P1: IML/FFX P2: IML/FFX QC: IML/FFX T1: IML
ProjectMngmtTechn WL040/Bidgolio-Vol I WL040-Sample.cls June 19, 2003 16:49 Char Count= 0
Project Management TechniquesProject Management Techniques
Kathy Schwalbe,Augsburg CollegeIntroduction 108
What Is a Project? 108
What Is Project Management? 109
Brief Background on the Project Management
Profession 110
Key Project Management Tools and Techniques 111
Project Selection Techniques 111
Formalizing Projects With a Project Charter 111
Defining Project Scope With a Scope Statement
and Work Breakdown Structure 112
Assigning Resources With a Responsibility
Assignment Matrix 115
Project Scheduling Tools and Techniques 116
Gantt Charts 116Project Network Diagrams 116
Program Evaluation Review Technique 118
Critical Chain Scheduling 118
Techniques for Shortening a Project Schedule 119
Project Cost Management and Performance
Tracking Techniques 119
Other Important Tools and Techniques 120
Conclusion 122
Acknowledgment 122
Glossary 122
Cross References 123
References 123
Further Reading 123INTRODUCTION
Although projects have been managed in some fashion
for thousands of years, changes in society, the work-
force, and technology have sparked interest in the topic of
modern project management. The Project Management
Institute (PMI), a professional society with more than
100,000 members worldwide, estimates that the United
States spends more than $2.3 trillion on projects every
year, or one quarter of the nation’s gross domestic prod-
uct (PMI, 2001a). Many of these projects involved in-
formation technology and the Internet. According to the
Standish Group, there has been an information techno-
logy “project gold rush.” In 1998, corporate America is-
sued 200,000 new-start application software development
projects. During 2000, there were 300,000 new starts,
and more than half a million new start application soft-
ware development projects were initiated during 2001
(Standish Group, 2001). These changes have fueled the
need for more sophisticated and better project manage-
ment. In fact, today’s corporations are recognizing that
to be successful, they need to be conversant with and use
modern project management techniques.What Is a Project?
To discuss project management techniques, it is impor-
tant to first understand the concept of a project. A project
is a temporary endeavor undertaken to accomplish a uni-
que purpose. Projects should be aligned with organi-
zational objectives. For example, if an organization is
trying to develop new products, decrease time to market,
increase revenues, or cut costs, projects should be initi-
ated to support those goals. The following attributes help
to further define a project:A project has a unique purpose.Every project should have a
well-defined objective. For example, a company might
want to develop an intranet to streamline internaloperations and cut costs. They might estimate that they
can save thousands of dollars on printing and train-
ing costs by putting information on a well-designed In-
tranet. The project purpose must state clearly what out-
comes and deliverables are expected from the project,
which departments and processes in the organization
are involved, and so on.
A project is temporary.A project has a definite beginning
and a definite end. If a company is doing a project to
develop an intranet, it should decide when the project
is expected to begin and end. The project team should
define and then produce deliverables along the way,
such as a concept document, preliminary design, test
site, and so on. The temporary nature of projects most
distinguishes them from normal operations in an or-
ganization.
A project requires resources, often from various areas.Re-
sources include people, hardware, software, or other
assets. Many projects cross departmental or other
boundaries to achieve their unique purposes. For an
intranet project, people from information technology,
marketing, sales, distribution, and other areas of a
company would need to work together to develop ideas.
They might also hire outside consultants to provide
input on the design of the intranet and which tech-
nologies to use for the project. Once the project team
finishes its intranet design, they might find that the
company requires additional hardware, software, and
network resources. People from other companies—
product vendors and consulting companies—would
also become resources for meeting project objectives.
Resources, however, are not unlimited. They must be
used effectively in order to meet project and other cor-
porate goals.
A project should have a primary sponsor or customer.Most
projects have many interested parties or stakeholders,
but someone must take the primary role of sponsor-
ship. The project sponsor usually provides the direction108