Topics in Project Management

 Key Topics in Project Management

The Importance of Project Management

The umbrella of project management is broad term that can encompass a differs range of varying skillsets. An understanding of the concepts below provide a scaffolding and overview for moving forward into a broad range of project categories. Keeping these concepts in mind during the development, approval, and completion of tasks can help provide direction and anchors to keep in mind when planning future projects. These concepts can also help long term implementation of project goals with a quality system that ensures sustainability. 

---

---

Human Resources

What is Human Resource Management? 

Quite simply a human resource is any person that is lending their time, talents, and abilities to help a company succeed in reaching its goals. Human resource management guides where those skills can be best applied, encompasses employee training, conflict resolution, motivation, and performance tracking. Even with no HR staff available the concepts of interpersonal communication and human resource utilization are an unavoidable part of creating a successful team that is able to work together to the best of its abilities. 

It is important not to underestimate the effectiveness of a healthy workplace culture coupled with a tried and tested training techniques in achieving a highly functional team.  Even a well equipped staff can provide low value outputs if a system is not in place that helps to define expectations and a shared end goal. Conversely, if trained correctly even a poorly equipped staff can provide great lifetime value when provided with proper direction, training, and feedback.

• Personell Allocation 
• Training
• Conflict Resolution​
• Performance Tracking

 Training
​
Without any prior information, at its core, hiring an employee is to consider the potential lifetime value of a new hire versus the cost of wages and training.

For Example, a highly skilled individual with years of previous training will provide good up front value, however at the cost of the need to pay out higher wages. Compared to a hire with less training that might provide less value initially along with the added cost of additional training, it may be a worthwhile investment long term as they know the specific of the company, there may be a greater chance to foster loyalty.

​The strategy of adopting motivated individuals into lower level positions and providing them with mobility to move up the chain is something often adopted by larger organizations but more difficult to implement on a smaller scale. In a smaller company every employee would need to pick up the extra slack brought on by the new hire although this still remains a viable strategy. Increasingly, personality testing has become more popular due to the potential cost savings and long term return on investment of in house training. 

---

Conflict Resolution 
​
Conflict within a company system has a bad reputation conjuring up images of fighting employees, a toxic workplace and strained relationships. Conflict itself however is not inherently negative, and the ability to argue ideas through conflict is a good way to improve upon old ideas and uncover new ways of doing things. An organization devoid of internal conflict has stopped growing and people have stopped attempting to innovate. Conflict can serve as the filter for new ideas, modifying and improving on them. If an organization has no conflict either too few innovative ideas are being presented or nobody is taking the initiative to question them. 

Negative Conflict can occur when the problems that are being fought over are personal in nature and  emotion is heavily invested in them. This type of conflict can make it difficult for employees to work together and communicate. Although not all issues can be settled over a simple one hour conversation, it is important to maintain a culture of respect between people, keep morale high, and reduce factors that could make disagreements escalate out of control.

HR should step in when: 
​

• Conflicts have a significant emotional component or are personal in nature. 
• The conflict is affecting the organization of the company and how employees work together. 
• Morale is suffering. 
• Employees are quitting or threatening to quit over the conflict. 

Many personal conflicts occur due to differences in belief, culture, perceptions, and backgrounds, as well as misinterpretations of intention. The ability to have a calm and controlled conversation with two employees that are experiencing a dispute can often be enough to allow them to continue to cooperate. Setting concrete ground rules and a focusing on shared work values can enhance cooperation, and begin to encourage  trust and mutual respect. A culture of shared respect can help build the values that enhance future cooperation. 

Performance Tracking
​

There are about as many different ways to measure performance as there are methods to actually complete a task, however some guidelines and methods can make the often awkward and painful task of tracking and relaying performance results more beneficial and effective for the relationship between employees and employers. By creating shared objectives the task of implementing improvements on both sides takes a more mutual and long term approach to increasing performance. 

Shared Objectives: When employers sit down with employees and collaboratively create a forward plan instead of giving orders it not only provides employees with a more intrinsic incentive to meet the performance goals but also reduces strain on relationships, being able to agree on benchmarks and performance metrics. 

---

Scope

Identifying the Scope

Accurately defining the scope is perhaps the most important concept here, it relates directly to every other concept and is accomplished within the planning stage of a project. Deciding where the restrictions, constraints, and limits are of a specific set of tasks allows for a more efficient workflow and helps to avoid costly increases in scope known as Scope Creep. 

