Project Management Tutorial
Project management tutorial
Purpose: To provide the basic skills and knowledge needed to effectively manage a group project.
Importance: Project scheduling and understanding/handling risk is crucial to success in science and engineering. Goals: After this activity, you will be able to:
• • • • •
Break a complex project into manageable sub-projects Assign responsibility/ownership of project components Set reasonable milestone's for the completion of major tasks Perform a risk analysis and integrate mitigation into your planning Develop and complete a project plan
Files: Project Management (Link provided on the section page)
SECTION 1: INTRODUCTION TO PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Project management is the art of matching a project's goals, tasks, and resources to accomplish a goal as needed. We say "as needed" because one has limited time, money, and resources (human and machinery) with which to accomplish a goal. One can think of a project as a process. Figure 1 shows this process as a simplified block diagram.
Figure 1: Simple Project Management System
The process involves inputs and outputs. Successful projects "do the right things, with the right tools, and in the right way".
SECTION 2: STAGES OF A PROJECT AND HOW TO COMPLETE THEM
Stage 1: Defining the goals of the project: Garbage in equals garbage out. If you do not start a project with the correct goal(s), it is not likely you will accomplish the goal(s). This must be a team activity to ensure that everyone is given the opportunity to contribute and "buy-in" to what is going to happen. At the end of this stage, every team member should have an understanding of what must be accomplished. This part of the project should end with a document that lists the goals with a short statement providing some detail. The statement should include a definition of success. This is a statement that provides a description of the vital few requirements that define the goal as accomplished. Vital few implies the
Purpose: To provide the basic skills and knowledge needed to effectively manage a group project.
Importance: Project scheduling and understanding/handling risk is crucial to success in science and engineering. Goals: After this activity, you will be able to:
• • • • •
Break a complex project into manageable sub-projects Assign responsibility/ownership of project components Set reasonable milestone's for the completion of major tasks Perform a risk analysis and integrate mitigation into your planning Develop and complete a project plan
Files: Project Management (Link provided on the section page)
SECTION 1: INTRODUCTION TO PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Project management is the art of matching a project's goals, tasks, and resources to accomplish a goal as needed. We say "as needed" because one has limited time, money, and resources (human and machinery) with which to accomplish a goal. One can think of a project as a process. Figure 1 shows this process as a simplified block diagram.
Figure 1: Simple Project Management System
The process involves inputs and outputs. Successful projects "do the right things, with the right tools, and in the right way".
SECTION 2: STAGES OF A PROJECT AND HOW TO COMPLETE THEM
Stage 1: Defining the goals of the project: Garbage in equals garbage out. If you do not start a project with the correct goal(s), it is not likely you will accomplish the goal(s). This must be a team activity to ensure that everyone is given the opportunity to contribute and "buy-in" to what is going to happen. At the end of this stage, every team member should have an understanding of what must be accomplished. This part of the project should end with a document that lists the goals with a short statement providing some detail. The statement should include a definition of success. This is a statement that provides a description of the vital few requirements that define the goal as accomplished. Vital few implies the