Tag: International Finance Mumbai University BMS Notes

A Project Management life cycle is a five-step framework planned to assist project managers in completing projects successfully.

The primary competency of a project manager is to gain a thorough understanding of project management stages. Knowledge and planning for the five Project Management steps will help you plan and organize your projects so that it goes off without any hitches.

Stages:

Initiating: Defining what needs to be done

Initiating, the first phase of the project management life cycle, is all about kicking off a project with your team and with the client, getting their commitment to start the project. You bring together all of the available information together in a systematic manner to define the project’s scope, cost and resources. The goal of the initiation phase is to take a loose brief of a project and define it in terms of what it needs to do and achieve in order to be successful.

That usually necessitates identifying the project stakeholders and making sure they all share the same perception of what the project is and agree on the business case the problem that the project is trying to solve. It’s during project initiation phase too that you decide whether it is feasible to deliver the business case. As a project manager, you will need to conduct adequate research to determine the goals of the project, and then propose a solution to achieve them. Once approved, you move on to the next of the project phases.

Planning phase: Defining how to do what needs to be done

After approval to proceed from initiation, you can begin project planning. This is arguably the most critical of the phases of project management. Get it wrong, and you’ll scupper your chances of delivering the project on time and budget. Planning is where you define all the work to be done and create the roadmap that you follow for the remainder of the project to get you there. It’s during planning phase that you figure out how you’re going to perform the project and answer the questions what exactly are we going to do, how are we going to do it, when are we going to do it, and how will we know when we’re done?

At this point in the project life cycle, you take the goals of the and expand on those goals to decide how to attain them. It’s worth keeping evaluating those goals with three criteria: what’s Possible, Passionate, and Pervasive?

• Possible: Strive for something that is achievable. Ask yourself, does this solution match the budget? Does my team have the ability to do this? Do we have enough time? Setting unrealistic goals is setting yourself up for failure.
• Passionate: Projects are tough, so you want a team that is emotionally engaged in the project. Ask yourself, Is this a project that your team can be passionate about? Is it something that can bring them together to collaborate to achieve the same goal? Even though it might be their job to do what you tell them to do, no one is going to invest into something they don’t think is worthwhile
• Pervasive: Does this have the potential to become a ground-breaking success? Is this something that is a complete solution to the problem that was given to you or is it really just a band-aid temporary or partial solution? Does it have the potential to be improved on, developed and to become a permanent way of working?

Executing: Making a project happen

This is the part of the project management life cycle where you finally get to execute on your awesome project plan it’s where planning gets turned into action. You bring your resources onboard, brief them, set the ground rules, and introduce them to one another. After that, everyone jumps in to perform the work identified in the plan.

As the project manager, you shift from talking about a project and creating documentation to get the green light to proceed with the project execution to leading the team and managing them toward delivery. You’ll spend your time in briefings, meetings, and reviews to lead the team, and keep the project on track as it moves through the project development lifecycle.

Monitoring & Controlling: Keeping a project on track

This is one of the toughest areas in the project management cycle. In parallel with the project execution, as a project manager, you report performance, and monitor and control the project. That means monitoring the project life to ensure the project is going according to plan, and if it isn’t, controlling it by working out solutions to get it back on track. In reality, a project manager is monitoring and controlling a project in some way throughout all of the project life cycle phases.

First, that means ensuring you capture the data (usually derived from timesheets and tasks completed) to track progress effectively against the original plan. Secondly, it means taking the data and comparing the task completion, budget spend and timeline allocated in the original plan. By comparing the plan against actuals, you can establish whether or not you’re hitting the objectives for timeline, cost, quality and success metrics.

Closure: Ending a project

In this final phase of the project management life cycle, your project is essentially over and your job as project manager on the project comes to a close. But the project’s not over yet check out our article on How to manage a project when it’s over. At this point, before everyone forgets, it’s useful to hold a meeting post project review or post-mortem to discuss the strengths and weaknesses or the project and team, what went wrong and what didn’t go so well, and how to improve in the future.

This can be one of the most rewarding stages of project management, as it’s a great opportunity to recognize and acknowledge valuable team members and celebrate the successes. At the same time, taking the time to make a report outlining learnings and actionable advice can help you do better in your next projects. Use writing tools to help you convey your ideas clearly.

Planning Cycle

The Planning Cycle brings together all the aspects of planning a one-off, medium-sized project into a single, coherent process.

The essential activities include the following:

• Encouraging diverse participation: Planning activities provide an opportunity for input from different functions, departments, and people. Some organizations establish planning committees that intentionally include people from diverse backgrounds to bring new perspectives into the planning process.
• Maintaining organizational focus: Defining specific goals requires managers to consider the vision, mission, and values of the organization and how these will be operationalized. The methods and selected goals can demonstrate that the vision, mission, and values statements are working documents that are not just for show but prescribe activities.
• Empowering and motivating employees: When people are involved in developing plans they will be more committed to the plans. Allowing diverse input into the planning cycle empowers people to contribute and motivates them to support the outcomes.

Stages:

Define objectives

The first, and most crucial, step in the planning process is to determine what is to be accomplished during the planning period. The vision and mission statements provide long-term, broad guidance on where the organization is going and how it will get there. The planning process should define specific goals and show how the goals support the vision and mission. Goals should be stated in measurable terms where possible. For example, a goal should be “to increase sales by 15 percent in the next quarter” not “Increase sales as much as possible.”

Develop premises

Planning requires making some assumptions about the future. We know that conditions will change as plans are implemented and managers need to make forecasts about what the changes will be. These include changes in external conditions (laws and regulations, competitors’ actions, new technology being available) and internal conditions (what the budget will be, the outcome of employee training, a new building being completed). These assumptions are called the plan premises. It is important that these premises be clearly stated at the start of the planning process. Managers need to monitor conditions as the plan is implemented. If the premises are not proven accurate, the plan will likely have to be changed.

Evaluate alternatives

There may be more than one way to achieve a goal. For example, to increase sales by 12 percent, a company could hire more salespeople, lower prices, create a new marketing plan, expand into a new area, or take over a competitor. Managers need to identify possible alternatives and evaluate how difficult it would be to implement each one and how likely each one would lead to success. It is valuable for managers to seek input from different sources when identifying alternatives. Different perspectives can provide different solutions.

Identify resources

Next, managers must determine the resources needed to implement the plan. They must examine the resources the organization currently has, what new resources will be needed, when the resources will be needed, and where they will come from. The resources could include people with particular skills and experience, equipment and machinery, technology, or money. This step needs to be done in conjunction with the previous one, because each alternative requires different resources. Part of the evaluation process is determining the cost and availability of resources.

