Project management

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Useful Data - Project Management

The 3 Most Important Things

Q. What are the 3 most important things in project management?
A. Communication, communication and communication.

Source: me.

Definitions

A project is a unique, transient endeavour undertaken to create a product or service over a specified period and within time, quality, cost and resource constraints and in accordance with a specified business case.

A project manager is the assigned person given the authority and responsibility for planning and execuring the project to meet its objectives.

Qualifications

Project Management academic qualifications

  • Diploma in Project Management
  • Certificate in Project Management
  • Certificate in Managing Major Projects
  • FDSc and BSc(Hons) in Information Systems Management
  • BA/BSc in Project Management
  • BSc(Hons) Degree in Information Technology Management for Business
  • BCS Professional Graduate Diploma
  • MBA in Project Management
  • MSc in Project Management

Project Management professional qualifications

  • APM Introductory Certificate (APM's 1st level of four levels of qualification)
  • APMP - APM Professional (APM's 2nd level of four levels of qualification)
  • APM Practitioner Qualification (APM's 3rd level of four levels of qualification)
  • APM CPM - APM Certified Project Manager / Certificate in Project Management (APM's 4th level of four levels of qualification)
  • APM Project Risk Certificate Levels 1
  • APM Project Risk Certificate Levels 2
  • BCS Certificates - www.bcs.org/exams
  • BCS Diplomas - www.bcs.org/exams
  • BCS Professional Graduate Diplomas - www.bcs.org/exams
  • BTEC in Project Management
  • ISEB - Project Management for Information Systems
  • ISEB Certificate in IS Project Management
  • ISEB Foundation Certificate in IS Project Management
  • ISEB PPSO - Programme and Project Support Office
  • NVQ in Project Management
  • MSP - Managing Successful Management - Foundation and Practitioner level certificates
  • PMI PMP - Project Management Institute's Project Management Professional
  • PRINCE2 - Foundation and Practitioner level certificates

Groups

IT / Project Management professional bodies

  • APM -Association of Project Managers
  • BCS - British Computer Society
  • IAP - Institution of Analysts and Programmers
  • IMIS - Institute for the Management of Information Systems
  • IPMA - International Project Management Association
  • ITPA - Information Technology Professionals Association, part of Amicus - www.amicus-itpa.org
  • PCG - Professional Contractors Group

IT User Groups

  • CIO-Connect - ?
  • SSRG - Strategic Supplier Relationship Group - a group of IT user groups formed 20/04/2005 to improve the relationship between IT users & suppliers.
  • Tif - The Corporate IT Forum
  • Socitm - The Society for IT Management

Examination / Accreditation / Awarding Boards / Bodies

  • The APM Group - the trading arm of APM and became independent in 2000
  • ISEB - Information Systems Examination Board - www.iseb.org.uk
  • UKAS - UK Accreditation Service

