Project Management: Course 2 Notes

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Project Initiation: Starting a Successful Project

Goal & Scope

SMART Method

For project goals & scope

S - Specific

M - Measurable

A - Attainable (Actionable, achievable)

R - Relevant (Realistic)

T - Time-bound

Specific: The objective has no ambiguity for the project team to misinterpret Measurable: Metrics help the project team determine when the objective is met Attainable: The project team agrees the objective is realistic Relevant: The goal fits the organization’s strategic plan and supports the project charter Time-bound: The project team documents a date to achieve the goal

Terms

OKR: Object and Key Results

Stakeholders

RACI Chart

For identifying stakeholders

R - Responsible A - Accountable C - Consulted I - Informed Responsible: Completes the deliverable or task. Accountable: Makes final decisions and signs off on task completion. Only 1 per task. Consulted: An advisor, stakeholder, or subject matter expert who offers guidance before an action is taken. Informed: Those needing to know final decisions or tasks are completed

Resources

Terms

Budget: The cost of the project

People: People to complete the project

Materials: Things needed to complete the project

Common aspect of a budget:

-   **Team**: the cost of the people performing the work
-   **Services**: any outside vendors helping your project
-   **Materials**: any tangible items purchased to complete the project

Project Proposal: Persuade stakeholders that a project should begin

Project Charter: Often comes at end of initiation phase, more clearly defines the key details of a project, benefits versus costs.

Project Charter

Project charters will vary but usually include some combination of the following key information:

-   introduction/project summary
-   goals/objectives
-   business case/benefits and costs
-   project team
-   scope
-   success criteria
-   major requirements or key deliverables
-   budget
-   schedule/timeline or milestones
-   constraints and assumptions
-   risks
-   OKR's
-   approvals

Glossary

Adoption: Refers to how the customer uses and adapts a product or service without any issues

Asana: A work management platorm that helps teams plan and coordinate their work; useful for building project plans, assigning tasks, automating workflows, tracking progress, and communicating with stakeholders

Benchmark: A point of reference

Benefits: Expected gains of a project

Budget: An estimate of the amount of money a project will cost to complete

Business case: The reason for initiating a project

Collaboration tools: Tools used to quickly and eficiently check in with team members on questions, comments, and other topics related to a project

Conditional formatting: A feature that adds automatic color coding to cells in a spreadsheet

Cost-benefit analysis: The process of adding up the expected value of a project—the benefits—and comparing them to the dollar costs

Customers: The people who will get some value from a successfully-landed project

Data validation: A feature that adds dropdown lists to cells in a spreadsheet

Deliverable: A tangible outcome from a project; what gets produced or presented at the end of a task, event, or process

Docs: A digital word processing application

Engagement: Refers to how often or meaningful customer interaction and participation is over time

Function: A feature that generates formulas which can be used to manipulate data and perform calculations in a spreadsheet

Gantt chart: A horizontal bar chart that illustrates a project’s tasks, with clear breakdowns of who’s responsible for the work and when those tasks are due

Header: The top cell or cells in a column in a spreadsheet

Influence: Measures how much power a stakeholder has and how much the stakeholder’s actions affect the project outcome

Initiation: The first phase within the project life cycle, followed by planning, executing, and closing

In-scope: Tasks that are included in the project plan and contribute to the project’s goal

Intangible benefits: Gains that are not measurable or quantifiable, such as customer or employee satisfaction or brand recognition

Intangible costs: A cost that cannot easily be quantified, such as loss of employee morale or brand damage.

Interest: Refers to how much the needs of the stakeholder will be affected by project outcomes

Key results: The part of an OKR that describes measurable outcomes that objectively define when the objective has been met

Key stakeholders: The people with the highest amount of influence on and interest in a project; also called “key players”

Land: To measure the success of a project using the success criteria established at the outset of the project

Launch: To deliver the final result of a project to the client or user

Materials: Items needed to help get the project done

Metrics: Data used to measure something, like numbers or figures

Objective: The part of an OKR that defines what needs to be achieved and describes a desired outcome

Objectives and key results (OKRs): A combination of a goal and a metric to determine a measurable outcome

Out-of-scope: Tasks that are not included in the project plan and don’t contribute to the project’s goal

Pivot table: A basic analysis tool used to summarize data and show the relationships between data points, making it easier to understand the information contained in a spreadsheet

Power grid: A two-by-two grid used for conducting a stakeholder analysis; shows stakeholder interest in the project versus their influence over the project

Primary stakeholders: People who will benefit directly from a project’s success

Productivity tools: Tools used to manage project tasks, including word processing software, spreadsheets, and presentations

Project charter: A document that clearly defines the key details of a project

Project goal: The desired outcome of a project

Project manager: The person who plans, organizes, and oversees the whole project

Project proposal: Documentation written at the beginning of a project; kicks off the initiation phase by influencing and persuading the company to move forward with the project

Project sponsor: The person who’s accountable for the project and who ensures the project delivers the agreed-upon business benefits

RACI chart: A visual that helps to define roles and responsibilities for individuals or teams to ensure work gets done effciently; lists who is “responsible,” “accountable,” “consulted,” and “informed” for project tasks

Return on investment (ROI): A metric used to calculate the return on an investment relative to its cost.

Resources: The budget, people, materials, and other items needed for a project

Scheduling and work management software: Tools used for assigning tasks to multiple teammates and for tracking and visualizing progress; most useful for bigger projects with a larger number of tasks and a bigger team of people to manage

Scope: The boundaries of a project; an agreed-upon understanding as to what is included or excluded from a project

Scope creep: Changes, growth, and uncontrolled factors that affect a project’s scope at any point after the project begins

Scope management: Understanding and negotiating how changes will be evaluated, accepted, and performed

Silo: A situation in which the knowledge and responsibility for a task falls on one person

Secondary stakeholders: People who are indirectly impacted by a project’s success

Slides: Google’s digital presentation application

SMART goals: A method to evaluate goals; states that goals should be “specific,” “measurable,” “attainable,” “relevant,” and “time-bound”

Spreadsheet: A tool used for organizing, transforming, visualizing, and manipulating information; useful for a wide range of tasks, such as creating timelines, building charts, managing budgets, and tracking tasks

Stakes: The important parts of a business, situation, or project that might be at risk if something goes wrong

Stakeholders: Anyone involved in the project who has a vested interest in the project’s success

Stakeholder analysis: A visual representation of all the stakeholders that illustrates which stakeholders are taking on which responsibilities; also called “stakeholder mapping”

Stakeholder buy-in: The process of involving stakeholders in decision-making to hopefully reach a broader consensus on the organization’s future

Steering committee: The most senior decision-making body on any project; they have the authority to make changes to the budget and approve updates to the timeline or scope

Success criteria: The standards that measure how successful a project was in reaching its goals

Team members: The people doing the day-to-day work and making the project happen

Tools: Aids that make it easier for a project manager or team to manage resources and organize work

Triple constraint: The combination of the three most signi cant restrictions of any project: scope, time, and cost.