or solution works for
its users

Objectives of UAT
 Demonstrate that the product, service, or process is behaving in expected
ways in real-world scenarios. 
 Show that the product, service, or process is working  as intended.
 Identify issues that need to be addressed before considering the project as
done.
Best practices for effective UAT
In order to achieve these goals, UAT needs to be conducted thoughtfully. These best practices
can help you administer effective UAT: 
 Define and write down your acceptance criteria. Acceptance criteria are pre-
established standards or requirements that a product, service, or process must meet. Write
down these requirements for each item that you intend to test. For example, if your project
is to create a new employee handbook for your small business, you may set acceptance
criteria that the handbook must be a digital PDF that is accessible on mobile devices and
desktop.
 Create the test cases for each item that you are testing. A test case is a sequence of
steps and its expected results. It usually consists of a series of actions that the user can
perform to find out if the product, service, or process behaved the way it was supposed to.
Continuing with the employee handbook example, you could create a test case process in
which the user would click to download the PDF of the handbook on their mobile device or
desktop to ensure that they could access it without issues.
 Select your users carefully. It is important to choose users who will actually be the end
users of the product, service, or process. 
 Write the UAT scripts based on user stories. These scripts will be delivered to the
users during the testing process. A user story is an informal, general explanation of a
feature written from the perspective of the end user. In our employee handbook example, a
user story might be: As a new employee, I want to be able to use the handbook to easily
locate the vacation policy and share it with my team via email. 
 Communicate with users and let them know what to expect. If you can prepare users
ahead of time, there will be fewer questions, issues, or delays during the testing process.
 Prepare the testing environment for UAT. Ensure that the users have proper
credentials and access, and try out these credentials ahead of time to ensure they work. 
 Provide a step-by-step plan to help guide users through the testing process. It will
be helpful for users to have some clear, easy-to-follow instructions that will help focus their
attention on the right places. You can create this plan in a digital document or spreadsheet
and share with them ahead of time. 
 Compile notes in a single document and record any issues that are discovered.
You can create a digital spreadsheet or document that corresponds to your plan. It can have
designated areas to track issues for each item that is tested, including the users’ opinions on
the severity of each issue. This will help you prioritize fixes. 
Managing UAT feedback
Users provide feedback after performing UAT. This feedback might include positive comments,
bug reports, and change requests. As the project manager, you can address the different types
of feedback as follows:
 Bugs or issues: Users might report technical issues, also known as bugs, or other types
of issues after performing UAT. You can track and monitor these issues in a spreadsheet or
equivalent system and prioritize which issues to fix. For instance, critical issues, such as not
being able to access, download, or search the employee handbook, need to be prioritized
over non-critical issues, such as feedback on the cover art of the handbook. 
 Change requests: Sometimes the user might suggest minor changes to the product,
service, or process after UAT. These types of requests or changes should also be managed
and prioritized. Depending on the type and volume of the requests, you may want to share
this data with your primary stakeholders, and you may also need to adjust your project
timeline to implement these new requests. 
Continuous Improvement is an ongoing effort to improve products or services.
Continuous improvement begins with recognizing when processes and tasks need to be
created, eliminated and improved.
Process improvement is the practice of identifying, analysing, and improving existing
processes to enhance the performance of your team and develop best practices, or to
optimize consumer experiences.
Control is an experiment or observation designed to minimize the effects of variables.
Data driven improvement frameworks are techniques used to make decisions based
on actual data.

 DMAIC (DEFINE MEASURE ANALYZE IMPROVE CONTROL)

 PDCA (Plan Do Check Act)
o It is a four step process that focuses on identifying a problem, fixing that
issue, assessing whether the fix was successful, and fine tuning the final fix

One way to ensure continuous improvement is to conduct Retrospective.

