Project Management: Domains, Responsibilities, Life Cycles Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of project management, covering various domains such as scope, time, cost, risk, quality, procurement, and integration. It explores the differences between projects and products, emphasizing the importance of systematic efforts, custom design, and the project life cycle. The report delves into project responsibilities, highlighting the coordination between project managers, top management executives, and line managers, and discusses the significance of governance structures for effective decision-making. It further examines project life cycles, including conceptualization, feasibility, planning, execution, testing, and commissioning, and the importance of kick-off meetings, objectives development, and the use of tools like Statement of Work (SoW) and Work Breakdown Structure (WBS). The report also contrasts outputs versus outcomes and discusses the preparation of a master production schedule in a manufacturing environment, with the overall aim of providing insights into the challenges and best practices of project management based on the student's experiences and observations.

Week4: PROJECT MANAGEMENT DOMAINS
Topic and
reading
samples.
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outcomes from this unit.
Learnings from your
experience.
Supporting documentation
including your prior
learnings.
Kerzner
Chapter 1.14
Project management domains include
multiple knowledge areas including project
scope, time, cost, risk, quality, procurement,
and integration. Each of these domains have
to be considered while making a project plan.
Non-project driven organizations are more
difficult because of differences in project
requirements, lack of understanding of
projects, lack of time for managing projects,
dependence on contractors and delays in
approvals (Kerzner, 2017).
In my past, I have worked on projects that
involved development of a new software for
a company and projects that involved
organizing a corporate event for customers.
As the chapter suggests the differences
between products and projects, I can relate
it with my experience and say that it is right.
For instance, the company might have a
product that is manufactured and is
tangible.
I had been a part of the planning process and
had prepared a schedule for the project delivery
which involved identification of major project
tasks and the milestones date for completion of
the same.
Kerzner
Chapter 1.15
Projects are different from products because
of certain characteristics like use of systematic
efforts, need for a custom design of project,
project life cycle approach to management,
associated risks, and criticality of technical
capabilities (Ahmad, et al., 2013).
For a product, the company needs to keep
doing continuous work while project
outcomes are definite such that once a
product is created, there is no need to work
again for reproduction.
Kerzner
Chapter 1.16
Projects are usually classified based on
industries or type of projects. Types of
projects include in-house R&D, MIS,
engineering, small construction, large
The software development project would
have the outcome as the software product
but it would be developed only once.

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construction, and aerospace or defence
(USAF, 2007).
Week 6: RESPONSIBILITIES AND GOVERNANCE
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Kerzner
Chapter 1.8-
1.10,
Projects work with coordination between
project managers, top management
executives and line managers. Executives of
an organization interface with projects at
different points including defining of
objectives, planning project, resolving
conflicts, setting priorities, or sponsoring
project. Line managers share responsibility,
authority, and accountability with project
managers. They are considered as equal to
project managers and thus, are involved in
providing advice or guidance to project
managers (HM Treasury, 2007).
As the chapter suggest that projects require
coordination between project managers,
executives and line managers. I could relate
it with one of the projects I did in my
previous company that involved
development of a customized software for
the company needs. While project manager
got all requirements documented and
deliverables planned, the resources were
provided by line managers from each of
their functional teams.
Project planning helped me understand
different aspects of project management
including budget, resource allocation, project
constraints, scheduling, risk management, and
stakeholder management
Kerzner Decisions are initially taken by top executives Executives help establish control over Project Proposal was something like the project

