Subtitles section Play video
-
Let me start off with a story. Three men: a project manager, a software engineer,
-
and a Marketing manager are helping out on a project. About midweek they decide to walk
-
to downtown during their lunch hour. Halfway up the downtown, they stumbled upon a lamp.
-
As they rub the lamp a genie appears and says "Normally I would grant you three wishes,
-
but since there are three of you, I will grant you each one wish."
-
The marketing manager went first. "I would like to spend the rest of my life living in
-
a huge house in Hawaii with no money worries." The genie granted him his wish and sent him
-
on off to Hawaii. The software engineer went next. "I would
-
like to spend the rest of my life living on a huge yacht cruising the Mediterranean with
-
no money worries." The genie granted him his wish and sent him off to the Mediterranean.
-
Last, but not least, it was the project manager's turn. "And what would your wish be?" asked
-
the genie. "I want them both back for my meeting after lunch" replied the project manager.
-
As a project manager, you will be able to relate to this story
-
Let’s start off with some background on Project Management terminology, history and
-
responsibilities After listing to the lecture you should
-
be able to - Distinguish Project Mgmt from Operations
-
& Product Management - Know the history of Project Management
-
- Understand Role and Responsibilities the project manager, and know
-
- What does it take to be successful as a project manager.
-
* Let's go over project management terminology. * What is a project?
-
* A project temporary group activity designed to produce a unique product, service or goal.
-
* Temporary means that it has a defined beginning and end in time.
-
* Unique means a project is different from repetitive operations.
-
* Projects typically have a defined, narrow scope focusing on developing and implementing
-
new processes or systems * Operations or Business As Usual (BAU) focuses
-
on executing an existing, repetitive processes, e.g. producing client reports.
-
However, many projects are handed over to Operations or Support teams at the end of
-
the project. E.g. As a project manager, you could design
-
and supervise a project to develop a CRM system or Customer Service process
-
Once the product or process is going live the project manager would hand it over to
-
Operations and Support teams. PM and Operations/Support roles sometimes
-
get comingled where IT Project Managers are being asked to perform technical support roles.
-
This often happens when a project manager fails properly close out the project in terms
-
of hand-over the project to support teams.
-
Project management is the process of planning and controlling resources to achieve specific
-
goals. E.g. develop and implement a new web application
-
Improve quality and turn-around time of customer service inquiries
-
As mentioned, Project management is different from Operations Management
-
Projects typically have a defined, narrow scope and are typically short-term while Operations
-
tending to be ongoing endeavours Operations focuses on managing existing
-
processes, e.g. producing client or internal reports or documents.
-
Project management is also different from Product Management
-
You can think of Product managers are being project managers with heavy emphasis on the
-
marketing side. Project management focuses on “when”.
-
E.g. when does the milestone get completed? Product management focuses: “why”. Why
-
will this feature help to improve user customer satisfaction or user acquisition?
-
In some organizations the roles of Project Mgmt and Product Mgmt are sometimes performed
-
by the one person, frequently in startup environments.
-
Let's take a brief look at evolution of
-
project management. Until 19th century architects or typically
-
engineers managed projects. In the 50s that organizations started to
-
use structured methods for projects. The forefathers of project management are
-
Henry Gantt and Henri Fayol. Gantt is famous for his use of the Gantt
-
chart as a project management tool Fayol for his creation of the five management
-
functions that form the foundation of the project management body of knowledge.
-
The 1950s marked the beginning of the modern project management era.
-
In the 1950s, two mathematical scheduling models were developed.
-
The "Critical Path Method" (CPM) The "Program Evaluation and Review Technique"
-
or PERT These mathematical techniques quickly spread
-
into many organizations.
-
In 1956, the American Association of Cost Engineers (AACE) was founded by practitioners
-
of project management.
-
The AACE continued its pioneering work and in 2006 released the first integrated process
-
model for portfolio, program and project management.
-
In 1967, the International Project Management Association (IPMA) was founded in Europe.
-
IPMA has federal structure and now includes member associations on every continent.