Scope Creep occurs when the planning stage of a project is incorrectly accomplished and the scope of a project is not accurately defined. Scope Creep is an increase in work size without a change in the budget or timeline resulting in a project that is both more constrained by budget and time but larger in scope than had been expected. 

 Risk factors for scope creep: 

• Poor Change and revision control.
• A lack of initial Planning. 
• A lack of communication between parties. 
• Scope was Defined Too early. 

It Is Important to provide a clear unambiguous path forward while proposing future projects. The larger a project gets, the more unforeseen consequences and avenues exist to increase the chances of scope creep until it becomes a near inevitability. One possible way to approach this without frightening a prospective client or using a project quote that is purposefully low in order to offset potential scope creep. A couple of things that can be used to offset potential scope creep include: 

• Document Initial Requirements
• Develop a Change Control Process (Know who should review and approve changes)
• Make sure all relevant stakeholders involved know the implications of a scope change
• Document every change. ​

Stakeholders

Type of stakeholders
 
A company stakeholder can be defined by anybody within a business that has an interest in its success or continued survival. This list of what can be considered a stakeholder can be very long depending on how weak or strong the identifying association is between a stakeholder and the company.
 ​

Primary Stakeholders: Market stakeholders that are involved in economic transactions within the business.

Generally, what is thought of as a stakeholder includes stockholders, customers, suppliers, creditors, and employees. They will usually have a vested interested in the survival and continuation of the project and may or may not impact day to day oppressions. 

Secondary Stakeholders: Non-market stakeholders which are external entities who are not monetarily affected or impacted by business actions, however care what actions the business takes. For example activist groups, special interest communities, media outlets, and sometimes the public at large can care what a company does if they see it as effecting their lives in some way be that negatively or positively. 

Stakeholders: People who are affected by a project’s outcome.

VS
 
Key stakeholders: People who effect a projects outcome. 
 ​

Key stakeholders are an important identifying when it comes to determining the projects scope. They might include government regulatory agencies, investors, managers, quality control personnel and people who may increase or impede its progress. 

Quality 

• Quality Planning: A plan for quality linked to key stakeholder metrics that is connected to timeline and budget. 

• Quality Assurance: Process analysis, improvement, and correction. 

​

• Quality Control: Comparing real project data against metrics outlined during planning. 

Determining an agreed upon criteria for the quality of deliverables can change depending on whether or not a client cares about the process to completion or only the end result. It is important to flush out any expectations about not only end goals  but also the processes that will be taken to reach those goals if required, generally this will be required if there are multiple regulatory agencies involved. 

It is important that stakeholders understand and agree to an outlined plan that includes reaching the desired result. This plan should include the processes involved for reaching the end, how quality can be assured during each step of the operation, and how quality can be maintained during the project and in the future. Making note of and recording existing quality procedures and any needed additions to the process of setting up the required checks should be included into the scope of the project and can be as beneficial as setting up the quality procedures themselves.  

An agreement about the final delivered product and the steps to get to that product must be measured against time and budget constraints to reach the desired result. Often there can be trade offs between the quality of a product and the time until project completion, higher quality generally takes a longer time, with a more expensive budget simply due to the increase in oversight, referencing and back checking.  

​

---

Risk

How do you determine Acceptable Risk? 


Acceptable risks are generally mediated by the size of the potential increase in value. Risks are an unavoidable part of any future project, and generally the more risky a project is the more value it has the potential to create. A concise practical way of understanding, mitigating, and communicating the risks and benefits of a proposed or working project is a necessity. Being able to asses risk not only for the internal team working on the project, but also for the stakeholders that have a vested interest in where the potential pit falls and risks are. Communicating potential risks up front can help to save painful conversations down the line. 

Issues vs. Risks

Issue: A negative occurrence that has already happened.
Risk: A potential negative occurrence that has not happened yet. 


Determining Risks

Risks can be identified by consulting with experts, available historical data, and any other similar information that is available. 
Once a list of risks have been identified, narrowing that list down to the most relevant potential concerns will allow the probable risks to be more effectively controlled and communicated. Without overcomplicating the future landscape of the project. A common way to display risk to stakeholders and team members is by identifying the risks, assessing their impact on the project, and assessing their probability of occurring. Relaying accurately how these may have a potential impact on the projects scope, cost, time constraint, or quality is important to understand in order to provide the most value within a report. 

