Get to Know Project Management Fundamentals

Learning Objectives

After completing this unit, you will be able to:

• Define project management.
• Describe the roles and responsibilities of project managers.
• Explain the lifecycle of a project.

Get to Know Walden University

Trailhead is excited to collaborate with Walden University on this trail about project management. Walden University, an accredited university, was founded in 1970 to support the academic needs of working professionals. Walden was among the first universities to launch online programs, and today they’re continuing to evolve what education can be, finding new ways to give students flexibility, support, and top-level education.  

On this trail, you walk in the footsteps of project managers to better understand their role, explore practical project management tools, and apply approaches to real-world examples, highlighting skills and knowledge you can apply immediately to your own work.

Let’s get started!

Recognize the Project Manager Within

Have you ever remodeled a room in your home, planned a family reunion, or hosted an event? All of these are projects.

Before you started, did you plan the budget and timeline? Once you started, did you check off the tasks as they were completed? When the project was done, did you celebrate with those who helped you and talk about what went well and what you could do better next time?

These are all key things a project manager does! In this module, Walden University dives deeper into the essential elements of project management.

Project Management Grows Up

Project management was not always a recognized profession. People led projects long before we had a name for their efforts. Even as businesses began to recognize the importance of having an organized approach—and a leader—for projects, project management was often viewed as more of an informal role. 

This changed during the 1960s. From that time forward, several organizations have researched project management, identifying best practices and approaches. Among the leaders in the field is the Project Management Institute (PMI®), a global professional organization for project management. These organizations often publish best practices and approaches to help guide project management. An example is PMI’s A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide).

Call in the Project Manager

So what exactly is a project? All projects share certain characteristics. 

• Projects have a definite beginning and end.
• Projects produce a tangible or intangible result, typically a product or service that is unique.
• Projects differ from daily operations—they’re temporary, whereas operations are ongoing and repetitive.

How does project management work? Project management is a method of defining the approach for conducting activities to achieve a project goal or goals. Effective project management requires specific knowledge and skill. It also requires appropriate tools and techniques. 

So, what does a project manager do? Project managers are experts who plan projects, execute project plans, and lead teams to ensure project goals are met. Project managers are professionals, many of whom are professionally trained and certified. 

What Does Project Management Look Like?

Let’s apply the definitions of project, project management, and project manager to a business scenario.

You’re a facilities manager at a financial institution. Your company has decided to bring 30 employees back to the office following the pandemic. Federal regulations require that companies add space between the cubicles. This means that every work area must be reconfigured. Your manager has assigned you to lead a team to reconfigure the workspace on one floor of the building to accommodate the 30 employees. The work must begin within a week and be finished within 1 month. A budget of $25,000 has been allocated.

By definition, you’re the project manager for the workspace reconfiguration project. You have been appointed by your organization to lead a team to achieve the objective of the project: completing the reconfiguration of the workspace for 30 employees within 1 month. 

Where do you begin?

Explore the Project Lifecycle

The project lifecycle provides a framework for completing project work. The phases of a traditional, predictive project lifecycle include: 

• Initiate
• Plan
• Execute
• Monitor and Control
• Close

Initiate the Project

In the initiate phase, the project manager works with stakeholders to prepare a project charter. A project charter clearly defines the scope and objectives. After developing the charter, the project manager presents it to the leader or sponsor of the project for approval. With that approval, the project manager gains the authority to employ organizational resources and people to conduct the work. 

Develop the Plan

You have an approved project charter, what’s next? It’s time to dive into the details and develop the project management plan. The project management plan is a document used for executing, monitoring and controlling, as well as closing the project. The table outlines the components of a project plan and the details for each component. 

So, what does a project manager do in the planning phase? All of the above. Of course, project managers don’t work alone. They work across teams and delegate tasks to accomplish the project objective. 

Execute with Your Mighty Team

The execute phase is next. This phase is about performing the project activities. The project manager leads by directing project tasks as defined in the plan. Throughout this phase the team will produce deliverables that meet the goals of the project and satisfy customer requirements.

Monitor, Forecast, and Control

The monitoring and controlling phase includes regularly checking in on the progress, forecasting the outcome of the next steps, and controlling the project to ensure things are done within the scope, schedule, and budget. In this context, project control means to continuously review and track progress and performance, gauge the project’s status, and make adjustments as needed to ensure objectives are met.

Put It All Together

What does this all mean? Let’s look at these three components (scope, schedule, and cost) in the context of the workspace reconfiguration project you’re in charge of.

• Project scope defines all the work that must be done to deliver the outcome or result. The project scope statement describes precisely what is and what is not included in the project. For the workspace reconfiguration project, this means that the project manager must ensure that no more or less than 30 workspaces are reconfigured. Anything else is considered to be out of scope.
  
  
• Your company gave you a timeline of 1 month. It is now up to you to determine whether the project can be delivered in that time. This is done by developing a project schedule. A project schedule estimates the duration of the activities that must be performed to deliver the expected scope of the project.
  
  
• You have $25,000 for the workspace reconfiguration project. How do you know, though, if the cost of the project will meet that budget expectation? Using the activities defined in the project schedule, you estimate the cost of each of those activities and aggregate them to determine the total cost of the project.
  
  
• The close phase outlines the steps that should be taken to formally close a project. Closing processes include finalizing user acceptance of the product (your manager and stakeholders review the reconfiguration), administrative closure (your stakeholders approve of the changes), and project performance reflection and communications (everyone who contributed to the project is debriefed and feedback is collected). Why is it important to formally close projects?

Formally closing projects gives organizations an opportunity to reflect on what worked and what didn’t work. Those lessons learned can be shared so that other projects don’t repeat the same mistakes. More importantly, the successes are replicated to help other projects consistently meet quality requirements.

Dive Deeper Into Project Management Methodology

In the next unit, Walden University goes over traditional and Agile project management methodologies, the pros and cons, and when you should put one, the other, or a hybrid into practice.