Flick Understanding Practical Project Management

A Guide for Project Work
1. Auflage 2023
ISBN: 978-3-648-16792-2
Verlag: Haufe
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 256 Seiten, E-Book

Reihe: Haufe Fachbuch

Good project management sets standards and ensures that all project participants speak the same language. In this book you will also learn the reasons behind the specific steps taken in the project and how to contribute to making projects a success. It takes you on a journey through all areas of classical, traditional project management and provides insights into agile and hybrid PM. Graphics and comprehensible examples from everyday project work help develop a basic understanding. This book includes interviews with experienced project managers such as Arie van Bennekum, Peter B. Taylor, Petra Berleb or Tobias Rohrbach and an extensive glossary with the most important technical terms. Content: - The five standard phases from DIN 69901: initialization, definition, planning, control, and completion. - Agile methods and hybrid process models - Which soft skills are importantThe digital and free addition to your book on myBook+: - Read e-book directly online in the browser - Personal specialist library with your booksUse now at mybookplus.de.  

For more than 20 years Michaela Flick is working on international projects. She is training managers and project people in the areas of leadership and project management. Her philosophy of life: 'We cannot change the direction of the wind, but we can adjust the sails to reach our destination.' (Aristotle)

Autoren/Hrsg.

Flick, Michaela

Flick, Mathias

Fachgebiete

• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Betriebswirtschaft Management Projektmanagement

Leseproben

2 Initiation Phase

Illustration 1: Overview Initiation Phase

2.1 Fundamentals

We have an idea for a project or some circumstances lead to an endeavor that is completely new territory for us. Above all, neither we nor the customer have a very clearcut idea on the objectives, on how to proceed or on the specific content of the project. This means so far we are quite at a loss! We have a broad idea of what we want to achieve, but we cannot really put our finger on it yet. At least we have a mutual understanding that this topic is important, that we need to do something and that it is time to put it on the agenda. We get a first overview by collecting everything we can find on this very topic. This means we check to see if we have already done something similar in our company and if we have access to documents or progress reports on this. We check our (project’s) environment or audience to see if someone has already done something of a similar nature or if there are people with expert knowledge in this field with whom we can get in touch with and exchange thoughts and ideas. Other than that we can collect information related to our potential project in the same trade or industry sector and ask around. Everything we find is recorded, structured, evaluated and little by little we gain more clarity.

2.1.1 Scoping

We share the collected information with our customer and find out what is clear, unclear and debatable. The clear aspects are stipulated in written form, the unclear issues are not addressed yet – either because the customer has not thought about it so far or to him or her it seemed such an obvious topic that it was not necessary to bring it up. Thus, we ask specific questions and scrutinize the answers, if necessary, until we obtain a clear picture. Regarding some aspects – those that are debatable – we will soon realize that we have different opinions or views to those of the customer. Therefore we need to clarify these topics! Only when there is a mutual understanding on what we want to achieve with our project and how we might proceed is the scoping completed.

If we are lucky, the customer has already thought about specific requirements and has stipulated preferences in official requirement specifications from which we establish at a later date a statement of work containing specific instructions with regard to the implementation and execution of the project.

2.1.2 Project Context Analysis

In order to get an overview on which factors have an impact on our project we have to establish a project context analysis. This contains social factors as well as objective factors regarding our audience or environment. Social factors refer to individual people or groups of people that can influence the project or who are influenced by the project. The objective audience consists of things or facts that can have a negative or positive impact on the project. From them we can detect risks or chances which help us in taking the decision whether or not it makes sense to really initiate the project. In the process of collecting, structuring and sorting out the individual factors it makes sense to differentiate between direct and indirect factors – for both social and objective factors. We can influence direct factors without any problems, whereas indirect factors need a workaround. A classification at this early stage can make sense to avoid wasting time or resources for situations beyond our control later on in the course of the project. However, we always need to bear in mind that our project is influenced by all factors regardless of whether they are direct or indirect!

Suppose we would carry out a project context analysis for the Titanic. Our direct social factors would be the captain, the crew and the passengers. A captain has absolute power on the ship, the passengers need to follow his commands as well. This makes them direct factors. The indirect social factors include the families of the crew and the passengers, because the operators of the Titanic have no impact or bearing on them at all. The same applies for reporters not being on board. If a disaster occurs, the families might claim damages and the reporters will report on the drama despite the fact that the shipping line cannot do anything about it! The direct objective factors includes the ‹unsinkability› of the Titanic, the number of lifeboats, the selected route, the speed of the ship and the ‹Blue Riband› (a sought-after trophy for the fastest crossing of the Atlantic). The indirect objective factors include icebergs, weather, visibility conditions and media coverage, because the shipping line cannot influence these factors.

