Project Management

PM Notes

Project Management — Weeks 1 to 8

Condensed lecture notes, modules, and practical highlights

Contents

• Week 1 — Basics & Strategy
• Week 2 — Selection & Scope
• Week 3 — WBS & Estimation
• Week 4 — Networks & Risk
• Week 5 — Scheduling & CCPM
• Week 6 — Crashing & EVM
• Week 7 — Outsourcing & Contracts
• Week 8 — RFP & Closure

Week 1: Basic Concepts, Drivers, Strategy, and Selection (Lec 1–4)

Module 01 & 02 — Project fundamentals, life cycle, and strategy linkages

Module 01: Project Management — Basic Concepts (Lec 1 & 2)

• Importance of Project Management; characteristics of Project, Program and Portfolio; Project Life Cycle; Role of Project Manager vis-à-vis Functional Manager; Traditional and Agile Project Management; Current Drivers of Project Management; Project Management as a Socio-Technical Approach.
• Project Life Cycle (PLC): Phase I: Feasibility/Define; Phase II: Design/Plan; Phase III: Execution; Phase IV: Termination/Closure.
• Role of a Project Manager: Temporary and non-repetitive role — responsibility for performance and success; marshals resources, manages customer interface, provides direction, coordination, integration.
• Traditional vs. Agile: Agile uses incremental iterative 'rolling wave' development; traditional used to plan/execute/close. Agile is often used up-front in defining phases.
• Drivers: Compression of product life cycles, knowledge explosion, triple bottom line, downsizing, customer focus, small projects representing big problems.

Module 02: Organization Strategy and Project Selection (Lec 3 & 4)

• Strategy-Project Linkages: Projects are vehicles to implement strategy — review mission, set goals, implement via projects.
• PPMS: Project Portfolio Management System — oversees selection, monitors resources, encourages best practices, balances risk, increases stakeholder communication.
• Selection Criteria: Financial: NPV, IRR, Payback. Non-financial: strategic fit. Multi-criteria models include Checklist and Multi-weighted scoring model.
• Project Governance & PMO: Integrative approach; PMO monitors and links senior mgmt to projects.

Week 2: Selection Models, Structure, Culture, and Defining Scope (Lec 5–8)

Module 02–04 — Screening, structures, culture, and SOW/WBS basics

Module 02: Non-Financial Criteria & Portfolio Matrix (Lec 5)

• Non-financial strategic criteria: market share, competitive barriers, core tech, supplier risk reduction, corporate image.
• Project screening matrix & portfolio matrix types: Bread-and-butter, Pearl, Oyster, White elephant.

Module 03: Organization Structure & Culture (Lec 6 & 7)

• Structures: Functional, Dedicated/Projectized, Matrix (Weak/Balanced/Strong) — pros & cons.
• Organizational culture: shared norms, values, identity. PM challenges: navigating cultures of parent org, client, and partners.

Module 04: Defining the Project (Lec 8)

• Project Scope Statement (SOW): objective, deliverables, milestones, technical reqs, limits/exclusions, customer reviews.
• Project Priorities: Tradeoffs between Cost, Time, Performance using Constrain / Enhance / Accept.
• WBS: work breakdown structure, work package details: task, duration, budget, resources, responsibility, milestones.

Week 3: Defining Project Details and Estimation (Lec 9–13)

Module 04–06 — WBS integration, RACI, estimating, and networks

Module 04: WBS Integration & Communication (Lec 9)

• WBS coding system, responsibility matrices (RACI), Process Breakdown Structure (PBS), and Project Communication Plan based on stakeholder analysis.

Module 05: Estimating Time & Cost (Lec 10 & 11)

• Top-down (Consensus, Ratio, Apportion, Function points) vs Bottom-up (Templates, Parametric, Range estimates).
• Types of costs: Direct, Project Overhead, G&A Overhead. Refining estimates to account for optimism and hidden costs.

Module 06: Developing Project Plan (Lec 12 & 13)

• Network types: AON (CPM) and AOA (PERT). CPM vs. PERT and forward/backward pass, Early/Late starts and finishes, Total Slack.