Jargon

Acronyms

  • APM - Association for Project Management
  • APMP - (APM's) Association for Project Management Professional
  • BCP - Business Continuity Planning
  • BSCS - Bachelor of Science in Computer Science
  • CAPM - (PMI's) Certified Associate in Project Management
  • CCTA - Communications and Computing Technology Agency
  • CISP - Chartered Information Systems Practitioners
  • CISSP - Certified Information Systems Security Professional
  • CITI - A group of companies within CITI Holdings Ltd. Provides training and interim management.
  • CITP - Chartered IT Professional
  • CMM - blah
  • CMMi - blah
  • CMMP - Certificate in Managing Major Projects
  • CPM - (APM's) Certificated Project Manager
  • CRAMM - CCTA Risk Analysis and Management Method
  • CRM - blah
  • DSDM - blah
  • EUCIP - European Certification of Informatics Professionals - Core and Professional levels -
  • European qualification scheme for people entering IT or IT professionals wishing to continue professional development
  • IAP - Institution of Analysts and Programmers www.iap.org.uk
  • IEE - blah
  • IEEE - blah
  • IPMA - blah
  • ISEB - Information Security Examinations Board
  • ISEB - Information Systems Examinations Board
  • ITIL - IT Infrastructure Library
  • ITPA - Information Technology Professionals Association, part of Amicus, http://www.amicus-itpa.org/
  • J2EE - blah
  • JDE - J D Edwards
  • JFDI - An instruction to complete an essential activity without further delay: Just Do It
  • MBCS - Member of the British Computer Society
  • MAPM - Member of The Association of Project Managers
  • MMS - blah
  • MPLS - DSL - blah
  • MSF - blah
  • MSP - Managing Successful Projects
  • MSP - Managing Successful Programmes - Foundation or Practioner level
  • MSP99-03 - blah
  • NCPM - National Centre for Project Management (at Middlesex University)
  • OGC - Office of Government Commerce (Successful Delivery Toolkit/Gateway etc)
  • OSS - blah
  • P3E - blah
  • PMBOK - Project Management Body of Knowledge - a PMI publication
  • PMI - Project Management Institute (USA based)
  • PMP - (PMI's) Project Management Professional
  • PMW - blah
  • PPSO - Programme and Project Support Office
  • PRINCE2 - PRojects IN Controlled Environments - Foundation or Practitioner level
  • PWM - blah
  • QMS - blah
  • RAD - Rapid Applications Development
  • RGIT - ?Robert Gordon Institute of Technology?
  • RUP - Rational Unified Process
  • SSADM - Structured Systems Analysis and Design Methodology. "A pinnacle of the rigorous document-led approach to system design".
  • SDFL - blah
  • TLA - guess
  • UML - Unified Modelling Language - a (supposedly) non-proprietary modeling and specification language.
  • WCIT - blah

Other acronyms that come up frequently

  • TDA - Technical Design Authority
  • ERP - blah
  • CJIT - Criminal Justice IT

"Have you have any of the following certifications? Tick as many as are applicable."

  • A+
  • CNA
  • CCDA
  • CCDP
  • CCIE
  • CCNA
  • CCNP
  • CNE
  • MCDBA
  • MCP
  • MCSD
  • MCSE
  • OCP

Other jargon

  • "utilising methods for the assessment and management of risk (eg CRAMM, SRA, Sabachet)."
  • J D Edwards
  • FMCG
  • Wide experience of using automated tools to assist in the project in the project management process, by automating mechanical tasks such as scheduling, resource balancing, and time recording, eg Primavera PP, PMW, Microsoft Project.
  • A candidate is required that has hands on UMTS and RAN design experience, General UMTS network design and technical strategy knowledge and RFQ authoring and vendor solution evaluation for this exciting role at a global client.
  • Knowledge in, and experience of, a range of delivery, development, and process engineering life cycles, eg waterfall, RAD, JAD, DSDM. Experience in the use of automated tools to assist in the project management process, by automating mechanical tasks such as scheduling, resource balancing, and time recording, eg Primavera Project Planner (P3), PMW and Microsoft Project desirable.
  • Primavera P3e project planning software.
  • Six Sigma - blah
  • Visio - blah
  • The Open Group run an IT Architect Certification Program. Details: www.opengroup.org/itac/cert/docs

PRINCE2 resources

Public Sector Best Practice

From the National Audit Office's report Helping Government Learn of Feb 2009:

  • make staff feel it is safe to speak about failure and new ideas;
  • discourage knowledge hoarding by teams;
  • institutionalise the systematic reflection on performancee about projects - even if it means delaying moving on to the next project for a while;
  • make sure that learning from constultants is captured before they end their contract.

Tim Burr, head of the National Audit Office: "We know from our audit work that projects and programmes are more likely to succeed and keep to time and budget where lessons have been learned and experience shared. Departments need to take learning more seriously, and encourage their staff to give it a higher priority through better recognition in reward and appraisal structures. Getting better at learning from the past will help government secure better value for money in the future."

Principles that won't go away

  • One of Courtney's laws: "There are management solutions to technical problems, but no technical solutions to management problems".
  • "A fool learns from his mistakes, a wise man learns from the fool". (So read the existing Lessons Learned reports. They list the things that will go wrong for you too.)
  • "Requirements are like water. They're easier to build on when they're frozen."
  • Parkinson's Law: "work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion".
  • Hofstadter's Law: "It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's Law".
  • Student Syndrome: "most people only apply themselves to a task as the deadline approaches". (Hence you should never reveal your built-in contingency!)