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Chapter 10 at the time of adoption of project. manager
but as companies start to understand project
management better, the authority to take
decisions can be handled at middle levels of
management. Among the top managers, the
project manager acts as a companion who
helps project manager unless project
requirements are in pressure. Pressure is high
in chaotic environments where companies
accept higher risks, consumers demand high
quality low volume products, project life
cycles are compressed, enterprise
environment affects project execution, and
competition is high. These challenges can
cause a slow down in projects as project
manager has to take decisions with limited
knowledge (Morris, 2010).
For resolving problems and taking effective
decisions, a governance structure is needed.
The structure of governance can be locally
dispersed, geographical dispersed, collocated
or projectized. Project governance is different
from corporate governance. If the project
organization is unable to understand this, it
can lead to the failure of a project. Even if
they lack an understanding of program or
project management, failure can occur.
projects as they had authority to take
major decisions about the project and add
to project scope or allow changes. Because
of their authority, there were also able to
resolve major issues that were not in the
control of the project manager.
charter which acted as a mini plan that was
prepared to justify project and get approval for
execution.

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Project planning involves development of
schedule and budget, conflict management ,
project administration, choice of leadership
style, and development of a responsibility
chart (PMI, 2013).
Kerzner
Chapter 11.25
The responsibility chart defines authority and
responsibilities of resources that are affected
by project size, its maturity level, nature, and
life cycle of project (Bredillet, 2005).
Business Requirement Document was prepared
to understand the project requirements for the
software development project. It involved
inclusion of all the functional requirements of
the software. These requirements were
converted into technical specifications for the
developers.
Week 7: LIFE CYCLES AND METHODOLOGIES
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Kerzner
Chapter 11.0-
11.2
Project planning involves selection of project
methodologies, objectives of the project and
establishment of policies and procedures to
achieve those objectives. Planning process is
I had taken part in the event planning. The
book suggests that project planning process
is very systematic and disciplined but in
reality what I found was that planning
A budget and a project schedule was prepared

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systematic, disciplined, flexible, multi-
functional, and iterative. Plans are made
based on certain assumptions and if they are
fault, then the outcome would not satisfy
stakeholders and thus, assumptions must be
validated using a checklist and recorded in a
project charter for approval (Nassif, 2017).
These assumptions can include environmental
factors and process assets of the company.
Environmental factors include market
demand, customer requirements, and market
conditions and process assets include
procurement costs, technology, skills, risks,
product acceptance, and political
environment. Planning phase of a project has
nine key phases that include objectives,
program, schedule, budget, forecast,
organizational structure, policy, procedure,
and standard. The life cycle phases of the
project include conceptualization, feasibility,
planning, execution, testing, and
commissioning. For checking feasibility, a
project manager prepares a proposal either
on his own or with assistance of a proposal
manager (BIS, 2010).
process was more of a chaos and there was
nothing streamlined. The company
professionals were actually not familiar with
the project planning processes. The project
manager gathered whoever was available in
the office for discussion to come up with
the requirements and then an email was
sent to all other stakeholders who were
asked to share their views. After collecting
their views, another round of meeting was
conduced for finalizing the requirements
and the work was started. It was challenging
as the scope kept on modifying and there
were lot of changes from the initial
specifications in the project.

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Kerzner
Chapter 11.3-
11.5
Kick-off meetings are conducted between
project managers, subject matter experts, and
functional managers for discussing wages,
spreading information, discussing scope,
defining success, identifying assumptions and
constraints, creating organisational chart, and
assigning roles and responsibilities to team.
Key roles include project manager, line
manager, and top management. Project
manager defines goals, milestones,
requirements, assumptions, ground rules,
constraints, policy and reporting
requirements. Line manager identifies
schedules, task descriptions, manpower
allocation, risks, and conflicts. Senior
managers clarify issues, negotiate
agreements, and provide communicating links
for the team (Fernandes, et al., 2015).
The chapter illustrates the importance of
identification and documentation of
assumptions and constraints which was not
done on the project and thus, costs
escalated and the schedule had to be
modified.
Minutes of the Meeting
Kerzner
Chapter 11.6-
11.8
While developing objectives, project manager
can face certain challenges such as lack of
agreement, change priorities, insufficient
time, inadequate quantification of objectives,
lack of coordination, and high personal
A statement of work was prepared with
schedule, product description, stakeholder
description, allocations, and risks
identification. However, it still lacked a
number of features that are suggested in
Statement of Work was prepared

