PMI has standardized 42 Project Management processes that are grouped under 5 Project Management Process Groups and 9 Knowledge Areas. Understanding this will make a person a wonderful Project Manager.
Here are the 5 Process groups
Initiating Process Group
Here is where a Project gets initiated and a Project Manager is delegated. The activities like Defining Project Scope, Financial resources confirmation, Identifying Internal and External Stake Holders and assigning a Project Manager happens in this Process Group.
Project Charter
Project Charter is an official document that is provided to a Person to assign him as a Project Manager for any given Project. Until a Project Charter is officially handed over to an Individual, he/she shall not be responsible for that Project.
Identify Stake Holders
Stake Holders are individuals who are positively or negatively affected by the success and failure of a project. Say the Client, End User, Program Manager, Project sponsor etc.
We all now know what a Project is. Atleast a high level understanding of what a Project is. Lets see more on that to understand what could be a project. Then we are going to see what a Program is and then what a portfolio is.
A Project
Every Project will create a unique product, service or results. The word 'unique' is very important when we define something as a project.
A Project can create
A component which can be a part of another item or an item itself
A utility to perform a service
A result of a finding viz. a document or thesis
Examples for Project
Developing a new product or service (launching a satellite to broaden telecommunication)
Business Process Re-Engineering (Staffing structure re-structuring in an organization)
Developing a new IT application or modifying it.
Constructing a building (Infrastructure Projects like buildings, bridges, roads etc)
Hope this has given a bigger picture of what Projects could be?
Now what is a program? A Program is simply a collection of projects. Got it ?
It is managing a group of related projects. Say Maruti Suzuki is developing a new model car. It has plants in many places in India that develop different components of the car. Say, the engine (hope it is bought ready made from another company) is manufactured separately, body is built in a different place, the other components viz brake, brake shoe, wheels, upholstery, A/C all are done in different workshops in different places and are all assembled and brought made as a Product. Now, the components development can be considered as different projects and everything managed together is considered as a Program.
A Portfolio
A portfolio is focused on achieving the business objectives of organizations. Shortly a collection of Programs or Projects grouped to facilitate effective management to meet the business objective. Say for Reliance Communication, they have their Internet services, mobile services, their satellite operations, maintaining the webworlds etc are their activities and they are totally grouped under one portfolio which is Reliance communications or Rcom. You can never ignore different Industrial projects like infrastructure, oil and gas, medical, finance, education, power, coal etc under a government.
Thanks for the gentleman who posted this picture in www.auctusit.com
Project Manager
Program Manager
Targets the Project Objectives
Resource Management
Takes care of the scope, quality, cost, schedule etc for
the projects
Targets the Business Objectives
Manages resources sharing across Projects
Manages the methodologies, standards, risks, dependencies
among projects
Leave a comment if you want to add any points to this.
I am in IT industry for more than 10 years. 10 years exposure to the industry makes a person an experienced IT professional. I have experience working for Hewlett Packard and Acer. So, what adds here is the standard processes that I followed in my tenure as a part of my work. This helped a lot to follow the project management standards. After adapting to the PM standards, I faced no failures in my projects (this is not a joke). The posts in this blog will speak a lot on the PM standards, situations that I encountered in my projects as well as my friends and my seniors. This targets IT professionals from the entry level to the people in lead levels.
PMI Standards
PMI is one of the world’s largest non-profit membership associations for the project management profession. There is no specific author for the PMBOK (Project Management Body of Knowledge) which contains the Project Mangement standards. Surprising thing is there are more than 7 Lakhs contributors who considerably added points from their work life to form the standards of the Project Management.
Courtesy : Gentleman who posted this in youtube
Project Management
Before we talk about Project Management, lets have a clear vision on what is project and why we need to manage it.
PMBOK (References from PM Standards - Project Management Body of Knowledge will be mentioned as PMBOK hereafter) defines project as temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service or result. Temporary doesn't actually mean short duration and at the same time, repeated monotonous activity cannot be considered as a project but a service. Apparently it should have a defined start and end. Constructing Tanjore (Tamilnadu, India) temple was a project and the success of that project is now a monument and it represents Tamilnadu's tradition to the world.
So, as you guessed, what is needed here is a strategy to drive the project. There are ways to drive it and that is what called as Standards. The way you effectively drive it is management. The word "drive" when used as a verb should need of course a "Driver" and here in PM terms the person who drives it is called as "Project Manager"
So, Project Management is effective application of knowledge, talents, tools and techniques to the activities involved in the project to meet the requirements.
