 Project
Management is just that, managing projects; the application of knowledge,
skills, tools, and techniques to project activities in order to meet
or exceed stakeholder needs and expectations from a project. A project
is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product or service.
So, why do we need Project Management? After all,
we "just do it"!
The
"Sound" of Project Management
Welcome to the "New Product Development"
in D-minor by Your Company. You have pulled together a team
of musicians who will perform for you this
evening. Our orchestra consists of three experienced musicians who
have performed in four symphonies, 15 musicians who have performed
three times, 20 musicians who have performed twice and 30 musicians
who have performed once before. The remaining musicians are performing
tonight for the first time or are on loan to us from other smaller
orchestras. Nearly all of our musicians have graduated from training
programs where they have learned their breathing
exercises and their scales!
Our musicians assure us that as long as they have
a good orchestra leader (and tonight's is one of our most promising
-- he has done an excellent job playing the violin in TWO prior
symphonies and the tympani in ONE) they do not need any sheet music.
You are in for a treat!!
How much did you pay for those symphony tickets?!
What kind of an evening are you expecting?
Well, in some ways this scenario may seem ridiculous.
But, it is almost exactly what we hear regularly:
"Don't be so confining. If you give me all
of these task descriptions you are stifling my creativity!"
"All I need to know is the milestones and the
deliverables--don't bother me with all this other detail!"
"Project Management requires too much effort
for the value it provides!"
"Don't tell me how to engineer my component.
That's my job!"
Musicians expect to use sheet music when they are
first learning to play a piece. Most even keep the sheet music throughout
the performances. Some soloists give up the sheet music -- but they
have probably played the piece several thousand times before they
perform in front of an audience without music. Yet, somehow, Your
Company thinks that they don't need any sheet music to perform your
symphonies! You are in a business where every program is unique.
You ask for the timing (the maestro keeping the beat with his baton).
You ask for deliverables (play 100 notes in the key of F-major during
the first 5 minutes of a 41-minute symphony, then 237 notes in C-major
during the next 8 minutes, etc.). But, you don't want the music
even though very few of you have ever played ANY symphony before,
never mind this one!
- It's no wonder that many customers want earplugs.
- (Modified from a story by David Roggenkamp, Manager
Ford Motor Company)
You can't "just do
it." For a truly spectacular
performance, you need the sheet music (the integrated process),
you need the maestro (the project manager), you need a qualified
symphony (the project team), you need Project Management!
Integrated Process Developers,
Inc (IPDI)
is not interested in just giving you individual musicians, but in
training maestros and the whole symphony in the way of performing
an exceptional symphony (managing the project in the nine knowledge
areas of project management).
IPDI can work with your company's
personnel to implement the following project management
methodologies, tools and techniques:
- Scope planning, management and
control
- Integrated change control
- Schedule development, updating and
control
- Risk identification, analysis and
control
- Issue management
- Resource planning, management and
control
- Communications and Human Resource
planning and maintenance
- Phase exit review process
- Project selection and prioritizing
process
- Change control process
- Resource allocation and leveling
procedures
- Project
Management Office (PMO)
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