Introduction
The Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK®)
is an inclusive term that describes the sum of knowledge within the profession
of project management. As with other professions such as law, medicine, and
accounting, the body of knowledge rests with the practitioners and academics
that apply and advance it. The full project management body of knowledge
includes knowledge of proven traditional practices that are widely applied, as
well as knowledge of innovative and advanced practices that have seen more
limited use, and includes both published and unpublished material.
This chapter defines and explains several key terms and
provides an overview of the rest of the document. It includes the following
major sections:
- Purpose of This Guide
- What Is a Project?
- What Is Project Management?
- Relationship to Other
Management Disciplines
- Related Endeavors
1. PURPOSE OF THIS GUIDE
Project management is an emerging profession. The primary
purpose of this document is to identify and describe that subset of the PMBOK® that is generally accepted. Generally accepted means
that the knowledge and practices described are applicable to most projects most
of the time, and that there is widespread consensus about their value and
usefulness. Generally accepted does not mean that the knowledge and practices
described are or should be applied uniformly on all projects; the project
management team is always responsible for determining what is appropriate for
any given project.
This document is also intended to provide a common lexicon
within the profession and practice for talking and writing about project
management. Project management is a relatively young profession, and while
there is substantial commonality around what is done, there is relatively
little commonality in the terms used.
This document provides a basic reference for anyone interested
in the profession of project management. This includes, but is not limited to:
- Senior executives.
- Managers of project managers.
- Project managers and other
project team members.
- Project customers and other
project stakeholder.
- Functional managers with
employees assigned to project team.
- Educators teaching project
management and related subjects.
- Consultants and other
specialists in project management and related fields.
- Trainers developing project
management educational programs. As a basic reference, this document is neither
comprehensive nor all inclusive. Appendix E discusses application area
extensions while Appendix F lists sources of further information on project
management. This document is also used by the Project Management Institute as a
basic referenceabout project management knowledge and practices for its
professional development programs including:
- Certification of Project
Management Professionals (PMP®).
- Accreditation of educational
programs in project management.
2. WHAT IS A PROJECT?
Organizations perform work. Work generally involves
either operations or projects, although the two may overlap. Operations and
projects share many characteristics; for example, they are:
- Performed by people.
- Constrained by limited
resources.
- Planned, executed, and
controlled.
Projects are often implemented as a means of
achieving an organization’s strategic plan. Operations and projects differ
primarily in that operations are ongoing and repetitive while projects are
temporary and unique. A project can thus be defined in terms of its distinctive
characteristics—a project is a temporaryendeavor
undertaken to create a unique product or service. Temporary means
that every project has a definite beginning and a definite end. Unique means that the product or service is different in some
distinguishing way from all other products or services. For many organizations,
projects are a means to respond to those requests that cannot be addressed
within the organization’s normal operational limits.
Projects are undertaken at all levels of the
organization. They may involve a single person or many thousands. Their
duration ranges from a few weeks to more than five years. Projects may involve
a single unit of one organization or may cross organizational boundaries, as in
joint ventures and partnering. Projects are critical to the realization of the
performing organization’s business strategy because projects are a means by
which strategy is implemented. Examples of projects include:
- Developing a new product or
service.
- Effecting a change in structure,
staffing, or style of an organization.
- Designing a new
transportation vehicle.
- Developing or acquiring a new
or modified information system.
- Constructing a building or
facility.
- Building a water system for a
community in a developing country.
- Running a campaign for
political office.
- Implementing a new business
procedure or process.
2.1 Temporary
Temporary means that every project has a definite beginning and a definite
end. The end is reached when the project’s objectives have been achieved, or
when it becomes clear that the project objectives will not or cannot be met, or
the need for the project no longer exists and the project is terminated.
Temporary does not necessarily mean short in duration; many projects last for
several years. In every case, however, the duration of a project is finite;
projects are not ongoing efforts.
In addition, temporary does not generally apply to
the product or service created by the project. Projects may often have intended
and unintended social, economic, and environmental impacts that far outlast the
projects themselves. Most projects are undertaken to create a lasting result.
For example, a project to erect a national monument will create a result
expected to last centuries. A series of projects and/or complementary projects
in parallel may be required to achieve a strategic objective.
The objectives of projects and operations are
fundamentally different. The objective of a project is to attain the objective
and close the project. The objective of an ongoing nonprojectized operation is
normally to sustain the business. Projects are fundamentally different because
the project ceases when its declared objectives have been attained, while
nonproject undertakings adopt a new set of objectives and continue to work.
The temporary nature of projects may apply to
other aspects of the endeavor as well:
- The opportunity or market
window is usually temporary—most projects have a limited time frame in which to
produce their product or service.
