Unit - 1
Fundamentals of Project Management
A Project is a chapter of tasks that need to be completed at a stipulated time in order to accomplish a particular task. Projects can vary from simple to complex and can be managed by one people to hundred persons. A Project is generally deemed to be a success if it achieves the objectives according to their acceptance criteria, within an agreed timescale and budget. Time, Cost and Quality are the building blocks of every project.
Time - Scheduling is a collection of techniques used to develop and present schedules that describes when task will be done.
Cost - How are required amount of funds acquired and finance managed?
Quality - How will fitness for purpose of the deliverables and management processes be assured?
The project management life cycle is a series of activities that are necessary to full fill project goals or objectives.
At the start of a project, the amount of planning and work needed can seem overwhelming. There may be dozens, or even hundreds of tasks that need to be completed at just the right time and in just the right sequence.
Seasoned project managers know it is often easier to handle the details of a project and take steps in the right order when we break the project down into phases. Dividing our project management efforts into these five phases can help give our efforts structure and simplify them into a series of logical and manageable steps:
1. Project Initiation- Initiation is the first phase of the project lifecycle. This is where the project's value and feasibility are measured. Project managers typically use two evaluation tools to decide whether or not o pursue a project:
* Business case document- This document justifies the need for the project, and it includes an estimate of potential financial benefits.
* Feasibility study - This is an evaluation of the project's goals, timeline and costs to determine if the project should be executed. If balances the requirements of the project with available resources to see if pursuing the project makes sense.
Teams abandon proposed projects that are labelled unprofitable and unfeasible. However, projects that pass these two tests can be assigned to a project team or designated project office.
2. Project Planning- Once the project receives the green light, it needs a solid plan to guide the team, as well as keep them on time and on budget. A well- written project plan gives guidance for obtaining resources, acquiring financing and procuring required materials. The project pan gives the team direction for producing quality outputs, handling risk, creating acceptance, communicating benefits to stakeholders and managing suppliers. The project plan also prepares teams for the obstacles they might encounter over the course of the project, and helps them understand the cost, scope and timeframe of the project.
3. Project Execution- This is the phase that is most commonly associated with project management. Execution is all about building deliverables that satisfy the customer. Team leaders make this happen by allocating resources and keeping team members focused on their assigned tasks.
Execution depends heavily on the planning phase. The work and efforts of the team during the execution phase are derived from the project plan.
4. Project Monitoring and Control- Monitoring and control are sometimes combined with execution because they often occur at the same time. As teas execute their project plan, they must constantly monitor their own progress.
To guarantee delivery of what was promised, teams must monitor tasks to prevent scope creep, calculate key performance indicators and track variations from allotted cost and time. This constant vigilance helps keep the project moving ahead smoothly.
5. Project Closure- Teams close a project when they deliver the finished project to the customer, communicating completion to stakeholders and releasing resources to other projects. This vital step in the project life cycle allows the team to evaluate and document the project and move on the next one, using previous project mistakes and successes to build stronger processes and more successful teams.
Although project management may seem overwhelming at times, breaking it down into these five distinct cycles can help our team manage even the most complex projects and use time and resources more wisely.
To define Project Management, one must define a project. Anything that has a start, a finish and produces a deliverable is a Project. Project Management, therefore, is the method by which a project is planned, monitored, controlled and reported on, in other words, managed.
Project Management is the process of enforcing the team work to achieve the goals at a time constraints. The primary challenge of project management is to accomplish all the project tasks within the given time period. This information is usually described in project documentation, created at the initial of the development process. The initial constraints are scope, time and budget. The secondary challenge is to utilize the sharing of necessary inputs and apply them to meet pre-defined goals.
A key factor that differentiate project management from just " management" is that it has this final deliverable and a definite time period, unlike management which is an ongoing process. Because of this a project professional needs a large range of skills, often technical skills and certainly people management skills and good business awareness.
Project Management is the art of arranging all the components of a project. For example, the launching of a new service, a marketing campaign, or the development of a new product are projects. In fact, even arranging a wedding is a project that requires management.
