Project Management Lesson 1

1.
1
Lesson 1:
Introduction To Project Management
The aim of the module as a whole is to help you to develop your
ability to understand and apply the principles of project management.
In this introductory lesson you will be given an overview of project

management as a whole. On completion of this lesson you should
be able to:
• Understand and list the distinguishing characteristics of projects

• Define the term Project Management (PM)
• Understand and state the important factors of a project's context
• Recognise the relevance of the Project Management Body of
Knowledge (PMBOK)
• Understand and apply the concept of the project management
life cycle.
Lesson 1 covers Chapters 1 – 3 of the Text Book by Burke

Source: Project Management, Planning & Control Techniques, 3E (1999) or 4E (2003), R. Burke: Chapters 1 – 3
1.2
Study Guide
• The lessons in this module should be studied in conjunction with the Text
Book entitle Project Management: Planning and Control Techniques, (3rd
or 4th Edition) by Rory Burke, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
• The lesson materials are therefore intended to identify, introduce and

clarify the issues and exercises to be found in the Text Book by Burke.
You should study the material and complete the exercises in the order
suggested in the lesson guide.
1.3
Introduction to Project Management (PM)
• Project management offers a structured approach to managing projects.
• As project grows in size and complexity, the ability to plan and control
become a key project management function.
• The Project Manager must be able to develop a fully integrated

information and control system to plan, instruct, monitor and control large
amounts of data, quickly and accurately to facilitate the problem solving and
decision making process.
• The Project Managers being the single point of responsibility, must set up
a structure which meets:
– the needs of the project
– the needs of the organization
– the needs of the stakeholders
– the needs of the workers/colleagues working on the project
1.4
What is a Project
• The Project Management Institute’s guide to the project management body of

knowledge (PMBOK 1996, p.4) defines a project as:
“….. a temporary endeavour undertaken to create a unique product or

service. Temporary means that every project has a definite end. Unique
means that the product or service is different in some distinguishing way from
all similar products or services.”
• In general, projects range in terms of size, scope, cost and time from mega
international projects costing millions of dollars over many years – to small
domestic projects with low budget taking just a few hours to complete.
1.5
Nature of a Project
• Consider the following projects:

– Designing and construction of a building, a house or a ship
– Organizing a wedding function
– Setting up a website for a client
– The launch of a new product (advertising and marketing)
– Planning and conducting an ISO audit
– Moving house or going on holiday (a domestic project)
• Based on the above list, you will see that the primary features of a project
include:
– A start and finish
– A life-cycle (i.e. a beginning and an end, with a number of distinct
phases in between)
– A time-line/duration and budget with an associated cash-flow
– Activities that are unique and non-repetitive
– Use of various resources and skills that requires coordinating
– A single point of responsibility (i.e. a project manager)
– Team building
– They vary in the degree of complexity involved
1.6
Project Management
PMBOK defined Project Management as follows:
“….. the application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to

project activities in order to meet stakeholder’s needs and expectations
from a project”
• In other words, the project manager must do whatever is required to

make the project happen.
• In general, companies performing projects will sub-divide their

projects into several phases or stages to provide better management
control.
• Collectively, these project phases are called project life-cycle.
1.7
The Nine Areas of PMBOK
Burke has suggested nine areas of PMBOK as described in Chapter 1 of

the Text Book as follows:
1) Project Integration Management

A subset of project management that includes the processes required to
ensure that the various elements of the project are properly coordinated. It
consists of:
• Project plan development

– integrating and coordinating all project plans to create a consistent,
coherent document
• Project plan execution

– carrying out the project plan by performing the activities included
therein
• Integrated change control

