Microsoft Project Fundamentals. Teresa S. Stover
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might include quality.
While project managers can and do argue about the “right” project triangle, the important thing is to simply keep the model in mind as you manage your projects. Your job as project manager is to know the ranked priorities and constraints of your project and to make adjustments accordingly.
FIGURE 1.1 A project triangle
Project Processes
With its explicit start and finish dates, any project has its own life cycle. The project life cycle consists of six specific stages, or project processes. Figure 1.2 illustrates the project processes along the project life cycle.
FIGURE 1.2 The processes in the project life cycle
Initiating
Also considered preplanning or scoping, the project is conceived, its scope is defined, and a preliminary budget is drafted during the initiating process. The powers that be—that is, the customer, executive, or other project sponsor paying for the project—agree to the project objectives and requirements.
The initiating stage is also the stage when a project manager is assigned, the business case for the project is outlined, and any other stakeholders and their expectations are identified.
Planning
The project manager works during the planning process to transform the goals and constraints defined in the initiating process into a roadmap for achieving those goals, step by step and task by task. To do this, the project manager lays out the tasks in the work breakdown structure (WBS), determines the duration and dependency of those tasks, assigns resources to the tasks, and estimates costs for those resources.
This effort defines the project schedule, resource requirements, and costs with a greater degree of certainty. With its scheduling engine, resource planner, and costing formulas, Microsoft Project steps up as the project manager's key partner in this planning process.
Executing
When planning is complete and the funding and resources are secured and ready to work, the project manager can press that figurative “GO” button. This represents the start of the executing process.
The project starts and all resources begin working on their assigned tasks in the work breakdown structure. The clock is ticking and the budget is depleting. The project manager can now use Microsoft Project to track actual progress against the scheduled projections in the plan.
Monitoring and Controlling
As soon as project execution begins, the project shifts to the monitoring and controlling processes, which happen simultaneously and continually throughout the project life cycle from the start of the executing process until the closing process.
In the monitoring process, the project manager gathers information from team members and compares this information with the plan represented in Microsoft Project. Think of as if you've entered a travel destination into your vehicle's map app, and as you drive, you're watching your progress on your itinerary.
In the controlling process, the project manager makes decisions and adjustments when actual experience differs from the project plan. These adjustments are corrections to the plan to maintain the project triangle balance of time, cost, and quality within the project scope. Again, it's as if you're trying to follow your vehicle's map app, but you've run into a traffic jam or spent more money at a roadside attraction than planned. You must then adjust your travel itinerary to account for the time delay or the unexpected cost.
Closing
When the final project tasks are completed, the deliverables are submitted, and the goals are met, the project's closing process happens. The project manager deals with the final details, especially ensuring that the project sponsor accepts the project as complete.
The closing process also includes documenting processes, archiving files, and conducting a project review, or lessons learned exercise, with the project team before they all move to their next projects. This review process ensures that the project ends as it intentionally began, and that important institutional knowledge is captured to help future projects be more successful.
Project Management Methodologies
The waterfall and agile project management methodologies are two major approaches to project management. Both methods are widely used and both are supported by Microsoft Project.
Waterfall Project Management
Waterfall project management is also known as traditional project management or the Critical Path Method (CPM). This method identifies project activities into sequential phases, where each phase depends on the completion of previous phases. Progress flows mostly in one direction, like a waterfall, through the various phases (see Figure 1.3).
FIGURE 1.3 Bars on a Gantt chart illustrate waterfall project management.
More specifically, this method relies on the duration of all activities required to complete the project and the dependencies between those activities. The tasks and their dependencies create multiple paths throughout the project. The longest path is known as the critical path. If any task component on the critical path is delayed, the entire project is also delayed.
The waterfall method or CPM is typically used in manufacturing and construction—that is, in structured physical environments in which changes even early in the project are very expensive.
Agile Project Management
Agile project management is a type of iterative or incremental project management that allows for more experimentation, exploration, and discovery. Designed for the software industry, it has been adopted in other industries that center on knowledge-based (rather than physically based) creative work.
In work such as software development, the phased waterfall approach is not well suited because requirements are often loosely defined at first, or technologies in use are quickly changing.
In agile or iterative project management, the details of the entire project are not planned from the start. Instead, the plan focuses on iterations, often called sprints. After the start of the project, the iteration or sprint is planned, executed, monitored, controlled, and closed. Each one is like a mini-project within the project. A deliverable, perhaps a prototype or a section of code, is produced at the end of the iteration and offered to the customer or other project sponsor for feedback. Based on that