Examples of projects may include the construction of a new bridge or building or developing software for an improved business process. A relief effort for a natural disaster, or setting up a strategy to break into a new sales geographic market are also projects.
While preparing project, view project into these three perspectives, it helps to give much better understanding of the whole process
1) How does project fit into the organization?
2) How the project will evolve over time?
3) What skills are required to manage the project successfully?
Let us have a closer look regarding the objectives of project management:
a) The successful development and implementation of all project's procedures. A project, regardless of its size, usually involves five distinctive stages of equal importance: Initiation, Planning and Design, Construction and Execution, Monitoring and Control, Completion. Running a smooth and easy going development and execution of all the above phases lead to a project succession.
b) Productive guidance, efficient communication and apt supervision of the project's team. Always one have to consider that the success or failure of a project is highly dependent on teamwork. Efficient communication is important where information needs to be presented in a vivid, unambiguous and in complete way.
c) The achievement of the project's main goal within the given constraints. The most important constraints are scope, time, quality and budget. Staying within the constraints always feeds back into the measurement of a project's performance and success.
d) Optimization of the allocated necessary inputs and their application to meet the pre-defined targets 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 work through the strategic change process.
e) Production of a complete project which follows the client's exclusive needs and objectives. One need to shape and reform the client's sight or to work with them as regards the project's objectives, to modify them into feasible goals. Once the client's aims are vividly described they usually smash on all decisions taken by the project's stakeholders. Keeping the client's happy and fulfilling their expectations not only conduct a successful collaboration which probably eliminate surprises during project execution but also warrants the feasibility of one's professional status in the future.
In brief, 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 targets within the set scope, time, quality and budget standards.
The Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide breaks down the overarching process of managing a project into five stages, or “process groups.” These process groups are typically defined as:
- Initiating: During this phase, the project is conceptualized, and feasibility is determined. According to SME toolkit, some activities that should be performed during this process include defining the project goal; defining the project scope; identifying the project manager and the key stakeholders; identifying potential risks, and producing an estimated budget and timeline.
- Planning: Next, the project manager will create a blueprint to guide the entire project from ideation through completion. This blueprint will map out the project’s scope; resources required to create the deliverables; estimated time and financial commitments; communication strategy to ensure stakeholders are kept up to date and involved; execution plan; and proposal for ongoing maintenance. If the project has not yet been approved, this blueprint will serve as a critical part of the pitch.
- Executing: During this phase, the project manager will conduct the procurement required for the project and staff the team. Execution of the project objectives requires effective management of the team members on the ground. PMs are responsible for delegating and overseeing the work on the project while maintaining good relationships with all team members and keeping the entire project on time and budget. The PM must, therefore, be highly organized and an exceptional leader. That’s because they’ll need to address team concerns and issues that arise along the way, requiring frequent and open communication with all team members and stakeholders.
- Monitoring and control: During this process group, project managers will closely measure the project's progress to ensure it is developing properly. Documentation such as data collection and verbal and written status reports may be used. “Monitoring and controlling are closely related to project planning. While planning determines what is to be done, monitoring and controlling establish how well it has been done,” explains SME Toolkit. “Monitoring will detect any necessary corrective action or change in the project to keep the project on track.”
- Closing: The closing process group occurs once the project deliverables have been produced and the stakeholders validate and approve them. During this phase, the project manager will close contracts with suppliers, external vendors, consultants, and other third-party providers. All documentation will be archived, and a final project report will be produced. Further, the final part of the project plan — the plan for troubleshooting and maintenance — will kick into place.
Importance of project management
Project management may seem like a loose term used to describe the management of projects. However, projects tend to be complex and multifaceted, in need of effective planning, organization and monitoring.
'Why is project management important?' is an interesting question that clients sometimes ask. They wonder if they really need project management because on paper it looks like an unnecessary tax and overhead as project managers don't really deliver anything and often get in the way of what they want the team to do.