Plan and implement tasks

Management will next create a road map that takes the organization from where it is to its goal. It will define tasks at different levels in the organizations, the sequence for completing the tasks, and the interdependence of the tasks identified. Techniques such as Gantt charts and critical path planning are often used to help establish and track schedules and priorities.

Determine Tracking and Evaluation methods

It is very important that managers can track the progress of the plan. The plan should determine which tasks are most critical, which tasks are most likely to encounter problems, and which could cause bottlenecks that could delay the overall plan. Managers can then determine performance and schedule milestones to track progress. Regular monitoring and adjustment as the plan is implemented should be built into the process to assure things stay on track.

Master Production Scheduling

A master production schedule (MPS) is a plan for individual commodities to be produced in each time period such as production, staffing, inventory, etc. It is usually linked to manufacturing where the plan indicates when and how much of each product will be demanded. This plan quantifies significant processes, parts, and other resources in order to optimize production, to identify bottlenecks, and to anticipate needs and completed goods. Since a MPS drives much factory activity, its accuracy and viability dramatically affect profitability. Typical MPSs are created by software with user tweaking.

Due to software limitations, but especially the intense work required by the “master production schedulers”, schedules do not include every aspect of production, but only key elements that have proven their control effectivity, such as forecast demand, production costs, inventory costs, lead time, working hours, capacity, inventory levels, available storage, and parts supply. The choice of what to model varies among companies and factories. The MPS is a statement of what the company expects to produce and purchase (i.e. quantity to be produced, staffing levels, dates, available to promise, projected balance).

The MPS translates the customer demand (sales orders, PIR’s), into a build plan using planned orders in a true component scheduling environment. Using MPS helps avoid shortages, costly expediting, last minute scheduling, and inefficient allocation of resources. Working with MPS allows businesses to consolidate planned parts, produce master schedules and forecasts for any level of the Bill of Material (BOM) for any type of part.

A master production schedule may be necessary for organizations to synchronize their operations and become more efficient. An effective MPS ultimately will:

• Give production, planning, purchasing, and management the information to plan and control manufacturing.
• Tie overall business planning and forecasting to detail operations.
• Enable marketing to make legitimate delivery commitments to warehouses and customers.
• Increase the efficiency and accuracy of a company’s manufacturing.
• Rough cut capacity planning.

MPS issues:

• Width of the time bucket
• Planning horizon
• Rolling plan
• Time fencing
• Schedule freezing

Characteristics

Change oriented: Project management is a vehicle for planning and managing change in an organized manner. It adopts flexibility in doing things in a risky environment.

Objectives oriented: Project management is focused on achieving specific project objectives with customer satisfaction. It is results-oriented.

Single Responsibility Center: The project manager is the single responsibility center accountable for project outcomes. The role of project manager is crucial from inception to completion of the project. He is a project leader and champion. He motivates team members to excel.

Functional Coordination: Project management requires coordination along functional lines. The work flow is both vertical and horizontal in a matrix organization structure.

Planning and Control: Project management required integrated planning and control systems for continuous improvement.

Team-based: Project management consists of a multi-disciplinary project team with a wide range of skill and experiences. The team has project dedication. Each member has responsibility and accountability for a unit of work. Self-management is emphasized. So is member participation. The team membership is flexible and changes with project needs.

Constraints: Project management achieves results within the constraints of time, cost and quality. It is a time and resources limited activity. It is focused on customer needs.

Body of Knowledge: Project management consists of a body of knowledge like;

• Scope Management
• Time Management
• Change Management
• Integration Management
• Cost Management
• Quality Management
• Human Resource Management
• Conflict Management
• Risk Management
• Procurement Management

Importance of Project Management

Project management includes: Identifying requirements, establishing clear and achievable objectives, balancing the competing demands from the different stakeholders and ensuring that a commonality of purpose is achieved. It is clear that unless there is a structured and scientific approach to the practice of management, organizations would find themselves adrift in the Ocean called organizational development and hence would be unable to meet the myriad challenges that the modern era throws at them. Hence, the importance of project management to organizations cannot be emphasized more and the succeeding paragraphs provide some reasons why organizations must take the practice of project management seriously.

Without a scientific approach to the task of managing the projects and achieving objectives, it would be very difficult for the organizations to successfully execute the projects within the constraints of time, scope and quality and deliver the required result. In other words, there has to be a framework and a defined way of doing things to ensure that there is a structure to the art of project management.

Thus, project management is about creating structure and managing the project commitments and the delivery of agreed upon results. By using the methods of project management as described in the PMBOK and allied technical journals, organizations can seek to achieve control over the project environment and ensure that the project deliverables are being managed. Managers face what is known as the “triple constraint”. This is the competing demands of time, scope and quality upon the project manager’s list of things to do and how well the project manager manages these constraints goes a long way in determining the success of the project. Without the use of Project Management, managers and organizations would find themselves facing an unpredictable and chaotic environment over which they have little control. Thus, Project Management is both necessary and essential to the success of the project.

Improve internal communications

Working together can be hard. With more efficient project management processes, you can reduce the complexity of collaboration, increase transparency, and ensure accountability, even when you’re working across teams or departments.

Iterate on your successes

Project management helps you to scale high performance and build on your team’s best practices. By using the data and learnings from previous projects, you’re able to pinpoint where your team is excelling and where there’s room for improvement. And by measuring your KPIs you can create and track personalized benchmarks to understand how your team is performing project over project.

Save time and money

With the right planning, you can ensure that your work is delivered on time and within budget. Using project management methods, you can map your project’s journey from the outset and know in advance where the deadlines and projected spend are going to fall, so you can more efficiently allocate your resources, helping you to avoid delays and project overspend.

Make better business decisions

With clearer records of how your project is progressing, you get a deeper understanding of where your resources are being spent, what you need to prioritize and when, and if you’re at risk of going off track. Good project management means that you can forecast issues before they become issues, prevent bottlenecks, and make smarter, data-driven decisions.

Non-Numeric Project Selection Models

1. The Sacred Cow

The senior and he powerful official in the company suggest the project in this case. Mostly the project is simply initiated from an apparent opportunity or chance which follows an un-established idea for a new product, for the designing & adoption of the latest information system with universal database, for the establishment of a new market or for some other category of project that demands the investment of the resources of the organization.

The project is created as an immediate result of this bland approach for investigating whatever the boss has proposed. The sacredness of the project reflects the fact that it will be continued until ended or until the boss himself announces the failure of the idea & ends it.