– coordinating changes across the entire project
1.8
2) Project Scope Management

ensure that the project includes all the work required, and only the work
required, to complete the project successfully. It consists of:
• Initiation – authorizing the project or phase
• Scope planning – developing a written scope statement as the basis

for future project decisions
• Scope definition – subdividing the major project deliverables into

smaller, more manageable components
• Scope verification – formalizing acceptance of the project scope
• Scope change control – controlling changes to project scope
1.9
3) Project Time Management

ensure timely completion of the project. It consists of:
• Activity definition – identifying the specific activities that must be

performed to produce the various project deliverables
• Activity sequencing – identifying and documenting interactivity

dependencies
• Activity duration estimating – estimating the number of work periods

that will be needed to complete individual activities
• Schedule development – analysing activity sequences, activity

durations, and resource requirements to create the project schedule
• Schedule control – controlling changes to the project schedule
1.10
4) Project Cost Management

ensure that the project is completed within the approved budget. It consists
of:
• Resource planning – determining what resources (people, equipment,

materials) and what quantities of each should be used to perform
project activities
• Cost estimating – developing an approximation (estimate) of the costs

of the resources needed to complete project activities
• Cost budgeting – allocating the overall cost estimate to individual work

activities
• Cost control – controlling changes to the project budget
1.11
5) Project Quality Management

ensure that the project will satisfy the needs for which it was undertaken. It
consists of:
• Quality planning – identifying which quality standards are relevant to

the project and determining how to satisfy them
• Quality assurance – evaluating overall project performance on a

regular basis to provide confidence that the project will satisfy the
relevant quality standards
• Quality control – monitoring specific project results to determine if

they comply with relevant quality standards and identifying ways to
eliminate causes of unsatisfactory performance
1.12
6) Project Human Resource Management

make the most effective use of the people involved with the project. It
consists of:
• Organizational planning – identifying, documenting, and assigning

project roles, responsibilities, and reporting relationships
• Staff acquisition – getting the needed human resources assigned to

and working on the project
• Team development – developing individual and group skills to

enhance project performance
1.13
7) Project Communications Management

ensure timely and appropriate generation, collection, dissemination, storage,
and ultimate disposition of project information. It consists of:
• Communications planning – determining the information and

communications needs of the stakeholders: who needs what
information, when they will need it, and how it will be given to them
• Information distribution – making needed information available to

project stakeholders in a timely manner
• Performance reporting – collecting and disseminating performance

information. This includes status reporting, progress measurement,
and forecasting
• Administrative closure – generating, gathering, and disseminating

information to formalize phase or project completion
1.14
8) Project Risk Management

Risk management is the systematic process of identifying, analysing, and
responding to project risk. It includes maximizing the probability and
consequences of positive events and minimizing the probability and
consequences of adverse events to project objectives. It includes:
• Risk management planning – deciding how to approach and plan the risk management
activities for a project
• Risk identification – determining which risks might affect the project and documenting
their characteristics
• Qualitative risk analysis – performing a qualitative analysis of risks and conditions to

prioritise their effects on project objectives
• Quantitative risk analysis – measuring the probability and consequences of risks and
estimating their implications for project objectives
• Risk response planning – developing procedures and techniques to enhance

opportunities and reduce threats from risk to the project’s objectives
• Risk monitoring and control – monitoring residual risks, identifying new risks, executing
risk reduction plans, and evaluating their effectiveness throughout the project life cycle
1.15
9) Project Procurement Management

acquire goods and services to attain project scope from outside the
performing organization. It consists of:
• Procurement planning – determining what to procure
• Solicitation planning – documenting product requirements and

identifying potential sources
• Solicitation – obtaining quotations, bids, offers, or proposals, as

appropriate
• Source selection – choosing from among potential sellers
• Contract administration – managing the relationship with the seller
• Contract closeout – completion and settlement of the contract,

including resolution of any open items
1.16
These nine bodies of knowledge is likely to lead to good project