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turnover. Once objectives are developed, line
managers have to assume to responsibility of
accomplishing them. For smooth execution, it
is important that information is recorded in
statements during planning and these include
Statement of Work (SoW), Milestones
Schedule, WBS, and Project specifications
(PMI, 2013).
the chapter. These included communication
plan and WBS. I believe if the professional
project management processes were used,
these major challenges could have been
avoided.
Week 8: OUTPUTS VS OUTCOMES
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Kerzner
Chapter 11.9
Statement of Work records project scope,
deliverables, description of end results or
outputs, and change management process.
For preparing SoW, a project manager needs
to review documents, obtain WBS copy,
establish a team for preparation,
communicate structure to team, assign tasks,
prepare checklist, estimate costs, and
I learnt about WBS and could relate the
concept with my experience of event
planning in past. Although, the WBS was not
exactly prepared in depth as suggested in
the course, but it did involve similar process
taking the top down approach in which the
major tasks were identified and then were
decomposed into sub-tasks. For each major
The project WBS was prepared for the even
plan and a milestone table was also prepared
defining the project schedule

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establish schedules. Specifications should be
prepared in detail so that no requirements are
left out. Schedules record project start date,
end date, deliverables, and major milestones.
WBS divides project small workable
components that must be manageable,
independent, measurable, and integratable
(Kerzner & Saladis, 2013).
A WBS is the project planning output which is
delivery oriented, hierarchical, and defines full
project scope. It has at least two level
decomposition into work packages that define
tasks, milestones, and activities. Project
schedule preparation is done following certain
guidelines that suggest identification of all
major events and their dates, building exact
sequence for work completion, relation to
WBS, and identification of time constraints
(ITRM, 2006).
deliverables, delivery dates were identified.
With the use of this approach, the project
progress could be tracked and the event
could be executed on time without fail.
What I discovered from this exercise and
the earlier experience of the software
development project, is that projects that
have specific deadlines are taken more
formally and the team works with higher
discipline as the project cannot be delayed.
However, projects that have defined
delivery dates that can be deviated, the
teams become a little relaxed and are ok
with delays. As long as the project is
completed, the people do not care if it was
completed on time and without deviating
from the budgeted amount. Most projects
actually face delays and cost variations.
Kerzner
Chapter 11.14
A master production schedule is usually
prepared for manufacturing units that gives
an opportunity to top management to
approve and control manpower, inventory,
and cash flow. It helps in coordinating
I also had an experience of working in a
manufacturing organization in which I was
working in head office and was sent to the
manufacturing plan to understand how
TQM was implemented in the department.
Production Schedule

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marketing, finance, engineering, and
marketing activities.
A project plan verifies customer objectives
and requirements, eliminates conflicts, and
provides a means to identify problems and
inconsistencies. A plan can be made for
budget, configuration management, facilities
management, logistics, manufacturing,
procurement, QA, research, scheduling,
training, tooling, or transportation in a
manufacturing organization.
Total project planning involves schedule
development, budgeting, project
administration, leadership styles
identification, and conflict management
planning (PMI, 2000).
The company used to create a master
production schedule that was posted in the
plan in the office of the supervisor. All the
plans were made according to this major
plan. However, I could never see similar
concept of total project planning
implemented in the company but the
company had a plan to adopt this. However,
what I could understand from my
experience is that it is not an easy task
unless coordination is received from all
project team members.
Kerzner
Chapter 11.22-
11.29
A project charter is first prepared for approval
and only after it is approved, a detailed plan
follows. The charter contains business
purpose, project summary, project
description, objectives, constraints, scope, key
stakeholders, risks, and stakeholder
management. Once charter is approved,
The project involved creation of baselines
for functional tasks and schedule. These
baselined helped project manager keep
track of the project progress and
understand if the outcome deviated from
the original baselines that served as
benchmarks. This exercise has been already
Schedule Baseline