2. The Operating Necessity

If a plant is threatened by the flood then it is not much complex and effortful to start a project for developing a protective desk. This is the best example of operating a necessity. Potential projects are evaluated by using this criterion of project selection by the XYZ steel corporation.

Certain questions come in front of the project is needed in order to keep the system functioning like is the estimated cost of the project is effective for the system? If the answer to such an important question is yes, then the project costs should be analyzed to ensure that these are maintained as the minimum and compatible with the success of the project. However, the project should be financed.

3. The Competitive Necessity

In the late 1960s, XYZ Steel considered an important plant rebuilding project by using this criterion in its steel bar producing facilities near Chicago. It was clear to the management of the company that certain modernization is required in its bar mill in order to keep the current competitive position in the market area of Chicago.

Perhaps the project has a modern planning process, the desire to keep the competitive position of the company in the market provide a basis for making such a decision to carry on the project. Similarly, certain undergraduate and Master in Business Administration (MBA) programs are restructured in the offerings of many universities to keep their competitive position in the academic market.

Precedence is taken by the operating necessity projects over competitive necessity projects regarding investment. But both of these types of project selection models are considered much useful & effective as compared to other select models.

4. The Product Line Extension

In case of the product line extension, a project considered for development & distribution of new products will be evaluated on the basis of the extent to which it suits the company’s current product lines, fortify a weak line, fills a gap, or enhanced the line in a new & desirable direction.

In certain cases, careful evaluations of profitability is not needed. The decision-makers can perform actions on the basis of their belief about the probable influence of the addition of the new product to the line over the entire performance of the system.

5. Comparative Benefit Model

According to this selection model, there are several projects that are being considered by the organization. That subset of the projects that are selected by the senior management of the organization can provide the most benefits to the company. But comparing various projects is not an easy task.

For example, some projects are related to the new products, some are related to the computerization of particular records, others are related to make alterations in the method of production and some of them may contain such areas that cannot be easily categorized.

There is no formal method of selection of projects in the organization but it is the perception of the selection committee members that certain projects will benefit the company more than the others even they lack the suitable way to specify or measure the proposed benefit.

For all sorts of projects, if not a formal model, the concept of comparative benefits is enormously used for selection decisions. United States Companies considering various social programs for providing funds to them to use this concept to make the decisions.

All the considered projects with positive recommendations are examined by the senior management of the funding organization in order to make an effort to develop a portfolio that can effectively suit the objectives & budgets of the organization.

6. Q-Sort Model

The Q-Sort model is one of the most straightforward techniques for ordering projects. According to their relative merits, the projects are first divided into three groups which are Good, Fair and Poor. The main group is further subdivided into the two types of fair-minus and fair-plus if any group has more than eight members.

The projects within each type are ranked from best to worst when all types have eight or fewer members. Again relative merit provides the basis for determining the order. The specific criterion is used by the rater to rank each project or he may merely use general entire judgment.

Numeric Project Selection Models (Profit/Profitability)

Payback Period

The initial fixed investment in the project divided by the forecasted annual net cash inflows from the project is referred to as the payback period for the project. The number of years needed by the project to refund its initial fixed investment is reflected in the ratio of these quantities.

This method supposes that the cash inflows will die-hard to the minimum extent to pay back the investment, and any cash inflows outside the payback period are ignored. This method also functions as an inadequate representative for the risk. The company faces less risk when it recovers the initial investment fast.

Average Rate of Return

The ratio of the average annual profit (either after or before taxes) to the average or initial investment in the project is referred to as the average rate of return. It is mostly misunderstood as the reciprocal of the payback period.

Discounted Cash Flow

The discounted cash flow method is also called the Net Present Value (NPV) method. The net present value of all cash flows is determined by discounting them by the required rate of return in this method.

Project Selection Models

Where k = the required rate of return

Ft = the net cash flow in period t

Ao = the initial cash investment

Internal Rate of Return (IRR)

If there are two sets expected cash flows, one for expected cash inflows and other for expected cash outflows then the Internal Rate of Return is the discount rate that equalizes the present value of the two sets of flows. If Rt is the forecasted cash inflow for period t and At is a forecasted cash outflow in the period t, the internal rate of return is the value of k that satisfies the following equation.

Profitability Index

The net present value of all future expected cash flows divided by the initial investment is referred to as the profitability index. The profitability index is also called the benefit-cost ratio. The project may be accepted if this ratio is higher than 1.0.

Other Profitability Models

The models just explained have different variations that fall into the following three groups:

• Those that contain particular terms to acquaint risk (uncertainty) into the assessment.
• Those that further split the net cash flow into components that make up the net flow.
• Those that widen the analysis to view impacts that the project can have on activities or projects in the company.

A project organisation is one, in which a project structure is created as a separate unit or division within a permanent functional structure; drawing specialists and workers from various functional departments who work under the overall leadership, control and co-ordination of a project manager to complete projects of a technical and costly nature.

Under a project organisation, a team of specialists and workers is drawn from various functional areas, out of the permanent functional structure of the organisation to work on a project. The project manager may taker assistance from outside sources also.

The project team functions under the overall control and leadership of the project manager. During the continuance of the project, functional managers renounce their authority over subordinates (comprised in the project team) in favour of the project manager.

Conditions requiring the creation of a project organisation are as follows:

(i) Project completion requires huge cost.

(ii) Project is of a technical nature, requiring utmost precision and accuracy e.g. ship-building, designing and launching of satellites, aircraft manufacture etc.

(iii) Time factor is a critical factor; requiring project-completion within a limited prescribed time. Any delays in completion of project within time may tell upon the reputation of the organisation.

Types of Organizational Structure

Organic or Simple Organization

This type of organizational structure is the simplest. Businesses composed of only one person are also included in this category.

In this type of organization also freelancers are included. Of course, the role of the project manager is partly covered by the owner or the professional, who personally manage the workflows.

Functional or Centralized Organization

This type of organizational structure is the most commonly used.

In a functional organizational structure, the organization is divided into various departments where people with similar skills gather together.

It is the classic configuration in which the staff is structured in areas and departments such as the sales department, marketing department, finance department, etc.

This structure is functional as it improves the efficiency of each working group.

Multi-divisional Organization

In an organization of this kind, you can have many functional divisions with a small centralization.

Most of the time these divisions are independent of each other.

Here, an organization is structured in various divisions in which people, with different skills, are held together according to a similar product, service or geographic location.

ach division has the resources necessary in order to work and can carry out the task autonomously.

Matrix Organization

A matrix organizational structure is a hybrid between the functional organization and the project-oriented organization.

In a matrix organization, there can be two main structures: vertical and horizontal.

