Project Management Course Part 1 - Project Phases. Let's jump right in.

The major phases of small to medium projects can be broken down as detailed below: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
Concept Inital Project Planning Work Execution Control Wrap-up

A single key aspect for project success is communication - the free flow of critical and other information between all of the people involved.
Participants and Players in your Project

A list of some of the potential people involved in your project:

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

Project Sponsor Stakeholders * Customers - internal and external Suppliers (materials, computer systems, services) Management Contractors Government - regulators, politicians, compliance Your team You

Documents for your Project A list of some of the potential people involved in your project: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Project Requirements Project Definition Statement of Work Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) Project Schedule (Gantt format popular for display of timeline and tasks)

6. Budget 7. Design Document (blueprint, systems design, or other) 8. Deliverables 9. Acceptance (Customer sign-off) 10. Manuals - user, system, consumer, installation, maintenance 11. Project Close-out (Conclusion)
Teamwork and Leadership

Project managers lead teams - usually not just those who report to them - to complete the work involved. Project leadership includes:

Movitating - effectively mobilizing the resources to be engaged in the work at hand Communicating - giving information to the team members and project participants, including clearly communicating the objectives for the tasks being performed Obstacle avoidance and elimination - as the planner/manager, the project manager will see problems/challenges that are coming and work to avoid, reduce, or eliminate them. Recognize people's working styles; and accomodate and adjust for differences. Manage conflict Foster mutual expectations Be flexible and adapt leadership style during the difference parts of a project's and team's lifecycle

eamwork and Leadership Project managers lead teams - usually not just those who report to them - to complete the work involved. Project leadership includes: 1. Movitating - effectively mobilizing the resources to be engaged in the work at hand 2. Communicating - giving information to the team members and project participants,
including clearly communicating the objectives for the tasks being performed 3. Obstacle avoidance and elimination - as the planner/manager, the project manager will see problems/challenges that are coming and work to avoid, reduce, or eliminate them.

4. Recognize people's working styles; and accomodate and adjust for differences. 5. Manage conflict 6. Foster mutual expectations

7. Be flexible and adapt leadership style during the difference parts of a project's and team's lifecycle

Troubleshooting / Risk Management Projects will have problems. The skills needed to handle problems falls into the area of risk management. Managing risk in advance - during the planning time - involves:
y y y y

Identifying/listing risks, uncertainties, potential problems, threats Risk Quantifying - possible results Prioritization - includes using the risk quadrant which combines likelihood of occurance with significance of event. Action Plans - determining appropriate responses

The saying "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" applies to projects double! Identifying a potential problem in the requirements part of the project is much easier and less expensive to fix than in the planning part. But finding and correcting during the planning part is much easier still than correcting during the execution/buildout/construction (main) part of the project.
Wrap-up

Actively manage your relationships to people and groups involved in the successful outcome of your project. Often important facts can be learned by casual "check-up" conversations (verbal, email, or other). If you do not particularly enjoy communicating with someone, you may find it helpful to think of current conversations as a way to avoid more negative conversations later on (or conversations explaining to your boss/manager/spouse/etc.why you did not have the expected result!)

This course serves as the introduction to a larger body of knowledge on project management. There are many resources available to help the new, intermediate, or advanced project manager.