A retrospective is a workshop or meeting that gives project teams time to reflect on a project.
Objectives/ Purpose of Retrospective

 Encourage team building

 Facilitate improved collaboration
 Promote positive changes

Data is a collection of facts or information

Metric is a quantifiable measurement that is used to track and assess a business objective

 Productivity Metrics
o Allows you to track the effectiveness and efficiency of your project
o Includes milestones, tasks, projections, duration
 Quality Metrics
o Relates to achieving acceptable outcomes
o Includes number of changes, issues, cost variance

Signal is an observable change that helps determine the overall health of the project and identify
early signs that something isn’t quite right.

 Identify which tasks contribute most to the overall goal

 Prioritise the data or metrics that are most valuable to stakeholders

Data bias is a type of error within the data that tends to skew results in a certain direction.
 Sampling bias is when a sample is not representative of the population as a whole. For
example, maybe your sample did not include people above the age of 65. Or maybe you
excluded people from certain socioeconomic groups.
 Observer bias is the tendency for different people to observe things differently. For
example, stakeholders from different parts of the world might view the same data differently
and draw different conclusions from it. 
 Interpretation bias is the tendency to always interpret situations that don’t have obvious
answers in a strictly positive or negative way, when, in fact there is more than one way to
understand the data. Data that does not provide an obvious set of conclusions makes some
 people feel anxious, which can lead to interpretation bias. For example, a team member
might interpret inconclusive survey results negatively, while other team members might be
able to think more carefully and assess the data from different angles. 
 Confirmation bias is the tendency to search for or interpret information in a way that
confirms pre-existing beliefs. For example, you might ask only specific stakeholders for
feedback on parts of your project because you know they are the most likely to have the
same perspective as you.
Data Analysis is the process of collecting and organizing information to help draw
conclusion
Steps involved in data analysis:

1. Ask 3. Process 5. Share

2. Prepare 4. Analyse 6. Act

Data visualization is the graphical representation of information to facilitate

understanding ex: Graphs, Maps etc.

 Filters information by focusing the audience on the most important data points and
insights
 Condense long ideas and facts into a single image or representation.
 Make sense of the information being presented

Common Visualization tools:

 Dashboard
o It is a type of user interface that provides a snapshot view of your project’s
progress or performance
 KPI
o It is a measurable value or metric that demonstrates how effective an
organization is at achieving key objectives.
 Burndown Charts

Week 4 – Project Teamwork

Team is a group of people who plan, solve problems, make decisions, and review progress in service
of a specific project or objective.

Work Groups are in people in an organization who work toward a common goal. Work groups are
more likely to be coordinated, controlled or assigned by a single person or entity.

Teamwork is an effective, collaborative way of working in which each person is committed to and
heading towards a shared goal.

 Fosters creativity
 Encourages accountability
 Helps to get work done
5 Factors that impact team effectiveness

1. Psychological Safety
a. An individual’s perception of the consequences of taking an interpersonal risk
2. Dependability
a. Team members are reliable and complete their work on time
3. Structure and Clarity
a. An individual’s understanding of job expectations, knowledge of how to meet
those expectations, and the consequences of their performance
4. Meaning
a. Finding a sense of purpose either in the work itself or in the results of that
work
5. Impact
a. The belief that the results of one’s work matters and creates change

Leading a high-functional teams

Bruce Tuckman’s stages of team development

 Forming
o Team gets to know each other
o Project manager should clarify goals and scope and other things
 Storming
o Frustrations may emerge
o Project manager should focus on conflict resolution
 Norming
o Conflict is resolved and team is working together
o Project manager should codify the team norms, ensure that team is
aware of those norms, and reinforce them when needed
 Performing
o Team works together seamlessly
o Project manager should focus on delegating, motivating and providing
feedback to keep up the team’s momentum
 Adjourning
o Project Wraps up
 o Team disbands, so celebrate for milestones and successes

Team dynamics refers to the forces, both conscious and unconscious that impact
team behaviour and performance

Ethical leadership is a form of leadership that promotes and values honesty, justice,
respect, community and integrity. It aims to create forums where employees
concerns can be heard.

