I – FUNDAMENTALS OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT

A. Definition and Beginnings

Project management is the process of leading the work of a team to achieve goals and meet
success criteria at a specified time. The primary challenge of project management is to achieve
all of the project goals within the given constraints. This information is usually described in project
documentation, created at the beginning of the development process. The primary constraints are
scope, time, budget. The secondary challenge is to optimize the allocation of necessary inputs
and apply them to meet pre-defined objectives.

Traditional project management concepts were used during the construction of ancient wonders
like the Egyptian Pyramids and the Great Wall of China; however, modern project management
really started to take shape in the early 1900s with the development of Gantt charts.

In the 1950s, project management methodology began to take form with the advent of critical path
method (CPM), Lockheed’s revolutionary Polaris missile project, and the U.S. Navy’s
development of the program evaluation and review technique (PERT). In the 1960s, project
management was largely based around Waterfall techniques. This was good enough to land men
on the moon and bring them home safely. But the world has only become more complex, and
we’ve seen project management techniques adapt to those changes over the course of time.

Project management includes developing a project plan, which involves defining and confirming
the project goals and objectives, how they will be achieved, identifying tasks and quantifying the
resources needed, and determining budgets and timelines for completion. It also includes
managing the implementation of the project plan, along with operating regular 'controls' to ensure
that there is accurate and objective information on 'performance' relative to the plan, and the
mechanisms to implement recovery actions where necessary.

The objective of project management is to produce a complete project which complies with the
client's objectives. In many cases the objective of project management is also to shape or reform
the client's brief to feasibly address the client's objectives.
PROJECT MANAGEMENT.2021
College of Business and Management CENTRAL MINDANAO UNIVERSITY
Project management is the planning, organizing, and managing the effort to accomplish a
successful project. A project is a one-time activity that produces a specific output and or outcome,
for example, a building or a major new computer system. This is in contrast to a program, (referred
to a 'programme' in the UK) which is 1) an ongoing process, such as a quality control program, or
2) an activity to manage a number of multiple projects together.

A project is a temporary endeavor designed to produce a unique product, service, or result with
a defined beginning and end (usually time-constrained, and often constrained by funding or
staffing) undertaken to meet unique goals and objectives, typically to bring about beneficial
change or added value.[3][4] The temporary nature of projects stands in contrast with business
as usual (or operations),[5] which are repetitive, permanent, or semi-permanent functional
activities to produce products or services. In practice, the management of such distinct production
approaches requires the development of distinct technical skills and management strategies.[6]

B. Responsibility/ Role of the Project Manager and Team Members

360o Responsibility of the Project Manager

Generally, the Project Manager is responsible for

everything that is required to make the project a success -
whether directly or indirectly. It is not like a typical
hierarchical line management role. The Project Manager is
at the center of everything relating to the project.
Controlling the contributions of seniors and peers is just as
important as managing the work of the team.

▪ The Project Manager needs to manage upwards -

ensuring that the inverted hierarchy comprising the
organization's leadership and the project sponsors
are doing all that is required to guarantee the
success of the project.

▪ The Project Manager is also the main focal point for liaison with other departments,
projects and initiatives within the organization, taking into account the needs and
contributions of other internal groups.

▪ The Project Manager is equally the main point of contact for aspects requiring co-operation
and co-ordination with external parties such as the project's suppliers and contractors,
customers, suppliers, regulatory bodies, and other third parties - making sure everything
is in place to guarantee success.

▪ The Project Manager has direct responsibility for the activities of all project participants,
all project tasks and all deliverables.

Project Manager and Team Members

Project manager:

The project management plays a primary role in the project, and is responsible for its
successful completion. The manager’s job is to ensure that the project proceeds within the
specified time frame and under the established budget, while achieving its objectives.
Project managers make sure that projects are given sufficient resources, while managing
relationships with contributors and stakeholders.

