Management Overview
Project management is a branch of management discipline, which refers to the use of specialized knowledge, skills, tools and methods in project activities to enable projects to be limited by limited resources , To achieve or exceed the set requirements and expectations. Project management is the whole of some activities (such as tasks) related to the successful achievement of a series of goals. This includes planning, scheduling, and maintaining the progress of the activities that make up the project. The project management method is about how to manage the project, and it is a method that can be applied to most projects. In terms of project management methodology, there are mainly three aspects: phased management, quantitative management and optimized management.
Phase management
Phase management refers to the whole process from the beginning of the project to the operation and maintenance of the system. According to the characteristics of engineering projects, we can divide project management into several small stages.
Market information
1) Market information can be divided into: information collection, information analysis, project approval and project application writing.
①Information collection: It can be divided into the collection of project information and market information of conventional equipment and equipment. The information is obtained through salesmen or other channels. Once obtained, the information provider shall report to the relevant department of the company in written form.
②Information analysis: In this regard, the company should set up a special department to classify, edit, manage, verify, analyze and demonstrate all kinds of information, not only when considering the project To see whether the society needs it, but also to study whether the individual, organization or society has the ability to invest enough resources to realize it, and whether it can bring real benefits to the resource investors and the society after the realization. The feasibility study of the project provides a practical basis for the determination of information. And supervise the work efficiency of business staff and their performance evaluation.
③Project establishment: According to the analysis and certification report provided by the information analysis department, determine the information processing method, and report to the company's decision-making level for decision-making. The company’s decision-making level uses the information analysis report of the information analysis department and the company’s operating conditions to determine whether to approve the project. Once the project is approved, it must analyze which contractors will participate in the bidding, their respective advantages and their relationship with customers. The main considerations include their own technical capabilities, project risks, resource allocation capabilities and other factors. At the same time, it can also evaluate the work efficiency and performance of the information analysis department.
Fill in the application form
Project application form: When deciding to participate in the bidding competition, you need to complete a project application form or called a bidding form, a complete application The book generally includes three parts: technology, management, and cost. If it is a more complex application, these three parts may be three separate pamphlets:
The purpose of the technical part Understanding of needs and problems, and able to provide solutions with the lowest risks and the greatest benefits.
The purpose of the management part is to make the customer confident that the contractor can do the work proposed by the project and receive the expected results.
The purpose of the cost part is to convince the customer that the price proposed by the contractor for the project is realistic and reasonable.
This part of the task will be completed by the company's technical support department based on the relevant report of the market information department, and it can also be evaluated by its work efficiency and quality.
After the application is completed
At the same time as the project application is completed, all departments of the market information department should pay close attention to the progress of the project, update the latest status of the project, and Notify the relevant departments, especially the technical support department, so that the department can adjust the project application according to the latest situation of the project. To increase our competitiveness in the project.
After the contract is signed and the project is confirmed, project management can be divided into project preparation phase, project implementation phase, completion acceptance phase, and system operation and maintenance phase. The work content of each stage is different, and its implementation and management should also be different.
①Project preparation stage: The determination of the project implementation management method (ie project organization), the allocation and implementation of various resources, and the further determination of the specific project implementation plan. That is, according to the characteristics of the project, the project operations are decomposed, the phased results acceptance, and the necessary supervision and feedback are determined, so that the differences between the project organization and the customer can be well resolved, and the controllability of project risks can be increased.
②Project implementation stage: According to the specific plan of project implementation, and with the results of each stage, it will be checked and accepted according to its technical requirements and quality assurance. In this way, after the completion of each stage, the customer and the person in charge of the project organization can have a clearer understanding of the progress and completion of the project, as well as the customer's degree of satisfaction with the completed part of the project. At the same time, it is also convenient for the performance evaluation of project members. If the problem is found, it will be dealt with and solved in time. If a method is found to be beneficial to project management, it should be notified to all departments to apply it in time to improve the overall level of project management.
③Completion acceptance stage: After completing each stage of the results. When the overall project is basically completed, the completion acceptance and final accounts should be carried out. Completion acceptance is mainly to conduct systematic acceptance of the project in accordance with the scope and relevant standards stipulated in the contract. It also organizes and edits various documents and technical materials generated during the implementation of the project. Based on the records of beneficial experience and lessons in the process of the project, a project summary report is compiled and released by the project manager. It is proved that the project has reached the completion acceptance standards, all indicators have reached the contract requirements, and can be delivered for use. Carry out the final project completion accounts. At the same time, the overall performance evaluation of the entire project implementation process and the project itself is carried out. To accumulate experience in project management.
