Introduction to Project Management for Management Consultant

In this section, we will learn about the essential concepts in Project Management. We will discuss the main terms and concepts used.

Let’s start with a short definition of a project

• A temporary organization that is created for the purpose of delivering one or more business products

• Usually, after the products are delivered, the project team disbands

The project starts with an idea, which is turned into something new. Let's take a look at the following examples of what can become a project

Many managers mistake projects for business as usual. Project is an expensive undertaking and in many cases, it is NOT the optimal solution. Let’s see what is the difference between a project and business as usual

Let’s start with a short definition of a scope:

• It is a detailed description of what the project will deliver

• It is the common understanding among stakeholders about what goes into a project and what factors define its success

• The scope of the project is critical because, without it, project managers would not know whether they successfully completed the project or not

Sometimes there are some doubts as to how to distinguish between goal and scope. Let’s compare both

Let’s imagine that Olivia and Tomasz just got engaged. The project, in their case, will be the organization of the wedding. Let’s try to define the scope for this project. The aim will be to organize a great wedding for our lovely couple.

Let’s start with a short definition of a milestone

• A significant key event in a project timeline

• We use it to measure the progress of a project toward its goal

• Milestones can be used to symbolize anything that has started or finished, though they’re primarily used as a scheduling tool

• Milestones have a fixed date but no duration

Just as a reminder, our friends are getting married, and we want to define the milestones for the project: wedding preparation.

We will try to define milestones for a project where we will be building apartments in the city center.

Time is crucial when it comes to project management. In this section, we will see what it really means and how you can handle this area of the project.

Let's see what sources we can use to estimate duration of tasks that we will use to define the duration of the project

Olivia and Tomasz would like to estimate how long it will take them to prepare everything for the wedding, but they are not sure how to do it. Let's see what methods they can use.

After you have estimated the task duration you should consider adding buffers to protect yourself against unexpected things happening. Let's see how this can be done

Let's see what we mean by Critical Chain and how to use this method in practice

Let’s start with a short definition of resources:

• In project management, we need resources to carry out the project tasks

• By resources, we mean people, equipment, facilities, funding, or anything else that is required for the completion of a project activity

In this section, we will discuss costs and budgeting which is crucial for most projects. You have to define how much money will be spent on the project and make sure that the budget is sufficient.

In this lecture, you will get to know our favorite method for the first rough estimation – the bottom-up method. We give you also 2 examples of Excel calculations and how to use them.

Imagine that you have to estimate the costs of the wedding to help Tomasz plan his wedding. Use for that the bottom-up approach. We will use this case study to see how the bottom-up approach works in practice.

In this lecture, I will show you the solution to the previously introduced case study.

In this lecture, I will show you the solution to the previously introduced case study.

In this lecture, I will show you the solution to the previously introduced case study.

In many cases, you have to look at tradeoffs between costs and benefits. In such a situation, it is a good idea to conduct a cost-benefit analysis. Let's see how this can be done

Imagine that you were asked to prepare an analysis to determine how the rearranging of the main office of the drugstore chain company will help reduce costs.

In this lecture, I will show you the solution to the previously introduced case study.

In this lecture, I will show you the solution to the previously introduced case study.

In this lecture, I will show you the solution to the previously introduced case study.

In this lecture, I will show you the solution to the previously introduced case study.

In the next lectures, we will see how to calculate whether an investment that will help us save costs makes sense or not. This time around we will do it for a ceramic tiles producer. We will see whether an investment in robots makes sense

In this lecture, I will show you the solution to the previously introduced case study.

In this lecture, I will show you the solution to the previously introduced case study.

In this lecture, I will show you the solution to the previously introduced case study.

In this lecture, I will show you the solution to the previously introduced case study.

Let’s have a look at the most typical organization of a project. Let’s define the role of the project team members

As we have mentioned the Project Manager plays a key role in project management. The Project Manager's prime responsibility is to deliver defined by the scope deliverables within the agreed time & budget

Behind every Project Manager, there is a team that does most of the work on the project. Let’s see what kind of things they have to do during a project.

Let's see what we mean by a Workload Analysis:

§In this sort of analysis, we estimate the workload related to a specific task or a project

§Workload we usually express in man-hours or in Full Time Equivalents (FTE)

§In workload analysis, we compare the workload with available resources

Each project life cycle usually goes through 5 phases: Initiation, Planning, Execution, Monitor and control, and Closure. We will discuss them in this lecture.

In project management, we can distinguish two ways of delivering projects: Agile and Waterfall. Let's see what is the difference between them.

Imagine that a construction firm starts a new project related to the building of 800 new apartments. Let's see how this project can go, using two methods – Agile and Waterfall.

Let's see what we mean by risks in the project and how we can estimate them

Communication is the cornerstone of project success. In project management we can distinguish the following types of meetings:

• Kickoff meeting

• Status meetings

• Sponsor meetings

• Review meetings

In this section, we will discuss essential tools that you will need to manage a project.

Here I will show you an example of a project charter/project card that you can use to manage a project. It will take the form of a list of tasks/to-dos that you assign to specific team members.

In this lecture, we will have a look at how you can summarize projects in Excel as well as PowerPoint

During every project, team members along with the PMO team will produce a lot of deliverables

• Summary of findings in PowerPoint

• Detailed Analysis in Excel supporting the presentation

• Additional materials (manuals, tools, etc.)

Attached to the lecture you will find a summary of a project done for a DIY chain devoted to process optimization

To manage projects it is a good idea to use one of the following tools that will help you keep track of projects and help the project teams work

• Project Cards in Excel

• Project Cards in Google Sheet

• Asana

• Monday

• Airtable

• Trello

• Jira

• Basecamp

• Nozbe

Here I will show you deliverables from projects

In the second part of the course, we will apply all the concepts presented in the first part of the course. You will have to help a drugstore chain define a project aiming at building a private label department.

Imagine that you work for a drugstore retail chain. The CEO of the firm wants to start a project devoted to Private Labels.

Let's look at the main mistake which people do when a project starts

Let's look at the questions you should ask to define the scope:

• Oh now! I said yes, but I don’t know any details! Like:

• What is the purpose of creating private labels?

• What is the goal in terms of revenue and profit?

• What products do we want to create?

• How many products we will be implementing?

• Will we produce it ourselves or will we outsource it to another firm?

• What are the costs of such action, can we afford it?

In this lecture, I will show you the solution to the previously introduced case study.

In this lecture, I will show you the solution to the previously introduced case study.

In this lecture, I will show you the solution to the previously introduced case study.

In this lecture, I will show you the solution to the previously introduced case study.

In this lecture, I will show you the solution to the previously introduced case study.

In this lecture, I will show you the solution to the previously introduced case study.

In this lecture, I will show you the solution to the previously introduced case study.