project management

Examples of project management in the following topics:

• Project Management Audits

  • Project management audits are used to determine and control the quality, completion, and timing of a project.
  • This usually refers to audits in accounting, but similar concepts also exist in project management and quality management, as the auditing of steps and processes in a project systematically or randomly to insure that the project is meeting estimated completion and quality standards.
  • Like a project management audit, a quality audit is an external verification that a project is compliant with regulations and standard.
  • Project managers benefit from periodic auditing in two broad ways.
  • When auditing a project, the project manager needs to be clear that the project team does not become suspicious or feel threatened by it.

• Matrix Structure

  • Weak or functional matrix: A project manager with only limited authority is assigned to oversee the cross-functional aspects of the project.
  • The functional managers maintain control over their resources and project areas.
  • Balanced or functional matrix: A project manager is assigned to oversee the project.
  • Power is shared equally between the project manager and the functional managers.
  • Strong or project matrix: A project manager is primarily responsible for the project.

• Ratio Analysis

  • In project management, a ratio analysis may be related to the efficiency of a project and how well the project managers are controlling resources.
  • Other efficiency ratios that the project management team may consider include staff productivity levels, the number of activities completed in a set period, and expenses in relation to productivity.
  • All of these ratios give the project manager a better sense of the health of the project.
  • Project managers should consider these ratios in relation to past, present, and future projects, making sure that they are investing in a project that will produce the best value for their dollar.
  • Project managers must justify their projects in this context to appease managerial concerns and considerations; thus ratio analysis is also useful in ensuring the viability and likelihood of renewal for a given project.

• CPM and PERT Charts

  • Project managers can glean a lot of information about the timing of the project by following the pathways created in the CPM diagram between the different steps.
  • The critical path also tells the project manager the shortest possible time period in which the project can be completed since the timing of the project will be dependent on the completion of critical path tasks.
  • This helps project managers organize tasks and ensure that time is managed appropriately at each stage of the project.
  • This makes it easier for the project manager to effectively add value by reducing lead times.
  • Outline business processes within project management utilizing the critical path method (CPM) as a control function and diagram projects within project management using the program evaluation review technique (PERT) chart

• Financial and Budgetary Controls

  • Determining the cost of a project is one of the most important initial steps for a project manager.
  • If a project manager cannot stay within a controlled budget, they may not have the funds to complete the project.
  • These tools are critically important for project managers who need to control resources to ensure project completion.
  • Variances can be computed for both costs and revenues to show a project manager whether they are adhering to the project budget.
  • Both payback period and NPV can be used in project management in order to determine how much profit a project will bring in and when.

• Gantt Charts

  • Gantt charts display the duration of steps in a project and are used by project managers to track the time and sequence of each step.
  • Gantt charts are especially useful for management professionals because they display multiple steps and active components simultaneously.
  • Gantt charts enable real-time tracking of each phase of a given project (or series of projects), and allow managers to quickly update and communicate broad arrays of information chronologically.
  • Gantt charts also help communicate the goals and objectives of projects, their timeline, and the expectations project managers have for completion rates for the project.
  • Because Gantt charts focus primarily on schedule management, they represent only one of the triple constraints for project management (cost, time, and scope–Gantt charts show only time).

• Replacement Projects

  • The possibility of replacement projects must be taken into account during the process of capital budgeting and subsequent project management.
  • This replacement project can serve the purpose of replacing an expiring investment with a new, identical one, or replacing an existing investment that is producing unfavorable results with one that management believes will perform better.
  • Most projects have a finite useful life.
  • All of these considerations taken together allow management to consider the project's incremental cash flows, which are inflows and outflows the project produces over predictable periods of time.
  • These analyses can then be used to compare the expected profitability of both projects; which will, in theory, lead management to make the right decision regarding the investments.

• Working with Management

  • Senior management is generally a team of individuals at the highest level of organizational management who have the day-to-day responsibility of managing a company.
  • Senior management works on a very tight schedule and would prefer to focus only on the most important details of a project or process.
  • However, every manager is different and priorities may vary based on the project.
  • The employee should learn how a manger prefers to approach a project, and then attempt to present issues in a way that makes the manager comfortable.
  • This can lead to more efficiently run projects and management having more trust in their employees.

• Overview of the Role of Financial Manager

  • The financial manager is responsible for budgeting, projecting cash flows, and determining how to invest and finance projects.
  • The manager is responsible for managing the budget.
  • This involves allocating money to different projects and segments so that the business can continue operating, but the best projects get the necessary funding.
  • The manager is responsible for figuring out the financial projections for the business.
  • The financial manager is not just an expert at financial projections, s/he must also have a grasp of the accounting systems in place and the strategy of the business over the coming years .

• Introduction to Share Management Tasks as Well as Technical Tasks

  • Share the management burden as well as the technical burden of running the project.
  • As a project becomes more complex, more and more of the work is about managing people and information flow.
  • In the Subversion project, we have a patch manager, a translation manager, documentation managers, issue managers (albeit unofficial), and a release manager.
  • Some of these roles we made a conscious decision to initiate, others just happened by themselves; as the project grows, I expect more roles to be added.
  • The issue manager does not prevent other people from making changes in the tickets database, the FAQ manager does not insist on being the only person to edit the FAQ, and so on.