Inclusive leadership aims to put what we’ve heard into action to create an
environment that encourages and empowers each and every member of our
community.

Influencing is the ability to alter another person’s thinking or behaviours

Steps of effective influencing

 Establish credibility
o Credibility comes from Expertise or Relationships
 Frame for common ground
o How your idea can benefit your audience?
 Provide evidence
o Make your case through hard data and persuasive storytelling
 Connect emotionally
o Demonstrate audience that you are emotionally committed to your
idea

Organizational sources of power

 Role
o Your position within an organization or team
 Information
o Your level of access and control over information
 Network
o People you are connected with professionally and personally
  Reputation
o How other perceive you overall

Personal sources of power

 Knowledge
o The power you draw from you expertise in certain subjects, your unique
abilities and skill sets, and your ability to learn new things
 Expressiveness
o Your ability to communicate with others
 History
o The level of personal history between you and the target audience
 Character
o Other’s view about your personal qualities

Effective Meetings

 Structured
o Start and end on time
o Carefully selected attendees
o Prioritized topics
o Designated note taker
 Intentional
o Clearly stated purpose and expectations
 Collaborative
 Inclusive

Follow this checklist to help achieve these aims and facilitate more productive meetings for you
and your project team:

Before the meeting

 Prepare an agenda that states the purpose and goals of the meeting, and share the
agenda with participants.

 Only invite people who need to be there and who can help reach the goals of the
meeting. Make participants’ roles and responsibilities for the meeting clear. Add non-
essential participants as optional to the meeting invitation.
 If you are working with people in different time zones, share the time zone burden by
alternating recurring meeting times.

 Evaluate the need for the meeting and cancel if it isn’t necessary. Consider whether the
meeting content can be covered via email. 

 Schedule shorter meetings. Meetings tend to expand to the time allotted to them, so try
to get more done in a shorter amount of time.

 Set aside time to prepare for the meeting. Read the necessary materials, review the
agenda, and come ready to participate. 

During the meeting

 At the beginning of the meeting, clearly state the meeting goals. Stick to the agenda
throughout the meeting to avoid getting derailed. For recurring meetings, review the action
items from the previous meeting to ensure accountability. 

 Encourage participants to put phones and laptops away during meetings and silence
notifications, if possible.

 Practice and demonstrate active listening. Respond verbally (e.g., “That makes sense. Tell
us more.”) and non-verbally (through head nodding and eye contact) to show engagement.  

 Encourage participation and give everyone a chance to speak, including remote

participants. Ask open-ended questions like, “What does everyone think?” instead of “Does
everyone agree?”

 Help everyone relax and feel more comfortable by starting meetings with open-ended,
personal questions like, “How was your weekend?”

 Capture key points, action items, and decisions from the meeting, and assign action items
to the appropriate meeting participants.

After the meeting

 Recap key decisions, action items, timelines, and notes and send out to participants.

 Schedule necessary follow-up meetings with relevant context.

 Assess the need for and frequency of recurring meetings. Schedule meetings less
frequently, if possible.

Types of project management meetings

 Project kick-off
o The official beginning of a project and serves as a way to align the
team’s understanding of the project goals with actual plans and
procedures.
 Status updates
 o This category includes regular team meetings where the primary goal is
to align the team on updates, progress, challenges, and next steps
o Task updates
o Schedule status
o Budget status
o Current or anticipated issues
o Action items
 Stakeholder reviews
o The purpose is to get buy-in and support
o Present a project update
o Seek and listen to feedback
o Make a decision or resolve a major issue
 Project reviews
o Review what has worked and what need to improve
o Celebration of project success

Project Closing is the process performed to formally complete the project, the current phase, and
contractual obligations.