management practices and is likely to allow senior management to
accomplish the following:
(a) To direct scarce resources to what are judged to be the most desirable
objectives
(b) To focus appropriate management skills onto specific tasks
(c) To secure commitments to deliver results from those wishing to proceed
with the project
(d) To direct major elements of the business without being submerged in detail
(e) To keep control of a wide variety of projects running concurrently
(f) To ensure that issues such as quality and safety are engineered into
projects at the design stage
(g) To extend the experience of staff working on projects and help equip them
for wider responsibilities
1.17
Core Elements of PMBOK
Burke (1999) suggests that the PMBOK areas can be sub-divided into
two main groups as follows:
• The first group includes those knowledge areas that are concerned
with deliverables, i.e. Scope, Time, Cost, and Quality.
• The second group includes those knowledge areas that relate to the
means of achieving the deliverables i.e. Integration, Human
Resources, Communications, Risk, Procurement and contract.
1.18
Project Environment Context
• The successful accomplishment of a project generally requires an

appreciation of the context in which it is based.
• Projects and their management both affect and are affected by their
environment.
• The project environment comprises both the internal and external

environments in which the project is carried out.
• The project environment can be of various kinds; e.g. political, ecological

(often termed environmental), economic, technological, regulatory,
organizational, etc.
• These environments, or contexts, shape the issues that project management

has to deal with and may assist or restrict the attainment of the project
objective.
1.19
• According to the PMBOK:
Projects and project management operate in an environment broader that

that of the project itself. The project management team must understand
this broader context - managing the day-to-day activities is necessary for
success but not sufficient.
• The PMBOK identifies the following as the main environmental/contextual

issues:
– Project Phases and the Project Life Cycle

– Project Stakeholders
– Organizational Influences
– Key General Management Skills
– Social-Economic-Environmental Influences
1.20
• Burke list the following as the main environmental factors to consider:

– Stakeholders (all interested parties)
– Client/sponsors requirements
– Your company’s organization structure
– Market requirements
– Competitors
– New technology
– Rules and regulations
– Economic cycle.
• Like PMBOK, Burke also emphasize that the Project Life-Cycle is an

important environmental issue to be considered in any project.
• The project life-cycle is a useful concept that looks at the bigger picture of a
project and encouraged to consider how upgrades, expansion,
decommission and disposal would be carried out.
1.21
Project Life-Cycle
• The Association for Project Management defines the Project Life-Cycle as:
“A sequence of defined stages over the full duration of a project”
• The PMBOK suggests that project life cycles generally define:

– What technical work should be done during each phase of the life cycle
– Who should be involved in each phase of the life cycle
• The PMBOK suggests that most project life-cycle descriptions share the
following characteristics:
– Cost and staffing levels are low at the start, higher toward the end, and
drop rapidly as the project draws to a conclusion
– The probability of successfully completing the project is lowest, and hence
risk and uncertainty are highest, at the start of the project
– The ability of the stakeholders to influence the final characteristics of the
project’s product and its final cost is highest at the start and gets
progressively lower as the project continues
1.22
The Four Phases of a Project Life-Cycle
According to Burke (1999), the four main phases that make up the Project Life-
Cycle are:
Phase 1: Concept & Initiation Phase

• The project starts by establishing a need or opportunity for the product, facility or
service. This is accomplish by carrying out a feasibility study.
Phase 2: Design & Development Phase

• The guidelines set by the feasibility study is used to design and develop detailed
schedules and plans for making or implementing the project.
Phase 3: Implementation or Construction Phase

• The project is implemented as per the baseline developed in Phase 3.
Phase 4: Commissioning & Handover Phase

• Confirmed that the project has been implemented/built to the design
specifications and terminates the project.
1.23
The Eight Phases of a Product Life-Cycle
• The classic Project Life-Cycle only considers the project from concept to
handover. However, from the client’s perspective the efficient operation of the
built product and the return of investment should also be considered.
• Thus considering the concept of cradle to grave, Burke suggested that the
eight phases of the Product Life-Cycle are:
(1) Pre-project
(2) Concept
(3) Design
(4) Implementation
(5) Handover
(6) Maintenance
(7) Upgrade
(8) Disposal
• Although Burke conceptualizes an Operations Phase, he does not include it as

one of the Product Life-Cycle Phases as directly applicable to the project
manager. Rather he sees operations taking place between handover and
maintenance, between maintenance and upgrade, and between upgrade
and disposal.
1.24
Phase 1: Pre-Project Phase

