CHAPTER 1
Introduction to Project Management
LEARNING OBJECTIVES—
This chapter presents a broad introduction to project management. After completing this
chapter, each student should be able to perform the following:
Define a project in your own words using characteristics that are common to most
projects and describe reasons why more organizations are using project
management.
Describe major activities and deliverables at each project life cycle stage.
List and define the ten knowledge areas and five process groups of the project
management body of knowledge (PMBOK®).
Delineate measures of project success and failure and reasons for both.
Contrast predictive or plan-driven and adaptive or change-driven project life cycle
approaches.
Identify project roles and distinguish key responsibilities for each.
TEACHING STRATEGIES
Each chapter starts with learning objectives stated in measurable form as shown
above. If you start with slides that list the objectives, you can emphasize that the
students need to be able to accomplish each. I find it helpful to paraphrase a few of
them and pick one to ask the students why they think it is included.
Many students will not have read the first chapter before the first class. Mike’s
introductory essay on how he successfully climbed Mount Aconcagua (second
highest of the Seven Summits after Mount Everest) whereas others died in the
attempt is a great attention getter.
I believe in active learning, so I include at least one breakout session every hour.
These are often preceded by an introduction of the material and I pose at least one
, question or framework for the students to follow. I find a few simple rules are fun
for the students and encourage participation. I always ask one person to record
what the group discussed/decided. I ask a different person to be the group’s
spokesperson – that way at least two people stay alert. I also always ask the
spokesperson to state what they learned from the exercise and “ditto” does not
count. That means they cannot take the easy way out and say another group took
their idea. This encourages volunteers to report first and forces teams to think
beyond the obvious lesson and think creatively. If there are points I especially want
to emphasize, I will summarize by repeating the points (and crediting the groups
who made them) or introducing them if no group mentioned them. The first
example breakout session follows.
Once we briefly cover what a project is (students in discussion will provide
examples) and why project management is important, I ask the students to work in
groups of four or five with large paper or sections of a chalk or white board. I ask
them to describe project success and reasons for each for about 10 minutes.
Alternatively, you can ask the students to describe project failure and the causes of
it. Either way, you set the expectation that students will actively participate in every
class. It also serves as in introduction to the need to develop both soft and hard
skills.
Since some students enjoy software, I mention MS Project early. An easy way to do
this is to have the students look at the inside front cover on the left to see what MS
Project is used for and where it is covered in the book.
I like to cover the concept of project life cycles. It is easy to use a house-building
project as an example since the walk-through to inspect the project result helps
students envision the idea of an approval to pass from one stage to the next.
The increasing popularity of the agile (adaptive or change-driven) approach to
projects creates another opportunity for discussion. You can introduce the
extremes of totally plan-driven versus totally adaptive project schedules and ask
what type of projects might lend themselves to each and what are some of the
advantages and disadvantages of each. This discussion can culminate with the idea
that contemporary project management can use parts of both and that we will
explore differences throughout the course. An agile icon appears in the margin in
many places in the text where either different methods and/or different
terminology is used in agile versus plan-driven approaches. The corresponding text
is in alternate color to call attention to it.
An introduction to PMI® is useful. It sets the stage for discussing accreditation,
process groups, knowledge areas, glossary terms, and special interest groups. I take
this opportunity to encourage students to become student members at a greatly
reduced cost.
Several features of this text help a student to understand The Guide to the Project
management Body of Knowledge 5th ed. (PMBOK® Guide). This most current version
of the guide is what students will need to completely understand if the wish to
, challenge a Project Management Professional (PMP) or Certified Associate in Project
management (CAPM) certification exam.
1. You can ask the students to look at the inside front cover of the book on the
right side to see both how the PMBOK® Guide is structured and exactly
where each process is covered in the text.
2. You can also have the students turn to the back inside cover for a flowchart
of the processes in the order in which they should be performed. This is not
a complete PMBOK® Guide flowchart as that would be quite lengthy and
confusing, but rather one that emphasizes primarily the things students will
need to learn to create the various planning and control documents that will
help them plan and manage a project. One slide is available in the
PowerPoint deck of the overall flowchart and several smaller sections of the
flowchart are available as slides also so when you introduce topics, you
might also want to remind students visually where they are in the planning
flow.
3. The PMBOK® Guide topics for each chapter are listed in the margins of the
second chapter page.
4. Key terms from the PMBOK® Guide are listed immediately after the project
summary.