Here, we have some of the importance of project management -
a) Strategic alignment - Project management is important because it makes sure what is being delivered, is right, and will deliver real value against the business opportunity. Every client has strategic goals and the projects that we do for them advance those goals.
b) Leadership - Project management is important because it brings leadership and direction to projects. Without project management, a team can be like a ship without a rudder, moving but without direction, control or purpose. Leadership allows and enables team members to do their best work.
c)Clear focus & objectives - Project management is important because it makes sure there's a proper plan for executing on strategic goals. Where project management is left to the team to work out by themselves, we will find teams work without proper briefs and without a defined project management methodology. Projects lack focus, can have vague or nebulous objectives, and leave the team.
d) Realistic project planning - Project management is important as it warrants proper expectations are set around what can be delivered, by when, and for how much. Without proper project management, budget estimates and project delivery timelines can be set that are over ambitious or lacking in analogous estimating insight from similar projects.
e) Quality control - Projects management is important because it warrants the quality of whatever is being delivered, consistently hits the mark. Without a dedicated project manager, tasks are under estimated, schedules tightened and processes rushed. The result is bad quality output as there's no quality management in place.
f) Risk management - Project management is important as it warrants risks are properly managed and mitigated against to avoid becoming issues. Risk management is critical to project success. The temptation is just to sweep them under the carpet, never talk about them to the client and hope for the best.
g) Orderly process - Project management is important as it warrants the right people do the right things at the right time -it makes sure proper project process is followed throughout the project lifecycle.
h) Continuous oversight - Project management is important as it warrants a project's progress is tracked and reported properly. Continuous project oversight confirms that a project is tracking properly against the original plan, is critical to ensuring that a project stays on track.
i) Subject matter expertise -Project management is important because someone needs to be able to understand if everyone's doing what they should. Project managers from their past experience will know a bit of delivering the projects they manage. They will build technical skills and subject matter expertise, they will know everything about the work that their teams execute, the platforms and systems they use etc.
j) Managing and learning from success and failure - Project management is important because it learns from the successes and failures of the past. Project management can break bad habits and when one delivering projects, it's important not to repeat the same mistakes. Project managers use retrospectives, lessons learned, or upcoming project reviews to see what went fine, what didn't go so fine and what should be done in other way for the next project.
Meaning of Project Manager, Role of Project Manager, Importance of Project Manager
A project manager is the person responsible for leading a project from its inception to execution. This includes planning, execution and managing the people, resources and scope of the project.
Project managers are organized, passionate and goal-oriented who understand what projects have in common, and their strategic role in how organizations succeed, learn and change. He is a professional in the field of project management. 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.
Role of Project Manager- A project manager is a person who has the whole responsibility for the initiation, planning, design, execution, monitoring, controlling and closure of a project. Construction, petrochemical, architecture, information technology and many different industries that produce product and services use this job title.
The project manager must have a combination of skills including an ability to ask penetrating questions, detect unstated assumptions and resolve conflicts, as well as more general management skills. Key among a project manager's duties is the recognition that risk directly impacts the likelihood of success and that this risk must be both formally and informally throughout the lifetime of a project.
Risk arise from uncertainty, and the successful project anger is the one who focuses on this as their primary concern. Most of the issues that impact a project result is one way or another form risk. A god project manager can lessen risk significantly, often by adhering to a policy of open communication, ensuring every significant participant has an opportunity to express opinions and concerns.
A project manager is a person who is responsible for making decisions both large and small. The project manager should make sure they control risk and minimize uncertainty. Every decision the project manager makes must directly benefit their project.
Project managers use project management software, such as Microsoft Project, to organize their task and workforce. These software packages allow project managers to produce reports and charts in a few minutes, compared with the several hours it can take if they do it by hand.
The role of a project manager encompasses many activities including:
Planning and defining scope, Activity planning and Sequencing, Resource planning, developing schedules, Time estimating, Cost estimating, developing a budget, documentation, creating charts and schedules, risk analysis, managing risk and issues, monitoring and reporting progress, team leadership, strategic influencing, business partnering, working with vendors, scalability, interoperability and portability analysis, controlling quality and benefits realization.
Finally, senior management must give a project manager support and authority if he or she is going to be successful.
