What Is Project Management?

PMI: Application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to meet project objectives
• The following are the project management process steps:
– Initiate (start)
– Plan (plan)
– Execute (do)
– Monitor and control (check and act)
– Close (end)

Project Manager

A person who manages projects:
– Senior level—manages large projects
– Midlevel—manages phases of a project
– Junior—manages work breakdown structures

Project Managers must establish clear and achievable goals and objectives.
• Balance between the triple constraint (diagram/triangle):
scope—time—cost.
• Juggle other constraints: risks—quality-resources—customer satisfaction.
• Who is a project manager? Could be an end user, doctor, nurse … there is no standard qualification. Not only IT professionals run IT projects. You don’t have to be an expert in the given process/product that you are implementing.

Project Management 10 Bodies of Knowledge

According to the PMBOK® Guide — Sixth Edition, there are 10 Bodies of Knowledge.

• Project Integration Management – considers all processes, tasks, milestones and activities within the project to identify, combine, unify, and coordinate these activities between the other knowledge areas. Project Integration should be applied from the start of the project through completion.
• Project Scope Management – considers processes required to ensure the project includes all the work required, and only the work required, to complete the project successfully. This knowledge area’s primary concern is defining and controlling “what is” and “is not” in the project.
• Project Time Management – considers the processes required to manage the timely completion of the project. This knowledge area provides a detailed plan that guides the project, step-by-step, through how and when the project will meet its deliverables.
• Project Cost Management – considers the processes involved in planning, estimating, budgeting, financing, funding, managing, and controlling costs so the project can be completed within its approved budget. This knowledge area is primarily concerned with the cost of resources needed to complete project activities.
• Project Quality Management – considers the processes for incorporating the organizations quality policy regarding planning, managing, and controlling project quality requirements to meet stakeholders’ objectives. This knowledge area is primarily concerned with the quality the work needs to have.
• Project Human Resources Management – considers the processes to identify, acquire, and manage the resources (both physical and human) needed for the successful completion of the project.  This knowledge area is primarily concerned with allocating the appropriate resources and assigning the roles and responsibilities to project team members.
• Project Communications Management – considers the processes necessary to ensure the information needs for the project and its stakeholders are met through development of artifacts and implementation of activities designed to achieve effective information exchange. This knowledge area is primarily concerned with ensuring project information is being communicated and disseminated effectively to all stakeholders.
• Project Risk Management – considers the processes of conducting risk management planning, identification, analysis, response planning, and monitoring risk on a project. The objective of this knowledge area is to migrate risk and increase the probability of positive outcomes within the project to optimize the project success.
• Project Procurement Management – considers the processes required to purchase or acquire products, services, or results needed from outside the project team. This knowledge area involves agreements that describe the relationship between two parties, the buyer and seller.
• Project Stakeholder Management – considers the processes needed to identify the people, groups, or organizations that can impact or be impacted by the project. The objective is to analyze stakeholders expectations and to effectively engage stakeholders to support collective decision making, planning, and project execution. This knowledge area is primarily involved with enabling continuous communication with all stakeholders to understand their needs and expectations.– Apply all or some of the bodies of knowledge per project
  – Apply in different phases and processes within a project
  – This is not a linear list of when the BOK occur within a project necessarily

IT Project Management

What is IT project management?
– Understanding the uniqueness of the IT industry
– Implementing software into an organization
– Understanding all the different components of IT strategy and IT (Module 2) so that you know how to PM
– Understanding the different PM techniques and methodologies that get executed during project implementation

Why Is IT Project Management So Valuable?

– Large failure of IT projects
• IT projects are complex, involving many technical layers and many levels of expertise
• Managing across the enterprise and deep into each department is paramount
• IT projects are highly integrated and require integration management at all levels to be successful