5. These key terms are defined in the glossary on page 443.
6. At the end of each chapter one assessment section is PMBOK® Guide
questions. These questions are very similar to CAPM and PMP exam
questions. In fact, Tom McCabe, PMP, who wrote these questions, was on
the PMI committee that updated the PMBOK® Guide to the fifth edition.
Correct answers to each of these questions along with page references from
both this text and the PMBOK® Guide appear in this IM.
7. Finally, Appendix A starting on page 439, is a summary of study suggestions
for anyone who wishes to take one of the certification exams. I have taught
many exam preparation classes both for PMI and for private providers. This
brief set of suggestions are a quick summary from my teaching prep classes
since 1991.
The Project Customer Tradeoff Matrix gives the opportunity to discuss how a
project manager can make consistently better decisions by fully understanding the
customer. It also is an early opportunity to discuss the challenges of honest, open
communications and ethical challenges that can arise. I like to use two different
projects in the same industry that made different trade-off decisions as an example.
For me it is easy since we built our on-campus arena with a strong emphasis on cost
control and had to play one more season in our old facility while one of the
professional teams in town placed so much emphasis on playing their entire season
in their new stadium that their overrun cost more than our entire arena!
Project roles are briefly introduced here, but described in much greater detail in
Chapter 3. You may wish to tell your students that even though they are studying to
, be project managers, it is important for them to understand other roles that need to
be accomplished. Project managers spend a large percentage of their time
communicating and these roles describe many of the people with whom they will
communicate.
I like to use real projects as teaching vehicles. The end of Chapter 1 is a good place
to introduce the projects. See specific ideas in example project section below.
LECTURE AND WORKSHOP OUTLINE
1.1 What is a project?
Project -“a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or
result” PMBOK® Guide 553.
Each project has unique stakeholders “individual, group or organization who may
affect, be affected by, or perceive itself to be affected by a decision, activity, or
outcome of a project” PMBOK® Guide 563.
Project management “the application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to
project activities to meet project requirements” PMBOK® Guide 554.
1.2 History of Project Management
All through history projects have been conducted
Formal discipline starting 1950s – scheduling and control
Recent years – more focus on communications and leadership
1.3 How Can Project Work be Described?
Projects vs. operations
Soft skills and hard skills
Authority and responsibility
Project life cycle
Introduction to Project Management
LEARNING OBJECTIVES—
This chapter presents a broad introduction to project management. After completing this
chapter, each student should be able to perform the following:
Define a project in your own words using characteristics that are common to most
projects and describe reasons why more organizations are using project
management.
Describe major activities and deliverables at each project life cycle stage.
List and define the ten knowledge areas and five process groups of the project
management body of knowledge (PMBOK®).
Delineate measures of project success and failure and reasons for both.
Contrast predictive or plan-driven and adaptive or change-driven project life cycle
approaches.
Identify project roles and distinguish key responsibilities for each.
TEACHING STRATEGIES
Each chapter starts with learning objectives stated in measurable form as shown
above. If you start with slides that list the objectives, you can emphasize that the
students need to be able to accomplish each. I find it helpful to paraphrase a few of
them and pick one to ask the students why they think it is included.
Many students will not have read the first chapter before the first class. Mike’s
introductory essay on how he successfully climbed Mount Aconcagua (second
highest of the Seven Summits after Mount Everest) whereas others died in the
attempt is a great attention getter.
I believe in active learning, so I include at least one breakout session every hour.
These are often preceded by an introduction of the material and I pose at least one
, question or framework for the students to follow. I find a few simple rules are fun
for the students and encourage participation. I always ask one person to record
what the group discussed/decided. I ask a different person to be the group’s
spokesperson – that way at least two people stay alert. I also always ask the
spokesperson to state what they learned from the exercise and “ditto” does not
count. That means they cannot take the easy way out and say another group took
their idea. This encourages volunteers to report first and forces teams to think
beyond the obvious lesson and think creatively. If there are points I especially want
to emphasize, I will summarize by repeating the points (and crediting the groups
who made them) or introducing them if no group mentioned them. The first
example breakout session follows.
Once we briefly cover what a project is (students in discussion will provide
examples) and why project management is important, I ask the students to work in
groups of four or five with large paper or sections of a chalk or white board. I ask
them to describe project success and reasons for each for about 10 minutes.
Alternatively, you can ask the students to describe project failure and the causes of
it. Either way, you set the expectation that students will actively participate in every
class. It also serves as in introduction to the need to develop both soft and hard
skills.
