Project Management Skills and Technique. Here are rules, processes and tools for project planning and project management. Large or complex projects in big organizations often require some sort of executive sponsorship or leadership. This is commonly termed project sponsorship see the separate section about project sponsorship. While project management skills are obviously important for project managers, interestingly the methods and tools that project managers use can be helpful for everyone. A task does not necessarily have to be called a project in order for project management methods to be very useful in its planning and implementation. Even the smallest task can benefit from the use of a well chosen project management technique or tool, especially in the planning stage. Any task that requires some preparation to achieve a successful outcome, will probably be done better by using a few project management methods somewhere in the process. Project management methods can help in the planning and managing of all sorts of tasks, especially complex activities. Project management is chiefly associated with planning and managing change in an organization, but a project can also be something unrelated to business even a domestic situation, such as moving house, or planning a wedding. Project management methods and tools can therefore be useful far more widely than people assume. Project management techniques and project planning tools are useful for any tasks in which different outcomes are possible where risks of problems and failures exist and so require planning and assessing options, and organizing activities and resources to deliver a successful result. Projects can be various shapes and sizes, from the small and straightforward to extremely large and highly complex. In organizations and businesses, project management can be concerned with anything, particularly introducing or changing things, in any area or function, for example people, staffing and managementproducts and servicesmaterials, manufacturing and production. IT and communicationsplant, vehicles, equipmentstorage, distribution, logisticsbuildings and premisesfinance, administration, acquisition and divestmentpurchasingsales, selling, marketinghuman resources development and trainingcustomer service and relationsquality, health and safety,legal and professionaltechnical, scientific, research and developmentnew business developmentand anything else which needs planning and managing within organizations. Successful project management, for projects large or small, tends to follow the process outlined below. The same principles, used selectively and appropriately, also apply to smaller tasks. Project management techniques are not just for project managers they are available for anyone to use. Agree precise specification for the project  Terms of ReferencePlan the project  time, team, activities, resources, financials using suitable project management tools. Communicate the project plan to your project team  and to any other interested people and groups. Agree and delegate project actions. Microsoft Excel 2007 Unhide Worksheets Vba. Manage and motivate  inform, encourage, enable the project team. Check, measure, monitor, review project progress  adjust project plans, and inform the project team and others. Complete project  review and report on project performance give praise and thanks to the project team. Project follow up  train, support, measure and report results and benefits. Often called the project terms of reference, the project specification should be an accurate description of what the project aims to achieve, and the criteria and flexibilities involved, its parameters, scope, range, outputs, sources, participants, budgets and timescales beware see note below about planning timescales. Typically and prior to the projects formal establishment the project terms of reference are produced or at least drafted at a fundamental level by a project sponsor, or executive in charge of the project. Often such an initial top level general project description a business case basically is required for the project to be justified, approved, and funded at a corporate level, prior to the commencement of detailed project planning. The project manager, typically appointed by the project sponsor or the executive in charge, may be involved to varying degrees in the drafting of the initial corporate project description or business case. VOIw.png' alt='Critical Path Project Management Software Free' title='Critical Path Project Management Software Free' />Fullfeatured online project management software Gantt Charts, Time Tracking, Resource Planning, Reports, Kanban boards, Invoices and Expenses. If the PMBK definition of critical path has you puzzled, read Dr. Andrew Makars explanation of this project methodology in realworld terms. Technical Analysis Technical Analysis Technical Indicators Neural Networks Trading Strategy Backtesting Point and Figure Charting Download Stock Quotes. Looking for the best Project Management Software Find out which products get the highest ratings in our extensive lab tests. Project management software can aid your company in so many ways and be the organization tool you have been missing. Easy Projects is the clear winner in our book. It is not unusual for a project manager to first be unofficially appointed to the project management role, pending corporate approval of the project itself and the formal appointment of the project manager. The project sponsor is usually a more senior manager or executive than the project manager, although not necessarily the boss or senior up line manager to which the project manager normally reports. All substantial projects generally require a formal and senior project sponsor or executive in charge, although minor projects forming part of a managers conventional duties, and not requiring specific board or corporate approval, may not require a project sponsor as such, in which case executive accountability for the project and the project manager belongs to the normal up line reporting managerexecutive. Usually the project manager must consult with others especially the project sponsor and then agree the detailed project specification with superiors andor relevant authorities. The specification may involve several drafts before it is agreed. A project specification is essential in that it creates a measurable accountability for anyone wishing at any time to assess how the project is going, or its success on completion. A good project manager will look out for critical path software that suits the project management method that they are intending to follow. Any free critical path. Project terms of reference also provide an essential discipline and framework to keep the project on track, and concerned with the original agreed aims and parameters. A properly formulated and agreed project specification also protects the project manager from being held to account for issues that are outside the original scope of the project or beyond the project managers control. In this article, well provide a stepbystep walkthrough of using Microsoft Excel to identify and compute the Critical Path Method CPM. Microsoft Excel is useful. Critical Path Project Management Software Free' title='Critical Path Project Management Software Free' />This is the stage to agree special conditions or exceptions with those in authority. Once youve published the terms of reference you have created a very firm set of expectations by which you will be judged. So if you have any concerns, or want to renegotiate, nows the time to do it. The largest projects can require several weeks to produce and agree project terms of reference. Most normal business projects however require a few days thinking and consulting to produce a suitable project specification. Establishing and agreeing a project specification is an important process even if your task is simple one. A template for a project specification Describe purpose, aims and deliverables. State