Project Management

Fore Casting for Activity Cost Control For Project Management & control using only past records of cost & revenue incurred is not sufficient. Good managers should focus on future revenue, future cost & technical problems. Project Management Training & Advance Project Management Certification Budgeted Cost Budgeted cost is derived from detailed cost estimate prepared at the start of the project. Estimated Cost The estimated cost or forecast total cost in each category is the current best estimate of costs based on progress and any changes since the budget was formed. . Estimated total cost are the sum of cost to date, commitments and exposure. Cost Overruns:- Overruns in cost might be due to lower than expected productivity, higher than expected wages rates, higher than expected material cost or any other factor. Low productivity can be due to inadequate training or lack of required resource such as equipment & tools. Forecast Total...

The Project Budget For cost control of the project, the construction plan and associated cash flow estimates can provide the baseline reference for subsequent project monitoring and control. The detailed cost estimate provides baseline for the assessment of financial performance during the project. If the cost of project is within the detailed cost estimate then the project is under financial control. Overruns in cost category gives signal of problem. For control & monitoring purposes , the original detailed cost estimate is typically converted to a project budget. Expenses incurred during the course of a project are recorded in specific job cost accounts to be compared with the original cost estimates in each category. Individual job cost accounts generally represent the basic unit for cost control. Material & Labor Cost Material quantity & labor inputs within each job account is also typically retained in the project budget. With this  act...

In the above network diagram there are three possible paths 1) Start → A→C→E→End→5+3+2=10 Days 2) Start → B→D→E→End→4+6+2=12 Days 3) Start → B→D→F→End→4+6+6=16 Days Out of three paths 3) is the longest as it takes 16 to deliver all three activities. This is the critical path This above process is called as critical path. Crashing - Adding more resources to any activity on critical path activities. Fast Tracking : Re - sequencing activities in the network diagram to gain time benefits.

Lets start with the techniques to calculate Duration 1) Analogous Estimating 2) Parametric Estimating 3) Three-point estimating Analogous estimating :- Comparing to similar activities on other projects is the concept of this technique. This particular technique requires historical data to compare.  www.ebeescorp.com Parametric Estimating:- Dependent on various parameters used for an activity. Multiplication of base unit of a parameter times of parameter size would give effort. Three - point estimation:- Here we take pessimistic , optimistic and realistic estimates for an activity. Schedule Development:- Schedule or Program is a plan for an activity or event. We make schedule for every event of life. The major components are activity. Free Slack:- The amount of time an activity can be delayed by not affecting successor. Total Slack:- The amount of time an activity can be delayed without delaying the end of project. Project Slack:- The amount of time a p...

Project Time Management is basically collection of following steps: 1) Activity Definition 2) Sequencing 3) Estimate resources & Duration 4) Develop Schedule & Control it Milestone List :- Project can't be controlled against single end point. There should be some intermediate control points. Management can check the project performance against those intermediate Milestones. Activity Definition:- Breaking down of WBS or big work into small and manageable activities. There are two sequencing diagrams or network diagrams. 1) Activity on Node 2) Activity on Arrow. Activity on Node or precedence Diagram Method :- Nodes represent activities and draw arrows to show the dependencies. Activity on arrow or Arrow Diagram Method :- Nodes are transition points (dependencies) and arrows represents activities.

Product scope is not project scope. A product can have multiple projects. Project Scope: The work that you need to deliver, includes meetings, reports , analysis which becomes project scope management plan. Stakeholder analysis: convert their needs, wants and expectations into requirement. Work Break Down Structure:- WBS: It breakdown into smaller and more manageable pieces called "Work Packages". This is known as Top-Down Approach. Granular Scoping In order to manage a scope , the project budget needs to be defined.  Accurate Time Capture Detailed working hours are required to be calculated for entire project Milestone Reconciliation Milestone reconciliation is identification of project health with respect to budget. As the budget has already been defined and working hours are calculated, now it can be ascertained if the project is under budget or over budget. Activity  Definition : Team has to break WBS into smaller manageable pieces ...

Process                                                              Project Phase                                  Key Deliverable Develop Project Charter                                Initiating                                        Project Charter   Develop Project Management Plan               Planning                                Project Management Plan Direct & Manage Project Execution          ...

Over the last decade Project Management has experienced  tremendous growth. Modern project management is emerging as a separate discipline and is crucial today for enterprises to maintain a competitive edge. Project Management is an art and science of converting vision into reality.. Project means projection. Project Management profession is as old as the human civilization. The basic processes of project management have not changed. These processes are :- Initiating , planning, execution , control and completion. We are living in a momentous time slot. Time is becoming the most crucial strategic weapon to gain a better market share or supremacy. Everything should have been done yesterday is the kind of syndrome , we all live by. Project management discipline is growing and growing more momentum. Fortune magazine had rated project management as the career choice #1. More and more companies are putting their employees through formal training programs on pr...

For a very long time I wanted to discuss about usage of documentation in Indian industry. If we talk in Indian context, Indian industry has still to come, to the terms of using documentation wisely. Indian industry understands usage of SAP /ERP will remove loopholes in the process. Or in other terms will increase transparency as well as increase accountability. But, everybody needs to understand that most project managers needs is to get swamped in paperwork. But without at least some documentation, a project is more likely to go astray. But, in most of the projects, it is seen that project related financial decision going through the same route and getting lost in the process and delaying the whole project. Think like a functional manager.

Again, I will quote from Tata-McGraw-Hill book on  Project Management,"In some ways, leading a project is much like leading  a department: you need to coordinate the efforts of people with diverse backgrounds and skills in hopes of getting the best overall result.But, in other ways, leading a project is very different. For one thing, the people you're bringing together may not know each other. Second, a project by definition is unique; it has never been done before.Third, unlike a department head, a project leader may have no direct authority or control over the members of the team." www.ebeescorp.com "To some extent , project success will depend on personality traits like honesty, tolerance for ambiguity, and openness. But equally important are the skills required to make a process go smoothly:paying constant attention to communication ( making sure that you, the project sponsors, and the team members are clear on boundaries and expectations), documenting the pr...

Best lesson in project management is terminate unworthy projects . I always thought that terminating an unworthy project is bad for "reputation" of company.But, then I came across a book "Project Management by TATA-McGraw -Hill, & the first paragraph was:"The most fundamental objective of a project is to achieve business results.That means providing a certain amount of return on the proposed investment.Yet in too many organizations, management gets complacent, allowing approved projects to proceed without any further assessment of likely payback. As a result, projects that are no longer profitable are allowed to continue on to completion." We learnt it the hard-way, we took a metro project in Delhi. The management of the project was very poor. There was too much corruption on the project,because of which only preferred vendor's were given priority.We learnt about all this after starting the work. But we continued with the projects as we felt, leavi...

How do we use project management in Indian construction industry. Are we following the rules of project management in true sense. So, the first question which comes to our mind is, What is project management? Project Management Training Is it applicable to civil or mechanical or IT? So, I would say, it is applicable to every domain. For a very long time , I have been saying that project management professionals are not domain bound. Or in other way, they are not restricted to any domain. We have been training project management & project management software's http://www.ebeescorp.com/projectmanagement.html for the last ten years. We have given consultancy, as well. Thus, we have very fair idea of implementation of project management in India. Let me come to my first question, what is project management? Project management can be defined as the adept use of techniques and skills (hard & soft) in planning and controlling tasks and resources needed for the projec...