LECTURE 1
INTRODUCTION TO PROJECT MANAGEMENT
BROAD CONTENTS
• Management
• Key management concepts
• Functions of management
• Comparison of 20th and 21st century organizations
1.1 WHAT IS MANAGEMENT?
Managing is an art of getting things done through and with people in
formally organized groups.
Management is the process of designing and maintaining an environment
in which individuals, working together in groups, efficiently accomplish
selected aims towards any project. It is the art of creating an environment
in which people can perform as individuals and yet cooperate towards the
attainment of group goals.
1.1.1 Management as a Process:
According to this, management is the process of using
organizational resources to achieve the organization’s goals
through planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. It is thus, a
set of activities directed at an organization’s resources with the aim
of achieving organizational goals in an efficient and effective
manner.
1.1.2 Management as People:
This refers to a group of people who engage in “Process of
Management”.
1.2 KEY MANAGEMENT CONCEPTS:
• Project Organization: It comprises of people working together and
coordinating their actions to achieve specific goals.
• Goal: A desired future condition that the organization seeks to
achieve.
• Resource: An asset, competency, process, skill, or knowledge
controlled by organization. Various types of resources that an
organization possesses are as follows:
o People
o Information
o Machinery
o Financial capital
o Raw Materials
A resource is strength, if it provides an organization with a competitive
advantage. On the contrary, a resource is a weakness; if it is something the
organization does poorly or does not have capacity to do. Organizational
resources include: Human, Physical, Financial, Technological, and
Information.
1.3 EVOLUTION OF MANAGEMENT CONCEPT IN MODERN ERA:
a) Frederick Taylor – Father of Scientific Management was a
Mechanical Engineer. He invented high speed steel cutting tools. He
got the opportunity to know first hand problems and attitudes of the
workers. Based on these he identified that in order to improve the
quality of management, the major concern was to increase efficiency in
production, lower cost, raise profits through higher productivity, and also
increase the pays/salaries of the workforce.
His message of management was to give people their best
opportunities to be productive, and in turn reward workers for their
individual productivity. This increase in labor productivity is not
possible without the following:
• Providing ample rewards
• Adequate trainings
• Continuous managerial support
Thus, Fredrick Taylor concluded that “low productivity in any project
is matter of ignorance on part of labor and management”.
b) Henry L. Gantt stressed the importance of “developing understanding of
systems both for labor as well as management.” He emphasized that in all
problems of management, human element is the most important one.
Gantt gave graphic methods of describing project plans in order to
have better managerial control. He highlighted the importance of time
and cost in planning and controlling projects. He made the famous
Gantt chart which is the forerunner of PERT.
1.4 KEY ASPECTS OF THE MANAGEMENT PROCESS:
The key aspects of the Management Process can be explained with the
help of the following diagram:
Figure 1.1: Management Process Aspects
1.5 FUNCTIONS OF MANAGEMENT:
The process of management consists of four basic managerial functions.
These are:
a) Planning:
Planning is the process of setting objectives in any project and then
determining what should be done to accomplish them. It is a capstone
activity of management. Managers at every level do planning.
Planning activities determine an organization’s objective and based on
these helps it in establishing appropriate strategies for achieving them.
These strategies provide the organization with the direction and serves
to obtain a match between the external environment and internal
capabilities. The strategies are intended to achieve a sustained
competitive advantage over the competitors.
b) Organizing:
Organizing is the process of assigning tasks, allocating resources, and
arranging coordinated activities to implement plans. It involves
establishing intentional structure of roles for people to fill in
organizations.
c) Leading:
Leading is the process of arousing enthusiasm and directing human
resource efforts toward project and organizational goals. It involves
influencing people so that they contribute towards organizational and
group goals. Leadership predominantly is concerned with the
interpersonal aspect of managing.
In projects most important problems arise from people in terms of their
desires, attitudes, and behavior (as individuals as well as in groups).
Thus, effective project managers also need to be effective leaders.
Leadership implies follower-ship and people tend to follow those who
offer means of satisfying their own needs, wishes, and desires.
d) Controlling
Controlling is the process of measuring performance and taking
actions to ensure desired results in any project. It involves measuring
and correcting individual as well as organizational performance to
ensure that events conform to plans.
Controlling facilitates accomplishment of plans. There are three basic
elements that are involved in controlling. These are:
1. Management should establish standards of performance.
2. Performance should be assessed periodically and information
should be updated that indicates deviation between actual versus
the established standards.
3. Actions should be taken to correct performance that does not
conform to the standards.
1.6 MANAGEMENT FUNCTIONS: PLANNING, ORGANIZING,
LEADING & CONTROLLING:
Figure 1.2: Management Functions
1.7 MANAGERIAL FUNCTIONS IN ORGANIZATIONS UNDERTAKING
PROJECTS:
Figure 1.3: Managerial Functions
Organizations are arranged in ways that try to maximize synergy, i.e. the
ability of the whole to equal more than the sum of its parts. This means that an
organization ought to be able to achieve its goals more effectively and
efficiently than would be possible if the parts operated separately.
Organizations comprise of various levels. These are depicted in the
following figure:
Figure 1.4: Various organizational levels
Figure 1.5: A model for organizational environment
1.8 COMPARISON OF 20TH AND 21ST CENTURY ORGANIZATIONS:
20th Century Organizations 21st Century Organizations
Structure Structure
• Bureaucratic • Not bureaucratic, with fewer rules
• Multi-leveled and employees
• Organized with the expectation that • Limited to fewer levels
senior management will manage • Organized with the expectation that
• Characterized by policies and management will lead, and lower-
procedures that create many level employees will manage.
complicated internal • Characterized by policies and
interdependencies procedures that produce the minimal
internal interdependence needed to
serve customers.
Systems Systems
• Depend on few performance • Depend on many performance
information systems. information system, providing data
• Distribute performance data to on customers especially
executives only • Distribute performance data widely
• Offer management training and • Offer management training and
support systems to senior people support systems to many people
only
Culture Culture
• Inwardly focused • Externally oriented
• Centralized • Empowering
• Slow to make decisions • Quick to make decisions
• Political • Open and candid
• Risk averse • More risk tolerant
1.9 ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL FORCES DRIVING NEED FOR MAJOR
CHANGES IN ORGANIZATIONS:
This is illustrated in the following figure:
Figure 1.6: Economic and Social changes driving change
In order to have large scale changes in organizations, there are some
distinctive transformation processes. These are as follows:
• Reengineering
• Restructuring
• Quality programs
• Mergers and acquisitions
• Strategic changes
• Cultural changes
1.10 PARADIGM SHIFTS:
From To
Industrial Society Information Society
Forced Technology High Tech/High Touch
National Economy World Economy
Short Term Long Term
Centralization Decentralization
Institutional Help Self-Help
Representative Democracy Hierarchies Participatory Democracy
North South
Either/OR Multiple Option