 Assure all work is done

 All agreed upon project management processes are executed.
 Formal recognition and agreement that the project is done by key stakeholders
Project Closeout Report

Glossary

A
Abandoned project: A project in which inadequate handoff or transition on the project deliverables
occurs
Acceptance criteria: Pre-established standards or requirements that a product, service, or process
must meet

Accessible: Something that is easily used, accessed, or adapted for use by people experiencing
disabilities

Action item: A task that needs to be completed

Air cover: Support for and protection of a team in the face of out-of-scope requests or criticism from
leadership

B
Bad compromise: A situation that occurs when two parties settle on a so-called solution but the end
product still suffers

Bar chart: A type of chart that uses color and length to compare categories in a data set; useful for
comparing values

Bug: A technical issue

Burndown chart: A line chart that measures the time against the amount of work done and the
amount of work remaining; useful for projects that require a granular, broken-down look at each task

C
Change: Anything that alters or impacts the tasks, structures, or processes within a project

Change log: A record of all notable changes on a project

Character: The qualities or features that make up and distinguish a person, like honesty, integrity,
and kindness

Collaboration: People working together on an activity

Confirmation bias: A type of data bias that refers to the tendency to search for information that
confirms preexisting beliefs

Conger's four steps: Refers to Jay A. Conger's four-step approach to effectively persuade and
influence another person to consider new ideas: establish credibility, frame for common ground,
provide evidence, and connect emotionally

Continuous improvement: An ongoing effort to improve products or services; begins with

recognizing when processes and tasks need to be created, eliminated, or improved

Control: An experiment or observation designed to minimize the effects of variables

Cost variance: The difference between actual cost and budgeted cost

Critical user journey: The sequence of steps a user follows to accomplish tasks in a product
D
Dashboard: A type of user interface—typically a graph or summary chart— that provides a snapshot
view of a project’s progress or performance

Data: A collection of facts or information

Data analysis: The collection, transformation, and organization of data to draw conclusions, make
predictions, and drive informed decision-making

Data bias: A type of error that is influenced by one’s inherent beliefs

Data ethics: The well-founded standards of right and wrong that dictate how data is collected, shared,
and used

Data privacy: The act of protecting a data subject’s information and activity any time a data
transaction occurs

Data visualization: A graphical representation of information to facilitate understanding

Data-driven improvement frameworks: Techniques used to make decisions based on actual data

Dependability: A quality indicating team members are reliable and complete their work on time

Dependencies: Tasks, activities, or milestones that are reliant on one another

Dependency management: The process of managing interrelated tasks and resources within a project
to ensure that the overall project is completed successfully, on time, and on budget

Deviation: Anything that alters the original course of action

Discretionary dependencies: Dependencies that could occur on their own, but the team saw a need
to make those dependencies reliant on one another

Diversity: The set of differences each individual possesses, whether visible or invisible, that gives
them a unique perspective on the world and their work

DMAIC: The five steps to take when working toward continuous improvements: define, measure,
analyze, improve, and control

Duration: The total time it takes to complete a project from start to finish

E
Edge case: Rare outliers that the original requirements of the project didn’t account for; deals with
the extreme maximums and minimums of parameters

Escalation: The process of enlisting the help of higher-level project leadership or management to
remove an obstacle, clarify or reinforce priorities, and validate next steps

Ethical leadership: A form of leadership that promotes and values honesty, justice, respect,
community, and integrity
Expressiveness: Refers to one’s ability to communicate with others

External dependencies: Asks that are reliant on outside factors, like regulatory agencies or other
projects

F
Feedback survey: A survey in which users provide feedback on features of a product that they like or
dislike

Force majeure: An unforeseen circumstance that prevents someone from fulfilling a contract due to a
major crisis

G
Gantt chart: A project-tracking visual that is useful for staying on schedule; ideal for projects with
many dependencies and larger project teams

H
Headline: The one-sentence main point that illustrates a slide

History: Refers to the level of personal history between oneself and another person

I
Impact: The belief that the results of one’s work matter and create change

Impact report: A presentation guided by a deck or slideshow that shows key stakeholders others the
value that’s been added by the project