Duties may include:

• Develop a project plan

• Manage deliverables according to the plan
• Recruit project staff
• Lead and manage the project team

PROJECT MANAGEMENT.2021
College of Business and Management CENTRAL MINDANAO UNIVERSITY
 • Determine the methodology used on the project
• Establish a project schedule and determine each phase
• Assign tasks to project team members
• Provide regular updates to upper management

Project Team Member

Project team members are the individuals who actively work on one or more phases of the
project. They may be in-house staff or external consultants, working on the project on a
full-time or part-time basis. Team member roles can vary according to each project.

Duties may include:

• Contributing to overall project objectives

• Completing individual deliverables
• Providing expertise
• Working with users to establish and meet business needs
• Documenting the process

C. Skills required in managing projects

SOFT SKILLS are undoubtedly needed by Project Managers. Across the Project Management
profession there is debate about what these skills are and how they should be measured.
Generally speaking soft skills are the skills an individual has in relation to their Emotional
Intelligence Quotient, their 'EQ'. These cover a breadth of skills including communications,
interpersonal skills and how an individual builds and
maintains relationships with others. In a project
environment getting others to work with you towards a
common goal is a foundation stone to delivering a project.

Best soft skills for project managers are:

* Communication
* Conflict and Crisis Management
* Flexibility and Creativity
* Negotiation
* Problem Solving and Decision Making
* Teamwork

The importance and priority of the competencies will be influenced by a project's or organization's
culture and environment, however developing and improving these soft skills will help a project
manager to deliver successful projects no matter where they are being applied.

- Communication: Interacting with people about ideas, thoughts, facts, emotions, challenges,
successes, etc. alongside hard facts such as project progress. Having the ability to convey
complex ideas easily; clearly articulate what must be accomplished; keep the team moving toward
a common goal; and to foster an environment that allows team members to communicate openly
and honestly.

- Conflict and Crisis Management: Listening and responding to the needs and views of all team
members to anticipate any potential areas of conflict. The ability to diffuse situations where conflict
has risen maintains a healthy project environment.

- Flexibility and Creativity: Thinking in original and imaginative ways to widen the scope of
problem solving when issues arise. Encourage project teams to find the best solution and
outcomes without slavishly following generic delivery methods or solutions. Adapting a project's
different components, templates, tools, and techniques.
PROJECT MANAGEMENT.2021
College of Business and Management CENTRAL MINDANAO UNIVERSITY
Negotiation: Analysis of information, decision making, establishing the desired outcome and
developing a strategy for the negotiation alongside understanding the optimal outcome from
several options. Gaining agreement through consensus of positions from both parties.

Problem Solving and Decision-Making: Resolving issues and solving problems that are a
normal part of every project.

Teamwork: Creating a team atmosphere where the team believes that 'we are all in this together'
is a critical component to project success.

HARD SKILLS are project management skills referring to technicalities and hands-on experience

Best hard Skills for Project Managers:

1. Project Planning
2. Work Breakdown
3. Scheduling
4. Budgeting
5. Risk Management

1. Project Charter Preparation

Project charters are the blueprint for effective project management. They should be issued by
management and they should provide a summary of the business opportunity the project is
intending to capitalize on. However often management does not produce the charter and it is
frequently up to the project manager to develop it.
A good project charter will define the purpose, objectives and the scope of the project. Project
charters also include key details such as budgetary guidance, stakeholder lists and a timeline.
They become a critical reference point throughout the project’s life cycle. PMs who become
proficient in creating project charters will be better equipped for communicating with their project
sponsors and for gaining stakeholder buy-in. Our five tips for developing this skill are:

• Use the project charter’s development as an opportunity to engage your sponsor and
stakeholders. Collaborating early will establish beneficial relationships that will help later on.
• Be clear and concise – think one or two pages. A brief project charter will not only be better
received by busy stakeholders, it will also help you communicate succinctly.
• Include measurable, time-bound objectives that are realistic, easy to understand and simple
to track.
• Set the project’s preliminary timeline with a simple visual that includes key milestones and
when they will be delivered. A good visual will be updated and re-used in status reports
throughout the project's life.
• Reuse project charter statements when communicating. This will help realign audiences
with the important business objectives of the project.