The project evolve from the work environment or market within which the
company operates. For example:
– develop a new product based on R&D findings
– upgrade a system to take advantage of new technology
– responding to a competitor’s new product
– expansion of facilities to meet increased demand
Phase 2: Conception & Initiation Phase

Phase 2 to 5 are the
Phase 3: Design & Development Phase phases of the
Project Life-Cycle
Phase 4: Implementation and Manufacture Phase already discussed
earlier
Phase 5: Commissioning & Handover Phase
1.25
Phase 6: Maintenance Phase

• The maintenances are embedded in the operation phase to keep the facility
operational.
• Ease of maintenance and minimum impact on production are important design
considerations.
Phase 7: Up-Grade & Expansion Phase

• At some point the facility will require upgrading or expansion to keep it running
efficiently and competitively.
• New technology, competition, market requirements, rules and regulations are all
factors influencing this phase.
• The ease of upgrading or expansion must be considered in the initial design
stage. If this was not planned for in the design then this will pose a problem in
this phase.
Phase 8: Decommission & Disposal Phase

• This is the final stage of a product life-cycle.
• The impact of disposing a facility needs to be considered in the design stage.
1.26
Summary of Project Life-Cycle
Following is a summary of the main points Burke makes about Project Life-Cycle:
1) The rate of effort and expenditure on the project tends to be at its highest
during the implementation phase as depicted in Fig. 1.
Accumulative
Expenditure Fig. 1. Project Life-
Cycle showing
barchart of the 4 main
Rate of Effort
activities overlapping
the project phase, rate
of effort and the level
Concept & Initiation of expenditure.
Design & Development

Implementation or
Construction
Commission or
Handover
1.27
2) The project phases take their name from the deliverables of the phase, e.g.
initiate, design, construct or handover.
3) The sequence of the project phases generally involve some form of technology
transfer or handover from one phase to the next phase, e.g.
– project brief to design and development
– detailed design to manufacture
– construction to commissioning
– commissioning to operation
4) In practice, there is a very real danger that the transition from one phase to the
next might be carried out without the proper level of discussions.
This can lead to what project managers call over-the-wall transfer. It
sometimes happens that different departments or companies are responsible
for the different phases of the project.
The end of every phase of the project should be marked by a review of both the
deliverables and performance in order to determine if the project should
continue into the next phase.
1.28
5) As the project progresses through the phases, if the goals and objectives
change, so the project management process should reflect these changes.
6) Each phase of the project life cycle is likely to involve inputs, processes, key
activities, hold points, outputs and approvals.
7) Each phase take place in sequence and involves a range of activities

The first and second phases are related to planning, the third and fourth
phases are related to accomplishment.
Where the phases overlap, the project manager has the option of carrying out
some aspects of the overlapping phases in parallel, thus allowing some degree
of fast tracking. The ability to carry out parallel activities will of course be
dependent on the availability of sufficient resources.
1.29
8) The potential to influence and add value to the project tends to be highest
during the concept and design phases, which is of course where many of the
key decisions affecting the project are taken. It is vital that all stakeholders are
properly involved in these early stages.
Conversely, the cost of making changes tends to rise steeply as the project
progresses. These considerations have led to greater time and effort being
devoted to the concept and design stages.
9) Each of the four phases of the life cycle can be planned and controlled as a
mini project.
10) The project life cycle includes all phases from concept to handover. This is
fine from the point of view of the project manager. However, from the client’s
perspective, there are a number of activities prior to the concept and
subsequent to the handover stage.
1.30
11) The Product Life Cycle is helpful in looking at the big picture. Indeed for some
organizations that manage their own projects, the Product and Project life
cycles are virtually synonymous.
Considering the project from cradle to grave highlights the benefit of Life
Cycle Costing in which sensible trade-offs can be made between the costs of
construction, maintenance, upgrading etc. in order to achieve the optimum
total life cycle costs.
12) So over the years it has been observed that projects tend to progress through
a series of phases that together can be considered as a life cycle.
Practitioners have found it useful to structure project management activities
around these phases.
It is accepted good practice to define each phase in