Since some students enjoy software, I mention MS Project early. An easy way to do
this is to have the students look at the inside front cover on the left to see what MS
Project is used for and where it is covered in the book.
I like to cover the concept of project life cycles. It is easy to use a house-building
project as an example since the walk-through to inspect the project result helps
students envision the idea of an approval to pass from one stage to the next.
The increasing popularity of the agile (adaptive or change-driven) approach to
projects creates another opportunity for discussion. You can introduce the
extremes of totally plan-driven versus totally adaptive project schedules and ask
what type of projects might lend themselves to each and what are some of the
advantages and disadvantages of each. This discussion can culminate with the idea
that contemporary project management can use parts of both and that we will
explore differences throughout the course. An agile icon appears in the margin in
many places in the text where either different methods and/or different
terminology is used in agile versus plan-driven approaches. The corresponding text
is in alternate color to call attention to it.
An introduction to PMI® is useful. It sets the stage for discussing accreditation,
process groups, knowledge areas, glossary terms, and special interest groups. I take
this opportunity to encourage students to become student members at a greatly
reduced cost.
Several features of this text help a student to understand The Guide to the Project
management Body of Knowledge 5th ed. (PMBOK® Guide). This most current version
of the guide is what students will need to completely understand if the wish to
, challenge a Project Management Professional (PMP) or Certified Associate in Project
management (CAPM) certification exam.
1. You can ask the students to look at the inside front cover of the book on the
right side to see both how the PMBOK® Guide is structured and exactly
where each process is covered in the text.
2. You can also have the students turn to the back inside cover for a flowchart
of the processes in the order in which they should be performed. This is not
a complete PMBOK® Guide flowchart as that would be quite lengthy and
confusing, but rather one that emphasizes primarily the things students will
need to learn to create the various planning and control documents that will
help them plan and manage a project. One slide is available in the
PowerPoint deck of the overall flowchart and several smaller sections of the
flowchart are available as slides also so when you introduce topics, you
might also want to remind students visually where they are in the planning
flow.
3. The PMBOK® Guide topics for each chapter are listed in the margins of the
second chapter page.
4. Key terms from the PMBOK® Guide are listed immediately after the project
summary.
5. These key terms are defined in the glossary on page 443.
6. At the end of each chapter one assessment section is PMBOK® Guide
questions. These questions are very similar to CAPM and PMP exam
questions. In fact, Tom McCabe, PMP, who wrote these questions, was on
the PMI committee that updated the PMBOK® Guide to the fifth edition.
Correct answers to each of these questions along with page references from
both this text and the PMBOK® Guide appear in this IM.
7. Finally, Appendix A starting on page 439, is a summary of study suggestions
for anyone who wishes to take one of the certification exams. I have taught
many exam preparation classes both for PMI and for private providers. This
brief set of suggestions are a quick summary from my teaching prep classes
since 1991.
The Project Customer Tradeoff Matrix gives the opportunity to discuss how a
project manager can make consistently better decisions by fully understanding the
customer. It also is an early opportunity to discuss the challenges of honest, open
communications and ethical challenges that can arise. I like to use two different
projects in the same industry that made different trade-off decisions as an example.
For me it is easy since we built our on-campus arena with a strong emphasis on cost
control and had to play one more season in our old facility while one of the
professional teams in town placed so much emphasis on playing their entire season
in their new stadium that their overrun cost more than our entire arena!
Project roles are briefly introduced here, but described in much greater detail in
Chapter 3. You may wish to tell your students that even though they are studying to
, be project managers, it is important for them to understand other roles that need to
be accomplished. Project managers spend a large percentage of their time
communicating and these roles describe many of the people with whom they will
communicate.
I like to use real projects as teaching vehicles. The end of Chapter 1 is a good place
to introduce the projects. See specific ideas in example project section below.
LECTURE AND WORKSHOP OUTLINE
1.1 What is a project?
Project -“a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or
result” PMBOK® Guide 553.
Each project has unique stakeholders “individual, group or organization who may
affect, be affected by, or perceive itself to be affected by a decision, activity, or
outcome of a project” PMBOK® Guide 563.
Project management “the application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to
project activities to meet project requirements” PMBOK® Guide 554.
1.2 History of Project Management
All through history projects have been conducted
Formal discipline starting 1950s – scheduling and control
Recent years – more focus on communications and leadership
1.3 How Can Project Work be Described?
Projects vs. operations
Soft skills and hard skills
Authority and responsibility
Project life cycle
