Project Management involves the following:
- Project Initiation
- Project Planning
- Project Monitoring/Tracking
- Project Closure
The following diagram shows the overall Project Management Process.
Project Initiation
This is the process by which a project is formally initiated with management approval. This activity controls the project start-up and announces the names of the Project Manager and the SQA. The Project Manager is responsible for the successful execution of the project.
Project Planning
“In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.”
– Dwight D. Eisenhower
This process involves developing estimates for the work, establishing the necessary commitments, and defining the plan to perform the work. It begins when a project is initiated with a statement of the work to be performed and the constraints and goals identified as part of the initiation.
The process includes steps to estimate the project size, required resources, scheduling, assumptions, and constraints, assess risks and costs (direct and indirect), and negotiate commitments. Iteration of these steps may be necessary to finalize the project plan, and revisions should be made at project milestones.
Project Tracking
This process describes how the project’s progress will be measured and how the project’s performance will be monitored. The purpose is to provide adequate visibility into the progress of the project so
you dont get what you expect but what you inspect, that is how you drive changes
Louis V Gerstner Jr
Milestone Revision of Plans
Predictive planning assumes that we know all that will happen, but this is impossible, especially in bigger projects, so we have to do adaptive planning. This process is to be followed when an event leads to a change in the Project Plan. During the Project Planning stage, revision activities should be planned as part of the schedule. The revision criteria and approval required should be documented in the Project Plan.
Project Closure
Once the project closure criteria are met, the project has to be closed officially with management approval. As an output of this process, a Closure Report should be prepared. The organizational-level reusable items, lessons learned, etc., should be shared and published. The non-sensitive data from the project will be made available to everyone through a common repository.
