5 major process knowledge of project management

Project management includes five major processes: initiation, planning, execution, control, acceptance. This chapter mainly introduces the five processes of project management definition, and the implementation of the main content and characteristics of each process.

Project launch

First, the main content of the project start

Project start-Up is to select the best project under the constraints of existing resource conditions, recognize the benefits of the project, prepare the required documents for the project license, and delegate the project manager. That is to formally identify a project should start, and to provide the relevant resources for the project, its main work is as follows:

1. Appoint the project manager and set up the project team

After the project starts, the project manager is appointed, the project team is established, and the project preparation is initiated.

(1) Project team: specific technical new work or management functions are undertaken by the members of the participating projects.

(2) Management team: The core team only perform management functions, specific technical work by other people or organizations to complete.

(3) Choice of Project manager:

Project Manager is the representative of the client, is the core of the project team, is the project after the start of the whole process Management center, the project is the coordination of the relevant parties bridge and tie. Be careful to choose the right person to act as the project manager.

(4) The Skills the project manager should have:

--Communication skills;

-Organizational skills;

-Application of knowledge, technology and innovative skills;

-Developing budget skills;

-Problem solving and coping skills;

-negotiation and impact skills;

-Leadership and interpersonal skills;

--Team building and human resource management skills.

2. Equipped with resources and management

Arrange the personnel with ability according to the project organization structure;

Equipped with the tools, techniques, methods and practices to monitor and control the processes.

3. Determine project Objectives

The objectives of the project are to indicate what needs to be accomplished, or what to produce, and to identify clearly the identification mark of the project's objectives (when this goal is reached, the project is completed).

Project objectives should be specific, measurable, accurate, practical, and time-bound.

4. Specify the project requirements

Project requirements are different from project objectives.

A project requirement is defined as a requirement for a goal or deliverable.

The project requirements constitute the provisions of the product or service of the project of the output, or the necessary preconditions.

5, clear the project deliverables

The deliverables of the results project are one of the project requirements;

Deliverables are similar to goals and must be specific and can be tested;

Deliverables are to be documented and notified to the responsible departments and personnel concerned.

6. Communicate with the project stakeholders (communicate with users)

Project stakeholders who are related to their interests are identified in the process of making the plan;

To determine the specific objectives of the project, meet each key stakeholder, understand their thoughts on the project objectives, and document them.

A successful project needs to meet or exceed the project stakeholder's expectations.

7, the identification of project restrictions

Restriction refers to all things that restrict the activities of a project or specify the activities of the project team.

Such as:

Time: Usually a fixed deadline, project completion time;

Budget: Budget limits the project team's ability to access resources, potentially limiting the scope of the project;

Quality: usually defined by a product or service specification;

Equipment, technology, management directives, and the objectives of the contract will also be limited.

8. Administrative restrictions

Project constraints constrain the choices that the project team can make and limit their actions.

Restrictions, especially time, budget, and quality, can be used to help achieve the objectives of the project.

For restrictions to be managed, adjust the secondary restrictions to ensure that the primary limit is limited.

The limit is to be recorded in the document.

9. Find out the project assumptions

Assumptions are the conditions that people think should be true or should be fulfilled.

Identify the project stakeholders ' assumptions about the project and record them in the document.

As much as possible to identify all the assumptions that you will face, and for important assumptions, there are guarantees and contingency plans that cannot be achieved once the assumptions are taken.

You should test your assumptions as much as you can.

Second, the project launch characteristics

The project starts with less spending, because at first, everything is not yet mature, the potential for project success is minimal, and at this time the risk is greatest and the project stakeholders have the most opportunity to influence the project at the beginning of the project.

Project plan

I. Main contents of the project plan

1, the basic principles of the Project plan:

L avoidance or reduction of uncertainties;

l Improve operational efficiency;

L better understanding of the objectives;

l Improve the basis for monitoring and control work.

2. The project plan solves five basic problems:

(Technical objectives and description of the problem);

How (work breakdown structure);

WHO (personnel use plan);

When (progress meter);

How much (cost budget).

3, the project plan mainly to do is the work description, project provisions, milestone schedule, work breakdown structure. The decomposition is as follows:

(1) Preparing for environmental analysis: Where are we? How do we get here, and why do we get here?

That is: what is our status quo? How is our current situation formed, and why do we have to form this status quo (what is the reason for this situation)?