④System operation and maintenance stage: It is mainly the follow-up service of the project, which can be responsible for the special department. For each service, the company’s dispatch and user’s confirmation must be made. To determine its service performance evaluation.
Quantitative management
Quantitative management is also very important. In the operation of the company, it should be as quantitative as possible to make clear responsibilities. In the process of project implementation, this kind of problem is often encountered. The client considers the work results in the previous stage to meet the requirements; the results in the other stage are wrong or there are serious problems; and even though there are problems, the improvement is still Can be used and so on. So where is the problem, who should bear the responsibility, and how great is the responsibility? For this reason, various goals, inputs, results, etc. must be categorized and quantified, such as expressing customer needs with clear modules or subsystems , Accurately calculate the labor, material, financial, etc. required for each stage. By storing various quantitative indicators in the database, the above-mentioned problems can be easily solved. Each stage has clear quantitative management, which is also very conducive to the advancement of the entire project process.
Optimize management
Optimization management is to analyze the knowledge, experience and lessons contained in each part of the project, to better carry forward the experience in the project process, learn lessons, and spread the benefits throughout the company Knowledge. Another example is the previous example. Since the work in the previous stage is well managed and the work can be successfully completed and meets the requirements, the management experience and knowledge in this stage should be more effective. Why are the later parts of the work unsuccessful? It is because the customer's needs are not clearly stated; it is an understanding error; or it is a design problem. After these analyses, it is helpful to further optimize project management.
Management tools
To realize the project management of enterprise management, a set of management tools conforming to the project management idea is needed. This tool needs to complete the following functions: it can manage the life cycle Projects can also manage regular affairs, products or customers can also be established as projects, and even project-based management of specific employees can be carried out.
Project management software needs to meet the following characteristics:
Simplified project management process, lightweight project management
Reliance of the project manager, project members participate in project management. Project management is based on the way of "project→task→event", with work deployment, personnel mobilization and resource allocation "from top to bottom". All the information involved in the implementation of the project will be summarized, digitized and displayed in graphs "from the bottom up" in the manner of "event→task→project".
Comprehensiveness of single project management
When doing project management, you need to consider all aspects of project management such as: the allocation of project resources, phase Division, project milestone setting, etc. It requires complete project task management, team management, financial management, contract management, document management, time management, and performance management.
Have a project communication platform
Only with good communication, can we talk about project management. In the communication platform of the project management software, the activity flow method is used to record the project implementation process and drive the project execution. The communication process of project execution is recorded through the microblog-like activity flow method, and the information is synchronized to the project, to the task, to the customer, and to the colleague. In this way, communication records exist in the project activity flow, task activity flow, customer activity flow, and personal activity flow, which is convenient for retrospection. On the one hand, the essence of knowledge is recorded to form a corporate knowledge base, which is conducive to inheritance, and on the other hand, it eliminates information islands. Reduce wrangling, clear responsibilities, and avoid prevarication among various departments.
Multi-project management
In addition to satisfying the comprehensiveness of single-project management, it also needs to be competent in multi-project management, distilling each project data into dynamic graphics , Provide a strong decision-making basis for the management. For example, in multi-project management, there are the following data graphics:
1. Project swim lane diagram-showing the investment and income of all projects;
2. Project dynamic diagram-showing all Project progress;
3. Project time evaluation-display the labor cost of all projects;
4. Project quarterly review-display the collection, payment and contract of all projects Funding tool;
5. Project Gantt chart-provide planning Gantt chart and tracking Gantt chart, you can master the task plan and task execution, and understand the progress of the work.
Implementation methods
The relationship between project management methods and project implementation methods
In the implementation of a project, two Methods: project management methods and project implementation methods.
The project implementation method refers to the technical method adopted in the project implementation to complete the determined goal, such as the development of a certain application software. The project implementation method can be applied to a narrower scope, usually only applicable to a certain type of projects with common attributes. In some companies, project management methods and project implementation methods are often combined, because the projects they do are basically of the same type.
In fact, as long as we are willing to do anything, we can find the corresponding method, and the project implementation is the same. Taking various projects in the IT industry as an example, common IT projects can be divided into system integration, application software development, and application software customization according to their attributes. Of course, system integration and application software development can also be decomposed into some with different characteristics. Project. The methods of system integration and application software development are obviously different. For example, the life cycle of system integration may be decomposed into understanding requirements, determining system composition, signing contracts, purchasing equipment, preparing the environment, installing equipment, debugging equipment, and accepting The development of application software may be decomposed into different stages due to different methods. For example, the traditional development method, prototype method and incremental method are different. The life cycle of traditional application software development may be decomposed Success: understanding the requirements, analyzing the requirements, designing, coding, testing, releasing and other stages.