Importance of Project Manager - Some of the importance of project manager are-
1. Alignment- A project manager is important as he confirms that the deliverable is what the concerned clients wants, it is in the right shape and the real value is delivered to the client. 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 confirms that the objectives to the final deliverables are well aligned with the strategic goals of the client. The project is aligned and re-aligned in its entire course.
2. Leadership- 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. He confirms there is no confusion, no hassles in the course of the project and its completely smooth.
3. Clear purpose- A clear purpose is an important factor of a project manager that confirms 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, do not have any purpose. 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.
4. Achievable objectives- Effective project managers negotiate achievable deadlines with the client, team and management. Most of the tasks take longer than anticipated. A good project manager is able to analyse and balance the required timeline with all the available resources and come up with a realistic schedule.
5. Quality- If the project quality has been compromised, the team, especially the project manager is answerable to the client, stakeholders and the management as he is the one responsible and accountable for the project. It will not result in dissatisfaction but also a loss to the business.
6. Managing risk involved- A project manager helps to avoid risk against various hassles that come in the way of project completion. An efficient project manager analyses the project well and notes down all the anticipated risks and issues beforehand.
7. Expertise on the subject- A project manager is an expert in his area and knows every aspect of project management very well. He observes the project process meticulously ad keeps it moving smoothly and swiftly. Any kind of risk known to him beforehand, he devises a plan to tackle it.
8. Continuous supervision - A project manager continuously tracks a project on a daily basis and maintains the status. He constantly reports to the client and confirms a friendly outcome.
9. Meticulousness- Just as we keep our 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.
10.Learning at the end- The result of the project or any event is not measured by the efforts put in. It can be both favourable and unfavourable. If its favourable then the project is a success and we can follow the same process in the near future. But if it is not favourable, then it is a failure and there is a need for modifying for future projects.
The project management life cycle is usually broken down into four phases: initiation, planning, execution, and closure. These phases make up the path that takes your project from the beginning to the end.
1. Initiation
First, you need to identify a business need, problem, or opportunity and brainstorm ways that your team can meet this need, solve this problem, or seize this opportunity. During this step, you figure out an objective for your project, determine whether the project is feasible, and identify the major deliverables for the project.
Project management steps for the initiation phase
Steps for the project initiation phase may include the following:
- Undertaking a feasibility study: Identify the primary problem your project will solve and whether your project will deliver a solution to that problem
- Identifying scope: Define the depth and breadth of the project
- Identifying deliverables: Define the product or service to provide
- Identifying project stakeholders: Figure out whom the project affects and what their needs may be
- Developing a business case: Use the above criteria to compare the potential costs and benefits for the project to determine if it moves forward
- Developing a statement of work: Document the project’s objectives, scope, and deliverables that you have identified previously as a working agreement between the project owner and those working on the project
2. Planning
- Once the project is approved to move forward based on your business case, statement of work, or project initiation document, you move into the planning phase.
- During this phase of the project management life cycle, you break down the larger project into smaller tasks, build your team, and prepare a schedule for the completion of assignments. Create smaller goals within the larger project, making sure each is achievable within the time frame. Smaller goals should have a high potential for success.
Project management steps for the planning phase
Steps for the project planning phase may include the following:
- Creating a project plan: Identify the project timeline, including the phases of the project, the tasks to be performed, and possible constraints
- Creating workflow diagrams: Visualize your processes using swim lanes to make sure team members clearly understand their role in a project
- Estimating budget and creating a financial plan: Use cost estimates to determine how much to spend on the project to get the maximum return on investment
- Gathering resources: Build your functional team from internal and external talent pools while making sure everyone has the necessary tools (software, hardware, etc.) to complete their tasks
- Anticipating risks and potential quality roadblocks: Identify issues that may cause your project to stall while planning to mitigate those risks and maintain the project’s quality and timeline
- Holding a project kick off meeting: Bring your team on board and outline the project so they can quickly get to work
3. Execution
You’ve received business approval, developed a plan, and built your team. Now it’s time to get to work. The execution phase turns your plan into action. The project manager’s job in this phase of the project management life cycle is to keep work on track, organize team members, manage timelines, and make sure the work is done according to the original plan.
