Project Management - Basic Principles

What is a Project ?
An interesting question and one answer might be that anything you do is a project. Some people treat planning their annual holiday (vacation) as a project. Some would say that a project is a significant undertaking, say three months or more - anything smaller is just a piece of work. In the end its up to you but in a business environment you might have a rule of thumb that anything (say) lasting more than 3 months, or anything costing over £10k is a project and should be managed as such.

If you think about it, project management is an ancient discipline.
Construction of both The Pyramids and Stonehenge would have employed a Project Manager, even if they didn't necessarily have that job title or the salary to go with it !

A project is something that:

• Delivers something - an end product or products.
• Has a defined end date.
• Is planned and controlled.
• Has a defined Management Structure.
• Has a Business Case
• Involves Risks.
  

One of the best ways of defining an individual project is by the end products rather than the activities involved - what is sometime called the Product Driven approach. Be clear on WHAT you need to deliver, then plan the activities to do it.

The Project Plan will then include the products, development activities, quality control activities, timescales and resources.

A project should have a management structure distinct from the day-to-day operational management structure of the organisation. As a minimum there should be a designated Project Manager and a Project Board.

A Business Case should state why the project is being undertaken and quantify the costs and benefits as far as possible. If you don't understand why you are doing something maybe you shouldn't be doing it !

All projects involve some degree of Risk. These should be identified, analysed and managed.