As for project management, it can be divided into three stages: the initial stage, the execution stage and the end stage. Among them, the initial stage is to prepare resources and make various plans for the entire project, the execution stage is to supervise and guide the implementation of the project, improve various plans, and finally complete the goals of the project, and the end stage is to summarize the project and make various aftermaths. Work.
So, what is the relationship between project management methods and project implementation methods? Simply put, the project management method is to provide a guarantee for the effective implementation of the project implementation method. From the perspective of the life cycle, the life cycle of project implementation is in the initial stage and execution phase of project management. As for how the phase distribution in the project implementation life cycle corresponds to the two phases of project management, it depends on the difference. The project implementation method is different.
Practical significance
The project management method and the project implementation method are both important to the success of the project. The meaning of business is the same. From the perspective of IT companies, if any IT company wants to produce high-quality software products or provide high-quality services, it should conduct necessary analysis and summary of its own project business processes, and gradually summarize its own project management methods. And project implementation methods, the project implementation method is particularly important, because most companies have their own core business scope, their project implementation methods will be relatively single, in this case, the project management method may be weakened, and the project implementation method will Be strengthened, the two will be more closely integrated. Only by summarizing and implementing methods that are in line with the company's own business, the success of the project will not rely heavily on one person. To some extent, project management methods and project implementation methods are also part of the corporate culture.
From the customer’s point of view, if you want a guaranteed product or service, you need to pay attention to whether the company providing the product or service has appropriate project management methods and project implementation methods, and you must also respect the Enterprise project management measures and methods.
The importance of project management
According to the traditional approach, when a company sets up a project, there will be at least several departments involved in the project, including the finance department, purchasing department, Human resources departments, etc., and different departments will inevitably have frictions during the operation of the project, and coordination must be carried out. These will undoubtedly increase the cost of the project and affect the efficiency of project implementation. The approach to project management is different. Members of different functional departments form a team for a certain project, and the project manager is the leader of the project team. Their responsibility is to lead his team to complete all the work on time and with high quality, and realize the project without exceeding the budget. Goal. The project manager is not only the executor of the project, he participates in the whole process of determining the needs of the project, selecting the project, planning and closing it, and conducts the project in various aspects such as time, cost, quality, risk, contract, procurement, human resources, etc. Comprehensive management, so project management can help companies deal with complex problems that need to be solved across fields and achieve higher operational efficiency.
Project management is a brand-new management method. Learning project management can broaden our minds and horizons, cultivate our systematic thinking habits, pragmatic work style, and scientific management methods; it can teach us to develop good jobs Way.
For example, the United States Standish Group conducted a study of more than 8,400 IT projects in 1994, which showed that only 16% of the projects achieved their goals, 50% of the projects needed remediation, and 34% of the projects failed completely. Dr. Frame conducted a survey of 438 project staff in 1997, and the results showed that the rate of project failures was also very high. According to his analysis, most of the project’s problems stem from one of the following four reasons: organizational problems (such as problems caused by external resources); lack of control over demand; lack of planning and control; Problems with project estimation.
From this we can see that under the current environment, the implementation of project management is very necessary! So what benefits can project management bring to us? In summary, there are the following points:
Arrange the project schedule reasonably, use project resources effectively, ensure that the project can be completed on time, and reduce project costs. Through the use of a series of project management methods and technologies such as the work breakdown structure WBS, network diagrams, critical path PDM, resource balance, and resource optimization in project management, the task composition of the project can be worked out as soon as possible, and the tasks of each task can be rationally arranged. Prioritize, effectively arrange the use of resources, especially the key resources and key resources in the project, so as to ensure the smooth implementation of the project and effectively reduce the cost of the project. If we do not adopt project management methods, we usually start a project blindly and arrange all resources in the project. There may be a lot of personnel and task bottlenecks. At the same time, a lot of resources will be idle, which will inevitably cause Waste of resources and time.
Strengthen the teamwork of the project and improve the combat effectiveness of the project team. The project management method provides a series of human resource management and communication management methods, such as human resource management theory, motivation theory, teamwork method, etc. Through the use of these methods, teamwork spirit can be enhanced, and the morale and efficiency of project team members can be improved.
Reduce project risks and increase the success rate of project implementation. An important part of project management is risk management, through which risk management can effectively reduce the impact of project uncertainties on the project. In fact, these tasks are the most easily overlooked in the traditional project implementation process, and they are also one of the factors that will have devastating consequences for the project.