Project management steps for the execution phase
Steps for the project execution phase may include the following:
- Creating tasks and organizing workflows: Assign granular aspects of the projects to the appropriate team members, making sure team members are not overworked
- Briefing team members on tasks: Explain tasks to team members, providing necessary guidance on how they should be completed, and organizing process-related training if necessary
- Communicating with team members, clients, and upper management: Provide updates to project stakeholders at all levels
- Monitoring quality of work: Ensure that team members are meeting their time and quality goals for tasks
- Managing budget: Monitor spending and keeping the project on track in terms of assets and resources
4. Closure
Once your team has completed work on a project, you enter the closure phase. In the closure phase, you provide final deliverables, release project resources, and determine the success of the project. Just because the major project work is over, that doesn’t mean the project manager’s job is done—there are still important things to do, including evaluating what did and did not work with the project.
Project management steps for the closure phase
- Steps for the project closure phase may include the following:
- Analysing project performance: Determine whether the project's goals were met (tasks completed, on time and on budget) and the initial problem solved using a prepared checklist.
- Analysing team performance: Evaluate how team members performed, including whether they met their goals along with timeliness and quality of work
- Documenting project closure: Make sure that all aspects of the project are completed with no loose ends remaining and providing reports to key stakeholders
- Conducting post-implementation reviews: Conduct a final analysis of the project, taking into account lessons learned for similar projects in the future
- Accounting for used and unused budget: Allocate remaining resources for future projects.
Project management process is an administration process for the planning and control of the services or the implementation of a project. ... The results of one of these processes are: delivery of the project product; achievement of the project objectives; documentation of the learning processes.
Let's have a look at the five main project management processes in detail.
1 - Project Initiation
Project initiation is the starting point of any project. In this process, all the activities related to winning a project takes place. Usually, the main activity of this phase is the pre-sale.
During the pre-sale period, the service provider proves the eligibility and ability of completing the project to the client and eventually wins the business. Then, it is the detailed requirements gathering which comes next.
During the requirements gathering activity, all the client requirements are gathered and analysed for implementation. In this activity, negotiations may take place to change certain requirements or remove certain requirements altogether.
Usually, project initiation process ends with requirements sign-off.
2 - Project Planning
Project planning is one of the main project management processes. If the project management team gets this step wrong, there could be heavy negative consequences during the next phases of the project.
Therefore, the project management team will have to pay detailed attention to this process of the project.
In this process, the project plan is derived in order to address the project requirements such as requirements scope, budget and timelines. Once the project plan is derived, then the project schedule is developed.
Depending on the budget and the schedule, the resources are then allocated to the project. This phase is the most important phase when it comes to project cost and effort.
3 - Project Execution
After all paperwork is done, in this phase, the project management executes the project in order to achieve project objectives.
When it comes to execution, each member of the team carries out their own assignments within the given deadline for each activity. The detailed project schedule will be used for tracking the project progress.
During the project execution, there are many reporting activities to be done. The senior management of the company will require daily or weekly status updates on the project progress.
In addition to that, the client may also want to track the progress of the project. During the project execution, it is a must to track the effort and cost of the project in order to determine whether the project is progressing in the right direction or not.
In addition to reporting, there are multiple deliveries to be made during the project execution. Usually, project deliveries are not onetime deliveries made at the end of the project. Instead, the deliveries are scattered through out the project execution period and delivered upon agreed timelines.
4 - Control and Validation
During the project life cycle, the project activities should be thoroughly controlled and validated. The controlling can be mainly done by adhering to the initial protocols such as project plan, quality assurance test plan and communication plan for the project.
Sometimes, there can be instances that are not covered by such protocols. In such cases, the project manager should use adequate and necessary measurements in order to control such situations.
Validation is a supporting activity that runs from first day to the last day of a project. Each and every activity and delivery should have its own validation criteria in order to verify the successful outcome or the successful completion.
When it comes to project deliveries and requirements, a separate team called 'quality assurance team' will assist the project team for validation and verification functions.
