Principles of Project Management

This article discusses the principles of project management and their importance in successfully completing projects. It covers topics such as project management life cycle models, methodologies, project selection, and more. By understanding these principles, readers can gain the knowledge and skills necessary to become successful project managers.

Running head: PROJECT MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES
Project Management Principles
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Project management is an important concept in the aspects of successful competition
of a project. A project can be considered as the completion of some workgroups that has a
defined beginning and a finite length of ending. With this properties a project also need to
have some defined scope and resources. Thus from all of this aspects project management
can be considered as application of skills, knowledge, tools and various types of innovative
techniques regarding the project activities that actually helps to meet the requirement of the
project. In my learning modules I have learned various of processes regarding this
implementation of the project management. In this discussion I will discuss about my
learnings in the aspects of project management from my modules.
From my modules basically I have learned a brief about the principles of project
management. These principles of project management are very much important for
successfully complete an initiated project. Before attending my classes, I was having a little
knowledge about the project management and its principles. I was not having any proper idea
about the concept of project management and why it is so much important for managing the
projects. Through attending my classes I have learned a vast about the principles of project
management. Considering the first module, various of important aspects of the project
management has been learned by me. In the first lecture of this module there was an
introductory class about the project management. From this learning I have gained some
basic knowledge about the project management. This learning actually created base of my
further learnings from this module. Following the introduction of the project management
then I learned about various methodologies of the project management. This was very much
important class as this methodologies of project management is very much crucial for
successfully completing projects. In the following lectures I learned about the project
management life cycle models. From this life cycle model of project management I have
learned how a project executes. From this learning I successfully assessed that there is four

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phases of the project management life cycle which were the project initiation, planning,
execution and closure phase. A fundamental idea about these phases has been gained by me
through this learning. Further, overview of the assessment was provided by the lecturer.
In the second lecture the main focus on the two aspects of the principles of the project
management which were the project management life cycle model and various of standards in
project management. The project management life cycle model was also discussed previously
in the first lecture but in the second lecture these life cycle models of the project management
has been described in more detail. The four phases of the project management life cycle
discussed more briefly in this class. Considering these four phases of the project management
life cycle why each of this phases are important for the project management procedures has
been learned by me. In this aspects I gathered knowledge about project management
processes and knowledge areas. This has provided me the idea about starting and ending of a
project. With these project management life cycle models also the idea about standards of
project management has been gathered by me. From this assessment I have learned that there
are various of standards regarding the approach of project management. In this aspects the
most important standards were the PRINCE2 standard and the PMBOK standard. Several of
tools and technique that are related with the project has been also assessed and learned by me.
The main focus of third lecture was on the methods of project selection and initiation
process of the projects. In this aspect of focus of the lecture I have gained a brief overview of
the portfolio management and overview of project manager leadership. Following these
learnings brief insight about the project selection model has been gained by me. From this
learning I have understood that project selection is the method of individual or group project
evaluation and implementation of some sets of those evaluated projects for a better
management of the projects. Business case was also learned within this module.

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The fourth lecture has covered understanding the SOW within the context of
principles of project management. In this case the SOW stands for statement of work. From
my learnings of this module I have assessed that this SOW is a particular type document
which is employed within the context of project management. Through the statement of work
project specific activities can be defined and project timeline and project deliverables for a
particular vendor that providing services to client can be created. In this lecture a group
discussion on the SOW is also performed through which I have gathered some more
knowledge about the statement of the work. From this discussion it has been assessed by me
that with the project deliverables, timelines and the budget the SOW also provides
governance process for the project and describe the resources that are important for the
project which including QA procedures, equipment and facilities. Some individual tasks that
are important for the project is also defined within this SOW. In this lecture also details of the
assessment 2 was shared with me and through this assessment I have successfully learned
about the project selection methods.
The next lecture class was regarding the module three. In this module three, two
aspects of the project management from the previous modules was in focus. These two
aspects of the project management were the methodologies of the project management and
the life cycle models of the project management. With main focus on this aspects of the
project management through this module I have also learned about how the organizational
structure influences the projects. With that I have also learned about the enterprise
environmental factors in the context of project management. In the project management life
cycle models I have successfully learned about three types of project management life cycle
models which were the traditional project management, agile project management and
extreme project management. From this it has been assessed by me that traditional project
management is having low complexity and risk while the extreme project management is

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having a high amount risks in projects, which are basically the R&D projects. From the
organization influences it has been assessed by me that the organizational styles and cultures
is having a great influence on the project management. This includes policies, procedures,
methods, regulations. With that motivation and reward system within the organisation also
influences the project management.
In the next lecture I have learned about project management knowledge areas. In this
knowledge areas of project management the ten aspects that has been learned by me are the:
 Project Scope Management: Requirement collected form relevant stakeholders,
scope of the project is defined and key deliverables of the projects are defined.
 Project Schedule Management: Duration of the project is estimated with task
sequence.
 Project Cost Management: Total cost of the project is estimated
 Project Quality Management: Quality metrics is assured with the quality control.
 Project Resource Management: Project related resources are categorised and
resource acquisition and allocation is done.
 Project Communications Management: Communication strategies are selected and
planning for the communication is done.
 Project Risk Management: Sources of risks are identified and risk analysis is done
 Project Procurement Management: Information and proposals are requested in this
phase.
 Project Stakeholder Management: Identification, assessment and engagement of
the stakeholder is done in this phase.
 Project Integration Management: Benefit realisation and impact analysis is done
and with that project life cycle is integrated.

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The next learning in this case was regarding module five of principles of project
management and it was regarding success and failures of the projects. Through this module I
have various of aspects of the project management which have the influence on the success or
the failure of the project management. In this learning module various of industry examples
has been discussed regarding the success and failure of the projects. In this aspects it is
learned by me why many projects becomes a failure and what are the main reasons behind the
success of a project. Respect on this I have assessed that bad leadership, poor preparation,
inaccurate type of cost estimations and improper communications are the most common
causes behind the failure of a project.
The last module in this learning was regarding subject review and projecting future.
Through this learning module I have successfully gained the knowledge, techniques and tools
regarding the current approach which are very much essential for managing the projects
successfully within an entire project life cycle. In this module I have reviewed all the past
modules that has been learned by so that I can establish an interconnectivity among all the
modules which will help me to gain ultimate knowledge regarding principles of project
management.
Thus from the discussion of all of my learnings from the previous modules I can state
that I have gained a vast knowledge about the principles of project management. According
to my thoughts this learnings from my modules will help me to become a successful project
manager in my upcoming future.

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