Project management Process
According to PMBoK, project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to project activities in order to meet or exceed stakeholder needs and expectations from a project.
Let us now discuss the process of Project Management.
- Purpose and objectives of the project: These are statements that describe what the project will accomplish or the business value the project will achieve. Purpose or goals are high level statements that describe the overall context that the project is trying to achieve. Objectives are low level statements that describe the specific and tangible products and deliverables of the project. Objectives in project management have to be definite. A specific objective leads to a specific outcome. Objective such as "to improve customer relations" is very vague because it cannot be measured. "To reduce customer complaints by 60 % "would be a good objective. The purpose and objectives of the project are defined by the project initiator in the mission statement which includes key performance parameters and technical and programmatic constraints to be applied to the project. The project initiator could be an organisation or a government body that initialises a project.
- Availability of and need to develop new technologies: This is an assessment process to identify the availability of science and technology that is necessary to implement the project.
- Availability of and need to reuse existing equipments/products: This is to assess if the existing equipments/products could be reused. The result of this assessment greatly influences cost and schedule.
- Availability of and need for human resources, skills and technical facilities: This is to assess the skills and facilities of the resources required to implement the project.
- Risk assessment: Initially the technical and programmatic risks of a project are assessed by the project team with respect to the purpose and objectives of the project. Comprehensive risk assessments are conducted at each major project review.
- Development approach: The development approach for a project is jointly defined by the beneficiaries and donors to comply with the project initiators' mission statement, requirements and constraints.
- Project deliverables: The beneficiaries have the responsibility of defining the deliverable products that are needed to meet the project initiator's mission statement. The beneficiaries are individuals, business or organisations benefited by the project.
- Customer requirements and constraints: Customer requirements and constraints are prepared by the beneficiaries and put in a format suitable for direct application in an invitation to tender (ITT). They address technical and programmatic requirements, as well as political, commercial, and industrial constraints to be applied to the project and collectively represent the project requirements documents (PRD).
- Project requirement documents (PRD): The project requirements documents are an integral part of an ITT, request for proposal (RFP), or request for quote (RFQ) prepared and released by a customer to potential suppliers. The project requirement document comprises of following :
- Statement of work.
- Technical requirements documented in Technical Specification.
- Management requirements.
- Engineering requirements.
- Product assurance requirements.
- Programmatic requirements.
- Other, project specific requirements (e.g. geographical distribution, model philosophy to be applied).
- Documents requirements list (DRL).
- Tender requirements.
- Project management plan: It defines the project management approach and methodology to be used throughout the life cycle of the project, together with an overview of all elements of project management disciplines.
Project management is a professional discipline with specific tools and skills. It is important for people in an organisation to understand and implement a common project management principle.
A formal project management system has to be recognised and established by senior management. Project management requires special concepts, skills and tools this has to be clearly understood by the senior executives.