5 - Closeout and Evaluation
Once all the project requirements are achieved, it is time to hand over the implemented system and closeout the project. If the project deliveries are in par with the acceptance criteria defined by the client, the project will be duly accepted and paid by the customer.
Once the project closeout takes place, it is time to evaluate the entire project. In this evaluation, the mistakes made by the project team will be identified and will take necessary steps to avoid them in the future projects.
During the project evaluation process, the service provider may notice that they haven't gained the expected margins for the project and may have exceeded the timelines planned at the beginning.
In such cases, the project is not a 100% success to the service provider. Therefore, such instances should be studied carefully and should take necessary actions to avoid in the future.
Conclusion
Project management is a responsible process. The project management process connects all other project activities together and creates the harmony in the project.
Therefore, the project management team should have a detailed understanding on all the project management processes and the tools that they can make use for each project management process.
A construction project is basically a temporary endeavour with specified time & cost, initiated to create a unique product, service or result, tend to be limited edition. The project-team comes together to create that unique development on a particular site under circumstances that will never be repeated. They may be complex, demanding high level of co-ordination of permissions, people, goods, plant and materials and construction can begin despite many uncertainties, and as a consequence, delays are common. Furthermore, the involvement of advanced technologies and owner desired-changes makes it even more difficult to keep a project on the scheduled track. Coupled with this state are innate uncertainties and sophistication in the physical, financial, and economic environment in which most projects are performed.
Such conditions have made completing projects on schedule and on budget a difficult task to accomplish, often leading to claims on cost compensations and time extensions. Construction delays are considered as time lag in completion of activities from its specified time as per contract or can be defined as late completion or late start of activities to the baseline schedule, directly affecting specified cost. As a result, there will be extensions of time required which will further result in fine, increased cost due to inflation, termination of contract, court cases etc. or combinations of above stated factors, resulting in delay damages.
Construction delays are often result of a mismanaged event/s and can be seen as a risk for the projects, which if identified, analysed and managed in a systematic process at inception, could be managed, minimized, shared, mitigated or accepted to give some good results and minimize chances of further delay. Delay in construction project has a negative effect on clients, contractors, and consultants in terms of growth in adversarial relationships, mistrust, litigation, arbitration, and cash-flow problems. A construction project may be regarded as a successful endeavour until it satisfies the cost, time, and quality limitations applied to it. However, it is not uncommon to see a construction project failing to achieve its goal within the specified cost, time, and quality. In order to counter the unforeseen delays beforehand the realm of “Project management” is resorted to which helps mitigating the delays. Project management is the application of knowledge, skill, tools and techniques to project activities to meet the project requirement and requires the effective management of the project management processes.
Types of Delays in Construction Projects
However, it is important to understand the types or categories which a delay falls into before analysing construction delays. To initiate the further mitigation efforts and to convert it into a merit, a clear understanding of types of delays is necessary. The delays are classified or categorized into four basic ways: A) Critical or non-critical delays B) Excusable or non-excusable delays C) Concurrent delays D) Compensable or non-compensable delays There is also a need to understand the assimilation between the categories before determining the impact of delays on the project.
- One must determine whether the delay is critical or non-critical.
- Additionally, all delays are either excusable or non-excusable.
- Both excusable and non-excusable delays can be defined as either concurrent or non-concurrent.
- Delays can be further broken down into compensable or non-compensable delays.
Economic historian Robert E. Wright argues that construction delays are caused by bid gaming, change order artistry, asymmetric information, and post contractual market power. Until those fundamental issues are confronted and resolved, many custom construction projects will continue to come in over budget, past due, or below contract specifications. The types of delays further described in brief as below;
A) Critical or non-critical Delays:
A delay that is responsible for extending project duration is a critical delay. Few results are mentioned below:
- Extended Field Overhead
- Unabsorbed home office overhead
- Liquidated Damage
- Idle labour & equipment cost
- Labour & Material Cost Escalation and many more.
