Chapter 1

Foundation

Project

Definition of Project

Projects exist in every type of human organization.They are unique, complex undertakings that create new products, facilities, services, and events; bring about major organizational and other desired changes or recovery from natural or manmade disasters.Projects have starting and ending points in time and progress through a series of life cycle stages.All of mankind’s greatest accomplishments, from building the Great Wall to developing a cure for polio, to landing the Apollo 11 on the moon, began as a project.

What is a project? First of all, it should not be confused with everyday work.A project is not routine, repetitive work.Ordinary daily work typically requires doing the same or similar work again and again, while a project is done only once and a new product or service exists when the project is completed.Tab 1-1 makes a comparison between the two types of work.

Tab 1-1 Comparison between Two Types of Work

So far, there are many different perspectives with regard to what project means.A collection of keywords from various sources have been typically included in their definitions: team, cooperation, resources, progressive elaboration, temporary, one-off endeavor, chaos, create, outcomes, objectives and so on.From these diverse views, it would be difficult to construct a universal definition neatly including all these terms, but collectively they do say a lot about a project’s composition.The Project Management Institute (PMI) provides the following definition of a project in the PMBOK Guide (2008):

A project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result.

Project Characteristics

The following attributes help define and comprehend a project.

• A project is a unique undertaking that results in a single unit of output.Every project is undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result, whether it be developing and introducing a new product, planning a wedding, hosting a conference, or building an electric automobile.While there can be some different level of repetitive elements existing within the project, it does not change the fundamental uniqueness of the project outcome.
• A project has a predefined lifespan with a beginning and an end.Every project is temporary in nature.Unlike routine, repetitive work which is an ongoing effort executed to sustain the business circularly, a project is not a constant effort but one-off endeavor instead.It is considered to end when the project’s objectives have been achieved or the project is discarded or terminated.In many cases, individuals move from one project to the next as apposed to staying in one job.For example, after helping to install a security system, an IT engineer may be assigned to develop a database for a different client.
• A project is composed of interdependent activities.Projects are made up of activities or tasks, each of which has a beginning and an end.Activities are interrelated in different ways.One activity must be completed before another can begin, or two or more tasks can be in progress simultaneously.The project manager should correctly analyze and determine the different relations between various activities in order to ensure that project tasks are to be accomplished in a certain sequence to achieve the project objective.
• A project creates a quality deliverable.Each project creates its own deliverables, which must meet standards of performance criteria.In other words, each deliverable from every project must be quality assured.If the deliverable does not meet its quantifiable quality criteria, it means that project can not be considered complete.
• A project involves multiple resources.Various resources, both human and nonhuman, are utilized and coordinated to carry out the tasks.Unlike routine organizational work which is departmentalized according to its function, a project typically requires the combined efforts of various departments and specialists.Generally there are a variety of resources involved, each with its own unique technologies, skills, and traits.Project participants basically from different business departments are called in and work together under the guidance of a project manager to complete the project.
• A project means progressive elaboration.It means the project is developed in steps, and continued by increments.For example, based on inadequate information, certain assumptions and estimates, the project scope may be broadly described early in the life span and made more explicit and detailed as the project team develops a better and more complete understanding of the objectives and deliverables.

Project Stakeholders

Project stakeholders are any individuals and organizations that have certain interests in the project, are actively involved in the project, or whose work or interests might be affected by project.

The PMBOK Guide (2008) defines stakeholders as “persons and organizations, such as customers, sponsors, the performing organization, or the public, who are actively involved in the project or whose interests may be positively or negatively affected by the performance or completion of the project.They may also exert influence over the project, its deliverables and the project team members.”

Since stakeholders may have various level of interest, involvement, and influence on the project resulting in different priorities and conflicts, and the number of stakeholders interested in the project can dramatically increase the complexity, it is extremely important to identify all the stakeholders and manage stakeholders’ expectations appropriately.

Generally speaking, stakeholders can include customer, end user, sponsor, program manager, portfolio manager, PMO, project manager, project team, functional manager, operation manager, seller, vendor and legal department.

A typical system might be categorized in America as shown in Tab1-2.

Tab 1-2 Stakeholders Categorization

Source: Harold Kerzner.Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling, and Controlling, 2009.

Various project stakeholders outside the authority of the project manager are illustrated in Fig 1-1.

Source: Jan Terie Karlsen.Project Stakeholder Management.Engineering Management Journal, 2002.

Project Life Cycle

In order to provide better management control with appropriate links to the ongoing operations of the performing organization, project managers or the organization can group projects into specific stages.The project life cycle refers to a logical sequence of activities to accomplish the project’s goals or objectives.Regardless of its scope or complexity, every project goes through four stages during its life—defining stage, planning stage, executing stage and closing stage, as shown in Fig 1-2 and Fig 1-3.

The starting point begins the moment the project is given the go-ahead.Project effort starts slowly, builds to a peak, and then declines to delivery of the product or service to the customer.

In practice, the project life cycle is used by subproject groups to depict the timing of major tasks over the life of the project.For example, the design team might plan a major commitment of resources in the defining stage, while the quality team would expect their major effort to increase in the latter stages of the project life cycle.