2.1.3 Projectification

In order to be able to make a decision for or against the project, we still have to clarify whether the project fits our company at all! The thoughts we have about this will feed into the project design which will be addressed and tackled in the next phase, the definition phase. Social aspects such as corporate culture and values have to be considered as well as the organizational aspects of the company. We need to examine if carrying out the project is possible with regard to the parent organization of our company and if the projects’ objectives can be compatible with our corporate objectives. If, for instance, the Vatican would be aiming at initiating a project on producing war weapons, this project would probably not correspond with the objectives of the Papal States. If a ‹clean company› would want to initiate a project and realize that this would not be possible without child labor, it would also not correspond with the corporate objectives.

If the collected information so far describe the project idea sufficiently well, we now need to make a decision if the endeavor is going to become a project or not! The official approval of the project idea automatically starts the next phase, the definition phase.

2.2 Practical Example

At the beginning of a project there is an idea. In the present example it was our idea to write a book. A book on project management. Why a book? Why on project management? And what benefit did we expect from this project idea?

After my first positive experiences in writing a book and publishing it with Haufe, a renowned German publishing house, I literally was in an «author’s mode«, because I love writing, I feel like I have something to say and I love reading good books myself. My visibility would expand as an author and I would also become more noticed as a trainer, coach and author and find, at the best, recognition as an expert for my topics. The success factors are that readers buy the book, want to know more about the topics addressed, become curious and contact me to book me as a trainer or coach. My husband Mathias and I are both experienced project managers and trainers, supporting our various participants in preparing for different project management certifications. Apparently we have developed the right feel for didactics and manage to ignite the «project management spark« with the consequences of more and more participants asking us to write a book on project management and explain to the world how PM really works. Mathias and I were immediately convinced and the idea for writing a book on PM got us started.

I am a big fan of the Project Canvas by Karen Schmid and Frank Habermann. This tool is very helpful when it comes to project design, because it reasonably sets the scene and helps me to ‹ask the right questions› at the very start of my project idea. In an initial creative brainstorming session we identified a few key topics and quickly agreed on the central theme of our book and seeing that I published my first book on leadership with Haufe it was quickly agreed upon that Mathias and I wanted to cooperate with them for our new book project as well.

We got together and collected our first ideas on what a possible cooperation could look like, what timeline we could think of and how we could integrate writing our book into our daily business as project managers, trainers and coaches without neglecting neither ourselves nor our family.

A project context analysis brought forth the objective factors such as the publishing house and its good reputation in the industry, the author’s contract and also the relevant legal regulations such as the Publishing Law and copyright or the data protection regulations. Of course, our expertise on project management and our experience as business economists, project managers, project consultants and trainers fell into the category of objective factors. It was clear from the beginning that our book would be based on good project management according to the regulations of GPM/IPMA. We also counted in the current standards ICB 4.0 as well as our German DIN 69901 respectively in the international context the DIN ISO 21500 as objective factors on behalf of the PCA. The list of social factors included us as the authors, the leading manager of business publications at Haufe, our product manager, logistics people, graphic designers, correctors, our proofreader, the future readers of our book or the...

Über Autor(innen)

Flick, Mathias
Mathias Flick looks back on 25 years of profound project management experience. At Lutz & Grub Academy he leads the project management division being responsible for the conception and implementation of project management related courses and trainings. "First, have a definite, clear practical ideal, a goal, an objective. Second, have the necessary means to achieve your ends, wisdom, money, materials, and methods. Third, adjust all your means to that end." (Aristotle)

Flick, Michaela
For more than 20 years Michaela Flick is working on international projects. She is training managers and project people in the areas of leadership and project management. Her philosophy of life: "We cannot change the direction of the wind, but we can adjust the sails to reach our destination." (Aristotle)

Michaela Flick

For more than 20 years Michaela Flick is working on international projects. She is training managers and project people in the areas of leadership and project management. Her philosophy of life: "We cannot change the direction of the wind, but we can adjust the sails to reach our destination." (Aristotle)

Mathias Flick

Mathias Flick looks back on 25 years of profound project management experience. At Lutz & Grub Academy he leads the project management division being responsible for the conception and implementation of project management related courses and trainings. "First, have a definite, clear practical ideal, a goal, an objective. Second, have the necessary means to achieve your ends, wisdom, money, materials, and methods. Third, adjust all your means to that end." (Aristotle)