A delay that is not the cause of extended project duration is a non-critical delay; however, it will have an effect in terms of activities getting completed late than scheduled completion. These activities will also affect project cost estimates as reiterated below; a) Idle labour & equipment cost b) Labour & Material Cost Escalation and many more.
B) Excusable & non-excusable Delay
A delay where the contractor is entitled for extension of time or compensation or both, under the terms & conditions of contract is excusable delay. In this case, contractor does not have any control on the activity getting delayed. The causes may be;
- Force Measure Clause
- Natural Calamities
- Political/Social Unrest
- Terrorist Attacks
- Delay from Client (Approvals, Decisions, etc.), etc.
A delay where the contractor is fully responsible for the activities getting delayed and resulted in extending project duration (responsible for critical delays) are non-excusable delays. In this case, the contractor has to bear the risk of cost consequences including the liability to pay damages for itself but possibly for the other parties as well. The causes may be:
- Delayed Mobilization
- Delayed Procurement
- Delayed submission of important documents
- Planning & Scheduling
- Critical events that were not highlighted to client on right time, etc.
C) Concurrent Delays in Construction Projects
A situation where more than one delay event occurs at the same time affecting multiple activities simultaneously/independently affecting the completion is a concurrent delay. However, not all those events enable the contractor to be entitled for extension of time & cost claim. Importantly, it is the causes of delay rather the delay themselves, that must overlap.
D) Compensable or non-compensable Delays in in Construction Projects
Scenario where contractor is liable for Time Extension & Cost compensation is compensable delays. All compensable delays fall under excusable delays-Whereas, if the contractor is solely at fault for a delay event, it is termed as non-compensable delay. However, non-compensable may fall under critical, non-critical, excusable or non-excusable; depending upon the situation it has created and conditions of contract.
A personal Project Leadership Philosophy is a summary of the guiding principles, beliefs, and practices that shape the way you lead projects and teams. ... The key is to get this philosophy on paper so that you can consciously and purposefully consider how you might improve or adapt your style to be more successful.
Here are the following principles of project management-
1. Have well-defined project goals and objectives- This principle is at the top of our list for good reason. The goals you set for your project will play a critical role in its success or failure in projects. When you set your project objectives before work begins, you, your client, and your team are all on the same page and future misunderstandings can be avoided.
Good goals are realistic, clear, and measurable.
- Realistic– Can we accomplish this goal with the allotted time and resources available to us?
- Clear– Do we know exactly what is being asked of us? Does everyone understand?
- Measurable– Are there quantifiable indicators with which we can judge each goal?
2. Define your deliverables - The Project Management Institute defines a deliverable as “any unique and verifiable product, result, or capability to perform a service that is produced to complete a process, phase, or project.”
Once the project’s goals and objectives have been established, you can define your project deliverables. If the customer’s objective is for end-users to manage their own content, for example, the deliverables might be a piece of software that enables users to manage content as well as training materials for employees and end-users on how to use the newly created software.
3. Work to create and maintain organizational alignment- There are two ways of thinking about organizational alignment:
- Organization-focused view
- Employee-focused view.
The organization-focused view emphasizes several important components of the organization supporting one another. The company’s purpose, strategy, capabilities, structure, and systems should all work together.
The employee-focused view encourages managers to evaluate how well-matched the employee is in terms of individual role, professional goals, team membership, and organizational vision and mission.
As a project manager, you may not have control over all these factors, but to the extent, you can affect change, you should leverage these organizational alignment concepts for a more successful project.
4. Have clear team roles and responsibilities- Few things cause more confusion and tension on a team than a lack of clarity around roles and responsibilities. When the project team doesn’t know what their roles are or how those roles relate to other people on the team, boundaries are crossed and unnecessary conflicts arise.
As a project manager, it’s your responsibility to clearly define the role of each team member to help everyone work well together.
5. Create a strategy for initiation and execution- Project initiation includes all the preliminary work that must be done before any other project activities can take place. That preliminary work can be broken down into four categories:
- Building a business case for the project
- Conducting feasibility project reports
- Involving project stakeholders
- Creating a Project Initiation Document (PID).
