POWER ENGINEERING

PROJECT MANAGEMENT
EPE 622
COURSE CONTENTS
Introduction
The Strategic Relevance of Project Management and
Project Stakeholders
Project Organization
Project Selection and Portfolio Management
Project Methodology and Process groups
Project Initiation/definition phase
Planning Phase -1 WBS
Planning Phase -II Human Resource issues
Costing, Risk Analysis, partnering, Outsourcing
Planning Phase III Scheduling Project Activities,
Implementation, Leadership, Communication and Teams,
Monitoring, Evaluation and control
What is a Project?

A series of activities and tasks that
Have a specific objective to be completed
within certain specifications;
Have defined start and end dates;
Have funding limits (if applicable);
Consume resources (i.e., money, people, &
equipment)
What is a Project?

A series of activities and tasks that have
SCOPE

Have defined start and end dates;
Have funding limits (if applicable);
Consume resources (i.e., money, people, &
equipment)
What is a Project?

A series of activities and tasks that have
SCOPE

TIME
Have funding limits (if applicable);
Consume resources (i.e., money, people, &
equipment)
What is a Project?

A series of activities and tasks that have
SCOPE

TIME

RESOURCES
The Three Project Constraints:

SCOPE

TIME

RESOURCES
Project Triangle
SCOPE
RESOURCES
TIME
Project Triangle
SCOPE
RESOURCES
TIME
What is Project
Management?
Project management is the art of
creating an illusion that any
outcome is the result of a series of
predetermined, deliberate acts
when, in fact, it was dumb luck.
What is Project
Management?
Project management is the
planning, organizing, directing,
and controlling of company
resources for a relatively short
term objective that has been
established to complete specific
goals and objectives.
Two Main Components
Planning
Creating, then fine tuning,
the overall project plan
Monitoring
Tracking & reporting progress
Measurements of Project Success
Within specifications
Within allotted time period
Within the budgeted costs
Accepted by the customer/user
Minimal and mutual scope changes
Within corporate culture & without
disturbing organizational workflow
Project Managers Role
Responsible for coordinating and
integrating activities across multiple
and functional lines
Understand operations of line
organizations
Familiar with technology
Master if in R&D activities
Whats in the Successful
Project Managers Toolbox?
Strong communication skills
Strong interpersonal skills
Ability to
balance technical and managerial
functions;
overcome organizational constraints;
cope with and survive risks
Ten Specific Skills
Team Building
Leadership
Conflict Resolution
Technical Expertise
Planning
Ten Specific Skills
Organizing
Entrepreneurship
Administration
Management support
Resource allocation
Project Managers
Manage
Engineering
Procurement
Construction
Finance
Cost engineering
Project Managers
Manage
Schedule
Environmental considerations
Regulatory requirements and law
Inflation & cost escalations
Labor and client relations
Management Skills
Human behavior and interpersonal
relationships
Psychology
Organizational behavior
Sociology
Communications
Project Managers
Responsibilities
Planning agent
Overall and summary
NOT detailed planning
Functional or line managers
Resolve conflicts
Make tradeoffs

Planning Architect
defines
Complete tasks
Resource requirements
Major timetable milestones
End-item quality and reliability
requirements
Performance measurements
System/Product
Lifecycle
A Project
A unique process, consisting of a set of coordinated and controlled
activities with start and finish dates, undertaken to achieve an
objective conforming to specific requirements including constraints of
time, cost and resources.
INTRODUCTION
IMPORTANCE OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT FOR ENGINEERS
A typical engineering project goes through stages such as:

idea
applied research initial development
marketing engineering design and development
industrialization and production sales and distribution
commissioning / deployment maintenance / upgrading
phase-out and disposal.
Assigning the responsibilities for these stages to different
organizational entities is done as part of project management,
which involves planning, organizing, staffing, leading and
controlling the project.
Many engineers do some form of management on their
projects, while others careers develop into full-time project
management.