terms of what has to be achieved, when, how, by whom, and at what cost.
Thus it is possible to know the outcome of each phase and whether, when and
how to proceed to the next.
1.31
Homework
a) In the field of Project Management, it is important to understand the nature of

what constitutes a “project”. List 5 features which characterise projects.
b)The PMBOK divide Project Management into 9 different areas. Choose 4 of

these and give a summary of the important features of each.
1.32
Lesson Summary
• This first lesson was intended to present the fundamental concepts of project
management and to serve as an introduction to the module as a whole.
• The main points of this Lesson are summarized as follows:
– The project management body of knowledge (PMBOK) defines project

management under nine knowledge areas.
– Successful project management requires project managers to understand

and take account of the context in which the project takes place.
– Most projects can be sub-divided into four generic phases i.e. Concept,
Design, Implement and Commission.
– The Product Life Cycle is a useful concept that looks at the bigger picture
from the cradle to the grave.
– The level of influence curve and cost of change curve clearly show the
importance of getting the design right before implementation.
1.33
Resources
• Lesson 1 of this module requires you to read in their entirety

Chapters 1, 2 and 3 of the Text Book by Burke.

Project Management Lesson 1

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1.

In this introductory lesson you will be given an overview of project

• Understand and list the distinguishing characteristics of projects

Lesson 1 covers Chapters 1 – 3 of the Text Book by Burke

• The lesson materials are therefore intended to identify, introduce and

• Project management offers a structured approach to managing projects.

• The Project Manager must be able to develop a fully integrated

• The Project Management Institute’s guide to the project management body of

“….. a temporary endeavour undertaken to create a unique product or

• Consider the following projects:

PMBOK defined Project Management as follows:

“….. the application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to

• In other words, the project manager must do whatever is required to

• In general, companies performing projects will sub-divide their

• Collectively, these project phases are called project life-cycle.

Burke has suggested nine areas of PMBOK as described in Chapter 1 of

1) Project Integration Management

• Project plan development

• Project plan execution

• Integrated change control

2) Project Scope Management

• Initiation – authorizing the project or phase

• Scope planning – developing a written scope statement as the basis

• Scope definition – subdividing the major project deliverables into

• Scope verification – formalizing acceptance of the project scope

• Scope change control – controlling changes to project scope

3) Project Time Management

• Activity definition – identifying the specific activities that must be

• Activity sequencing – identifying and documenting interactivity

• Activity duration estimating – estimating the number of work periods

• Schedule development – analysing activity sequences, activity

• Schedule control – controlling changes to the project schedule

4) Project Cost Management

• Resource planning – determining what resources (people, equipment,

• Cost estimating – developing an approximation (estimate) of the costs

• Cost budgeting – allocating the overall cost estimate to individual work

• Cost control – controlling changes to the project budget

5) Project Quality Management

• Quality planning – identifying which quality standards are relevant to

• Quality assurance – evaluating overall project performance on a

• Quality control – monitoring specific project results to determine if

6) Project Human Resource Management

• Organizational planning – identifying, documenting, and assigning

• Staff acquisition – getting the needed human resources assigned to

• Team development – developing individual and group skills to

7) Project Communications Management

• Communications planning – determining the information and

• Information distribution – making needed information available to

• Performance reporting – collecting and disseminating performance

• Administrative closure – generating, gathering, and disseminating

8) Project Risk Management

• Qualitative risk analysis – performing a qualitative analysis of risks and conditions to

• Risk response planning – developing procedures and techniques to enhance

9) Project Procurement Management

• Procurement planning – determining what to procure

• Solicitation planning – documenting product requirements and

• Solicitation – obtaining quotations, bids, offers, or proposals, as

• Source selection – choosing from among potential sellers

• Contract administration – managing the relationship with the seller

• Contract closeout – completion and settlement of the contract,

These nine bodies of knowledge is likely to lead to good project

• The successful accomplishment of a project generally requires an

• The project environment comprises both the internal and external

• The project environment can be of various kinds; e.g. political, ecological