- The project team, as a team,
seldom outlives the project—most projects are performed by a team created for
the sole purpose of performing the project, and the team is disbanded when the
project is complete.
2.1 Unique Product, Service, or
Result
Projects involve doing something that has not been
done before and which is, therefore, unique. A product or service may be
unique even if the category to which it belongs is large. For example, many
thousands of office buildings have been developed, but each individual facility
is unique—different owner, different design, different location, different
contractors, and so on. The presence of repetitive elements does not change the
fundamental uniqueness of the project work. For example:
- A project to develop a new
commercial airliner may require multiple prototypes.
- A project to bring a new drug
to market may require thousands of doses of the drug to support clinical
trials.
- A real estate development project may include hundreds of
individual units.
- A development project (e.g.,
water and sanitation) may be implemented in five geographic areas.
2.3 Progressive Elaboration
Progressive elaboration is a characteristic of
projects that integrates the concepts of temporary and unique. Because the
product of each project is unique, the characteristics that distinguish the
product or service must be progressively elaborated. Progressively means “proceeding in steps; continuing steadily by increments,” while
elaborated means “worked out with care and detail; developed
thoroughly” (1). These distinguishing characteristics will be broadly defined
early in the project, and will be made more explicit and detailed as the
project team develops a better and more complete understanding of the product.
Progressive elaboration of product characteristics
must be carefully coordinated with proper project scope definition,
particularly if the project is performed under contract. When properly defined,
the scope of the project—the work to be done— should remain constant even as
the product characteristics are progressively elaborated. The relationship
between product scope and project scope is discussed further in the
introduction to Chapter 5.
The following two examples illustrate progressive
elaboration in two different application areas.
Example 1. Development of a chemical processing plant begins with process engineering
to define the characteristics of the process. These characteristics are used to
design the major processing units. This information becomes the basis for engineering
design, which defines both the detail plant layout and the mechanical characteristics
of the process units and ancillary facilities. All of these result in design
drawings that are elaborated to produce fabrication drawings (construction isometrics).
During construction, interpretations and adaptations are made as needed and
subject to proper approval. This further elaboration of the characteristics is
captured by as-built drawings. During test and turnover, further
elaboration of the characteristics is often made in the form of final operating
adjustments.
Example 2. The product of an economic development project may initially be defined
as: “Improve the quality of life of the lowest income residents of community X.”
As the project proceeds, the products may be described more specifically as,
for example: “Provide access to food and water to 500 low income residents in community X.” The next round of progressive elaboration
might focus exclusively on increasing agriculture production and marketing,
with provision of water deemed to be secondary priority to be initiated once
the agriculture component is well under way.
3. WHAT IS PROJECT
MANAGEMENT?
Project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools,
and techniques to project activities to meet project requirements. Project
management is accomplished through the use of the processes such as:
initiating, planning, executing, controlling, and closing. The project team
manages the work of the projects, and the work typically involves:
- Competing demands for: scope,
time, cost, risk, and quality.
- Stakeholders with differing
needs and expectations.
- Identified requirements.
It is important to note that many of the processes
within project management are iterative in nature. This is in part due to the
existence of and the necessity for progressive elaboration in a project
throughout the project life cycle; i.e., the more you know about your project,
the better you are able to manage it.
The term project management is sometimes used to describe an organizational approach to the
management of ongoing operations. This approach, more properly called management by projects, treats many aspects of ongoing operations as
projects to apply project management techniques to them. Although an understanding of project management is critical to an
organization that is managing by projects, a
detailed discussion of the approach itself is outside the scope of this document.
Knowledge about project management can be organized in many
ways. This document has two major sections and
twelve chapters, as described below.
3.1 The Project Management
Framework
Section I, The Project Management Framework, provides a basic
structure for understanding project management.
Chapter 1, Introduction, defines key terms and provides an overview of the rest of
the document.
Chapter 2, The Project
Management Context, describes the environment in which
projects operate. The project management team must understand this broader
context—managing the day-to-day activities of the project is necessary for success
but not sufficient.
Chapter 3, Project
Management Processes, describes a generalized view of how the
various project management processes commonly interact. Understanding these
interactions is essential to understanding the material presented in Chapters 4
through 12.
3.2 The Project Management
Knowledge Areas
Section II, The Project Management Knowledge Areas, describes
project management knowledge and practice in terms of their component
processes. These processes have been organized into nine knowledge areas, as
described below and as illustrated in Figure
1-1.
Chapter 4, Project
Integration Management, describes the
processes required to ensure that the various elements of the project are
properly coordinated. It consists of project plan development, project plan
execution, and integrated change control.
Chapter 5, Project Scope
Management, describes the processes required to ensure
that the project includes all the work required, and only the work required, to
complete the project successfully. It consists of initiation, scope planning, scope
definition, scope verification, and scope change control.
