Project Management
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Important Definitions about Project Management
Project Management terms
Project charter: The document which gives authority to the Project Manager and contains high-level requirements and the most important stakeholders
Kick-off meeting: The first official meeting between Project Manager and the team.
Requirements: A business need of stakeholders, defined by the Business Analyst.
Business Analyst: Responsible for revealing business needs from various stakeholders, managing these business needs, explaining them to the team, preparing a set of documents . The business analysis process is vital for the project success.
Business Requirement Document: A detailed document with all requirements, use cases, business rules, assumptions related to a project.
Work Breakdown Structure: Hierarchical decomposition of the work in one project. The purpose of WBS is to decompose Scope Statement to smaller and more manageable packages.
Scope creed: Uncontrolled change of project scope. This is one of the biggest issues and it is a PM job to control it. Task: An action which should be done in order to achieve something. The tasks should have the owner, start date, end date, duration, predecessors, and dependencies.
Milestone: An important moment in the project. Milestone is a task with no duration.
Critical Path: Technique used to complete a project on time. It focuses on key tasks. It is the PM responsibility to define Critical path tasks and to pay close attention to them.
Lags: Defines the time between the end of one task and start of the next task/s.
Estimations: An assumption for a time needed for finishing a task.
Gantt chart: A popular method for visualization of tasks, task duration, relationships, owners, start and end dates.
Business Process: A chain of related tasks which defines the steps to achieve some goals
Change Request: A change requested after some signed agreement. It is always formal, and it is the PM job to analyze its impact on scope, cost, time, and risks.
Scope, Cost, Time Triangle: The most important indicators of the projects are in close relations.
RACI Matrix: Responsibility matrix which defines “who is who” in a project with his/her contacts and responsibilities. It can save a great amount of time and the team can avoid wrong processes.
Schedule Performance Index: This index measures progress achieved vs planned progress. A value above 1.0 indicates a performance above planned.
Cost performance index: This index measures the value of the work completed vs actual cost. A value above 1.0 indicates a cost underrun and a good shape.
Qualitative Risk Analysis: Estimating risk probability and impact using various techniques.
Quantitative Risk Analysis: Using numbers for providing more risk details.
Kick-off meeting: The first official meeting between Project Manager and the team.
Requirements: A business need of stakeholders, defined by the Business Analyst.
Business Analyst: Responsible for revealing business needs from various stakeholders, managing these business needs, explaining them to the team, preparing a set of documents . The business analysis process is vital for the project success.
Business Requirement Document: A detailed document with all requirements, use cases, business rules, assumptions related to a project.
Work Breakdown Structure: Hierarchical decomposition of the work in one project. The purpose of WBS is to decompose Scope Statement to smaller and more manageable packages.
Scope creed: Uncontrolled change of project scope. This is one of the biggest issues and it is a PM job to control it. Task: An action which should be done in order to achieve something. The tasks should have the owner, start date, end date, duration, predecessors, and dependencies.
Milestone: An important moment in the project. Milestone is a task with no duration.
Critical Path: Technique used to complete a project on time. It focuses on key tasks. It is the PM responsibility to define Critical path tasks and to pay close attention to them.
Lags: Defines the time between the end of one task and start of the next task/s.
Estimations: An assumption for a time needed for finishing a task.
Gantt chart: A popular method for visualization of tasks, task duration, relationships, owners, start and end dates.
Business Process: A chain of related tasks which defines the steps to achieve some goals
Change Request: A change requested after some signed agreement. It is always formal, and it is the PM job to analyze its impact on scope, cost, time, and risks.
Scope, Cost, Time Triangle: The most important indicators of the projects are in close relations.
RACI Matrix: Responsibility matrix which defines “who is who” in a project with his/her contacts and responsibilities. It can save a great amount of time and the team can avoid wrong processes.
Schedule Performance Index: This index measures progress achieved vs planned progress. A value above 1.0 indicates a performance above planned.
Cost performance index: This index measures the value of the work completed vs actual cost. A value above 1.0 indicates a cost underrun and a good shape.
Qualitative Risk Analysis: Estimating risk probability and impact using various techniques.
Quantitative Risk Analysis: Using numbers for providing more risk details.
Description
Can be described as the application of knowledge while using specific processes and tools to manage resources in order to achieve and outcome.
Project Life Cycle and Phases
Initiation - Pre-project phase where the Project Manager is not deeply involved here but he/she can support those initiation processes with domain knowledge, known risks and expertise.
Planning - It is the most time consuming phase for the project. It includes tasks such as: Defining project plan, scope and time management, cost estimation, plan quality, risk management and human resources plan.
Execution - This phase includes managing the team and managing the stakeholders expectations. As a Project Manager, soft skills and authority may be required to motivate the team to perform. Communication and transparency with stakeholders is also needed.
Monitoring/Controlling - The Project Manager needs to know the stages of the project and execution timeline.
Closing - The most important at this stage are the lessons learned and archiving
Planning - It is the most time consuming phase for the project. It includes tasks such as: Defining project plan, scope and time management, cost estimation, plan quality, risk management and human resources plan.
Execution - This phase includes managing the team and managing the stakeholders expectations. As a Project Manager, soft skills and authority may be required to motivate the team to perform. Communication and transparency with stakeholders is also needed.
Monitoring/Controlling - The Project Manager needs to know the stages of the project and execution timeline.
Closing - The most important at this stage are the lessons learned and archiving