2. Work Breakdown
Developing a work breakdown structure or WBS is a critical planning item in managing a project.
Work breakdown structure’s help PM’s organize the scope of their projects and enable them to
do a variety of project management tasks such as assigning resources and defining deliverables.
Since a WBS forms the foundation for all cost and time estimations it is a crucial skill for any
project managers to have in their tool box.
Project managers need to become skilled in breaking down all project deliverables into smaller
work packages, a process called decomposition. Here are some best practices in creating a WBS:

PROJECT MANAGEMENT.2021
College of Business and Management CENTRAL MINDANAO UNIVERSITY
 • Include 100% of the items required for successful project delivery in the development of
your WBS – internal and external deliverable.
• Lean on your team when creating a Work Breakdown Schedule. They will contribute
valuable experience and perspectives to the process.
• Leverage any existing models or templates that your group or company may have created
in the past.
• Using tools like mind mapping software for the decomposition process and will help you
capture and structure the WBS.

3. Scheduling
Project managers know they need to produce a time-based schedule of activities so they can set
the order in which tasks will be completed. Over the course of the project their schedule will help
them see each task, whether it has been completed, is partially done or still needs to be done. It
will also allow project managers to see where there are dependencies so they can plan the most
efficient path for delivering tasks.
Scheduling is a challenging part of project management and a hard skill PMs need to have. They
will benefit from having completed a WBS document which will help set up the project tasks and
estimate and sequence them on the schedule. Here are 5 tips to help PMs enhance their
scheduling skills:

• Add progress milestones as check points to the schedule and regularly check them.
• Wherever possible put higher risk tasks closer to the beginning of your schedule, so you
have more runway to manage delays.
• Know the different types of duration counts that can be used for estimating task duration.
• Baseline schedules after they have been created so you can compare the plan versus
actual when you get into execution.
• Anticipate that the project schedule will change as tasks or client needs fluctuate and have
a process for handling changes.

4. Budgeting
Writing project budgets is an important hard skill for getting projects properly funded and for
controlling them. A project manager’s ability to get approval for the necessary funding is
dependent on the costs they forecast in their budget. An approved budget also forms a baseline
against which actual costs can be measured against to determine if the project is on the right
track.
Projects that go way over budget are often viewed as unsuccessful, even if they are delivered on
time. Project Managers need to be skilled in forecasting and managing budgets. Here are a few
strategies for developing project budgeting skills.

• Consult with your project team and sponsor when estimating your costs. They have
experience that may help you more accurately estimate.
• After you have estimated costs, identify risks such as third party dependencies, depth of
experience on your bench or unfamiliar technology, and manage this risk by adding
padding to the budget.
• Your budget should not just be the total costs of your project, it is the total cost + padding
for risk mitigation.
• Learn from similar budgets that your team or company may have created before, paying
special attention to the areas that went beyond budget.
• Protect your budget against any scope creep. Use your change management process and
seek additional funding to cover any unplanned work that can ruin the budget.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT.2021
College of Business and Management CENTRAL MINDANAO UNIVERSITY
5. Risk Management
Projects rarely go exactly as expected and stuff goes wrong along the way. Project managers
who are skilled at managing unexpected obstacles plan for it. It is a hard skill that begins with
trying to identify the vulnerable areas of the project and then assessing the probability and the
impact to the project in worse case scenarios. Skilled PM’s should be able to determine which
vulnerabilities require risk management strategies, and they include those strategies into the main
project plan to mitigate the risk.

• Understand how much risk is tolerable on the project. You will need to calibrate any risk
management plans with this level of risk toleration.
• Divide your risk areas into three categories, High Risk, Medium Risk and Low Risk. Create
a mitigation plan for all High Risk vulnerabilities.
• Execute recurring risk assessment exercises regularly through the life of the project as a
way of monitoring for new risks that may have surfaced.
• Identify positive risks and create plan in advance for capitalizing on these opportunities so
they can be turned into favorable outcomes.
• The costs for all risk management plans need to be built into the budget early.

