Managing Projects
From Abelard UK
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[edit] What is a project
A project is a time bound delivery bound piece of work, usually with a defined project budget
Projects seek to achieve a specific outcome, in other words they have a project goal, and they operate until the goal is delivered.
Large projects run in corporations or across many organisations are often managed through a Project Management Methodology which helps to guide the project on a path to delivery.
Smaller organisations tend not to use the same processes, or even one at all, as the overheads of using a process outweigh the benefits until a project is large enough for that overhead to be absorbed. Methodologies tend to deliver more reliable and robust results.
[edit] Project Lifecycle
Goal Definition
This stage determines what the business is seeking to change and what the business will be doing when the change is complete. Read more about how to develop a project goal.
Project Identification
This stage identifies the projects needed to realise the goal.
Project Establishment
This stage ensures the business has got the projects up and running with the right staff and structures to ensure successful delivery
Project Delivery
This stage ensure that the project delivers the expected outputs, on time and to budget.
Change Implementation
This stage puts the change into effect.
Evaluation and Review
Once everything is implemented this stage evaluates the effectiveness of the change.
[edit] Project Structure
Projects are generally delivered by a project team from one person to many hundreds. Projects with more than 2 or 3 people in the team will have a project manager the largest projects also tend to have some or all of project directors, project sponsors and may also have some interested groups to act as reference points when decisions need to be taken, these groups usually involve the project stakeholders and may also provide clarity on the direction the project should take.