Here, an employee can be part of a functional group, but can also work on a project.

In turn, a matrix organization can be of three types:

• A strong matrix
• A weak matrix
• A balanced matrix

Stronger organizations are closer to a project oriented organization and here the project manager has most of the authority and has a full-time team.

On the other hand, weak matrix organizations are closer to a functional structure. in this case, the project manager has low authority, no budget control, and often runs a part-time project team.

Instead, balanced matrix organizations unifies the properties of both previous types. Here, the project manager has a medium-low authority and a part-time team, while the budget is managed both directly by him and by the functional manager.

Project oriented (composite or hybrid) Organization

An organization of this type considers every job as a project. Here, the project manager has full authority to complete the project successfully, has a full-time role, budget control, and a full-time team available.

A team-based organization is another name for a project-oriented organization.

Virtual Organization

This structure is also known as virtual society. Here, the central organization is connected to external companies (such as vendors, customers, associates) with a network connection that allows to achieve business growth and profitability. This structure allows the organization to work as a unit.

In a virtual structure, the organization maintains its core business, while the rest of the processes are outsourced. Sometimes, this type of organization is also known as an empty organization.

Here, the project manager has a low-moderate authority and mixed power over the budget. The project team can be full or part-time depending on the situation.

Hybrid

In a hybrid organization, a combination of the above-mentioned structure types can be used.

Responsibility, authority, and other factors are also mixed depending on the structure.

PMO

The PMO is also a mixed type of organizational structure, but here the project manager has the highest authority, controls the budget, and has a team completely at his disposal.

A project is an activity to meet the creation of a unique product or service and thus activities that are undertaken to accomplish routine activities cannot be considered projects. For instance, if your project is less than three months old and has fewer than 20 people working on it, you may not be working in what is called a project according to the definition of the term.

It has to be remembered that the term temporary does not apply to the result or service that is generated by the project. The project may be finite but not the result. For instance, a project to build a monument would be of fixed duration whereas the result that is the monument may be for an indefinite period in time.

A project is an activity to create something unique. Of course, many of the office buildings that are built are similar in many respects but each individual facility is unique in its own way.

Finally, a project must be progressively elaborated. This means that the project progresses in steps and continues by increments. This also means that the definition of the project is refined at each step and ultimately the purpose of the progress is enunciated. This means that a project is first defined initially and then as the project progresses, the definition is revisited and more clarity is added to the scope of the project as well as the underlying assumptions about the project.

Project management is the process of leading the work of a team to achieve all project goals within the given constraints. This information is usually described in project documentation, created at the beginning of the development process. The primary constraints are scope, time, and budget. The secondary challenge is to optimize the allocation of necessary inputs and apply them to meet pre-defined objectives.

The objective of project management is to produce a complete project which complies with the client’s objectives. In many cases the objective of project management is also to shape or reform the client’s brief to feasibly address the client’s objectives. Once the client’s objectives are clearly established, they should influence all decisions made by other people involved in the project for example project managers, designers, contractors and sub-contractors. Ill-defined or too tightly prescribed project management objectives are detrimental to decision making.

A project is a temporary endeavor designed to produce a unique product, service, or result with a defined beginning and end (usually time-constrained, and often constrained by funding or staffing) undertaken to meet unique goals and objectives, typically to bring about beneficial change or added value. The temporary nature of projects stands in contrast with business as usual (or operations), which are repetitive, permanent, or semi-permanent functional activities to produce products or services. In practice, the management of such distinct production approaches requires the development of distinct technical skills and management strategies.

Project management Types

Project management methods can be applied to any project. It is often tailored to a specific type of projects based on project size, nature, industry or sector. For example, the construction industry, which focuses on the delivery of things like buildings, roads, and bridges, has developed its own specialized form of project management that it refers to as construction project management and in which project managers can become trained and certified. The information technology industry has also evolved to develop its own form of project management that is referred to as IT project management and which specializes in the delivery of technical assets and services that are required to pass through various lifecycle phases such as planning, design, development, testing, and deployment. Biotechnology project management focuses on the intricacies of biotechnology research and development. Localization project management includes application of many standard project management practices to translation works even though many consider this type of management to be a very different discipline. There is public project management that covers all public works by the government which can be carried out by the government agencies or contracted out to contractors. Another classification of project management is based on the hard (physical) or soft (non-physical) type.

Common among all the project management types is that they focus on three important goals: time, quality, and budget. Successful projects are completed on schedule, within budget, and according to previously agreed quality standards i.e. meeting the Iron Triangle or Triple Constraint in order for projects to be considered a success or failure.

For each type of project management, project managers develop and utilize repeatable templates that are specific to the industry they’re dealing with. This allows project plans to become very thorough and highly repeatable, with the specific intent to increase quality, lower delivery costs, and lower time to deliver project results.

Approaches of project management

A 2017 study suggested that the success of any project depends on how well four key aspects are aligned with the contextual dynamics affecting the project, these are referred to as the four P’s:

• Aim & Expectations: What are the aims & Expectations of the project.
• Plan: The planning and forecasting activities.
• Process: The overall approach to all activities and project governance.
• People: Including dynamics of how they collaborate and communicate.
• Power: Lines of authority, decision-makers, organograms, policies for implementation and the like.

Classification of Projects

According to the source of capital:

• Public: Financing comes from Governmental institutions.
• Private: Financing comes from businesses or private incentives.
• Mixed: Financing comes from a mixed source of both public and private funding.

According to complexity:

• Easy: A project is classified as easy when the relationships between tasks are basic and detailed planning or organisations are not required. A small work team and a few external stakeholders and collaborators are common in this case. The tasks of the projects can be undertaken by a small team.
• Complicated: The project network is broad and complicated. There are many task interdependencies. With these projects, simplification where possible is everything. The task of executing this type of project requires proper planning. Cloud-based apps such as Sinnaps will immensely help to simplify complicated projects by automatically calculating the project’s best work path and updating any changes introduced through its use of different types of project management tools. Here, the importance of project management and how an effective tool could help you.

According to Project content:

• IT: Any project that has to do with software development, IT system, etc. The types of project management information systems vary across the board, but in today’s world are very common.
• Construction: These are projects that have anything to do with the construction of civil or architectural work. Predictive methods are used along with agile techniques which will be explained later on. Furthermore, construction is an engineering project and the process of planning its execution must be painstakingly done to achieve the desired outcome.
• Business: These projects are involved with the development of a business idea, management of a work team, cost management, etc., and they usually follow a commercial strategy.
• Service or product production: These are projects that involve the development of an innovative product or service, design of a new product, etc. They are often used in the R & D department.