Inclusive leadership: A form of leadership where everyone’s unique identity, background, and
experiences are respected, valued, and integrated into how the team operates

Inclusivity: The practice or policy of including people who might otherwise be excluded or
marginalized

Influencing: The ability to alter another person’s thinking or behaviors

Influencing statement: A conversation opener that sets a person up for success with their audience

Infographic: A visual representation of information or data intended to present information quickly

and clearly

Information: An organizational source of power that refers to one’s level of access and control over
information

Internal dependencies: The relationship between two tasks within the same project
Interpretation bias: A type of data bias that refers to the tendency to always interpret ambiguous
situations as either negative or positive

Issue: A known and real problem that may affect the ability to complete a task

K
Knowledge: Refers to the power drawn from one’s expertise in certain subjects, unique abilities and
skill sets, and ability to learn new things

Key performance indicator (KPI): A measurable value that demonstrates how effective a company
is at achieving business objectives

L
Legend: The bottom or side section of a chart that gives a small description of each section

Line chart: A type of chart that displays information as a series of data point markers; helpful for
showing trends and behaviors over set periods of time or overall

M
Mandatory dependencies: Tasks that are legally or contractually required

Metric: A quantifiable measurement that is used to track and assess a business objective

Milestone: An important point within the project schedule that indicates progress and usually
signifies the completion of a deliverable or phase of the project

N
Network: The people one is connected with professionally and personally

Never-ending project: A project in which the project deliverables and tasks cannot be completed

O
Observer bias: A type of data bias that refers to the tendency for different people to observe different
things

P
PDCA: A four-step process that focuses on identifying a problem, fixing the issue, assessing whether
the fix was successful, and fine-tuning the final fix; stands for: plan, do, check, and act

Pie chart: A type of chart divided into sections that each represent a portion of a whole; useful for
making comparisons
Portfolio: A collection of programs and projects across a whole organization

Probability and impact matrix: A tool used to prioritize project risks

Process improvement: The practice of identifying, analyzing, and improving existing processes to
enhance performance, meet best practices, or optimize consumer experiences

Productivity metrics: Metrics that track the effectiveness and efficiency of a project, including items
like tasks, milestones, projections, and duration

Program: A collection of projects

Project closeout report: A document that describes what the team did, how they did it, and what they
delivered; evaluates the quality of work and the project’s performance with respect to budget and
schedule

Project closing: A process performed to formally complete a project, the current phase, and
contractual obligations

Project status report: An update that gives an overview of all of a project’s common elements and
summarizes them at a given point in time

Project task: An activity that needs to be accomplished within a set period of time

Projection: How one experiences an outcome based on current information

Psychological safety: An individual’s perception of the consequences of taking an interpersonal risk

Q
Qualitative data: Information about subjective qualities that can’t be measured with numerical data

Quality: Refers to when the outlined requirements for the deliverable are fulfilled and meet or exceed
the needs and expectations of customers

Quality assurance: A review process that evaluates whether a project is moving towards delivering a
high-quality service or product; also called QA

Quality control: Techniques used to ensure quality standards when a problem is identified; also
called QC

Quality metrics: Metrics that relate to achieving acceptable outcomes, including issues such as
number of changes and cost variance

Quality planning: The actions of the project manager or team to establish and conduct a process for
identifying and determining exactly which standards of quality are relevant to the project as a whole
and how to satisfy them

Quality standards: Requirements, specifications, or guidelines that can be used to ensure that
materials, products, processes, and services are fit for achieving the desired outcome

Quantitative data: Statistical and numerical facts

R
RAG status report: A report that follow a traffic light pattern to indicate progress and status: “red”
indicates there are critical issues that need resolution, “amber/yellow’ means that there are potential
issues with schedule or budget, and “green” means the that the project is on track