Project execution is what most people have in mind when they think about project management. It usually starts with a project kick off meeting to officially begin the project. This is when you share the vision and plan for the project, delegate tasks to team members, and send everyone on their way to get things done.
During the execution phase, make sure there’s a plan in place to document errors, corrections, and other changes.
6. Know your numbers do careful budgeting and scheduling- Every project and every project manager has limited resources. It almost goes without saying that you need to budget your financial resources carefully, give yourself some margin for unexpected expenses, and take reasonable measures to save costs during the course of your project. Your budget is inextricably linked to your project schedule; if your timeline gets wrecked, your project budget probably will too.
Make sure to have project scheduling tools and see if you’ve accounted not just for how long each project task should take, but also for things like holidays, corporate and stakeholder events, and team member vacations.
7. Identify priorities and milestones ahead of time- Priorities tell you what to focus on, and project milestones tell you where you are. When you’re in the midst of a project, it’s easy to sometimes get distracted from essential things by less important details that feel urgent at the moment. When you define your task priorities at the outset of your project, you already know where to direct your team’s energy should a conflict arise. It’s also easy to lose track of the big picture when you’re involved in the details of a project.
Identifying milestones in the project planning phase will help you know if you’re on course and on schedule. Recognizing milestone achievements is good for morale as well. Your team will be more motivated if there’s a tangible sense of progress on the project.
8. Establish a means of accountability and responsibility- Speaking of motivation, one of the best motivators for team members is empowering them with a sense of responsibility and accountability. By giving individuals responsibility for their own work, you take the burden of micro-management off of yourself and give your employees the ability to work from their strengths and learn new project management skills, both of which are better for your project and your organization, not to mention the employee, in the long run.
Part of giving team members individual responsibility is setting up a means of accountability. You need a system in which task delegation and project deadlines can be tracked and each team member can visualize his or her contribution in the context of the larger project.
9. Create a communication plan- Explain and implement strong communication guidelines from the outset of your project. Whether it’s email, text messaging, a chat service, or some combination of things, make sure everyone on the team understands why communication in project management is essential and how to use the technology you’ve selected.
You also need to set clear expectations about the kinds of information that need to be communicated and who needs to be notified in certain circumstances. As a project manager, be sure to model the kind of communication you expect from all stakeholders.
10. Be transparent- In the realm of projects, transparency means creating a system in which all team members can access all relevant information about a project easily and efficiently. Creating project transparency is relatively easy, especially if you utilize the right project management software.
To create or improve project transparency, let everyone see the big picture, make project data available to your whole team, provide good tools for collaboration, and share calendars among team members and even outside stakeholders. Project transparency leads to better outcomes for both the team and the project itself.
11. Do a risk assessment- A risk assessment is an acknowledgment that something could go wrong. It’s important to identify the project management risks and mitigate them at the beginning of your project rather than be caught off guard later. Ask your team members what risks they think you need to consider.
You can’t eliminate all the risks from your project, but being prepared for them can save you from project failure.
12. Monitor and measure progress- As part of your project planning, you’ll establish key project management KPIs in the form of,
- Budgets
- Project timelines and
Quality expectations. During the course of your project, you should regularly keep track of project progress and check your KPIs so you can catch issues and make corrections quickly. Don’t forget to celebrate successes when your KPIs tell you the team has achieved a goal!
Conclusion
There’s a lot to learn when it comes to project management, but these twelve principles are a great place to start. If you aim for clarity in every aspect of project management and prioritize the health of your team, you’re well on your way to being a stellar project manager.
References:
1. Morris, P. W. G. And Pinto, J. K., “The Wiley Guide to Managing Projects”, John Wiley & Sons, 2004.
2. Karl Ulrich, Steven Eppinger, “Product Design and Development”, McGraw Hill / Irvin, 3rd Edition 2009.
3. R. Majumdar, “Product Management in India”, PHI, 2nd Edition, 2010.
4. G.S. Batra, “Development of Entrepreneurship”, Deep and Deep publications, New Delhi.
5. Christine Petersen, “The Practical Guide to Project Management”, PMP,1st Edition, 2013.