According to those involved:

• Internal: When a whole company itself is involved in the project’s development.
• Matriarchal: When there is a combination of departments involved.
• Departmental: When a certain department or area of an organisation is involved.
• External: When a company outsources external project manager or teams to execute the project. This is common in digital transformations, process improvements and strategy changes, for example.

According to its objective:

• Production: Oriented at the production of a product or service taking into consideration a certain determined objective to be met by an organization.
• Social: Oriented at the improvement of the quality of life of people. This can be in the form of rendering corporate social responsibility (CSR) to the people.
• Educational: Oriented at the education of others. This is always done to make them better.
• Community: Oriented at people too, however with their involvement.
• Research: Oriented at innovation and the gaining of knowledge to enhance the operational efficiency of an organization.

Types:

Agile Project Management

The computer software industry was one of the first to use this methodology. With the basis originating in the 12 core principles of the Agile Manifesto, agile project management is an iterative process focused on the continuous monitoring and improvement of deliverables. At its core, high-quality deliverables are a result of providing customer value, team interactions, and adapting to current business circumstances.

Agile project management does not follow a sequential stage-by-stage approach. Instead, phases of the project are completed in parallel to each other by various team members in an organization. This approach can find and rectify errors without having to restart the entire procedure.

Waterfall Project Management

This is similar to traditional project management but includes the caveat that each task needs to be completed before the next one starts. Steps are linear and progress flows in one direction like a waterfall. Because of this, attention to task sequences and timelines are very important in this type of project management. Often, the size of the team working on the project will grow as smaller tasks are completed and larger tasks begin.

Lean Project Management

This methodology is all about avoiding waste, both of time and of resources. The principles of this methodology were gleaned from Japanese manufacturing practices. The main idea behind them is to create more value for customers with fewer resources.

There are many more methodologies and types of project management than listed here, but these are some of the most common. The type used depends on the preference of the project manager or the company whose project is being managed.

Need for Project Management (Objectives)

project management objectives are the successful development of the project’s procedures of initiation, planning, execution, regulation and closure as well as the guidance of the project team’s operations towards achieving all the agreed upon goals within the set scope, time, quality and budget standards.

Projects are temporary and, in a sense, unique endeavors. Temporary because they only happen once and have a specific duration and unique in that they are not routine enterprises, but a set of procedures intended to produce a singular product, outcome, service or result.

At the core of all projects lies the element of collaboration and communication, with all stakeholders, the clients, the project team, the organization or even the wider community. To this end, project management is where all processes meet, the central focal point from which all procedures derive, are specifically defined, scheduled and organized, following which they are communicated and assigned and subsequently followed up on and evaluated.

The successful development and implementation of all project’s procedures. A project, regardless of its size, generally involves five distinctive phases of equal importance: Initiation, Planning and Design, Construction and Execution, Monitoring and Control, Completion. The smooth and uninterrupted development and execution of all the above phases ensures the success of a project.

Productive guidance, efficient communication and apt supervision of the project’s team. Always keep in mind that the success or failure of a project is highly dependent on teamwork, thus, the key to success is always in collaboration. To this end, the establishment of good communication is of major importance. On one hand, information needs to be articulated in a clear, unambiguous and complete way, so everything is comprehended fully by everyone and on the other hand, is the ability to be able listen and receive constructive feedback.

The achievement of the project’s main goal within the given constraints. The most important constraints are, Scope in that the main goal of the project is completed within the estimated Time, while being of the expected Quality and within the estimated Budget. Staying within the agreed limitations always feeds back into the measurement of a project’s performance and success.

Optimization of the allocated necessary inputs and their application to meeting the project’s pre-defined objectives, is a matter where is always space for improvement. All processes and procedures can be reformed and upgraded to enhance the sustainability of a project and to lead the team through the strategic change process.

Production of a complete project which follows the client’s exclusive needs and objectives. This might mean that you need to shape and reform the client’s vision or to negotiate with them as regards the project’s objectives, to modify them into feasible goals. Once the client’s aims are clearly defined they usually impact on all decisions made by the project’s stakeholders. Meeting the client’s expectations and keeping them happy not only leads to a successful collaboration which might help to eliminate surprises during project execution, but also ensures the sustainability of your professional status in the future.

Project management is a flourishing field that keeps growing in knowledge and interest at a considerable rate. Understanding project management objectives in-depth is the first step to success, as you will fully realize what it takes to be efficient, effective and competitive in a shifting, complex and at times unpredictable environment. Due to the nature of project management, which differs from typical management by the innovative, unique and multidisciplinary character of most projects, it is generally agreed that it requires its own tools and techniques. Keep in mind that these tools and techniques do not apply to all projects, so make sure you choose wisely and adjust accordingly.

History of Project Management

Until 1900, civil engineering projects were generally managed by creative architects, engineers, and master builders themselves, for example, Vitruvius (first century BC), Christopher Wren (1632–1723), Thomas Telford (1757–1834) and Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806–1859). In the 1950s organizations started to systematically apply project-management tools and techniques to complex engineering projects.

As a discipline, project management developed from several fields of application including civil construction, engineering, and heavy defense activity. Two forefathers of project management are Henry Gantt, called the father of planning and control techniques, who is famous for his use of the Gantt chart as a project management tool (alternatively Harmonogram first proposed by Karol Adamiecki); and Henri Fayol for his creation of the five management functions that form the foundation of the body of knowledge associated with project and program management. Both Gantt and Fayol were students of Frederick Winslow Taylor’s theories of scientific management. His work is the forerunner to modern project management tools including work breakdown structure (WBS) and resource allocation.

The 1950s marked the beginning of the modern project management era where core engineering fields come together to work as one. Project management became recognized as a distinct discipline arising from the management discipline with engineering model. In the United States, prior to the 1950s, projects were managed on an ad-hoc basis, using mostly Gantt charts and informal techniques and tools. At that time, two mathematical project-scheduling models were developed. The “Critical path method” (CPM) was developed as a joint venture between DuPont Corporation and Remington Rand Corporation for managing plant maintenance projects. The “Program evaluation and review technique” (PERT), was developed by the U.S. Navy Special Projects Office in conjunction with the Lockheed Corporation and Booz Allen Hamilton as part of the Polaris missile submarine program.

PERT and CPM are very similar in their approach but still present some differences. CPM is used for projects that assume deterministic activity times; the times at which each activity will be carried out are known. PERT, on the other hand, allows for stochastic activity times; the times at which each activity will be carried out are uncertain or varied. Because of this core difference, CPM and PERT are used in different contexts. These mathematical techniques quickly spread into many private enterprises.

