Brief Summary
This comprehensive project management course covers essential concepts, tools, and techniques for successful project execution. It begins by defining project management and its key components, including scope, time, cost, quality, risk, and resources. The course then explores the project life cycle, emphasizing the importance of planning, execution, monitoring, and closure. It also highlights key focus areas such as communication, risk management, and stakeholder engagement. Additionally, the course discusses various project management methodologies, job roles, and certifications, providing a holistic view of the field.
- Project management definition and components
- Project life cycle and key focus areas
- Methodologies, job roles, and certifications
What Is Project Management?
Project management involves applying knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities to meet project requirements. It aims to deliver final outputs within a specific timeframe and budget, requiring a clear understanding of deliverables and necessary resources. Key constraints in project management include scope, time, quality, cost, risk, and resources, each playing a vital role. A project is defined as a temporary endeavor to create a unique product, service, or result, with a definite beginning and end. The project life cycle includes initiation, planning, execution, monitoring, and closure, with each phase involving specific activities to ensure project success.
PMP® Network Diagram
The project life cycle consists of five key phases: initiation, planning, execution, monitoring and controlling, and closure. Initiation involves understanding the project's purpose and identifying key stakeholders. Planning entails creating a detailed blueprint, while execution focuses on implementing the plan and acquiring resources. Monitoring and controlling involve reviewing progress and ensuring compliance with defined processes. Closure includes capturing lessons learned and formally signing off on the project. Throughout the project life cycle, six constraints—scope, schedule, cost, quality, risk, and resources—must be carefully managed to ensure project success.
Project Planning In Project Management
Project planning is the second phase of the project life cycle, where the project plan is documented and requirements are defined. It includes describing objectives, elaborating the scope, forming a schedule, and generating progress reports. Key fundamentals include determining scope, cost, and resources, identifying problems, and defining project objectives. Project planning is essential for reducing costs and time, increasing employee satisfaction, implementing quality assurance, and reducing project risks. Tools for project planning include Gantt charts, the critical path method (CPM), project evaluation and review technique (PERT) charts, work breakdown structures (WBS), and project documentation.
Project Planning
A project plan is essential for executing a project, answering questions about deliverables, timelines, and team roles. Microsoft Excel is a common tool for project management, offering analytical tools and templates for easy planning and tracking. A Gantt chart, a horizontal bar chart, helps track task status, start and end dates, and dependencies. Creating a Gantt chart in Excel involves making a project table, creating a bar chart, adding duration, adding descriptions, and converting the bar graph into a Gantt chart. Excel templates for project management include project review, budget, sprint project tracker, and project schedule templates.
Project Time Management
Project time management ensures projects are completed on time, involving activities like identifying, estimating, and sequencing activities. A project schedule represents the time dimension of the project plan, detailing start and end dates. Gantt charts illustrate project schedules and dependencies, while network diagrams plot activity dependencies. Key terms include lead, lag, rolling wave planning, analogous estimating, parametric estimating, effort, and duration. The seven project time management processes are plan schedule management, define activities, sequence activities, estimate activity resources, estimate activity durations, develop schedule, and control schedule.
PMP® Cost Management 5th Edition
Project cost management involves estimating costs, creating a cost budget, and controlling costs to stay within budget. A cost management plan, part of the project management plan, guides cost planning activities. Control accounts manage costs at a higher level by grouping related activities. The four project cost management processes are plan cost management, estimate costs, determine budget, and control costs. Earned value management (EVM) is used to track project progress against the plan, with key terms including planned value, earned value, actual cost, budget at completion, and estimate at completion.
Project Quality Management PMBOK 5
Quality is the degree to which a set of characteristics fulfills requirements, with project managers responsible for ensuring quality expectations are met. Key terms include customer satisfaction, grade, precision, and accuracy. The optimal level of quality balances incremental revenue with incremental cost. Quality management includes quality planning, assurance, and control. Quality planning creates the quality management plan, quality assurance ensures activities align with the plan, and quality control measures project data against standards. Quality management concepts include total quality management (TQM), Kaizen, the Deming cycle, and Kanban.
Project Management Framework
A project is a temporary endeavor to create a unique product, service, or result, distinguished by its temporary nature and unique output. Project management applies knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to meet project requirements. Program management coordinates related projects to achieve benefits not available by managing them individually. A portfolio manages projects and programs to achieve strategic objectives. A project management office (PMO) provides policies, support, and project managers. Projects operate within constraints like cost, time, and scope, requiring trade-offs to maintain balance. Stakeholder management involves identifying and engaging stakeholders to ensure project success.
PMP Communication Management
Communication is a two-way exchange of information, with methods including formal written, formal verbal, informal written, and informal verbal. Communication technology uses media like email and telephone. The number of communication channels is calculated using the formula n(n-1)/2. A basic communication model involves a sender and receiver, with effective communication requiring clear understanding and acknowledgment. Project communications management includes planning, managing, and controlling communications to meet stakeholder needs.