(2) Set goals: Is this where we want to go? Where do we want to go? (within 1 years, or within 5 years?) ）

That is, is this our ultimate goal? What is our ultimate goal? Will the final goal be within 1 years, or within 5 years?

(3) List of alternative strategies: if we were like before, where would we go? Is that where we want to go? How can we get to where we want to go?

That is: if we maintain the status quo, we will achieve what goal, this goal is our ultimate goal? How can we achieve our ultimate goal?

(4) List of opportunities and threats: what could prevent us from getting there? What could help us go there?

The obstacles to achieving the ultimate goal and the favourable conditions for achieving the goal.

(5) Prepare forecast: Where can we go? What should we bring to where we want to go?

That is: What are the stages that can be achieved by relying on existing conditions? What are the conditions necessary to achieve the ultimate goal?

(6) Choosing a strategy portfolio: what is the best route we should take? What are the potential benefits? What is the risk?

That is: what is the optimal implementation for the ultimate goal? What are the pros and cons?

(7) Preparing the action procedure: What do we need to do? When do we do it? How do we do that? Who's going to do it?

That is, the development of the implementation of the programme's specific content, milestone time plan, methods and determine the implementation personnel.

(8) Monitoring and control: Are we on the planned track? If not, why? What do we need to do to follow the planned route? Can we do it?

That is, whether the actual progress and effect are controlled against the planned implementation plan, if there are deviations, what are the causes, and what measures are needed to correct the original controlled state, and can these measures be implemented?

4. Part of the project plan:

(1) Project plan content: Determine the work requirements, determine the quality and quantity of the work, identify the required resources, develop the time plan for the activities, and evaluate the risks.

(2) can also be divided into 9 components:

Objective: A goal, an indicator, or a share completed within a certain period of time.

Procedure: The strategy and main action to be taken to achieve or exceed the target.

Schedule: The plan describes when an individual or group activity or task begins or ends.

Budget: The cost of the plan to meet or exceed the target.

Forecast: What happens at a certain time.

Organization: The design of the number and type of positions required and their corresponding powers and responsibilities in order to meet or exceed objectives.

Policy: A general guide to decision-making and personal conduct.

Step: The detailed method of implementing the policy.

Standard: The level of individual or team quality defined with sufficient or acceptable definition.

Ii. 8 Major steps of the project plan

The 8 major steps of the project plan are as follows:

Iii. reasons for the failure of the project plan

No matter how hard we try, the plan will not be perfect, sometimes it will fail, and the typical reasons for failure are:

1, low-level organizations do not understand the company's objectives;

2, in a short period of time to plan the content too much;

3, financial estimates are too poor;

4, on the basis of insufficient information to do the plan;

5, did not try to systematize the planning process;

6. The plan is executed by the planning team;

7, no one knows the ultimate goal;

8, no one knows the duty requirements;

9. No one knows important milestone dates, including written reports;

10. Project estimates are based on speculation, not on history or standards;

11. There is not enough time for proper estimation;

12, do not bother to investigate whether staff have the required skills;

13, people do not work in the same direction;

14, people are always pushed in, pushed out, seldom consider the schedule;

Sometimes failure is due to forgetting or ignoring details, sometimes because the project manager is "too hungry", and many projects fail because the project manager is the only one who knows the progress of the project, and now he is unable to work for other reasons.

Iv. proposal for Project manager to develop the project planning process

1, let the sub-project function Manager to do their own planning. Generally speaking, the operator is the operator, the planner is the planner, the two will never touch.

2. Set goals before planning, otherwise you can only do short-term consideration.

3, set goals for the planners. This can protect against non-essential things and make efforts in the place where they are invested.

4, keep flexible. The use of human interaction to strengthen the rapid response.

5, maintain a balance view. Do not act aggressively, pay attention to transposition thinking.

6, welcome senior management to participate. Top managers have the ability to make plans and cancel plans, which may be the only and most important variables.

7. Be aware of future spending plans. This would eliminate the tendency to underestimate.

8, after the prediction test hypothesis. This is necessary because the average professional is too optimistic to rely too much on a set of information.

9. Do not focus on today's problems. Try to avoid crisis management and war.

10, reward those who dispel the fallacy, avoid Persian information Agent syndrome (that is, beyond the tolerance of bad trends). Reward the first person to make a bad news.

Project execution and control

Project execution and project control are the 3rd and 4th steps of the 5 major steps of project management.

Project execution: Negotiate, guide and manage work for project team members, work with team members to help them get better.

