Project Management Profession (PMP)
Project Management Profession (PMP) talks about how to manage a project professionally, effectively, and efficiently. Most importantly it covers the principles and applications of project managers from the views of the most effective and powerful project managements in the world. I mean it represents the international status (ANSI standards / PMI status). So it is not a view of a single author. It is historically has been tested throughout major projects worldwide. PMP covers 10 knowledge areas: Integration, Scope, Time, Cost, Quality, Human Resource, Communication, Risk Management, Procurements, and Stakeholders. Also European and American PMP principles are the
same. However, the only different is in certification and type of questions
asked in the exam.
-
The ten knowledge area of project management
are:
Project Integration Management
- The project manager is responsible for integrating all knowledge areas in order to put them as cohesive whole.
- All change request will be received as input here. So there will be evaluated and either approved or rejected.
- Program manager is the one manager of all project managers.
- Project Management Office (PMO) is highly important. It is where all the knowledge obtained from previous projects, experiences and problems are registered.
- It is critically important to understand both Organisational Process Assets and Enterprise Environmental Factors.
- Enterprise Environmental Factors are not related to pollution or wildlife. It about the organisational structure, political climate, marketplace condition, etc.
 |
| Figure (1): Integration management is the centre of all PMP knowledge areas. |
Project Scope Management
- Work Breakdown Structure (WBS): is created with the scope to subdivide project deliverables and projects into smaller, more manageable components.
- WBS Dictionary: A document that provides detailed deliverable, activity, and scheduling information about each component in the WBS. The WBS dictionary is a document that supports the WBS.
- Project charter is the first documentation in the project at its’ initiation phase. Which cover all the information needed from managers, authorities, recourses, stakeholders, specifications, deliverables, constraints, and project sponsor approval.
Project Time Management
- Critical Path Method “CPM” is the tool used to organise all the activates, durations, prerequisite and resources of the project.
- There are three types of project scheduling:
1) Milestone: Shows the schedule starts or completion of major deliverables. Usually used for reporting to higher management or customer.
2) Bar charts
(Gantt charts): Shows activity starts and end date, as well as, duration. This
method is easy to read. Therefore, it is frequently used in management
presentations.
3) Project
schedule network: Shows both the project logic and project critical path schedule
activates.
 |
| Figure (2): Bar chart vs project schedule network. |
- The project schedule network can show the total float, which cannot be shown with the bar chart.
- Total float is how many days a certain activity can be delayed without delaying the project.
- The critical activities will have zero float, which means that it cannot have any kind of delay. However, non-critical activities will have some float, which indicates the number of days that it can be delayed without delaying the project.
- Schedule project techniques are:
1) Crashing: Means
to target the critical areas of the project first. This can be done by working
overtime, bringing additional resources, or paying expedite.
2) Fast tracking:
To overlap between activities in parallel.
Project Cost Management
- This knowledge area can be divided to four sub-areas: Plan Costs, Estimate Costs, Determine Budget, and Control Costs.
- Analogous estimating is the technique used to either estimate from top to down (conceptual estimating) or from bottom to top (detailed estimating).
- A powerful technique to estimate the activity duration or cost is by “three-point estimating”.
- The equation used for three-point estimating = (Optimistic + 4x Most likely + Pessimistic) / 6.
Project Quality Management
- In the big industries, such as, car industry, the aim is to have a high quality car. Therefore, they try to reduce their error percentage to less than 0.01% or 0.001%, which known in quality management as “3 or 6 sigma rule”.
- A good project manager must differentiate between grade and quality. To have a high grade product is not as critical as to have a high quality product. For example, car “A” has all of the latest high tech features. However, the engine is not very reliable. This case is referred to as a “high grade, but low quality”. On the other hand, car “B” does not have the fancy features. But it is reliable, the customer can drive it for high mileages without mechanical issues. This scenario is known as “low grade, but high quality” Therefore, having a high quality project must always be the aim.
- Ishikawa diagram, also known as fishbone diagram, is used to find the potential causes of a certain problem. Solving problems will lead to a higher quality, and this diagram is normally used at the quality control stage.
 |
| Figure (3): An example of a fishbone diagram. |
Project Human Resources Management
 |
| Figure(4): Common words related to HR. |
- The six conflict resolving techniques are:
1) Avoiding/Withdrawing
2) Smoothing/Accommodating.
3) Compromising.
4) Forcing.
5) Collaborating.
6) Confronting/Problem
Solving.
P.S. The latest version of PMP combined
“Collaborating” and “Confronting/Problem Solving” under one technique.
Project Communications Management
- The methods of communication are:
1) Formal written: Used for complex problems, project charter, and communication over long distance.
2) Formal verbal:
Used in presentations and speeches.
3) Informal
written: These are written in form of memos, E-mails or notes.
4) Informal
verbal: Normally are in forms of meetings or conversations.
- All employees must have issue logs, to write down any issue they encounter in any area of the project.
Project Risk Management
 |
| Figure (5): Risk Management knowledge areas |
- The aim of this knowledge area is to identify risks into groups of political, social, religious, economical, technical, finical, psychological. after that analysing the risks quantitively and qualitatively, then determine risk responses and risk controls.
- In order to define the risks, project managers must know the probability and the impact of a certain risk. Then by multiplying these percentages, the significance of the risk can be calculated.
- The four strategies of negative risks are:
1) Avoid.
2) Accept.
3) Transfer.
4) Mitigate.
- The four strategies of negative risks are:
1) Exploit.
2) Share.
3) Enhance.
4) Accept.
Project Procurement Management
Project Stakeholders Management
- The four area of stakeholders management are:
1) Identify Stakeholders.
2) Plan Stakeholders.
3) Manage Stakeholders.
4) Control Stake holders.
To sum up, Project Management Institute (PMI), gathered the world top project mangers. Theses managers set the 10 knowledge areas; Integration, Scope, Time, Cost, Quality, Human Resource, Communication, Risk Management, Procurements, and Stakeholders. And each one of these areas has sub-areas. Therefore, the PMI established a total of 47 knowledge areas. Communication is the most important knowledge area. Finally, I would love to thank Handis Academy for their effort in setting this training course. Also big thank you to Prof. Nabil Qurtom for giving us two weeks of excellent teaching in PMP. The course went very smoothly and the time allocated was enough to understand the topics. The Professor showed great skills in explaining the PMP. I do recommend have the training course with the same professor.
 |
| Figure (6): A rememberable picture with the professor and the participants of the course. |
Comments
Post a Comment