PMP® Human Resource Management
Project human resource management organizes, manages, and leads the project team, assigning clear roles and responsibilities. Functional managers handle business functions, while project managers are accountable for project success. Key processes include plan human resource management, acquire project team, develop project team, and manage project team. Techniques include interpersonal skills, training, and recognition. Team dynamics involve forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning stages. Conflict management is crucial, with techniques including withdrawing, smoothing, compromising, forcing, and collaborating.
PMP® Risk Management PMBOK 5
Project risk management involves identifying, analyzing, and responding to risks, which can be positive (opportunities) or negative (threats). Risks are measured by multiplying probability and impact, and categorized as external, internal, technical, or project management-related. The processes include plan risk management, identify risks, perform qualitative and quantitative risk analysis, plan risk responses, implement risk responses, and control risks.
PMP® Stakeholder Management
Stakeholder management involves identifying and engaging individuals or groups affected by the project. Stakeholders are classified based on power, urgency, and legitimacy, with engagement strategies tailored accordingly. The stakeholder engagement assessment matrix visualizes current and desired involvement levels. Skills for stakeholder management include interpersonal and managerial abilities. The processes include identify stakeholders, plan stakeholder engagement, manage stakeholder engagement, and monitor stakeholder engagement.
PMP® Scope Management 5th Edition
Project scope management ensures the project includes all and only the work required to complete the project successfully. It involves managing both the product scope and the project scope. Key activities include constant monitoring to prevent scope creep and gold plating. The processes include plan scope management, collect requirements, define scope, create WBS, validate scope, and control scope.
PMP® Integration Management
Project integration management unifies and consolidates project elements, managing interdependencies among knowledge areas. It involves developing the project charter, creating the project management plan, directing and managing project work, monitoring and controlling project work, performing integrated change control, and closing the project or phase.
PMP® Develop Project Charter
The project charter authorizes the project, with inputs including the project statement of work, business case, agreements, enterprise environmental factors, and organizational process assets. Techniques include expert judgment and facilitation. The project charter contains high-level requirements and is signed by the project sponsor.
Project Life Cycle vs Project Management process
The project life cycle addresses what to do to get the work done, varying by industry. The project management process addresses how to manage the project, with processes applicable across industries. The project management processes are divided into initiating, planning, executing, monitoring and controlling, and closing process groups.
PMP Earned Value Management
Earned value management (EVM) tracks project progress against the plan, measuring performance objectively. Key terms include planned value, earned value, actual cost, budget at completion, estimate at completion, and variance at completion. Formulas are used to calculate cost variance, schedule variance, cost performance index (CPI), and schedule performance index (SPI).
PMP® Critical Path Methods
The critical path method (CPM) determines the longest path through a network diagram, representing the shortest time to complete the project. Float is the buffer time available to complete an activity. Techniques like forward pass and backward pass are used to calculate float. Schedule compression techniques, such as fast tracking and crashing, can impact project outcomes.
Top 10 Project Management Tools 2020
Project management tools streamline project management processes, offering features like simplicity, customization, API integration, collaboration, risk analysis, and real-time reporting. Top tools include monday.com, Wrike, Jira Software, Trello, Asana, Teamwork, MeisterTask, Basecamp, Oracle Primavera, and Microsoft Project.
Trello Tutorial
Trello is a collaboration tool for organizing projects into boards, offering features like easy setup, Kanban system, mobile app, and centralized project items. Creating a board involves setting visibility, adding descriptions, and using power-ups for additional features. Lists represent processes, and cards represent subtopics, with options to add members, labels, checklists, attachments, and covers.
Agile Project Management Tutorial
Agile project management is a flexible approach that breaks projects into sprints, delivering sections of the project incrementally. The agile development cycle includes a product backlog, sprint backlog, and sprints with planning, designing, execution, testing, and deployment stages. Reasons for adopting agile include high product quality, customer satisfaction, reduced risk, and faster ROI. Principles include customer satisfaction, embracing change, collaboration, and simplicity. Frameworks include Kanban, Scrum, hybrid, and lean.
PMP 6th Edition Training Video
The PMP certification, offered by the Project Management Institute (PMI), is an internationally recognized credential for project managers. Eligibility criteria include experience and education in project management. The PMP exam covers five process groups, ten knowledge areas, and 49 processes. The PMBOK Guide is the official guide used for PMP preparation.
Top 10 Reasons To Get PMP Certified
Top reasons to get PMP certified include becoming a better project manager, enhancing resume value, increasing job opportunities, earning higher salaries, validating dedication, gaining global acknowledgment, improving project performance, expanding networking, ensuring job security, and developing expertise in practical application.
Project Manager Roles And Responsibilities
A project manager manages projects, playing an integral role from initiation to closure. Must-have skills include strong communication, effective leadership, team management, negotiation, critical thinking, and risk management. Roles and responsibilities include setting project scope, developing a project plan, setting deadlines, managing the budget, maintaining communication, identifying and evaluating risks, tracking team performance, and providing reports.
Project Manager Interview Questions And Answers
Common project manager interview questions cover defining a project, the project charter, project scope, the project life cycle, the importance of process groups, knowledge areas, stakeholder analysis, project management tools, and the significance of monitoring and controlling. Additional questions address earned value management, risk management, and conflict resolution.
