What is project management? Discuss the scope and objectives?

Q1. What is project management? Discuss the scope and objectives?

Ans. Projects have a major role to play in the economic development of a country. Since the introduction of planning in our economy, we have been investing large amount of money in projects related to industry, minerals, power, transportation, irrigation, education etc. with a view to improve the socio-economic conditions of the people. These projects are designed with the aim of efficient management, earning adequate return to provide for future development with their own resources. But experience shows that there are several shortcomings in the ultimate success of achieving the objectives of the proposed project. The term project has a wider meaning. A project is accomplished by performing a set of activities. For example, construction of a house is a project. The construction of a house consists of many activities like digging of foundation pits, construction of foundation, construction of walls, construction of roof, fixing of doors and windows, fixing of sanitary fitting, wiring etc. Another aspect of project is the non-routine nature of activities. Each project is unique in the sense that the activities of a project are unique and non routine. A project consumes resources. The resources required for completing a project are men, material, money and time. Thus, we can define a project as an organized programme of pre determined group of activities that are non-routine in nature and that must be completed using the available resources within the given time limit. Let us now consider some definitions of ‘project’. Newman et. al define that “a project typically has a distinct mission that it is designed to achieve and a clear termination point the achievement of the mission”.  Gillinger defines “project” as the whole complex of activities involved in using resources to gain benefits. Project management institute, USA defined project as “a system involving the co-ordination of a number of separate department entities throughout organization, in a way it must be completed with prescribed schedules and time constraints”. Identification of a new project is a complex problem. Project management is the application of processes, methods, knowledge, skills and experience to achieve the project objectives. objectives, which could be defined in terms of outputs, outcomes or benefits. A project is usually deemed to be a success if it achieves the objectives according to their acceptance criteria, within an agreed timescale and budget. The core components of project management are:

1. defining the reason why a project is necessary;

1. capturing project requirements, specifying quality of the deliverables, estimating resources and timescales;

1. preparing a business case to justify the investment;

1. securing corporate agreement and funding;

1. developing and implementing a management plan for the project;

1. leading and motivating the project delivery team;

1. managing the risks, issues and changes on the project;

1. monitoring progress against plan;

1. managing the project budget;

1. maintaining communications with stakeholders and the project organisation;

1. provider management;

1. closing the project in a controlled fashion when appropriate.

