Chapter 6: Project Time Management

Time is the most important resources to the organization in completing the project. Time is limited; therefore a project manager should try to make full use of it while exerting every member in the team to complete their respective tasks. First process in time management is activity definition; to identify the appropriate activities that need to be performed to produce project deliverables. It involves adding more details to the work that needs to be done in WBS to make it easier to understand and to estimate the cost and duration for each activity. Next step is activity sequencing to identify dependencies among the activities. A network diagram is best for showing activity sequencing.

Two types of diagramming method are Arrow Diagramming method and Precedence Diagramming Method. The third process is activity resource estimating. Before estimating activity duration, it is much more important to determine what types of resources are needed for each activity and to check for its availability. Other issues that are need to be considered including difficulties to complete the activity and if the organization has done the same thing before, what lessons can be learned from it. After that, then only the duration can be estimated. A three-point-estimate approach is helpful, because rather than estimating a discrete number, it is better to estimate the optimistic, mot-likely and pessimistic estimate. Next step is schedule development; making use of the other processes to determine the start date and finish date of the project.

The objective is to create a schedule as basis for monitoring the work progress and some of the tools and techniques include Gantt charts, critical path analysis, critical chain scheduling and Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) analysis. Gantt chart is often the formal representation of project schedule with the information of what activity needs to be done and what is the start and finish date. Critical path method is useful for determining the earliest time a project can be completed and it changes as the project progresses. Critical chain scheduling considers limited resources and includes extra time to protect the project completion date. Final phase in time management is to perform reality checks on schedule, known as schedule control.

The main goal is the same as the previous control process in project integration management and project scope management, which is to know the changes status of the schedule.

Chapter 5: Project Scope Management

Previous chapter it focuses on project integration management and for chapter 5 it focus on project scope management. In this chapter I learn on how to deal with scope in more detail concept. Like previous chapter this chapter also focuses on project charter and project scope management. The most important part of this chapter is I learn how to define a task for an activity and create the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) where we divide the task into smaller part so we have idea on what to do from time to time. Using WBS make us easy to divide any task for the activity for example we can put design interface, design prototyping and so on as the task for the design activity. After that, we can develop Gantt chart for each task that we already define. Gantt chart refers to the timing we need to accomplish each task.

It depend for us to decide how much time we need to finish one task maybe the difficult task we take longer time compare to an easy task. Last part of this topic is scope verification where the complete project delivers to the stakeholder. For me this chapter is simple because it focuses only on our project scope where we need to define step by step to ensure the completed project meet the scope requirements. The new thing I learn from this chapter is on how to create WBS because it is important to define even the small task for accomplish the project that follow the scope requirements.

Chapter 4: Project Integration Management

It is important to select a project based on its need for the organizational, the available funds for the project and also a strong will to make the project succeed. Another important consideration is whether the project provides response to a problem, opportunity or directive. Next, financial analysis including Net Present Value (NPV) analysis, Return on Investment (ROI) and payback analysis also needs to be performed as an important aspect too. Processes involved in Project Integration Management comprise of 7 phases. A project charter needs to be prepared and signed by the stakeholders as recognition for a project to be started and also to give information to the rest of the organization.

Next, a scope statement should be developed as a direction for the project and it is best to have a preliminary scope first and more detailed scope statement is developed as the project progresses. Third process is to prepare a Project Management Plan (PMP) which includes all the coordinated plans. In PMP, there is a stakeholder analysis which is helpful in recognizing the stakeholders and approaches on how to manage relationships with them. After recognizing the work described in PMP, here comes the project execution where the products are being produced.

As mentioned before, this is the part where a project manager needs to have strong skills and to make full use of the tools and techniques for project execution to keep on the right track. Next process as usual after project execution, monitoring and controlling process came in to produce corrective and preventive actions. After that, an integrated change control is performed to properly manage actual changes as they occur. A change control system is a documented process that describes how a work may changes and to assign person responsible to make changes. But before that the role of Change Control Board need not to be denied as they have the authority to approve or reject changes for project. At the end of the project, all activities must be finalized and it is expected for the project to produce the final outputs.

Chapter 3 : The Project Management Process Groups: A Case Study

This chapter describes in detail about the process group including its definitions and so on. It says “A process is a series of actions directed toward a particular result” and “Project management can be viewed as a number of interlinked processes”.

This five project management process group is important to follow in develop a project in order to meet the three constraint of project which are cost, scope and time and also including the quality of the product.

Chapter 2 : The Project Management and Information Technology Context.

This chapter basically describe about the combination of project management and information technology. It started with the description of what is organization. In which projects cannot run in isolation. It says “Project managers need to use systems thinking”; taking a holistic view of carrying out projects within the context of the organization. This is the figure of three sphere model for system management.

It explain about the understanding of organization which have four frames including structural frames, human resource frame, political frames, and symbolic frames. This chapter also describes about three organizational structure which are functional, project, and matrix.After describing about the organizations, this chapter describes then about product life cycle.

This topic also covered in Software Engineering class. It is considered as quite important topic for ICT students. It says “The Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) is a framework for describing the phases involved in developing and maintaining information systems“. The questions arouse, why are the project phases and management reviews are important? The answer is “Management reviews, also called phase exits or kill points, should occur after each phase to evaluate the project’s progress, likely success, and continued compatibility with organizational goals.

Chapter 1 : Introduction to Project Management

In this chapter, we learned about what is Project Management. Project Management is the ability to manage a temporary endeavor to create a unique product or service on time and within budget. Project Management also can be defined as the application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to project activities to meet project requirements.

What actually project managers do? Are they only observing what their team members doing or only give instructions and order to the team members? Actually, project managers work with sponsors, a project team, and other people involved in a project to meet project goals. The project managers are the one who will be blame if the project does not meet the objective or goals. This shows that the project managers have a very heavy responsibility toward the project and the team members.

Next we will proceed with the project. Project is a temporary endeavor or attempt undertaken to create a unique product, service or result. The project size is not a matter and it may take a long a short time to be completed. The project will end only if it meets the objective. If not, the project will be terminated. Below are the attributes of a project: has a unique purpose, temporary, developed using progressive elaboration, resources, have a primary customer or sponsor, the project sponsor usually provides the direction and funding for the project and uncertainty

A successful project management must meet 3 constraints or also known as the triple constraint. The constraints are scope (what work to be done), time (how long should it take to complete) and cost (what should it cost)
The chapter also covers the 9 knowledge areas which are project integration management, scope management, time management, cost management, quality management, human resource management, communication management, risk management and procurement management.