Project Management Definition and its Phases

Q. What is Project Management ? What are the Phases of Project Management

Ans:-Project management is the application of processes, methods, knowledge, skills and experience to achieve the project objectives. General. A project is a unique, transient endeavour, undertaken to achieve planned objectives, which could be defined in terms of outputs, outcomes or benefits.

Project Management

Project Management Institute, Inc. (PMI) defines project management as "the application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to a broad range of activities in order to meet the requirements of a particular project." The process of directing and controlling a project from start to finish may be further divided into 5 basic phases:

1. Project  Initiation

An idea for a project will be carefully examined to determine whether or not it benefits the organization. During this phase, a decision making team will identify if the project can realistically be completed.

2. Project Planning and Design

A project plan, project charter and/or project scope may be put in writing, outlining the work to be performed. During this phase, a team should prioritize the project, calculate a budget and schedule, and determine what resources are needed.

3. Project Execution

Resources' tasks are distributed and teams are informed of responsibilities. This is a good time to bring up important project related information.

4. Project Monitoring and Control
Project managers will compare project status and progress to the actual plan, as resources perform the scheduled work. During this phase, project managers may need to adjust schedules or do what is necessary to keep the project on track.

5. Project closing

After project tasks are completed and the client has approved the outcome, an evaluation is necessary to highlight project success and/or learn from project history.

Projects and project management processes vary from industry to industry; however, these are more traditional elements of a project. The overarching goal is typically to offer a product, change a process or to solve a problem in order to benefit the organization.

Phases of Project Management

Benchmarking and Its Types

What is a Benchmark?

A benchmark is a point of reference against which things are measured.

• Benchmarking is the process of comparing the cost, cycle time, productivity, or quality of a specific process or method to another that is widely considered to be an industry standard or best practice.Benchmarking is a systematic method by which organizations can measure themselves against the best industry practice.

• Benchmarking is the process of measuring an organization's internal processes then identifying, understanding, and adapting outstanding practices from other organizations considered to be best-in-class.

Most business processes are common throughout industries. For example; NASA has the same basic Human Resources requirements for hiring and developing employees as does American Express. British Telecom has the same Customer Satisfaction Survey process as Brooklyn Union Gas. These processes, albeit from different industries, are all common and can be benchmarked very effectively. It's called "getting out of the box".

 Levels of Benchmarking

•  Internal Benchmarking
• Competitive Benchmarking
• Non – Competitive Benchmarking
• World – Class Benchmarking

Types of Benchmarking 

• Process benchmarking: billing, order etc
• Performance benchmarking : features, quality
• Product benchmarking: dimensions
• Strategic benchmarking competitive adv

Ishikawa Diagrams or Cause & Effect Diagrams

Ishikawa Diagrams Definition

Ishikawa diagrams (also called fishbone diagrams, cause-and-effect diagrams orFishikawa) are diagrams that show the causes of a certain event -- created by Kaoru Ishikawa (1990). Common uses of the Ishikawa diagram are product design and quality defect prevention, to identify potential factors causing an overall effect. Each cause or reason for imperfection is a source of variation. Causes are usually grouped into major categories to identify these sources of variation. The categories typically include:

• People: Anyone involved with the process
• Methods: How the process is performed and the specific requirements for doing it, such as policies, procedures, rules, regulations and laws
• Machines: Any equipment, computers, tools etc. required to accomplish the job
• Materials: Raw materials, parts, pens, paper, etc. used to produce the final product
• Measurements: Data generated from the process that are used to evaluate its quality
• Environment: The conditions, such as location, time, temperature, and culture in which the process operates

Fig:-Fishbone Diagram

Cause & Effect Diagrams Definition

•  The Cause & Effect (CE) diagram, also sometimes called the ‘fishbone’ diagram, is a tool for discovering all the possible causes for a particular effect. The effect being examined is normally some troublesome aspect of product or service quality, such as ‘a machined part not to specification’, ‘delivery times varying too widely’, ‘excessive number of bugs in software under development’, and so on, but the effect may also relate to internal processes such as ‘high rate of team failures’.

• The major purpose of the CE Diagram is to act as a first step in problem solving by generating a comprehensive list of possible causes. It can lead to immediate identification of major causes and point to the potential remedial actions or, failing this, it may indicate the best potential areas for further exploration and analysis. At a minimum, preparing a CE Diagram will lead to greater understanding of the problem.

• The CE Diagram was invented by Professor Kaoru Ishikawa of Tokyo University, a highly regarded Japanese expert in quality management. He first used it in 1943 to help explain to a group of engineers at Kawasaki Steel Works how a complex set of factors could be related to help understand a problem. CE Diagrams have since become a standard tool of analysis in Japan and in the West in conjunction with other analytical and problem-solving tools and techniques.CE Diagrams are also often called Ishikawa Diagrams, after their inventor, or Fishbone Diagrams because the diagram itself can look like the skeleton of a fish.

Fig:-Cause and Effect Diagram