Project Management
Project Management
BY
RITTIK CHANDRA
Published by:
RITTIK CHANDRA
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Unit-1: Introduction to Project Management
Project management:
Project management is the discipline of planning, organizing, securing and managing resources to bring about the successful completion of specific project goals and objectives. It is sometimes conflicted with program management, however technically that is actually a higher level construction: a group of related and somehow interdependent engineering projects.
A project is a temporary endeavor, having a defined beginning and end (usually constrained by date, but can be by funding or deliverables), undertaken to meet unique goals and objectives usually to bring about beneficial change or added value. The temporary nature of projects stands in contrast to business as usual (or operations) which are repetitive, permanent or semi-permanent functional work to produce products or services. In practice, the management of these two systems is often found to be quite different, and as such requires the development of distinct technical skills and the adoption of separate management.
The primary challenge of project management is to achieve all of the engineering project goals and objectives while honoring the preconceived project constraints. Typical constraints are scope, time, and budget the secondary—and more ambitious—challenge is to optimize the allocation and integration of inputs necessary to meet pre-defined objectives.
Evolution of project management:
The importance of Project Management is an important topic because all organizations, because they small or large, at one time or other, are involved in implementing new undertakings. These undertakings may be diverse, such as, the development of a new product or service; the establishment of a new production line in a manufacturing enterprise; a public relations promotion campaign; or a major building program.
On a macro level organizations are motivated to implement project management techniques to ensure that their undertakings (small or major) are delivered on time, within the cost budget and to the stipulated quality. On a micro level, project management combined with an appropriate information management system has the objectives of: (a) reducing project overhead costs; (b) customizing the project workplace to fit the operational style of the project teams and respective team members; (c) proactively informing the executive management strata of the strategic projects on a real-time basis; (d) ensuring that project team members share accurate, meaningful and timely project documents; and (e) ensuring that critical task deadlines are met. Whilst the motivation and objectives to apply project management in organizations is commendable, they do not assure project success.
Prior to 1958: Craft system to human relations. During this time, the evolution of technology, such as, automobiles and telecommunications shortened the project schedule. For instance, automobiles allowed effective resource allocation and mobility, whilst the telecommunication system increased the speed of communication
1958-1979: Application of Management Science. Significant technology advancement took place between 1958 and 1979, such as, the first automatic plain-paper copier by Xerox in 1959. Between 1956 and 1958 several core project management tools including CPM and PERT were introduced. However, this period was characterized by the rapid development of computer technology.
1980-1994: Production Centre Human Resources. The 1980s and 1990's are characterized by the revolutionary development in the information management sector with the introduction of the personal computer (PC) and associated computer communications networking facilities. This development resulted in having low cost multitasking PCs that had high efficiency in managing and controlling complex project schedules.
1995-Present: Creating a New Environment. This period is dominated by the developments related to the Internet that changed dramatically business practices in the mid 1990's.
This allows automatic uploading of data so that anyone around the globe with a standard browser can: (a) input the most recent status of their assigned tasks; (b) find out how the overall project is doing; (c) be informed of any delays or advances in the schedule; and (d) stay "in the loop" for their project role, while working independently at a remote site.
System approaches in project management:
A project is a temporary, one-time endeavor undertaken to solve a problem or take advantage of an opportunity. It usually has a customer or customers (either internal or external to the organization that is doing the project), a budget or a set of scarce resources that must be managed and some kind of timeframe/constraint for completion or operation. Before one can undertake a project to solve a problem one must first understand the problem. Not only understand the details of the problem but also understand who has the problem and the context and environment that must be taken into consideration in addressing the problem.
The system approach is a framework for conceptualizing problems as systems and for doing things such as solving problems and designing systems.
CONCEPT OF SYSTEM APPROACH:
The objectives and performance system
The environment and constraints of the system
The resources of the system
The element of the system and their function
The management of the system
The objectives and performance system:
The system approach mandate a practical thinking about the real objective of the system and real ways to measure it project management uses this kind of thinking.
The environment and constraints of the system:
The environment of the system i.e. relevent subsystem, groups and the persons who affect or affected by t5he system, must also be identified.
The resources of the system:
In accomplishing system goals, internal system resources such as capital, labour, material must also be identified. Most of the system resources are exhaustible.
The system is free to utilize them.
Impressum
Verlag: BookRix GmbH & Co. KG
Texte: RITTIK CHANDRA
Bildmaterialien: RITTIK CHANDRA
Lektorat: RITTIK CHANDRA
Tag der Veröffentlichung: 07.07.2013
ISBN: 978-3-7309-3580-4
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TO THE YOUTH OF THE WORLD