At the same time, as project-scheduling models were being developed, technology for project cost estimating, cost management and engineering economics was evolving, with pioneering work by Hans Lang and others. In 1956, the American Association of Cost Engineers (now AACE International; the Association for the Advancement of Cost Engineering) was formed by early practitioners of project management and the associated specialties of planning and scheduling, cost estimating, and cost/schedule control (project control). AACE continued its pioneering work and in 2006 released the first integrated process for portfolio, program and project management (total cost management framework).

In 1969, the Project Management Institute (PMI) was formed in the USA. PMI publishes the original version of A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide) in 1996 with William Duncan as its primary author, which describes project management practices that are common to “Most projects, most of the time.”

Organizational Work Flow

“A workflow consists of an orchestrated and repeatable pattern of business activity enabled by the systematic organization of resources into processes that transform materials, provide services, or process information. It can be depicted as a sequence of operations, the work of a person or group, the work of an organization of staff, or one or more simple or complex mechanisms.”

There is a wide variety of workflows in organizations, starting with the recruitment process, employee onboarding to purchase process, invoicing process, accounts payable and employee exit.

Each of the above processes involves multiple people providing information or approvals. Other departmental processes such as marketing collateral preparation, sales discount process, product promotions, project management, and operations management also require collaboration for effective decision making.

During the initial stage of an organization, the processes are simple and can be completed in just a couple of steps. Spreadsheets and emails are good enough to manage all processes efficiently. But as the organization grows, the processes evolve and there is a need for a sophisticated tool that is more business-specific, yet as user-friendly as a spreadsheet.

These tools need to be flexible enough to accommodate a wide variety of use cases and still be cost-effective and add significant value to the organization. Automation of workflows become a necessity and help the organization keep stride with the growth and handle the rapid increase in customers.

Processes Every Organization Should Automate

1. Document Approval Workflow

A document approval process begins with creating the draft, review by self, and send to the manager for approval. If rejected, the document will be sent back with comments to update and the updated document will be sent again for approval. Once approved, the final document will be saved and sent to the respective stakeholders.

2. Expense Approval Process

Expense claim is an important activity in every company, for all teams including Sales, HR, and IT.

The finance team can reduce their burden with a streamlined workflow for the review process. An expense form with relevant fields should be filled, along with receipts attached with comments, and sent for approval. The process may have the option to reject or clarify the items in the expense request.

3. New Employee Onboarding Workflow

This business process workflow simplifies the HR department’s job. It starts by collecting an employee’s personal information in a form, along with a digital signature, and routes information and approval to various interested parties, such as IT, Department Manager, and HR, so that the HR team has everything ready when the employee comes into the office on the first day.

4. Leave Approval Workflow

Having an automated and transparent system that provides visibility to the employees helps increase morale and loyalty in an organization. The leave approval workflow is one of the simplest workflows a company can automate. Leave request forms filled in by an employee can be quickly reviewed and acted upon by the respective manager. The system can automatically notify the employees so that they can plan their vacation.

5. New Customer or Vendor Addition Workflow

The strength of a business lies in the type of customers a company has and the vendors who help them bring out products or services.

A simplified workflow process will allow a new customer or vendor to simply fill in a couple of basic details in a form on the website. The information will seamlessly flow into the application and be routed to a manager for approval. A unique identification number will be generated and a welcome kit will be sent to the customer. These speeds up the vendor approval process and streamlines new additions.

6. Invoice Approval Workflow

It is easier than ever to send invoices to a customer with a business process workflow.

The template will have the invoice details to be filled in before you send the invoice to a customer for the services rendered. Once payment is received, the system can automatically reconcile. The automation software can also send reminders and follow up with the customers for payments that are overdue.

Developing Work Integration Positions

For the energy company to achieve organizational integration, it must align its company strategy, culture, staff skills, technology, structure and management style with its goal of producing energy in an ecologically sustainable manner. Alignment includes ensuring the entire organization, from CEO to new entry-level employee, is working toward the same goals. It also involves providing insight and transparency to stakeholders regarding decision-making.

This process involves training employees, using public relations to educate stakeholders, and maintaining communication and verification systems. Stevens Institute of Technology emphasizes alignment and integration as a serious business need.

Integration relates to how the different areas of the company coordinate their operations. A highly-integrated company has strong connections between departments and product lines, with each section working under a cohesive set of rules and strategies. Integrated companies are highly vertical and hierarchical in nature. These companies operate from a “top-down” mindset, where the management dictates the structure of each department rather than allowing the individual departments to set their own agendas.

Many Japanese firms are well-known for their practices in creating highly integrated corporate cultures. Employees may be expected to participate in group exercises, recitations of company mottos, and a style of dressing or behaving all meant to instill an integrated sense of corporate identity.

Prioritization and Time Constraints

One factor that determines whether a company practices differentiation or integration is how each department sorts its priorities. For instance, sales staff focus on bringing in revenue, while accountants place their attention on reducing costs, but both priorities contribute to increasing the company’s profits. Another type of prioritization involves how departments handle time constraints. In a software company, the development staff work in terms of months or years, while the customer support staff must come up with solutions in hours or days.

Communication Methods Dictate the Approach

Communication methods also dictate whether a company employs a more differentiated or more integrated approach. As an example, sales staff deal primarily in face-to-face or telephone communications, while information technology workers depend on e-mail and text messages. The marketing department may also use less formal language when communicating, where legal staffers are trained to parse every word for multiple meanings. When departments must work together, they must develop an integrated communication strategy to achieve their goals.

A Project Manager is a professional in the field of project management. Project managers have the responsibility of the planning, procurement and execution of a project, in any undertaking that has a defined scope, defined start and a defined finish; regardless of industry. Project managers are first point of contact for any issues or discrepancies arising from within the heads of various departments in an organization before the problem escalates to higher authorities, as project representative.

Project management is the responsibility of a project manager. This individual seldom participates directly in the activities that produce the result, but rather strives to maintain the progress, mutual interaction and tasks of various parties in such a way that reduces the risk of overall failure, maximizes benefits, and minimizes costs.

A Project Manager is the person responsible for accomplishing the project objectives. Key project management responsibilities include

• Defining and communicating project objectives that are clear, useful and attainable
• Procuring the project requirements like workforce, required information, various agreements and material or technology needed to accomplish project objectives
• Managing the constraints of the project management triangle, which are cost, time, scope and quality

Role of Project Manager

Planning the activities

A project manager needs to set an impact strategy that includes a full list of activities that are important for the project. The key responsibility of a project manager includes planning. The project manager needs to define the scope of the project and develop a project schedule accordingly. In general, when a project manager is planning the activities it is important to target the activities effectively to do less but well. The procedures should be efficient enough to deliver the projects within specified time and budget. Also, a backup plan should be created if the situation demands.