Reputation: Refers to how others perceive a person overall

Retrospective: A meeting in which project teams discuss successes, failures, and possible future
improvements on a project

Risk: A potential event that could occur and impact a project

Risk exposure: A way to measure potential future loss resulting from a specific activity or event

Risk management: The process of identifying, evaluating, and addressing potential risks and issues
that could impact a project

Risk register: A table or chart that contains a list of risks

Roadmap: A project-tracking visual that is useful for high-level tracking of large milestones

ROAM technique: A strategy used to help manage actions after risks arise; stands for resolved,
owned, accepted, and mitigated

ROCCC: An acronym used in data ethics best practices to ensure that data is reliable, original,
comprehensive, current, and cited

Role: One’s position within an organization or team

S
Sampling bias: A type of data bias in which the sample isn’t representative of the population as the
whole

Scope creep: When changes, growth, and other factors affect a project’s scope

Signal: An observable change

Signpost: A way to clue the audience in to where a presentation is going and what to expect

Stacked bar chart: A type of bar chart that can show part-to-whole variables simultaneously; useful
when comparing numerical information; also called a marimekko chart

Storytelling: The process of turning facts into narrative to communicate something to an audience

T
Team: A group of people who plan work, solve problems, make decisions, and review progress in
service of a specific project or objective

Team dynamics: The forces, both conscious and unconscious, that impact team behavior and
performance

Teamwork: An effective, collaborative way of working in which each person is committed to and
heading towards a shared goal

Test case: A sequence of steps and its expected results

Timeboxing: Refers to setting a time limit

Timeout: Refers to taking a moment away from the project to regroup and adjust the game plan

Tracking: A method of following the progress of project activities

Trench wars: Conflicts that occur when two peers or groups can’t come to an agreement and neither
party is willing to give in

U
User acceptance test: A trial that helps a business make sure a product or solution works for its
users; also called a UAT

User story: An informal, general explanation of a feature written from the perspective of the end user

W
Work groups: People in an organization who work toward a common goal; based on and assigned by
organizational or managerial hierarchy
 AGILE PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Agile means:

 Being able to move quickly and easily

 Flexibility and the willingness and ability to change and adapt
 It is in iterative approach
 It embraces the reality that the world, customer markets, and users are uncertain
and unpredictable

Agile project management is an approach to project and team management that embodies
“agility” and is based on the agile manifesto

The Manifesto is a collection of four values and 12 principles that define the mind-set that
all agile teams should strive for

Four Values of Agile Manifesto:

12 Principles of Agile Manifesto

1. Value Delivery (delivering the work as quickly as possible in order to get feedback
and mitigate time risk)
 Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous
delivery of valuable software
 Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of
months, with a preference for the shorter timescales
 Working software is the primary measure of progress
 Simplicity is essential
 Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances
agility

Collaborating with your customers helps the team get critical business information
immediately, allowing them to adjust and adapt to any new information instantly.
 Create an effective team culture that is inclusive, supportive and empowering

Strive to continuously learn and adapt to what’s working and what’s not.

 “Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous
delivery of valuable software.” Whether you are working to create a product for your
company or for a customer, chances are that someone is awaiting its delivery. If that delivery
is delayed, the result is that the customer, user, or organization is left waiting for that added
value to their lives and workflows. Agile emphasizes that delivering value to users early and
often creates a steady value stream, increasing you and your customer’s success. This will
build trust and confidence through continuous feedback as well as early business value
realization.
 “Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes
harness change for the customer’s competitive advantage.” When working in Agile, it’s
important to be agile. That means being able to move swiftly, shifting direction whenever
necessary. That also means that you and your team are constantly scanning your
environment to make sure necessary changes are factored into the plans. Acknowledging
and embracing that your plans may change (once, twice, or several times) ensures that you
and your customers are maximizing your success.
 “Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of
months, with a preference to the shorter timescale.” Delivering your product in small,
frequent increments is important because it allows time and regular opportunities for
stakeholders—including customers—to give feedback on its progress. This ensures that the
team never spends too much time going down the wrong path.
 “Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the
project.” Removing barriers between developers and people focused on the business side
 of the project, builds trust and understanding and ensures that the developers, or those
building the solution, are in tune with the needs of the users. 
 “Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and
support they need, and trust them to get the job done.” A successful Agile team includes
team members that not only trust each other to get the work done but are also trusted by
their sponsors and executives to get the work done. Teams build better solutions when they
are empowered and motivated to deliver difficult projects.
 “The most efficient and effective method of information to and within a
development is face-to-face conversation.” There isn’t anything quite like face-to-face
communication. Face-to-face communication allows us to catch certain cues, body
language, and facial expressions that are sometimes lost when using forms of
communication like email, chat, or the phone. However, we can’t always be face-to-face.
Establishing effective communication norms—no matter the format—is essential to effective
teams. 