-
In 1969, the Project Management Institute (PMI) was founded.
-
PMI publishes the Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide)
-
PMI also offers serveral certifications such as PMP Certification.
-
So, Project management evolved as a combination of business administration and engineering.
-
Therefore, to be successful as a project manager you need to business- and tech savvy.
-
So that does a Project Manager? Let's talk about the role and responsibilities
-
of a project manager. In a nutshell, a project manager is responsible
-
planning, executing and closing a project. He is responsible for accomplishing the
-
agreed project goals with the agreed time, budget and scope.
-
Key activities of project manager include * defining clear and attainable project objectives,
-
documenting a project charter that include the issues to resolved, project goals, scope,
-
team, timeline, KPIs
-
Project managers have to manage the triple constraint for projects, which is cost, time,
-
and scope. They also the primary point of contact for project issues and risks.
-
People frequently ask “What does it take to be successful as a project manager?”
-
#1: You must be a great communicator It is said that more than 50% of a project
-
manager’s time is spent in some aspect of communication. This includes
-
meetings, status reporting, emails, phone calls, coordinating, talking to people, and
-
completing documentation. Some studies have shown that verbal and
-
written communication takes up 80% of the job.
-
If you are not an effective communicator (and you don’t care to be), don’t go down
-
this path.
-
#2: You must be a team player and work well with people
-
If you prefer to stay in your office and focus on your own work, you probably don’t
-
have the collaborative ability to be a good project manager.
-
Project managers need to spend a lot of time with clients, stakeholders, and team
-
members.
-
#3: You have to balance being detail-oriented and never lose sight of strategic goals of
-
the business and the big picture that may include corporate politics.
-
You have to be detailed oriented when reviewing scheduled , requirements or issues and think
-
big picture in terms of strategic business objectives, customer requirements and office
-
politics.
-
#4: You like to manage people You don’t have much of a project if you’re
-
the only resource. If you want to be a good project manager,
-
you need to be able to manage people. You will not have 100% responsibility for
-
people, but you will need to show leadership, hold them accountable, manage conflict, etc..
-
#5: You like to follow processes No one wants to be a slave of processes.
-
But you need good processes to be effective as your projects.
-
#6: You like to document things Many aspects of project management require
-
some documentation, including status reporting, communication plans, scope changes, and Project
-
Charters.
-
#7: You like to plan When a client gives you a project, what
-
is your first inclination? If your first thought is to get a team together
-
to start executing the work, you probably don’t have a project management mindset.
-
#8: You don't like to be an order taker If you think your job is to take orders
-
from the customer and execute them, you may not be a good project manager.
-
Project managers need to provide value on a project, including pushing back when the
-
client is asking for things that are not right. If the client raises a request that is out
-
of scope, you also need to invoke the scope change management process.
-
#9: You are organized People who have poor personal organization
-
skills and techniques usually do not make good project managers.
-
If you’re going to manage multiple people over a period of time, you need to be well
-
organized to make sure that everyone is doing what he or she needs to do as efficiently
-
as possible.
-
#10: You feel that project management is value-adding and not administrative “overhead”
-
No one can feel good about their job if they think the work they perform is not value
-
added. Good project managers understand the value of their work, and they understand their
-
work will result in a project coming in on time and on budget with a good experience
-
for the client and the project team. If you think the work associated with project management
-
is overhead and non value added, you’re probably not the right person to be a project
-
manager yourself.
-
Conclusion Let’s review what we covered.
-
A project temporary group activity designed to produce a unique product, service or goal.
-
Project management is different from Operations Management and from Product Management
-
Project management evolved in the 1950s as a combination of business administration
-
and engineering Project managers have to manage the triple
-
constraint for projects, which is cost, time, and scope. They also the primary point of
-
contact for project issues and risks. To be successful as a project manager you
-
need to business- and tech savvy. To be successful project manager you also
-
have to be a great communicator, a team player and balance attention to technical details
-
as well big picture thinking which includes knowledge of business strategy and organizational
-
politics.