Projects are separate to business-as-usual activities, requiring people to come together temporarily to focus on specific project objectives. As a result, effective teamwork is central to successful projects. Project management is concerned with managing discrete packages of work to achieve objectives. The way the work is managed depends upon a wide variety of factors. The scale, significance and complexity of the work are obvious factors: relocating a small office and organizing the Olympics share many basic principles but offer very different managerial challenges. A good distinguishing factor is often to look at the nature of the objectives. Objectives may be expressed in terms of outputs (such as a new HQ building), outcomes (such as staff being relocated from multiple locations to the new HQ), benefits (such as reduced travel and facilities management costs) or strategic objectives (such as doubling the organisation’s share price in three years).Project Scope Management refers to the set of processes that ensure a project's scope is defined and mapped accurately. Scope Management techniques allow project managers and supervisors to allocate just the right amount of work necessary to complete a project successfully. It is primarily concerned with controlling what is and what is not part of the project's scope. For a project manager, scope knowledge area is very important. Scope refers to the detailed set of deliverables or features of a project. These deliverables are derived from a project’s requirements. The PMBOK defines Project Scope as the "The work that needs to be accomplished to deliver a product, service, or result with the specified features and functions."
The definition of Scope follows from the decision of setting out the work to be completed during the lifecycle of a project. Included in this is also the identification of work that will not be counted in the ongoing round of the service/product development.The 3 Facets of Scope ManagementThree processes form part of Project Scope Management - planning, controlling, and closing.Planning The planning process is when an attempt is made to capture and define the work that needs competition.Controlling The controlling and monitoring processes are concerned with documenting tracking, scope creep, tracking, and disapproving/ approving project changes.Closing The final process, closing, includes an audit of the project deliverables and an assessment of the outcomes against the original plan.The Scope StatementThe scope of a project is the clear identification of the work that is required to successfully complete or deliver a project.  One of the project manager’s responsibilities is to ensure that only the required work (the scope) will be performed and that each of the deliverables can be completed in the allotted time and within budget.The documentation of the scope of the project will explain the boundaries of the project, establish the responsibilities of each member of the team and set up procedures for how work that is completed will be verified and approved.  This documentation may be referred to as the scope statement, or the statement of work, or the terms of reference.Steps Involved in Project Scope ManagementAs a project manager, you'll need to define project scope no matter what methodology you choose to use.A systematic process to capture, define, and monitor scope follows.Step 1 - Define the needsDefining the needs of the project is the first step toward the establishment of a project timeline, allocation of project resources and setting project goals. Only with these steps defined will you be able to understand the work that needs to be done – in other words, the scope of the project needs to be defined. Once that is done, team members can be allocated tasks, and provided direction to deliver a project in the given time and budget.Step 2 - Understand the Project ObjectivesTo define the project scope, it is important to first establish the objectives of the project, which may include a new product, creating a new service within the organization, or developing a new piece of software. There are a number of objectives that could be central to a project and it becomes the role of the project manager to ensure that the team delivers that result according to the specified features or functions.The resources and work that goes into the creation of a product or service is essentially what defines the scope of the project. The scope generally outlines the goals to be met to achieve a satisfactory result. It is important for project managers to understand how to define the scope of the project.Steps for defining the scope of a projectTo define the scope of the project, it is important to identify the following:·         Project objectives
·         Goals
·         Sub-phases
·         Tasks
·         Resources
·         Budget
·         Schedule
Once these parameters are established, the limitations and parameters of the project need to be clarified and the aspects that are not to be included in the project identified. When doing this, the project scope will make clear to the stakeholders, senior management, and team members what will and will not be included in the final product or service.Along with this, the scope of the project must have a tangible objective for the organization that is undertaking the project. This is integral for the scope of the project, since it will play a vital role in how project methodologies are applied to complete the it.Plan Scope Management:This is the first process in the Project Scope management process. The PMBOK Guide, Fifth Edition, adds several processes to separate the initial planning activities from other activities.  This process creates the scope management plan. The scope management plan describes the project scope and documents how it will be further defined, validated, and controlled. Effective scope management requires good and clear communication, as this ensures that members on the team understand the scope of the project while agreeing on how the project goals will be met.Scope management helps avoid the challenges that a project might face with bloating scope and an unruly requirements list. Project scope clearly sets out what is or is not included in the project, and controls what gets added or removed as the project is executed. Scope management establishes control mechanisms to address factors that may result in changes during the project life-cycle.Without defining the project scope, the cost or time that the project will take up cannot be estimated. At times, due to a lack of communication, scope may need to change. This directly affects the cost and disturbs the schedule of the project, causing losses.Scope management is not difficult to implement rigorously. It does, however, require some effort, time and patience. It's well worth the investment. With proper scope management, it is easy to specify a clear scope and to deliver the project with minimal overruns. Successful Scope Management is a function of strategic management actions and utilizing suitable tools that extend human thinking and aid in the definition scope at a fairly low level of granularity.Project management is an extremely powerful discipline and skill-set that can make significant improvements to a business. It achieves this through creating new products and services, improving how businesses do things and reducing the possible impact of future changes.For a project manager to consistently deliver high-quality projects on time, on budget and on schedule, there are a number of objectives and principles that they need to follow. In this article we explore the main areas and objectives in project management and what project managers need to do to achieve them.The main objectives and principles behind good project management are as follows:·         Agree exactly what a project is meant to do and what it is meant to deliver.
·         Agree the scope, timescales, cost and quality of a project.
·         Maintain a schedule and project plan.
·         Deliver the agreed outcomes of the project to the right scope, timescales, cost and quality.
·         Provide communications, reports and progress updates throughout the lifecycle of the project.
·         Manage risks, issues and dependencies.
·         Make sure that the business gets the outcome that it wants from the project.
·         Manage policies, processes, tools, frameworks, techniques, people and relationships to a successful project outcome.
·         Minimize any impact on normal business operations.
If a project manager can achieve these principles and objectives, they will be able to reliably and consistently deliver high-quality projects to business expectations, keep everyone happy and generate improved business success as a result.