Project control: Track processes, compare actual outputs and planned outputs, analyze impacts, and make adjustments.

First, the project progress control process

1. Basic idea of Project schedule control

For the progress control work, should clear a basic idea: The plan's invariable is relative, the change is absolute, the balance is relative, the imbalance is absolute. To take action against change, adjust the schedule regularly and regularly.

The main tasks of the project implementation phase are: Schedule control in pre-design stage, schedule control in design stage, and progress control in construction stage.

2, the project control process includes the content:

Periodically collect project completion data, compare actual completion data to the planning process, and take corrective action once the actual process of the project is later than the planning process. This process must be carried out frequently throughout the project process.

During the control process, a fixed reporting period should be identified to compare the actual process with the planning process.

In a progress report, you need to collect two kinds of data or information:

(1) Actual execution of the data, including the start or end of the activity of the technical time, the actual cost of use or input.

(2) Information on project scope, schedule and budget changes, which may be caused by the customer or project team, or by the occurrence of unforeseen events.

Once the change is planned and the customer agrees, a new benchmark plan must be established, and the scope, schedule and budget of the plan may differ from the original baseline plan.

The data or information must be collected in a timely manner as a basis for changing the project schedule and budget.

3. Project Change Management:

Project implementation process after data or information change:

Once the updated schedule and budget are formed, they must be compared to baseline progress and budget, and variables are analyzed to predict whether the project will be completed in advance or postponed, either below or over the budget. If the project is progressing well, no corrective action is required and further analysis of progress is made during the next reporting period.

The project control process runs through this project. In general, the shorter the reporting period, the more opportunities to identify problems early and take corrective action. If a project is far from control, it is difficult to achieve project objectives without sacrificing project scope, budget, schedule or quality, and it is advisable to increase the frequency of the reporting period until the project is progressing on schedule.

Control project Schedule Changes There are many issues involved, and the first point is to ensure that the project schedule is realistic and that there are no unrealistic schedules to make. The second point is the need for discipline and leadership to emphasize the importance of compliance and achieving progress plans.

Second, the Progress control method

The control process is designed to ensure that the project is planned or made as necessary, and its dynamic control principle is: "plan/implement/Feedback/adjust" cycle.

1. Project Control Trilogy

Finding deviations

Reason and trend analysis

Take corrective action

Project Control Process Classification:

Automatic control

Pass/No Control

Rear-direction control

In contrast, project control includes:

Identify deviations from the plan;

(a) Take corrective measures to align actual progress with the plan;

Accept and evaluate project change requests from the project stakeholders;

Re-adjust project activities as necessary;

Adjust the level of resources when necessary;

Change the scope of the project after being approved by the authorized person;

Adjust project objectives and get permission from the project stakeholders.

2. Project Control Method:

Application Progress Schedule Table

Convening a meeting

Observation and inspection

Project Tracking Plan

Regular feedback and reports

(1) The forms of the documents used are:

Plan file

Weekly, Daily

(2) The types of meetings used are:

Stage meeting

Regular meetings (risk, inter-group)

Daily morning Meeting

Iii. project execution and control process

Project Acceptance

Verify all work tasks are completed, contract acceptance, financial financial acceptance, written work management and acceptance.

First, the main work of project acceptance

Recognition of merit and achievement;

be approved by the final project stakeholders;

End of contract;

The final finalization of the project experience and lessons;

Work with project stakeholders, including project team members, to evaluate the project process/results;

Write the project summary report;

Close the project office and disband the project team.

Second, the project acceptance process

1. Evaluation and acceptance

2. Project Summary

3. Project file archiving

(1) Successful completion of project evaluation and acceptance;

(2) Experience summary of successes and failures;

(3) Complete project information archiving.

Iv. common problems in the acceptance phase

(1) The summary and inheritance of experience and lessons is not enough;

(2) The project team members are not aware of the importance of the document;

(3) Project handover is not smooth, especially in cross-sectoral situations.

Frequently asked questions about project failures

Common failure issues with project management are:

Lack of control of demand change and neglect of change and change control of demand;

Sub-contract management is not strict;

Ignoring the progress of oversight projects;

Project requirements are not planned in advance;

Unrealistic project estimates with insufficient workload estimates (e.g., a commitment to work that takes 6 months to complete in 10 months);

Do not collect measurement data of project, no historical data of software project development;

Care about innovation without paying attention to costs and risks.

5 major process knowledge of project management