Introduction to project management

According to PMI PMBOK, a project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result. A project is a temporary in the sense that it has a defined starting date and end date. The output of the project or the product, service, or result the project creates is called deliverable. An example of a deliverable a project produces includes building, software, humanitarian intervention, new vaccine and new train railway. A project brings business value to the organization. It my change the current state of the organization (for example offline banking) to new state (online banking),

According to PMI PMBOK, project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities to meet the project requirements. The project manager uses those set of hard and soft tools to execute the project

The project manager is appointed by the organization to manage the project and direct the project team. The project manager is required to

• project manager integrates all project processes and establishes communication between all stakeholders
• project manager negotiates with functional manager for resources in functional organizations
• project managers becomes advocate for project management competency in the organization

The project manager is required to possess key skills to successfully manage the project. Hard skills includes budgeting, planning, scheduling, analysis, and reporting. Soft skills include negotiation, communication, influencing, active listening, facilitation, and conflict management.

There are different development approaches in project management to create the deliverable. This include predictive approaches and Agile. In predictive cycle, detailed planning is done at the beginning of the project and the executed all activities at once. After execution a single delivery of the deliverable is made. In Agile cycle, planning of work is done in fixed timebox called sprint planning. The scope is divided into increments and each increment is delivered in sprints. The advantage of Agile is that the most valuable products are delivered in the first increments.

In all project management approaches, the project manager is required to address all project risks to increase the benefits that will be realized after the project is executed

Abdiasis Jama, PMP