Information Technology (9626) | Project management

📚 Comprehensive Study Notes: Project Management (Topic 15)

Welcome to Topic 15! Project management is one of the most practical and valuable skills you will learn in IT. It’s all about making sure a big task (like developing a new software system, planning a major event, or building a website) gets done successfully, on time, and within budget.

Think of it like being the director of a blockbuster movie—you need a script (the plan), actors and crew (resources), a schedule (tasks), and constant checks to make sure everything is running smoothly!

Let’s break down the process into easy-to-digest stages.

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15.1 The Stages of the Project Life Cycle

Every successful project follows a structured lifecycle, usually divided into four main stages. Remember this simple sequence: Initiation, Planning, Execution & Monitoring, and Closing.

1. Project Initiation (The "Why" and "What")

This is the very first step where you establish the project's foundation. If this stage is skipped, the project is likely to fail!

• Identifying Objectives: What is the final desired outcome? (E.g., "To launch a fully functional e-commerce site.")
• Resources Required: A high-level view of what you'll need (people, budget, equipment).
• Success Criteria: How will you know if the project was successful? (E.g., "Site must handle 100 transactions per hour.")
• Stakeholders and their Needs: Identifying everyone affected by the project (users, management, developers, etc.) and what they expect.
• Project Scope: Defining the boundaries—what is IN the project and what is definitely OUT.
• Developing High-Level Schedules: A broad timeline, not the detailed minute-by-minute plan yet.

Quick Tip: Think of Initiation as writing the project's mission statement and getting everyone to agree on the goal.

2. Project Planning (The "How")

Once you know what to do, you figure out how to do it in detail. This stage creates the roadmap for the rest of the project.

• Detailed Planning of Resources: Allocating specific personnel, equipment, and materials to tasks.
• Scheduling of Tasks: Breaking the project into small, manageable activities and determining when each task must start and finish. (This is where you start using tools like Gantt charts—see Section 15.3).

3. Project Execution and Monitoring (The "Do" and "Check")

This is where the actual work happens. Execution is applying the plan, and Monitoring is constantly checking against that plan.

• Implementing the Plan: Carrying out the tasks and activities defined in the planning stage.
• Monitoring Progress Against Time: Are we sticking to the schedule? Are we hitting our deadlines (milestones)?
• Monitoring Progress Against Cost: Are we spending too much money? Are we within budget?
• Monitoring Progress Against Quality: Is the work meeting the required standards and specifications?
• Reporting to Stakeholders: Keeping everyone informed of status, risks, and changes. Communication is key here!

Analogy: Execution is driving the car, and monitoring is constantly checking the speed and fuel gauges to make sure you arrive on time and safely.

4. Project Close (The "Finish")

The project is finished, but you’re not done until the paperwork is signed and lessons are learned.

• Project Completion and Review: Officially handing over the final product (the deliverable) and closing the budget.
• Why Project Reviews are Conducted: To evaluate the project’s success against the original success criteria, identify what went well, what went wrong, and capture lessons learned for future projects.

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15.2 Project Management Software

Project management software (PMS) helps managers automate, visualise, and track the immense amount of data generated during the project lifecycle.

Types of Project Management Software

• Desktop: Installed locally on a single machine (e.g., Microsoft Project).
  
• Web-based: Accessible via a browser; ideal for remote teams (e.g., Trello, Asana).
• Mobile: Apps allowing on-the-go tracking and updates.
• Personal/Single-User: Tools designed for managing one person's tasks.
• Collaborative: Tools designed for team coordination, allowing multiple users to edit and view the same data simultaneously.

Uses for Supporting Projects

PMS streamlines many complex management tasks:

• Supporting Planning: Helps define the logical flow of tasks and identify dependencies.
• Scheduling of Tasks: Automatically adjusting dates when one task is delayed.
• Allocation of Resources: Tracking who is working on what, and identifying if a person or machine is overloaded.
• Costings: Monitoring expenditure against budgeted amounts in real-time.
• Communication: Built-in features for messaging, alerts, and notifications.
• Collaborative Working and Decisions: Providing a central hub where team members share documents and track their collective progress, facilitating faster decision-making.

Advantages and Disadvantages

• Advantages of PMS:
  Visibility: Provides a clear, graphical overview of the project status (e.g., charts).
  Efficiency: Automation of complex calculations (like calculating the critical path).
  Coordination: Simplifies collaboration and resource balancing across large teams.


• Disadvantages of PMS:
  Cost: High licensing costs, especially for collaborative, enterprise-level software.
  Training: Teams must be trained to use the software correctly.
  Complexity: For simple projects, the software might be overkill, slowing the process down.

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15.3 Tools and Techniques for Project Management Tasks

To effectively manage the planning and monitoring stages, project managers rely on specific charting techniques.

1. Gantt Charts

A Gantt chart is a simple, visual tool used primarily for scheduling tasks against a timeline.

• Creating Gantt Charts: Activities are listed vertically, and time is plotted horizontally. Each activity is represented by a horizontal bar whose length indicates its duration.
• Using and Interpreting: You can quickly see:
  (i) When an activity starts and finishes.
  (ii) The duration of an activity.
  (iii) Which activities overlap (can be done concurrently).
  (iv) The overall timeline of the project.

Did you know? Henry Gantt developed this chart type in the early 1900s, proving that good IT tools don't always need complex software!

2. PERT and Critical Path Method (CPM)

The Performance Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) and the Critical Path Method (CPM) are network diagrams used for more complex projects to manage dependencies and identify bottle-necks.

Components of PERT Charts

These charts rely on specific defined components:

• Activities/Tasks/Work Breakdown Structures (WBS): The individual units of work that must be performed to complete the project. WBS is the detailed list of these tasks.
• Timings: The estimated time required to complete each activity.
• Dependencies: The logical relationships where one task cannot start until another is finished (e.g., you can't install the software until the hardware is delivered).
• Milestones (End Points): Significant events or markers in the project with zero duration (e.g., "Design Approved").
• Deliverables: The tangible results or outputs of a task (e.g., "Completed Database Schema").
• Float (Slack): The amount of time an activity can be delayed without causing a delay to the overall project duration.

Critical Path Calculations and Determinations

The most important function of PERT/CPM is finding the Critical Path.

The Critical Path is the longest sequence of dependent activities in the project schedule. These activities have zero float. If any task on the critical path is delayed by one day, the entire project completion date is delayed by one day.

The calculation involves determining the earliest start time and latest finish time for every activity to identify those with zero float.

Use of Critical Path Analysis (CPA)

CPA helps managers:

• Work Flow Control: Establishing the exact sequence in which tasks must be completed.
• Costings: Focusing resources (which usually cost money) on critical tasks to ensure they are completed quickly.
• Allocating Resources: Understanding which tasks are flexible (have float) and which are priority (on the critical path) when assigning team members.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Charts

	Gantt Charts	PERT / CPM Charts
Advantages	Simple and highly visual. Easy to create and understand by stakeholders.	Clearly shows dependencies between tasks. Identifies the Critical Path and potential delays. Excellent for complex projects with many tasks.
Disadvantages	Poorly shows dependencies. Difficult to update manually in complex projects.	Can be complex and time-consuming to set up. Less visual and less accessible to non-technical stakeholders.