Project Management

Definition

Project management is the activity consisting of the cohesive collection of all tasks that are primarily performed to manage a single project in order to fulfill its mission and to achieve its objectives.

Goals

The typical goals of the project management subactivity are to ensure that the project’s:

• Stakeholder’s relevant needs and expectations are met or exceeded.
• Mission, objectives, and requirements are met.

Objectives

The typical objectives of the project management subactivity are to ensure that the project’s:

• Stages, producers, work units, and work products are properly planned.
• Scope is properly managed.
• Schedule is properly managed.
• Resources, both human and physical, are properly managed (e.g., adequately staffed with trained personnel).
• Costs are properly managed.
• Communication is properly managed (e.g., the project’s status is reported to its stakeholders).
• Relationships between organizations are properly managed.
• Work products are properly delivered.

Examples

Typical examples of the project management subactivity include the management of projects that vary by:

• Scope:
  • A business reengineering project.
  • An application development project.
  • A reusable framework development project.
• Organizational Complexity:
  • An in-house project where the development and customer organizations are the same.
  • A project by a development organization for a separate customer organization.
  • A project involving subcontractor and vendor organizations.
• Organizational Culture:
  • A risk-adverse vs. risk-friendly culture.
  • A traditional vs. bleeding-edge technology culture.
  • A team culture vs. a lone cowboy programmer culture.
  • A top-down, military chain of command vs. a collaborative culture.
  • A big team vs. a tiny team culture.
  • A diverse teams vs. a homogeneous teams culture.
• Criticality:
  • A small research project.
  • A project developing low-criticality in-house application.
  • A project developing a business-critical or life-critical application.

Preconditions

The project management subactivity typically may begin when the following conditions hold:

• The project is started.
• The project management team is:
  • Initially staffed.
  • Adequately trained in project management.

Completion Criteria

The project management subactivity is typically complete when the following conditions hold:

• The project is completed.

Tasks

The project management subactivity typically consists of the following teams performing the following tasks in an iterative, incremental, parallel, and time-boxed manner:

• Project Management Team, which performs:
  • Communications Management
  • Cost Management
  • Delivery Management
  • Management Planning
  • Personnel Management
  • Relationship Management
  • Resource Management
  • Schedule Management
  • Scope Management
• Metrics Team, which performs aspects of:
  • Schedule Management (productivity and size estimation, time and effort estimation)
  • Communications Management (metrics communication)

Environments

The project management subactivity is typically performed using the following environment(s) and associated tools:

• Management Environment:
  • Management Tools
  • Documentation Tools
  • Configuration Management Tools

Work Products

The project management subactivity typically results in the production of all or part of the following work products in the management work product set:

• Project Contract
• Project Statement of Work
• Project Management Plan
• Project Documentation Plan
• Project Work Breakdown Structure
• Project Organization Chart
• Project Job Description
• Project Master Schedule
• Project Master Schedule
• Project Team Team Schedule
• Project Budget
• Project Status Report

Phases

The project management subactivity tasks are typically performed during the following phases:

Guidelines

• The project management subactivity is documented using the typical configuration for large projects. It is intended to be configured (i.e., instantiated, extended, and tailored) to meet the needs of specific projects.
• The preconditions of this activity should be the union of the preconditions of its constituent tasks.
• The completion criteria for this activity should be the union of the postconditions of its constituent tasks.