Effectively control the scope of the project and enhance the controllability of the project. In the process of project implementation, changes in requirements often occur. If there is not a good method to control, it will inevitably have a lot of adverse effects on the project, and project management emphasizes scope control. The establishment of a change control board (CCB) and a change control system can effectively reduce the impact of project scope changes. The impact of the project ensures the smooth implementation of the project.
Problems in project implementation can be found as early as possible, and project control can be effectively carried out. The project plan, the inspection of the execution status and the application of the PDCA work ring can find the problems and hidden problems in the project implementation as soon as possible, so that the project can be executed smoothly.
Can effectively carry out the knowledge accumulation of the project. In traditional project implementation, the project often comes to a halt when the project implementation is completed. The summary of the project implementation and the accumulation of technology are all empty talks. But the well-known multinational companies are able to operate successfully, in addition to a standardized system, there is another factor that is a relatively good accumulation of knowledge. In project management, it is emphasized that at the end of the project, the project needs to be summarized, so that more company project experience can be converted into the company's wealth. Generally speaking, project management can make the implementation of the project smooth, reduce the risk of the project, and maximize the expected goals.
Provisioning principles
1. Staffing must be centered on achieving organizational goals;
2. Staffing must be streamlined, efficient and economical;
3. Staffing should reasonably arrange the proportion of various types of personnel;
Ability requirements
Project manager ability
Human resource management in project management, If you start with the appointment and selection of personnel, communicate with project members to clarify project goals and tasks, and constantly coordinate and encourage personnel during the implementation process, so that project team members can always maintain a high degree of work passion and sense of responsibility. Work together to achieve project goals. Practice has proved that in the human resource management of project management, the project manager must have some basic abilities:
Leadership: The project manager is the leader of the project team, so the project manager must have Certain leadership skills can start from the needs of the entire project and lead the team to perform all the tasks of the project. The requirement for the project manager is not only to have the ability to participate in the project, but also to have the leadership ability to lead the team.
Organization ability: The project manager must have the ability to organize the project plan, schedule, and resources.
Coordination ability: The main job of the project manager in project management is to coordinate the project team members, coordinate each member to clarify tasks, clarify execution methods, and clarify the relationship with other members Unity and cooperation.
Decision-making ability: There are many uncertain factors in the project management process, and the project team needs to make decisive decisions in the face of unexpected accidents, so as to avoid greater deviations in the project. Decision-making mainly depends on the project manager, so the project manager is required to make correct decisions based on scientific analysis and existing experience.
In addition, project managers must have qualified technical skills, communication skills, and the ability to grasp key points.
Project initiation
A project is initiated and the project charter is determined. After the company appoints a project manager, the first task that the project manager faces is to select personnel and form a project team. Before selecting personnel, the project manager must first analyze the project and communicate with the customer to obtain the customer’s vision and expectations for the project, and then analyze the project implementation’s skill requirements, responsibility requirements, and habit requirements for team members. According to these Need to select project team members from the enterprise purposefully. If the company has enough human resources for the project manager to choose, the project manager can smoothly select suitable project team members according to their needs. But in reality, companies often cannot provide enough human resources for project managers to select. With limited resources, project managers need to review each candidate for selection, not only must consider each person’s technical ability, but also this person. Work habits, collaborative spirit, sense of responsibility, and even personal temperament. Because the project requires collective participation and collaboration, the knowledge, skills, habits and personality of any project member will affect the completion of the project. Careful selection of project team members and formation of the project team can reduce personnel management deviations during project implementation.
Project team goals
After the project team is formed, formulating a project plan, decomposing and assigning work is an important part of project management. This process is a process in which project team members continue to reach consensus. Therefore, effective personnel communication is the most important in this process. In this process, the project manager should make full use of personal knowledge, skills and experience, and play the role of the propagandist of the project goal, so that the project goal can penetrate into each project member's understanding of the project. Under the guidance of unified project goals, organizing project team members to participate in the work breakdown process and formulating project plans can enable project team members to understand the entire project content from a more macro perspective and understand the interrelationships between tasks. This process is the communication process between the project manager and the project team members. In the process of continuous communication, the project manager can have a deeper understanding of the knowledge and skill level of each project team member, so as to make more targeted work assignments. In practice, we often find that when project members perform work tasks, they often deviate greatly from the requirements of the overall project goals, or the project members are not competent for their work tasks. These situations occur except for the project team members’ understanding of the project goals. In addition to unification, insufficient estimation of work difficulty, etc., it is more because the project manager only relied on the subjective judgment of the project manager when formulating work breakdown and task assignment, and did not involve excessive participation of project members. If the project manager can strengthen communication in this process, organize and mobilize project team members to participate, these problems can be effectively reduced.