Delegating the teams

In many situations like a big project, or various tasks involved in a project, it becomes critical to delegate responsibilities to teams wisely. It is a leadership style that every project manager has to abide with and be good at it and eventually it becomes the responsibility of a project manager that needs to be learned over time. A manager should not misuse this responsibility in putting blames or degrading the team members. The tasks need to prioritize the tasks so prioritized to the team members so that they become more effective in their abilities. The managers should also understand the strength and weakness of their teams and accordingly delegate the tasks to them. So, be a good leader who creates an environment that fosters trust through meaningful delegation.

Managing deliverables

The Project Manager is also responsible for ensuring that the deliverables are delivered on time and within budget as per the business requirements.

Establish Regular Meetings

Scheduling regular meetings are difficult for all project managers and it doesn’t work well for every project. But a good for successful projects you probably need one team meeting per week. Or some project managers prefer to have daily standup meetings for a unique project methodology. The objective of the meeting should be met by communicating the rules of the project clearly to the entire team. The project managers should be ready from the beginning to prepare for meeting the objectives. They can set meeting calendar and try to stick to it until there is an emergency to cancel the plan out.

Managing reports and necessary documentation

Finally, when the project is completed on time and on a budget, the project manager has to then provide an appropriate documentation to present the final reports to clients and identify the areas where there is a need for future development. This is also a major responsibility of a project manager for project development.

Organizing a Project team to perform work

Another major role of project managers has focused their team’s efforts on elaborate spreadsheets, long checklists, and whiteboards. They need to develop a plan that will support the team to reach their goal easily without hindering the performance. It is their duty to organize their team to show their full potential. A project manager will have have to sometimes put on the duties of human resources like negotiating current employees’ job responsibilities, managing their times and achieving their commitment to the project, bids may be required and contracts will need to be reviewed and keeping everyone in check to make sure that the team’s moves along in accordance with the plan.

Controlling time management

To make a good impression on stakeholders and clients, the project managers need to look for whether the project has succeeded or failed. A project manager needs to be able to negotiate achievable deadlines and discuss the same with the team.  They need to develop a project that has the following features:

• Objective
• Process
• Estimating duration
• Schedule development
• Schedule control

Monitor progress

Most of the project manager’s time revolves around monitoring the status of projects. After the project has been started, a project manager has to see how much is done and if it is being done as expected. The progress of the project is made during the middle stages of the project through multiple systems like status reports, meetings and informal updates. This responsibility will become easier if a proper management system is selected by the project managers.

Communicate a vision with the team

A project manager should have a vision of where to go and the skills to understand the big picture related to any project. The vision should be conveyed to the entire team so that they understand the importance of their role to achieve the end results. The team should understand the load of work and do the possible efforts to convert goal into a mission. The appropriate tone should be set by the manager for smoother sailing down the road.

Importance of Project Manager

Alignment

A project manager is important as s/he ensures that the deliverable is what the concerned client wants, it is in the right shape and the real value is delivered to the client. S/he makes sure that the project architectural design is rigid and fits the broader picture of the client and its strategic framework. The project manager ensures that the objectives of the final deliverable are well aligned with the strategic goals of the client. The project is aligned and re-aligned in its entire course. Therefore, Alignment is counted as the importance of project managers.

Clear Purpose

A clear purpose is an important factor of a project manager that ensures there is proper planning in order to execute the project efficiently and the final goals are achieved. In the absence of a project manager, one can find the team working without any direction. They do not know what they are doing, do not have a purpose, work on vague project goals, no proper co-ordination and they are not sure what are they supposed to do. Project managers make the projects under them time-bound and make the functioning feasible by breaking the project into smaller chunks where every team member is given each chunk. A good project manager needs to have the vision to adopt such an approach.

Quality

When a team works on any project for any client then the first thing expected out of them is quality. If the project quality has been compromised, the team, and particularly, the project manager is answerable to the client, stakeholders, and the management as s/he is the one responsible and accountable for the project. It will not just lead to dissatisfaction of the client but also losing out on business and the business is not limited and restricted to the concerned client but also other clients. This is because of word of mouth which plays an important role in establishing a firm and its professionalism.

Expertise on the Subject

A project manager is an expert in his area and knows every aspect of project management very well. S/he can handle crisis situation very well too. A project manager observes the project process meticulously and keeps it moving smoothly and swiftly. Any risk or hindrance is known to him/her in advance and s/he devises a plan to tackle it head-on as there is the time in hand to resolve it.

Meticulousness

Just like it is very important to keep your house in order, it is also very important to keep the project process in order. When things at home are in order any discrepancy can be easily noticed. Similarly, when the project process is in order any lacuna in the project can be immediately spotted.

Leadership

Leadership is one of the Importance of Project managers. As a project manager brings in leadership to the project and then the entire process. If the project manager is absent then the project is like a ship without its captain-moving without any direction, control, and motive. A project manager and leadership both bring the best out of a team. Leader provides leadership, motivation, direction, and inspires the entire team to do their best work. With leadership also comes accountability and responsibility. A project manager ensures there is no confusion, no hassles in the course of the project and it is completed smoothly.

Achievable Objectives

Effective project managers negotiate achievable deadlines with the client, team, and management. Generally, the urgency of a certain delivery leads to compromising the necessary process and the quality of the final project goal. Most of the tasks take longer than anticipated. A good project manager is able to analyze and balance the required timeline with all the available resources and come up with a realistic schedule. A good project manager plans a flawless process, with realistic deadlines, that enables everyone in the team to work within limitations, and not unjustifiable expectations.

Managing Risk Involved

A project manager helps to avoid risk against various hassles that come in the way of project completion. S/he takes all the possible project risks head on and does not avoid them because managing risk is the importance of project managers. The client, stakeholders, and management are also informed about the risk and crisis involved. An efficient and pro-active project manager analyzes the project well and notes down all the anticipated risks and issues beforehand. This allows time to resolve them before they become hindrances in the way of successful project completion.

Continuous Supervision

A project manager continuously tracks a project on a daily basis and maintains status que. S/he constantly reports to the client and ensures a favorable outcome. If the outcome is not as desired, then s/he learns from it and improvises upon it.

Project planning is part of project management, which relates to the use of schedules such as Gantt charts to plan and subsequently report progress within the project environment. Project planning can be done manually or by the use of project management software.