Chapter 6, Project Time
Management, describes the processes required to ensure
timely completion of the project. It consists of activity definition, activity sequencing,
activity duration estimating, schedule development, and schedule control.
Chapter 7, Project Cost
Management, describes the processes required to ensure
that the project is completed within the approved budget. It consists of resource
planning, cost estimating, cost budgeting, and cost control.
Chapter 8, Project Quality
Management, describes the processes required to ensure
that the project will satisfy the needs for which it was undertaken. It
consists of quality planning, quality assurance, and quality control.
Chapter 9, Project Human
Resource Management, describes the processes required to
make the most effective use of the people involved with the project. It
consists of organizational planning, staff acquisition, and team development.
Chapter 10, Project
Communications Management, describes the
processes required to ensure timely and appropriate generation, collection,
dissemination,
storage, and ultimate disposition of project information. It
consists of communications planning, information distribution, performance
reporting, and administrative closure.
Chapter 11, Project
Risk Management, describes the processes concerned with
identifying, analyzing, and responding to project risk. It consists of risk
management planning, risk identification, qualitative risk analysis,
quantitative risk analysis, risk response planning, and risk monitoring and
control.
Chapter 12, Project
Procurement Management, describes the
processes required to acquire goods and services from outside the performing
organization. It consists of procurement planning, solicitation planning,
solicitation, source selection, contract administration, and contract closeout.
4. RELATIONSHIP TO
OTHER MANAGEMENT DISCIPLINES
Much of the knowledge needed to manage projects is
unique to project management (e.g., critical path analysis and work breakdown
structures). However, the PMBOK® does overlap other management disciplines, as
illustrated in Figure 1-2.
General management encompasses planning, organizing, staffing,
executing, and controlling the operations of an ongoing enterprise. General
management also includes supporting disciplines such as law, strategic
planning, logistics, and human resources management. The PMBOK® overlaps
or modifies general management in many areas—organizational behavior, financial
forecasting, and planning techniques, to name just a few. Section 2.4 provides
a more detailed discussion of general management.
Application areas are categories of projects that have common
elements significant in such projects, but are not needed or present in all
projects. Application areas are usually defined in terms of:
- Functional departments and
supporting disciplines, such as legal, production and inventory management,
marketing, logistics and personnel.
- Technical elements, such as
software development, pharmaceuticals, water and sanitation engineering, or
construction engineering.
- Management specializations,
such as government contracting, community development, or new product
development.
- Industry groups, such as
automotive, chemicals, agriculture, or financial services. Appendix E includes
a more detailed discussion of project management application areas.
5. RELATED ENDEAVORS
Certain types of endeavors are closely related to
projects. There is often a hierarchy of strategic plan, program, project, and
subproject, in which a program consisting of several associated projects will
contribute to the achievement of a strategic plan. These related undertakings
are described below.
Programs. A program is a group of projects managed in a coordinated
way to obtain benefits not available from managing them individually (2). Many
programs also include elements of ongoing operations. For example:
- The “XYZ airplane program”
includes both the project or projects to design and develop the aircraft, as
well as the ongoing manufacturing and support of that craft in the field.
- Many electronics firms have program managers who are responsible for both individual product
releases (projects) and the coordination of multiple releases over time (an
ongoing operation). Programs may also involve a series of repetitive or
cyclical undertakings; for example: Utilities often speak of an
annual “construction program,” a regular, ongoing operation that involves many
projects.
- Many nonprofit organizations
have a “fundraising program,” an ongoing effort to obtain financial support
that often involves a series of discrete projects, such as a membership drive
or an auction.
- Publishing a newspaper or
magazine is also a program—the periodical itself is an ongoing effort, but each
individual issue is a project.
In some application areas, program management and
project management are treated as synonyms; in others, project management is a
subset of program management. This diversity of meaning makes it imperative
that any discussion of program
management versus project management be preceded by agreement on a clear and consistent
definition of each term.
Subprojects. Projects are frequently divided into more manageable components or
subprojects. Subprojects are often contracted to an external enterprise or to
another functional unit in the performing organization. Examples include:
- Subprojects based on the
project process, such as a single phase.
- Subprojects according to
human resource skill requirements, such as the
- Installation of plumbing or
electrical fixtures on a construction project.
Subprojects involving technology, such as
automated testing of computer programs on a software development project. Subprojects
are typically referred to as projects and managed as such. Project Portfolio Management. Project portfolio management refers to the selection
and support of projects or program investments. These investments in projects
and programs are guided by the organization’s strategic plan and available resources.
Agus Ramdani
Sunday, November 25, 2012
Drossophyla
Published:
2012-11-25T23:53:00+07:00
Title:Kelompok 1 Chapter 1 (English)
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