Project personnel management
Human resource management in project management is different from other human resource management in the enterprise. Human resource management in project management has obvious periodicity. Human resource management also ends, so human resource management in project management is non-systematic. The project manager is responsible for the human resources in the project management. The project manager only needs to organize and coordinate the project team members to complete the work tasks according to the plan. However, the project manager's human resources management also requires management strategies and pays attention to management methods. Project teams are mostly temporary organizations. Before forming the project team, each project member has their own working habits and working methods. When managing project members, the project manager should respect everyone’s habits and use these habits to avoid the use of power. It is necessary to adopt a humanized management method to strengthen the emotional cultivation and communication among members. During the implementation of the project, team activities can be adopted to strengthen the communication between members, and provide a relaxed working atmosphere for each member. In particular, it is not possible to adopt the “eating three sleeping five working sixteen” work methods, and not allowing all members to become Working machine. In addition, the project manager should care about the project members and use various resources to provide protection for the project members to concentrate on their work.
Staff motivation is also an important part of human resource management in project management. The motivation of personnel can be spiritual and material incentives. Personnel motivation is the recognition of the work results of project members, which can make project members realize the value of their work, thereby inspiring the enthusiasm and initiative of project members. Spiritual motivation can usually be achieved by verbal praise, written praise, increasing trust, and entrusting important tasks. Material rewards can be realized by issuing bonuses and increasing benefits. Of course, when project managers implement these incentives, they need to win the support of the corporate leadership.
Personnel assessment is also the content of human resource management in project management. The first requirement for personnel evaluation is fairness. The appraisal of the personnel in the project is mainly carried out from the aspects of discipline appraisal and performance appraisal. Disciplinary assessment in the project is mainly reflected in whether the project members abide by the project management system. Good target management relies on a good management system, especially in the management of large projects, the greater the role of the project management system. The project management system usually includes a regular work meeting system, a resource use system, and a personnel management system. Performance appraisal is the most important appraisal of personnel appraisal. As an it project manager, the author often needs to evaluate the performance of project members. In continuous practice, I gradually summarized a set of "project contribution model". The IT project is complex, and the difficulty of each task varies greatly, and the required working hours will be longer or shorter depending on the difference of individual abilities. The main idea of the project contribution model is to take task difficulty and man-hour investment as the main parameters of performance evaluation. First of all, when formulating the performance evaluation method, according to the work breakdown, work with the project team members to determine the difficulty coefficient of each task. The more skills required, the more complex the task is designed, and the higher the difficulty coefficient; on the contrary, the more unitary the work content, the better The lower the difficulty factor of the task with low skill requirements. Then, multiply the difficulty factor by the required man-hours of the task, and the result will be used as the contribution factor of each task. Count the contribution coefficient of each project member to complete the task divided by the sum of the contribution coefficient of all tasks in the project to get the personal contribution.
Task difficulty factor × required man-hours = task contribution factor
∑ (single project member’s contribution factor for each task)/ total project contribution factor = personal contribution degree
< p>I applied this model to the performance evaluation of multiple projects. Because all project members participated in the joint determination of the difficulty coefficient and working hours, it was recognized by the project members and believed that the model can truly reflect the project members’ performance in the project. Contribution in the. According to the personal contribution obtained by this model, the performance evaluation and commission distribution of project members make the evaluation and commission distribution more basis and reasonable. To avoid too many subjective factors in the assessment, increase the fairness and transparency of the assessment.The above mainly analyzes the characteristics of human resource management in project management and the problems that need attention from two aspects: the requirements of human resource management in project management for project managers and the requirements of human resource management in each key process of the project. , And based on the author’s own work experience, put forward a project contribution model in the personnel assessment, hoping to get more joint discussions and research from project managers.
Human resource management in project management is the most important management content in project management, involving personnel selection, personnel communication, personnel coordination, personnel incentives, and personnel appraisal. Successful human resource management can Ensure the smooth completion of project tasks and promote more effective management of the project.
The true and false standard of the team
The real project team:
1. All members have a strong sense of team members and are proud of being a team member
p>2. All members are united around the project goals
3. Full cooperation between members
4. Full information circulation and sharing between members
5. Each member can give full play to his role and become the core of the team at a certain time or in a certain aspect.
Fake team:
1. Think of yourself as one of the members and don’t identify with other members.
2. Members are divided according to specific interests to form some small groups
3. Members are susceptible to each other , Distrust
4. Members regard the possession of certain information as a guarantee of their own authority and advantage, and avoid information being known by others
5. Dominated by a small number of elites, always Taking the elite as the core