PLANNING AN ENGINEERING PROJECT
FUNDAMENTALS OF PROJECT PLANNING
Purpose of Project Planning
The purpose of planning an engineering project is to establish a foundation for
execution and successful completion of the project, by deciding in advance:
what problem to solve (requirements definition),
what to do in order to solve the problem (work breakdown),
with what to do it (definition of resources required), and
when to do it (schedule).
Deciding by whom the tasks must be done (allocation of responsibilities) is
normally done later, as part of organizing and staffing the project
Major Issues in Project Planning
Attempting a project without a proper requirements definition is
as futile as attempting to answer an unknown question.

Schedule and cost are often based on marketing needs or
guesses, and not on functional requirements and technical
constraints.
It is difficult to estimate the extent and duration of activities for
a complex project.
When functional requirements change, cost and schedule are
often not adapted accordingly.
Risk factors are often not assessed during the planning phase of
a project.

Project data (e.g. resources used for execution of specific
tasks) is often not adequately recorded,
and is therefore mostly not useful in the planning of new
projects in future.
Development policies are often not compiled or are used
inconsistently.
Often project plans are not deliverable documents, and are
therefore compiled superficially.
Some engineers feel that planning is unnecessary or a waste of
time, since:
there are too many uncertainties; and
they want to get going with the real work.

Two Legs of Project Planning
There are two interactive areas in which project planning is normally
done:
1. System Engineering (SE) After the project planning phase,
system engineering plays a major role in the project again. Dealing
with problem definition, analysis, design, construction, test and
evaluation, commissioning, operational support, and finally phase-out
and disposal.
2. Project Management (PM) mostly concerned with work
breakdown, cost, and schedule.

Project planning typically entails:
Define the problem to be solved (requirements definition).
Do a work breakdown.
Estimate the effort required to do the work, prepare budgets, and
allocate resources to the activities.
Schedule the activities and the use of resources.
Document the problem definition, chosen course of action,
policy decisions, work breakdown, budget, schedule, and
contingency plans in a project plan.
WORK BREAKDOWN
After defining requirements and choosing one or more possible solutions
(part of System Engineering), a project must be broken down into smaller
tasks.
This is done in the form of a work breakdown structure (WBS), which
helps to ensure that most aspects of the project are considered from the
start.
There are two main methods of representing a WBS
Tree-structured graph (hierarchical decomposition into smaller
elements).
Indented list.
With the tree-structured graph it is easier to visualize the work and its
different layers, than with the indented list.
Note that the WBS is a hierarchical breakdown of tasks, not an
organizational chart or a schedule chart.
Project Characteristics
Organisation is temporary
Often forms part of a larger project
Objectives and product characteristics may be defined and achieved
progressively
Result may be the creation of one or several units of a project
Interrelation between activities may be complex
Project Characteristics

Project management is principally concerned with the management
of change
(Lockyer & Gordon, 1996)

Change management in IS development
Change management in organisations
Project Factors
Size of the project
Budget/costs, Size of team, Size of product
Complexity
Industry in which it is carried out

Electrical/Civil engineering
Manufacturing
IS/IT
Classifying Projects
Civil Engineering
Realisation phase is outdoors, large capital = many contractors
= communication headaches
Manufacturing Projects
Development of specialised hardware, physical design
Management Projects
Projects that do not result in a produced piece of hardware
(including software projects?)
Research Projects
Include a higher element of risk (including software projects?)
Project Funding
Revenue projects
Carried out within the normal organisational structure
Normally within a single accounting period
Capital projects
May extend over a number of accounting periods
Occupy considerable time employ considerable capital
Not carried out within the normal organisational structure
Capital Projects
Cross functional and time boundaries
Cannot be accommodated within the normal running of an organisation
A special organisational structure is set up the project team
This structure usually only exists for the duration of the project
Organisation Structures
Hierarchical
Matrix
Project Management Structure
Hierarchical
Large Corporation