BA421:

Lesson 1: Introduction to Project Management

What Is a Project?

Most, if not all, of us have managed and executed projects of some kind, knowingly or unknowingly. For instance, organizing a birthday party, a wedding, or a vacation, or building or modifying your own home are all examples of a project. In short, all of us have managed a project—successfully or unsuccessfully.

Characteristics of Projects

All of the projects listed above have the following common characteristics:

• Definite start and end dates: We don't start working on a birthday party project a year in advance. Usually, we start working a few weeks ahead of time, with the end date being the day of the party.
• A well-defined objective: The objective could be a fun-filled party, a vacation, or some other event. 
• A series of independent tasks or activities: For example, to order wedding invitation cards, you must first determine the guest list; to place an order for catering, you must know in advance how many guests will actually turn up for the wedding party; and so on.
• A unique or one-time event: Birthday parties don't happen every day, every week, or even every month.
• Assigned responsibilities: This may involve a single individual or group of people working together, but all will have clearly defined responsibilities. 
• A plan and a budget: After all, few of us can afford to throw a million dollar party or enjoy a vacation in the Bahamas.
• Many stakeholders: A wedding may have several stakeholders, such as the various suppliers (decorators, a caterer, hall provider, transportation provider, etc.), relatives and friends, and of course, the couple themselves.
• Some degree of uncertainty: For instance, you may have to cancel the party or vacation due to inclement weather, illness, or some other reason. 

Therefore, a project is a temporary activity with a definite starting date, specific goals and conditions, defined responsibilities, a budget, a plan, a fixed end date, and multiple parties involved. 

Examples of Projects

The following projects are larger in scale than a birthday party or vacation, yet they also have the characteristics of projects listed above:

• Think about the United States presidential election. Each candidate engaged in a project to meet one goal: to be elected president. There was a deadline (election day), a budget (fundraised), resources to be managed on their committees, and numerous stakeholders (the electorate, the candidates’ individual parties, their families, the media).

• Penn State engages in hundreds of research projects every year, on a wide variety of topics. Each project has a budget, resources, scope, and schedule that need to be managed. Projects in the news at Penn State can be found here: Penn State Research.

What Is a Project Manager?

To manage a project, you need a team of committed people. You also need a person who will lead the group, providing direction and motivation for others. The role of the leader and their team is to plan all the activities pertaining to the project, ensure the successful execution of each activity within the estimated time and budgets, monitor and control any time or budget overruns, and take timely action to fix any problems. The leader will ensure that the project objectives are achieved smoothly through trade-offs among the scope, quality, cost, and schedule (more on this later).

In the context of a project, the leader is known as the project manager (PM).