Week 4: Advanced Networks, Uncertainty, and Risk Management (Lec 14–19)

Module 06 & 07 — advanced scheduling, PERT uncertainty, and risk management framework

Module 06: Extended Network Techniques & PERT (Lec 14 & 15)

• Techniques: laddering, lags (SS/FF), hammock activities, and PERT's three-time estimates with variance & probability calculations.

Module 07: Project Risk Management (Lec 16–19)

• Four-step process: Identify, Assess, Respond, Control. Tools: RBS, Risk Matrix, FMEA, PERT.
• Threat responses: Mitigate, Avoid, Transfer, Retain. Opportunity responses: Exploit, Share, Enhance, Accept.
• Contingency planning, contingency funds, management reserves, time buffers, and change control systems.

Week 5: Capital Risk, Scheduling, and CCPM (Lec 20–23)

Module 07 & 08 — capital risk models, classification of scheduling problems, and CCPM

Module 07: Capital Project Risk (Lec 20)

• Hillier model for cash flow risk: uses SD of expected cash flows to assess uncertainty for capital projects and correlated/uncorrelated cash flows.

Module 08: Scheduling Resources & CCPM (Lec 21–23)

• Time-constrained vs Resource-constrained projects; smoothing/leveling heuristics; splitting activities (caution advised).
• Time-phased budget baseline and monitoring. CCPM: 50/50 estimates, project/feeders/resource buffers.

Week 6: Project Crashing and Performance Measurement (Lec 24–29)

Module 09 & 10 — crashing, cost-duration tradeoffs, and EVM

Module 09: Crashing Activities (Lec 24–26)

• Why crash: time-to-market, delays, incentives, overhead, public goodwill. Techniques: add resources, outsource, overtime, fast-track, reduce scope (last resort).
• Crash cost per unit time = (Crash Cost – Normal Cost) / (Normal Time – Crash Time). Choose critical activities with least slope.

Module 10: Progress & Earned Value Management (Lec 27–29)

• PV (Planned Value), AC (Actual Cost), EV (Earned Value). CV = EV – AC; SV = EV – PV; CPI = EV/AC; SPI = EV/PV.
• Earned value rules (0/100, 50/50), forecasting (EACf) and corrective actions for variances.

Week 7: Outsourcing, Negotiation, and Contract Management (Lec 30–35)

Module 11 & 12 — outsourcing logic, negotiation basics, procurement

Module 11: Outsourcing & Negotiation (Lec 30–34)

• Reasons for outsourcing, disadvantages, Do-or-Buy decision logic, best practices, partnering vs traditional approaches.
• Principled negotiation (Fischer & Ury): separate people from problem, focus interests, options for mutual gain, objective criteria, BATNA.
• Customer relations: perceived performance / expected performance — manage expectations by underselling, clear scope, risk sharing, frequent communication.

Module 12: Contract Management (Lec 35)

• Procurement steps: plan purchases, RFP, select sellers, administer, close. Contract types: Fixed-Price, Cost-Plus — pros/cons and controls.
• Contract change control: formal tracking and approval for scope/cost changes.

Week 8: RFP, Project Closure, and Oversight (Lec 36–40)

Module 12–14 — RFPs, bidding, closure activities, oversight and PM maturity

Module 12: RFP & Bid Evaluation (Lec 36)

• RFP contents: objective, SOW, technical reqs, deliverables, acceptance criteria, contract type, schedule, payment terms, evaluation criteria.
• Bid evaluation matrix: contractor qualifications, technical skills, financial strength, price and compliance.

Module 13: Project Closure (Lec 37 & 38)

• Types of closure: Normal, Premature, Perpetual, Failed, Changed Priority. Wrap-up: acceptance, reassigning team, closing accounts, final report.
• Post-implementation evaluations and retrospectives (lessons learned) — independent facilitator and learning gates.

Module 14: Project Oversight (Lec 39 & 40)

• Oversight activities at organizational and project levels; PMO responsibilities; Phase gate system and PMMM maturity levels 1–5.

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