What is a project?
A project is a temporary and goal-oriented endeavour undertaken to create a unique product, system, process or service that meets specified requirements within defined constraints such as time, cost, quality, scope and resources.
What are the key characteristics of a project in engineering?
- Temporary (defined Duration)
- Unique
- Defined objectives
- Constraints
- Multidisciplinary nature
- Risk and uncertainty
What are the phases of a project lifecycle?
- Initiation
- Planning and design
- Execution/implementation
- Monitoring and control
- Closure
What has been the trend in project management growth?
Growth lately is in internal projects such as developing a new product, opening a new branch, and improving the services provided.
Which historical projects exemplify early project management?
- Tower of babel
- Egyptian pyramids
- Great wall of china
What are some examples of large-scale projects?
- Channel tunnel (Chunnel)
- Denver International Airport
- Panama Canal expansion project
- Three Gorges Dam, China
What are some advantages of project management?
- Achieves objectives efficiently
- Provides a structured way to reach goals under constraints
- Manages complexity
- Reduces risk
- Improves communication and collaboration
- Ensures quality and standards
- Drives innovation and continuous improvement
True or False: 90% of projects fail due to poor project execution.
True
What are the challenges in project management?
- Meeting strategic goals
- Linking strategic goals with tactical elements
- Streamlining decision making
- Coping with ambiguity and complexity
What is the purpose of a business case in project management?
- Cost of projects
- Benefits
- Non-negotiable factors
- Strategic justification
- Expected behavioural impacts
What are the types of project selection models?
- Nonnumeric models
- Numeric models
- Hybrid models
What are characteristics of nonnumeric models?
- Sacred cow
- Operating necessity
- Competitive necessity
- Product line extension
- Comparative benefit
- Sustainability
Fill in the blank: The _______ is the length of time until the project has recouped the original investment.
Payback Period
What is discounted cash flow?
Cash inflows and outflows in today’s dollars value, including the time value of money.
What is the Weighted Factor Scoring Model?
A specific type of scoring model where each criterion is assigned a weight based on its relative importance.
What are the advantages of scoring models?
- Allows multiple criteria
- Structurally simple
- Intuitive and reflect actual thinking process
- Easily altered
What does W-O-O stand for?
Window of Opportunity
What is the purpose of the project portfolio process?
- Identify non-projects
- Prioritize the list of projects
- Limit the number of projects
- Identify projects with a good fit
What are the steps in the project portfolio process?
- Establish a project council
- Identify project categories and criteria
- Collect project data
- Assess resource availability
- Reduce the project and criteria set
- Prioritize the projects within categories
- Select the projects to be funded and held in reserve
- Implement the process
What is the role of top management in project improvement best practices?
Top management involvement is crucial for getting the most feedback, dedicating resources, and having robust processes.
What is the significance of a project council?
It includes senior management, project managers, and other key stakeholders who can identify opportunities and risks.
What is discovery-driven planning?
A method used to fund enough of the project to determine if the initial assumptions were accurate.
What are symptoms of a misaligned project portfolio?
- More projects
- Inconsistent determination of benefits
- Competing projects
- Costs exceed benefits
What are some key characteristics of Agile Project Management?
- Prioritize individuals and interactions over process and tools
- Working product over comprehensive documentation
- Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
- Responding to change by following a plan
