week 1 lecture notes

04/09/2010 Prepared by: Ashna Unnuth

Principles of Management Module

Week 1

Introduction to Principles of Management



Overview

� Definition of a project

� What is Project Management?

� Project Life Cycle

� Project Stakeholders

� Organisational and environmental influences



� What is a project?



Definition of a project

The Project Management Institute defines a

project as:

‘A temporary endeavour undertaken to create a

unique product or service’. (PMI, 2000: 6)




Another definition is given by the British Standards

Institution:

A project is a unique set of coordinated

activities, with a definite starting and finishing

point, undertaken by an individual or

organisation to meet specific objectives within

defined schedule, cost and performance

parameters.

(BS 6079-1, 2000: 2)




Then again, according to MacLachlan (1996)

‘A project is a task with a beginning, a middle

and an end, which you as a manager need to

Complete’.



Characteristics of projects

� Temporary (limited time only)� Note that temporary does not imply of short duration and a project’s end

products may endure indefinitely (e.g. Pyramids)

� Duration depends on its size and complexity.

� Unique� One way or another, projects are all different in the way they are planned,

executed and controlled.

� The presence of repetitive work does not change the fundamental uniqueness of a project (e.g. Multiple prototypes might be required prior to developing a new piece of software).

� Require ‘progressive elaboration’ to take shape� The work required is gradually defined, with increasing detail being added

over time (e.g. decisions about the internal colour scheme of a building can be done later on after the building has been completed).



Other traits that projects tend to

exhibit:� A level of risk and uncertainty

� Organisationally complex, requiring the interaction of many people, departments and other organisations

� Need to be managed against time, budget and human resource plans

� Cause Conflict due to competition for resources

� Required by other projects and non project work

� Require teamwork and the ability of participants to use effective leadership skills.



Which of the following are projects?

� Building a bridge

� Designing an information system

� Planning an election campaign

� Writing an essay

� Developing a new product or service

� Effecting a change in organisation structure

� Swimming

� Working in an office



Where do projects come from?

� According to PMI (2000), projects are usually authorised as a result of one or more of the following reasons :

� A market demand (for example a supermarket chain opens a new store due to popular demand)

� A business need (for example a university authorises a project to develop a distance learning course to increase its revenues)

� A customer request (for example an electric authorises a project to build a substation to serve a new industrial park)

� A technological advance (for example a new computer chip spawns a project to produce the

� next generation of computers)

� A legal requirement (for example a paint manufacturer authorises a project to establish guidelines for the handling of hazardous materials as required by recent government legislation)

� A crisis (for example a market downturn forces accompany to restructure itself)

� A social need (for example a nongovernmental organisation (NGO) in a developing country authorises a project to provide potable water systems and sanitation education to low-income communities suffering from high rates of cholera).



� How would you define project management?



Definition of project management

� At its simplest level, project management can

be defined as the discipline of managing

projects successfully. (APM, 2000: 14).




� British Standards Institution (2000) definition:

Project management is the planning, monitoring

and control of all aspects of a project and the

motivation of all those involved in it to achieve

the project objectives on time and to the

specified cost, quality and performance.




� Project Management is the application of

skills, knowledge, tools and techniques to

project activities to meet project

requirements.

(PMI, 2000)



Notes:

� Project management is about managing a process and the people who participate in it.

� The project manager may or may not also be involved in doing the work to create the project’s end products, whether goods or services.

� Project managers essentially manage people, resources and the delivery of products, not the work itself.

(Source: Gardiner, 2005)



Differences in environment between project management and

general management

�Open, adaptive, organic

�Changing goals

�Uncertain/turbulent environment

�Non-routine activities

�Creativity

�Innovation

�Flexibility

�Closed, stable, mechanistic

�Well defined goals

�Stable technology

�Routine activities

�Repetition

�Hierarchy

�Tight structures

Project ManagementManaging an on-going enterprise



Use of processes

� Project management is achieved through the

use of processes:

� Initiating

� Planning

� Executing

� Controlling

� Closing



Project Process Flow



Overlap of process groups



Project Management entails:

� Managing competing demands for scope,

time, cost, risk and quality

� Managing stakeholders with different needs

and expectations

� Managing identified requirements



Simple Project Organisation Structure

Source: Gardiner, 2005



Source: Weiss and Wysocki, 1992, p.15

Define

• State the Problem

• Identify Project

Goals

• List the Objectives

• Determine Preliminary Resources

• Identify Assumptionsand Risks

Plan Organise Control Close

• Identify Project

Activities

• Estimate Time

& Cost

• Sequence Project

Activities

• Identify Critical

Activities

• Write Project

Proposal

• Determine personnel

needs

• Recruit Project

Manager

•Recruit Project Team

•Organise Project

Team

• Assign Work

Packages

• Define Management

Style

• Establish Control

Tools

• Prepare Status

Reports

• Review Project Schedule

• Issue Change Orders

• Obtain Client

Acceptance

• Install

Deliverables

• Document

the Project

• Issue

the Final Report

• Conduct

Post-Implementationaudit

Planning Implementation

•Project Overview •Work Breakdown•Project Network•Critical Path

•Project Proposal

•Recruitment Criteria•Work Package Description•Work Package

Assignments

•Variance reports•Status Reports•Staff Allocation Reports

•Final Report

•Audit Report

DELIVERABLES

The Project Life-cycle



How would you define project stakeholders?



Definition of project stakeholders

� ‘Project stakeholders are individuals and

organisations that are actively involved in the project,

or whose interests may be positively or negatively affected as a result of the project execution or

completion. They may also exert influence over the project and its results’.

(PMBOK Guide, 2000 Edition, of the Project

Management Institute).



Class discussion

� Who could be the potential stakeholders for

the following?

� Building a bridge

� Designing an information system



Project Stakeholders

� Project Resources (e.g. Project Leader, Core Team members etc…)

� Primary Stakeholders (e.g. Project Manager, Senior

managers, trade unions, employees, suppliers etc…)

� Secondary stakeholders (e.g. Consumer Groups,

Media, Competitors, political groups, environmentalist etc… anyone else who believes he/she has a say in

the ‘Project’)


Principles of Management ModuleSource: Cleland, 1999



Stakeholder influence

Source: Bourne and Walker (2003) - Stakeholder power and impact



Notes

Please undertake additional research work around stakeholder analysis

area.



Organisational influences

� The extent of which organisational factors

influence project management performance

has not been established.

� However, it is sensible, according to

research, to assume that there will be

advantages in developing an organisational

structure for a project which is optimised to

the nature of the project (Todhunter, 2007)



Organisational influences

� Three major organisation forms:

� Functional (companies organised by functional departments e.g. Marketing, HR, IT, Engineering)

� Matrix (groups employees by both functional and product structures)

� Project (companies organised by projects)



Notes

Please undertake additional research work around the advantages and

disadvantages of each organisational form.



Environmental influences

� The project environment can be defined in many ways.

Daft (2001) defines the environment as “… all elements

existing outside the boundary of the organization that

have the potential to affect all or parts of the

organization.”



Environmental influences

� The environment an organisation operates in, is made up of:

� The internal environment e.g. staff (or internal customers), office technology, wages and finance, etc.

� The micro-environment e.g. external customers, agents and distributors, suppliers, our competitors, etc.

� The macro-environment (Pestle factors)



Environmental Influences

� PESTLE analysis

� Political

� Economic

� Social

� Technological

� Legal

� Environmental



The information given in the following tables collates the responses to a poll conducted by the Standish Group (2001).

Source: Stylus Inc.com (2009)



Case studies

� The Gamma Project

� Scottish Parliament Building Project

week 1 lecture notes

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