Effective Project Management

• Book Title: Effective Project Management
• Author: James P. Clements & Jack Gido
• Year written/published: 2006
• Book Source: Google Books, Library
• Summary: Project Management theories and tools
• My Comments: This book is a textbook… typically for business students. But i needed a - structured book like this to get an overview of what is Project management
• Contents page:

1. Project Management Concepts
2. Needs Identification
3. Proposed Solutions
4. The Project
5. Planning
6. Scheduling
7. Schedule Control
8. Resource Consideration
9. Cost Planning and Performance
10. Project Manager
11. Project Team
12. Project Communication and Documentation
13. Types of Project Organisation

Some extracts: Project Management Process…

1. Clearly define the project objective
2. Divide and sub-divide the project scope into major pieces
3. Define the activities for each work
4. Graphically portray the activities in the form of a network diagram
5. Make a time estimate for how long it will take to complete each activity
6. Make a cost estimate for each acitivity

Project Selection

1. Develop a set of criteria against which the opportunity will be evaluated
2. List assumptions and information for each opportunity
3. Evaluate each opportunity against the criteria

Guidelines for drafting a formal request for proposal external contractors

1. An RFP (request for proposal) must provide a statement of work
2. an RFP must include the customer requirements, which define specifications and attributes
3. The RFP should state what deliverables the customer expects the contractor or project team to provide
4. The RFP should list any customer-supplied items
5. The RFP might state the approvals required by the customer
6. Some RFPs mention the type of contract the customer intends to use
7. An RFP might state the payment terms the customer intends to use
8. The RFP should state the required schedule for completion of the project
9. the RFP should indicate the due date by which the customer expects potential contractors to submit proposals
10. an RFP may include the evaluation criteria

Proposal contents…

1. Technical
2. Management
3. Cost

management section…

1. Description on work tasks
2. Deliverables
3. Project Schedule
4. Project Organisation
5. Related experience
6. Equipment and facilities

Cost Section

1. Labour
2. Materials
3. Subcontractors and consultants
4. Equipment and facilities rental
5. Travel
6. Documentation
7. Overhead
8. Escalation
9. Contingency
10. Fee or profit

Pricing Consideration

1. Reliability of the cost estimates
2. risk
3. value of the project to the contractor
4. customer’s budget
5. Competition

Internal post-project evaluation

1. Technical performance
2. cost performance
3. Schedule Performance
4. Project planning and control
5. customer relationships
6. team relation ships
7. communications
8. problem identification and resolution
9. recommendations

Some tools…

1. network diagram
2. responsibility matrix
3. Gantt Chart

project cost…

1. labour
2. materials
3. subcontractors and consultants
4. equipment and facilities rental
5. travel

cost performance analysis…

1. total budget cost
2. cumulative budgeted cost
3. cumulative actual cost
4. cumulative earned value

developing skills to be a project manager

1. gain experience
2. seek out feedback form others
3. conduct a self-evaluation
4. interview project managers
5. participate in training programs
6. join orgnisations
7. read
8. volunteer

effective project team…

1. clear understanding of the project objective
2. clear expectations of each person’s role and responsibilities
3. results orientation
4. high degree of cooperation and collaboration
5. high level of trust

types of project meetings

1. status review meetings
2. problem solving meetings
3. technical design review meetings