What is a Project

Formal Definition

From the PMBOK:

  "A temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result."

Project Characteristics

  → Projects are unique

  → Projects are temporary in nature

  → Completed when the project goals are achieved

  → Success equals meeting or exceeding expectations

Project vs Operations

Project Management Standards

PMI History

The Project Management Institute (PMI) was founded in 1969 to:

  → Provide a forum for sharing of experiences

  → Coordinate research efforts

  → Develop common terminology and techniques

PMI Present

The PMI now has almost 700 thousand members from more than 200 countries

Its first certification, the Project Management Professional (PMP) was launched in 1984

More than 260 thousand individuals hold a PMP Certification

Launched its first Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) Guide in 1987

PMBOK

The PMBOK Guide, now in its seventh edition, has millions of copies in circulation

Provides a set of standard terminology and guidelines

It has been chosen as a standard by both the ANSI as well as by the IEEE

Project Management Triangle

Introduction

The quality of a project is dictated by three factors: scope, budget, and time

The combination of these factors is called: Project Management Triangle

Up to the manager to to achieve a proper trade-off

"Good, cheap, and fast. Pick two!"

Triple Constraint

In this class will discuss scope

Next class we will discuss time and cost

Scope

Scope and Deliverables

The scope of a project is the set of all deliverables that you and your team will create

In Scrum words: All of your Product Backlog

Might include intermediate steps: documents, plans, schedules, budgets, blueprints, etc.

Deliverables and Requirements

Deliverables are products, services, or outcomes created to fulfil the requirements

Requirements describe the characteristics of the final deliverable

They describe the required functionality and/or specific conditions the final deliverable must meet

Types of Requirements

Functional: characteristics of the final deliverable

Non-functional: restrictions and constraints

Technical: Specify how the project will be designed

Business: Needs of the organization

User: user experience

Regulatory: restrictions and laws

Collecting Requirements

Eliciting techniques:

→ Interviewing stakeholders

→ Holding focus groups

→ Questionnaires and surveys

WBS

Work Breakdown Structure

→ Deliverable-oriented grouping of the work involved in a project

→ Provides the basis for planning and managing project schedules, costs, resources, and changes

Work Breakdown Structure

Work Breakdown Structure

Should contain all work involved (100% rule)

Hyerarchical Structure

No overlap in scope between different elements

Should have a coding scheme

Deliverable-Based or Phase-Based

WBS Example 1

WBS Example 2