A project plan is a series of formal documents that define the execution and control stages of a project. The plan includes considerations for risk management, resource management and communications, while also addressing scope, cost and schedule baselines. Project planning software is used by project managers to ensure that their plans are thorough and robust.

Initially, the project scope is defined and the appropriate methods for completing the project are determined. Following this step, the durations for the various tasks necessary to complete the work are listed and grouped into a work breakdown structure. Project planning is often used to organize different areas of a project, including project plans, work loads and the management of teams and individuals. The logical dependencies between tasks are defined using an activity network diagram that enables identification of the critical path. Project planning is inherently uncertain as it must be done before the project is actually started. Therefore, the duration of the tasks is often estimated through a weighted average of optimistic, normal, and pessimistic cases. The critical chain method adds “buffers” in the planning to anticipate potential delays in project execution. Float or slack time in the schedule can be calculated using project management software. Then the necessary resources can be estimated and costs for each activity can be allocated to each resource, giving the total project cost. At this stage, the project schedule may be optimized to achieve the appropriate balance between resource usage and project duration to comply with the project objectives. Once established and agreed, the project schedule becomes what is known as the baseline schedule. Progress will be measured against the baseline schedule throughout the life of the project. Analyzing progress compared to the baseline schedule is known as earned value management.

The inputs of the project planning phase 2 include the project charter and the concept proposal. The outputs of the project planning phase include the project requirements, the project schedule, and the project management plan.

Project plan consists of the following documents:

• Statement of Work: A statement of work (SOW) defines the project’s scope, schedule, deliverables, milestones, and tasks.
• Project Charter: Provides a general overview of the project. It describes the project’s reasons, goals, objectives, constraints, stakeholders, among other aspects.
• Project Plan: The project plan document is divided in sections to cover the following: Scope management, Quality management, Risk assessment, Resource management, Stakeholder management, Schedule management and the change management plan.
• Work Breakdown Structure: Breaks down the project scope into the project phases, subprojects, deliverables, and work packages that lead to your final deliverable.

Importance of Project Planning

Scheduling

A project plan should include a fairly accurate project schedule. This schedule allows you to understand the true time commitment a project requires. If you anticipate project completion within two months and the project team delivers a schedule that calls for a minimum of four months, you may need to reassess whether you want to move forward. On the other hand, if the team delivers a six-week schedule, you may decide to start the project immediately.

Reality Check

A project plan functions, at the outset, as a firm reality check. For example, maybe you want to change operating systems on every computer in your business because the switch will provide better program integration. If the business rushes into the switch, you might discover higher than expected licensing fees or crippled data transfer between computers running different operating systems. Project planning will alert you to issues like total cost and potential pitfalls before you commit the business.

Coherence

A project plan keeps all the players on the same page. Without a project plan in place, the project team members may misinterpret the overall goals of the project. This can lead them to purchase inappropriate equipment, hire unnecessary consultants or deliver a useless final product. The absence of a clear project plan also puts you in the position of not understanding the activities of your employees. With the plan in place, everyone remains clear on the goals and the expected path to the goals. Employees can identify what they’re working on and why, while you can reference the plan to measure progress.

Resource Requirements

Projects typically call for financial, material and human resources. In most cases, financial and material resources boil down to a simple yes or no. Either the company can supply the resources or the company cannot supply them. Human resources represent a more complex problem. Even appropriately staffed project teams often need to borrow human resources throughout the life of the project. Borrowing these human resources may set back other projects or call for hiring additional staff for periods of time. Understanding these resource requirements better equips you to make a final decision about when or if to move forward.

Functions of Project Planning

Time

When planning a project, its expected duration is defined and each of the tasks and activities making up the project are fitted into the specified timeline. Sinnaps is an effective time management tool that clearly highlights when an activity should be stared and by what date and time it should be completed. Weekly progress reports keep team members up to date on whether they are keeping with the time constraints or not.

An activity that is overdue is automatically highlighted so that the persons responsible are aware. KPIs also serve as a visualisation of whether timing is on track or should be revised. Time is of the essence and Sinnaps understands this.

Cost

Every project will incur some amount of costs. These costs are agreed upon in project scope management and should be monitored and followed throughout the project. Tools such as KPIs which are included in Sinnaps help you to keep control over project costs, what you are spending and on what and whether you are keeping with the defined budget.

Team Building

A project cannot be carried out without a team. People are an essential part of any project and should be valued accordingly. Team members are added to the project on Sinnaps and they have constant access to the project no matter where they are and what time it is. This is because all you need to access Sinnaps is a web browser.

Quality

Often, projects are completed in-house for an organisation or for an external client. The reality of the situation is that if you want a repeat customer (who doesn’t?), your project result need to meet and if possible, go beyond certain quality standards.

Risk

Change and risk is constant in the field of project management. Thankfully project management functions such as risk management allow project teams to take back control over the risks and to face them in a collected and organised manner. As the saying goes ‘fail to prepare, prepare to fail’ and this stands true for risk management.

Communication

Clear and honest communication is crucial to effective project management and is one of the most important project management functions. Sinnaps includes a number of communication tools that emphasise its importance.

A project wall demonstrates in real time any project changes that have been introduced or any completed tasks, so that any dependent tasks can be started.

A live in-chat feature allows team member to communicate under specific tasks and to resolve any issues or doubts or to simply chat with other people.

System Integration

Project integration management is the coordination of all elements of a project. This includes coordinating tasks, resources, stakeholders, and any other project elements, in addition to managing conflicts between different aspects of a project, making trade-offs between competing requests, and evaluating resources. One example would be if a project is not on track, you may need to choose between going over budget or finishing the project late. Assessing the situation and making an informed decision is a key part of project integration management. Integrated project management ensures projects are not managed in isolation. It takes into account not only how aspects of your project relate to each other but also how other parts of the organization relate to your project.

Projects are complex, with a lot of different parts that need to be managed. For example, a project manager needs to oversee all of the following:

• Schedule
• Cost
• Scope
• Quality
• Resources
• Risks
• Changes
• Stakeholders

Processes should be followed for Successful project integration management:

• Develop the project charter
• Develop the project management plan
• Direct and manage project work
• Manage project knowledge
• Monitor and control project work
• Perform integrated change control
• Close the project (or project phase)

Integration management requires the ability to evaluate resources, make trade-offs and dealing with competing activities, project managers need to have a combination of soft skills and hard skills. These include the following:

• Planning
• Organization
• Communication
• Leadership
• Relationship management
• Critical thinking ability
• Data analysis
• Impact assessments
• Scheduling
• Budgeting
• Change management
• Risk management