 “Working software is the primary measure of progress.” In Agile teams, the main
way to demonstrate meaningful completion of work is to show a working piece of the
solution. In software teams, that might mean a functional piece of software. In non-software
teams, that might mean a critical portion of the solution that is ready to be demonstrated to
users or their representatives in order to collect feedback. This is in contrast to traditional or
Waterfall projects, where the completion of project documents could be used to measure
progress. In Agile project management, it is not enough to say that the team is 80% done
with an activity if there is no working, demonstrable artifact available to review.
 “Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers,
and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.” Maintaining a
steady but careful pace will prevent errors along the way. Also, you never want your team to
feel overworked or overwhelmed. On the flip side, a team that is underutilized may become
bored and lose the creative spark to innovate. The Agile ideal is to achieve a steady pace of
effort for the team that avoids overtime and burnout.

 “Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility.”

This principle conveys that just because the team is working fast doesn’t mean they sacrifice
quality. By emphasizing quality and design throughout the project development phase, the
agility, efficiency, and speed of the team will be increased. When a team delivers a well-built
solution, they can quickly respond to user feedback and new information. However, if the
product is low quality, implementing changes can become problematic, complex, and slow
down the entire team. 

 “Simplicity—the art of maximizing the amount of work not done—is essential.” The
team should avoid implementing extra features into the solution that weren’t explicitly
requested by the user or product owner. This includes removing procedures that are no
longer necessary, and reducing unnecessary documentation. 

 “The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing

teams.” Team members should be able to get their work done by designing their own work
processes and practices, without a manager dictating how they operate. Team members
should also feel empowered to speak up with questions, concerns, or feedback.
  “At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then
tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly.” In Agile, it is important to acknowledge that
learning from successes and failures is continuous. No team is perfect. There will be
mistakes, challenges, trials, and triumphs. Teams should reflect on all of these different
aspects of their activities so that they can make necessary adjustments. 

Use Agile approach if we have high values of VUCA

VUCA (Volatility Uncertainty Complexity Ambiguity)

 Volatility refers to the rate of change and churn in a business or situation

 Uncertainty refers to the lack of predictability or high potential for surprise
 Complexity refers to the high number of interrelated forces, issues, organizations,
and factors that would influence the project.
 Ambiguity refers to the possibility of misunderstanding the conditions and root
causes of events or circumstances

Product backlog is the central artifact in SCRUM, where all possible ideas, deliverables, features, or
tasks are captured for the team to work on.

Sprint is a time-boxed iteration in SCRUM where work is done. (1-4 weeks long)

Daily Scrum is a meeting of 15 or fewer minutes every day of the sprint.

 https://hbr.org/1986/01/the
-new-new-product-development-game

Various Methodologies under Agile

 Scrum
 Kanban
 XP (Extreme Programming)
 Lean

Flow is a core principle of Kanban that aims to maximize efficiency

XP activities include:

 Designing (simplicity)
 Coding (clear and concise)
 Testing (eliminate flaws)
 Listening (Customer requirements)