parameters timescales, budgets, range, scope, territory, authority. State people involved and the way the team will work frequency of meetings, decision making process. Establish break points at which to review and check progress, and how progress and results will be measured. Separately the acronym BOSCARDET provides a useful example structure for Terms of Reference headingssections Background, Objectives, Scope, Constraints, Assumptions, Reporting, Dependencies, Estimates, Timescales. This structure contains no specific heading for costsbudgets these considerations can be included within Constraints or Estimates. Critical chain project management Wikipedia. Critical chain project management CCPM is a method of planning and managing projects that emphasizes the resources people, equipment, physical space required to execute project tasks. It was developed by Eliyahu M. Goldratt. It differs from more traditional methods that derive from critical path and PERT algorithms, which emphasize task order and rigid scheduling. A critical chain project network strives to keep resources levelled, and requires that they be flexible in start times. OriginseditCritical chain project management is based on methods and algorithms derived from Theory of Constraints. The idea of CCPM was introduced in 1. Eliyahu M. Goldratts book, Critical Chain. Application of CCPM has been credited with achieving projects 1. CPM, PERT, Gantt, etc. According to studies of traditional project management methods by Standish Group and others as of 1. Projects typically complete at 2. CCPM tries to improve performance relative to these traditional statistics. DetailseditWith traditional project management methods, 3. Parkinsons law, in box delays, and lack of prioritization. In a project plan, the critical chain is the sequence of both precedence and resource dependent tasks that prevents a project from being completed in a shorter time, given finite resources. If resources are always available in unlimited quantities, then a projects critical chain is identical to its Critical path method. Critical chain is an alternative to critical path analysis. Main features that distinguish critical chain from critical path are Use of often implicit resource dependencies. Implicit means that they are not included in the project network, but must be identified by looking at the resource requirements. Lack of search for an optimum solutiona good enough solution is enough because. As far as is known, there is no analytical method for finding an absolute optimum i. The inherent uncertainty in estimates is much greater than the difference between the optimum and near optimum good enough solutions. Identification and insertion of buffers. Project buffer. Feeding buffers. Resource buffers companies are usually reluctant to give more resourcesMonitoring project progress and health by monitoring the consumption rate of the buffers rather than individual task performance to schedule. CCPM planning aggregates the large amounts of safety time added to tasks within a project into the buffersto protect due date performance and avoid wasting this safety time through bad multitasking, student syndrome, Parkinsons Law, and poorly synchronized integration. Critical chain project management uses buffer management instead of earned value management to assess the performance of a project. Some project managers feel that the earned value management technique is misleading, because it does not distinguish progress on the project constraint i. Event chain methodology can determine a size of project, feeding, and resource buffers. PlanningeditA project plan or work breakdown structure WBS is created in much the same fashion as with critical path. The plan is worked backward from a completion date with each task starting as late as possible. A duration is assigned to each task. Some software implementations add a second duration one a best guess, or 5. Other software implementations go through the duration estimate of every task and remove a fixed percentage to be aggregated into the buffers. Resources are assigned to each task, and the plan is resource leveled, using the aggressive durations. The longest sequence of resource leveled tasks that lead from beginning to end of the project is then identified as the critical chain. The justification for using the 5. Recognizing that tasks are more likely to take more time than less time due to Parkinsons law, Student syndrome, or other reasons, CCPM uses buffers to monitor project schedule and financial performance. The extra duration of each task on the critical chainthe difference between the safe durations and the 5. In the same way, buffers are gathered at the end of each sequence of tasks that feed into the critical chain. The date at the end of the project buffer is given to external stakeholders as the delivery date. Finally, a baseline is established, which enables financial monitoring of the project. An alternate duration estimation methodology uses probability based quantification of duration using Monte Carlo simulation. In 1. 99. 9, a researcherwho applied simulation to assess the impact of risks associated with each component of project work breakdown structure on project duration, cost and performance. Using Monte Carlo simulation, the project manager can apply different probabilities for various risk factors that affect a project component. The probability of occurrence can vary from 0 to 1. The impact of risk is entered into the simulation model along with the probability of occurrence. The number of iterations of Monte Carlo simulation depend on the tolerance level of error and provide a density graph illustrating the overall probability of risk impact on project outcome. ExecutioneditWhen the plan is complete and the project is ready to start, the project network is fixed and the buffers sizes are locked i. With no slack in the duration of individual tasks, resources are encouraged to focus on the task at hand to complete it and hand it off to the next person or group. The objective here is to eliminate bad multitasking. This is done by providing priority information to all resources. The literature draws an analogy with a relay race. Each element on the project is encouraged to move as quickly as they can when they are running their leg of the project, they should be focused on completing the assigned task as quickly as possible, with minimization of distractions and multitasking. In some case studies, actual batons are reportedly hung by the desks of people when they are working on critical chain tasks so that others know not to interrupt. The goal, here, is to overcome the tendency to delay work or to do extra work when there seems to be time. The CCPM literature contrasts this with traditional project management that monitors task start and completion dates. CCPM encourages people to move as quickly as possible, regardless of dates. Because task duration has been planned at the 5. Parkinsons Law. MonitoringeditAccording to proponents, monitoring is, in some ways, the greatest advantage of the Critical Chain method. Because individual tasks vary in duration from the 5. Instead, we monitor the buffers created during the planning stage. A fever chart or similar graph can be created and posted to show the consumption of buffer as a function of project completion. If the rate of buffer consumption is low, the project is on target. If the rate of consumption is such that there is likely to be little or no buffer at the end of the project, then corrective actions or recovery plans must be developed to recover the loss. When the buffer consumption rate exceeds some critical value roughly the rate where all of the buffer may be expected to be consumed before the end of the project, resulting in late completion, then those alternative plans need to be implemented. Underpinnings of CCPMeditThis section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. April 2. History and discussion of the underlying principles behind CCPM.