You may also have noticed that many of the hard and soft skills we have listed here are
interrelated. Project managers will need to employ many different skills, particularly as the
complexity of their project increases. Those who have the right combination of expertise and
experience will be valuable in any project focused enterprises and all PMOs. Any PM who
effectively utilizes some of these hard and soft skills will greatly increase their chances of success.
At the same time they will also be improving their own personal brand amongst colleagues, clients
and management.
Becoming proficient at project management will mean that practitioners are constantly adding to
their existing skills with new best practices and techniques. Doing so will not only help them
become more successful at their project management career but it will also help them stand out
as high performers in the broader organization.

The single most important skill for project managers nowadays? Problem-solving. By being able to use
tools to lead groups through problem-solving sessions, you'll have a valuable skill that can be used in
any situation. This is true whether your team follows waterfall or Agile. And with organizations needing
to work more efficiently than ever, you'll be able to help your team identify ways to make
improvements through your problem-solving skills.

Leigh Espy
Project Manager at FedEx and owner of ProjectBliss

Supplemental Videos

PROJECT MANAGEMENT.2021
College of Business and Management CENTRAL MINDANAO UNIVERSITY
 Seven Deadly Project Manager Sins (by Kiron Bondale)

In spite of an increased focus on competency in Project Management conferences,

organizations continue to experience project failures at the hands of incapable PMs.
Identifying common negative behaviors that can contribute to these failures might be the
first step towards recovery:

1. Communication imbalance – communication consumes a significant percentage of a

PM’s time so one would assume that this is a competency that even poor PMs would excel
at. Unfortunately, some PMs treat knowledge & information like power – sharing it with
those they wish to curry favor with, and leaving everyone else in the dark. Other PMs
have a case of verbal “Montezuma’s revenge” – this is equally bad as stakeholders are
unsure what information is critical and what is minutiae. I covered this issue more
extensively in the article “A dripping faucet or a fire hose – which most resembles YOUR
project communication strategy?”

2. Neglecting stakeholders – As I wrote in “Don’t get blindsided by stakeholder influence”

, PMs can get tunnel-vision by focusing purely on their direct customer or sponsor. While
this individual might be the one signing deliverable acceptance forms and evaluating your
performance, a good PM needs to practice 360 degree management – sponsor,
stakeholders & team.

3. Inaccurate or incomplete project control books – It doesn’t matter how heavy or light
your PM methodology is (or even if you organization doesn’t have one). There’s a basic
set of project data that should be kept current so to facilitate project tracking, control,
monitoring and (if you win the lottery) transition. Having an out-of-date schedule is worse
than having no schedule at all – at least a stakeholder doesn’t draw any wrong conclusions
from a non-existent schedule.

4. Ignoring conflict – Conflict is a natural occurrence on most projects but accidental

PMs are often unused to managing interpersonal conflicts and might be tempted to ignore
them in the hopes that the situation will resolve itself.

5. Jettisoning risk management – If a PM happens to be aware of good project

management risk practices, they might not have the intestinal fortitude to “sell” the
necessity for these practices to their sponsor, stakeholders or team. Under pressure to
deliver, if they skip risk management, they’ll at least have the opportunity to improve their
fire-fighting skills!

6. A blind focus on the triple constraint – While scope, schedule & cost constraints are
important, a PM might ignore the fact that a project has to deliver business value to avoid
“the operation was a success, but the patient died” syndrome. Poor PMs are less likely to
ask questions such as “Is this deliverable necessary to the end result”, “Are we gold-
plating” or “Is this project still of value to the organization”?

7. Poor assumptions management – Projects possess uncertainty and to try to reduce

this uncertainty, we make assumptions. A good PM will log critical assumptions, share
them with the overall project team, attempt to validate them proactively, and use them as
one of the inputs into risk identification. A bad PM will forget the assumptions shortly after
they were made…

PROJECT MANAGEMENT.2021
College of Business and Management CENTRAL MINDANAO UNIVERSITY