Setting up a system that communicates risk quickly, clearly, and in real time is utilized in various businesses to evaluate the potential effects that a risk could have on a project. Generally segmented into three categories of impact or danger, red yellow and green, or high medium and low risks. Assigning where these risks (if they occur) could do the most potential damage is important. Determining the variables of the project that will be most effective if a risk does become an issue can also help you develop contingencies. What will be effected more, quality, time, budget, or other factors and how does that bleed into the overall goal. 

---

Communication

Although a person or group of people may care about a path that a business takes, this doesn't not mean they have it's best interest in consideration.  For example, a customer trying to use a "value for free strategy" on a project they have ordered may care about the completion of the project but not whether  both sides receive equal value. If a manager believes taking a risky deal has a large upside that makes that kind of risk worth it, but the plan is in conflict between one of the majority stockholders and each managing partner takes a side, there needs to be a clear path out of the gridlock that maximizes the benefit for all parties involved. In this example the end result might be a vote between he stockholders, and a negotiation about scope change with the client. 

"Value for free Strategy": Disingenuous strategy of purposefully withholding scope information until the project is well underway in order to receive extra value for free. 

Stakeholders may have competing interests that need to be negotiated. Project managers can generate value through encouraging successful negotiation and cooperation between parties. Locating the influencers or key stakeholders in the business, thinking outside of the current paradigm and using multiple metrics to consider each decision can help lead to a better outcome.

Communicate with Key stakeholders: People who have the influence to either push or halt the movement of a project’s completion. This is a person whose promotion or detraction of a project can be vital to its passing or failing. A key stakeholder can be specific to a single project, a group of projects or the success of the entire business.

Is this person’s support were withdrawn from a project, would it be able to move forward?

Changing the Current Paradigm: Reframing the subject being negotiated can change the dimensions that are restricting progress and solutions between parties. Whether it’s an internal or external negotiation, framing a subject in way that both clarifies and addresses the roadblocks they may face when accepting your deal can help to create value at the end of the day. For example, if a your are negotiating with a client for pricing, reframing their benefits not only in monetary terms but also in terms of long term value, public perception, and other aspects of a deal can increase the likelihood of a negotiation going positively. 
​
Does the other person/group understand how this could bring value to all parties?

Use Multiple Metrics: There is generally more than one metric to determine success at the end of a negotiation, however there is often only a few that have been the primary focus. Finding other avenues to provide value to the other side of the table can add another dimension to a two sided interaction. Instead of focusing on a single monetary issue, it can be helpful to emphasis other metrics such as time, quality, loyalty and other underemphasized aspects that effect the outcome of the relationship. 

---

Time

What is time management with regards to projects? 

Approaching how to most efficiently complete projects starts with separating the overall project into tasks and subtasks to better identify and assign responsibilities. The ability to see large milestones broken down into component parts not only helps with planning, but it can also provide a large overall picture of the path to the finish line. 

The ability to finish projects quickly, whether in software, product design, engineering, or construction, finishing a project quickly can mean the difference between loosing clients, customers, or even becoming obsolete. 

A timely project is the culmination of all the other factors of human recourses, scope, effective communication, risk management, planning, cost estimation and oftentimes an effective sourcing of inputs. Planning for all of these variable and shifting ideas can be a daunting task that inherently has a great deal of uncertainty. Too small of a time constraint and the result might not only come out under quality and over budget, it will most likely not meet the specifications at all. A project completed too quickly without matching the client or customers specifications to an acceptable degree will just simply be a drain on both time and resources. 

When planning a project, estimating the amount of time it is going to take to complete that project is one of the most important aspects of the planning phase. Some related items that you should keep in mind include 

• Using Historical Data for similar projects
• Consulting Experienced experts
• Keeping a status record of tasks and subtasks involved. 
• Use a Ghantt Chart to organize small and large tasks. 

Understanding how to start to approach and plan projects that have a finite budget and timescale is integral to the growth and standard operation of nearly all businesses and organizations. The ability to manage the flow of a project and keep all the variables that go into a project moving is a useful skill that can be developed in order to achieve the best possible results. 

Project Manager Tool 

To learn more about how to pick a project management tool that's right for you click HERE, If you would like information on our project management tool Aero2Web click HERE