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Showing posts from March, 2013

Project Management Process Groups

5 project management process groups  : Initiating processes actions to commit to begin/end project & project phases. define the business need for the project, sponsor, and project manager. initiate activities, documents lessons learned and resources. Planning processes devising & maintaining a workable scheme. created project plans & produce the products/deliverables of project. define scope, schedule, estimate costs, decide resources. Executing processes coordinating people & other resources to carry out plan, product/deliverables of the project. E.g: develop project team, providing leadership, verifying project scope, project quality and etc. Controlling processes ensure the project objectives are met. performance & status review. Closing Processes formalizing acceptance of the project. bringing project to an orderly end. administrative activities such as archiving project files, documenting lessons learned and receiving formal accep

Skills For A Project Manager

3 areas to lead project: Involvement executive management support clear statement requirement Skill for project manager: Management skills to understand, navigate and meet stakeholders need & expectations. to lead, communicate, and problem solve. Strong communication to lead & communicate with stakeholders. Leadership to lead their project team by providing vision & positive environment. Political skill Skill in organization to be able to plan, analyze, set and achieve project goals. to be able to motivate. strong teamwork & coping skills. Effective use of technology make decision using the special tools/technologies.

The Importance of Project Stakeholders

Stakeholders people involved in or affected by project activities. Internal/external to the organization. Internal, e.g: project sponsor, project team, support staff and etc. External, e.g: project’s customer, competitors, suppliers and etc. The purpose of PM: to meet stakeholder needs and expectations identify, understand, and manage relationships with all project stake holders.

Organizational Structures

Understanding Organizations Improve the success of project with better understanding of organizations. Organizations can viewed as: The structural frame - deals with how the organization is structured. The human resources frame - focuses on producing harmony. between the need of organization and the need of the people. The political frame - address organizational and personal politics. The symbolic frame - focuses on symbols and meanings. Project manager must learn to use all four of these in order to function well in organizations. Three organizational structures are: Functional :- the hierarchy most people think of when picturing an organizational chart. For example, colleges and universities. Project: - the hierarchy structure, but instead of functional managers or vice presidents reporting to the CEO, project managers report to the CEO. For example, MAS Aircraft Company. Matrix :- represent the middle ground between functional and project structures. Personn

Project Phases & Project Life Cycle

Concept phase: briefly the project, develop very high level/summary plan. describes the need for the project and basic underlying concepts. preliminary cost estimate. the work involved is created. the end of the phase, deliver a report and presentation on its finding. Development phase: Creates a more detailed project plan, a more accurate cost estimate and more thorough project work. Minimizes the time and money. Implementation phase: delivers the required work and creates a definitive or very accurate cost estimate. bulk of time should be spent here. Close-out phase: completed work. lessons learned(provide document/report). customer acceptance. System development life cycle(SDLC) A framework to describe the phases involve in developing and maintaining systems. Popular models of a SDLC: The waterfall model - well-defined, linear stages of systems development support. The spiral model - developed based on experience with various refinement project

Systems View of Project Management

Systems thinking - taking a holistic view of projects and the organization to effectively handle complex situations. Systems approach - a holistic and analytically approach to solving complex problems that includes using a systems philosophy, systems analysis, and systems management. Systems philosophy - an overall model for thinking about things as systems. Systems - sets of interacting components working within an environment to fulfill some purpose. Systems analysis - a problem-solving approach that requires defining the scope of the system to be studied, and then dividing it into its component parts for identifying and evaluating its problems, opportunities, constraints, and needs. Systems management - addressing the business, technological, and organization issues associated with making a change to a system. Project manager identify key business, technological, and organizational issues related to each project in order to identify and satisfy key stakeholder. Projec

Introduction of Software Project Management - 2

 Software Project Management?  Increasing demand for more complex software. Growing inventory of software to maintain Maintenance costs are 50% of original software costs Shortage of well-trained software professionals Only learning the languages, not Software Engineering Symptoms of the Software Crisis Software is delivered behind schedule 20-50% schedule slip is common. Software budgets are overrun Overruns of 50-100% are common. Success is defined as an overrun of <30 br=""> Software quality is unacceptable Software is not maintainable. Users are dissatisfied Why is Developing Software Hard? Software is conceptual. Software has a higher level of complexity than hardware. Software is constrained by hardware, but not vice-versa. Deceptively easy to introduce changes, and bugs. Software includes more complex logic and data structures. Software Configuration Management (SCM) is more complex. Problems Lack of understanding a

Introduction of Software Project Management - 1

What is Project? A project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to accomplish a unique purpose. Attributes help to define a project: A project has a unique purpose A project is temporary A project requires resources, often from various areas A project have a primary sponsor or customer A project involves uncertainty Example of Projects: You want to build a house, with help from your friends and family, some of whom are brick-layers, carpenters and plasterers.” “The United States want to develop a new software for NASA” “We will computerise our customer accounting system.” Characteristics of Projects A project has: an objective or defined goal, it is finite, i.e. it has a beginning and an end, it is a one-time effort, i.e. not repetitive, it can usually be broken into separate phases, it requires specific resources, it is subject to financial constraints it is subject to a prescribed methodology. Constraints on Projects Scope What is project trying t

Mailing List

Mailing List - A list of names and e-mail addresses for a group of people who share a common interest in a subject or topic and exchange information by subscribing to the list. A popular way of sharing information is to join, or subscribe to, a mailing list. Information is sent to the mailing list through e-mail by posting a message to the list. Different types of e-mail software – LISTSERV, ListProc, and Majordomo. A list server runs the e-mail list software. In commercial mailing lists, advertisers send promotional materials for specific products to customers based on their expressed preferences. A list moderator moderates a mailing list to ensure that the list always receives and sends appropriate and relevant information to its members. When an individual does not moderate the list and postings are sent to list members automatically, the list is an unmoderated list . A closed list is one in which membership is not automatic. A list administrator oversees one or more maili