The Biz Cache

What is a project?

In order to understand project management, it’s important to understand what a project is. According to the Project Management Institute, a project is “a series of structured tasks, activities, and deliverables that are carefully executed to achieve a desired outcome. They are temporary efforts to create value through unique products, services and processes.” These two facets are very important when determining what is a project:

• Temporary: The project must have a specific end date.
• Purpose: There must be a specific and defined purpose for which goals, tasks, and deliverables are determined. The project should advance your business in some way and be unique.

There are many business processes which are NOT projects. These include ongoing processes, regular sales activities, repetitive functions, and activities with no end date.

What is project management?

Now that we know what a project is, we can discuss what project management is. At it’s most basic, it is guiding a project through initiating, planning, executing, monitoring & controlling, and closing. These are the five stages of a project life cycle.

• Initiation: define the scope and feasibility of the project. Identify goals, stakeholders, risks, and constraints.
• Planning: a project management plan is developed. This should account for the constraints of schedule, scope, and cost. (This is known as the iron triangle, with all constraints affecting the quality of the outcome.)
• Executing: is the implementation of the project plan.
• Monitoring & Controlling: is done continuously throughout the project. This looks like tracking, addressing issues, managing risk, and checking the progress against the constraints.
• Closing: is the formal completion of the project. The project is considered complete when the product has been delivered to the customer or end user. The project team will review for lessons learned and finish up any administrative tasks as needed.

There are other project life cycles for specific industries. One common methodology in tech is Agile. Within Agile, work is performed in sprints or iterations, which break up the work and allow teams to generate products faster. There are many other well known methodologies such as Lean, Six Sigma, Kanban… and the list goes on. The project life cycle will be based on the methodology chosen to implement the project.

What is an artifact?

An artifact is a “document” which aligns the work to the project requirements and goals. Project teams use these to move the project along and ensure that requirements are met. Lets break down some common artifacts by stages of the project life cycle.

• Initiation
  • Project Charter
  • Project Vision Statement
• Planning
  • Schedule
  • Work Breakdown Structure
  • Stakeholder Analysis
• Executing
  • Project Status Report
  • Product Backlog
• Monitoring & Controlling
  • Risk Register
  • Product Change Log
• Closing
  • Transition Plan
  • Lessons Learned Report

Who is on the project management team?

• Executive Sponsor: This is a member of executive management who focuses on strategy. They generally have more authority than the project sponsor. They do not work on implementation of the project.
• Project Sponsor: A member of senior management who is supporting the project by setting the vision for the project, making critical decisions, removing roadblocks, and approving the budget They may be involved in the implementation of the project from a high-level.
• Project Manager: This individual is responsible for the operation of the project. They ensure that the project stays within it’s scope (goals, deadlines, budget, schedule). The PM is responsible for communication with stakeholders and the project team. They will facilitate meetings and be responsible for project artifacts.
• Project Team Member: This group includes business analysts and anyone else who is brought in to work on the tasks of a project. Team members may be added and removed over time depending on their responsibilities.