A brief overview of project management Travis Barker, MPA GCPM Innovate Vancouver Consulting@innovatevancouver.org

1. Orientation
Travis Barker, MPA GCPM
Innovate Vancouver

2.  Not all efforts involve projects and not all
projects use the same tools. Part of
planning projects is identifying what tools
are needed.
 The following short presentation provides
an overview of what ‘is a project’ in
addition to the different project planning
stages, knowledge groups, and most
common tools used.
 As a general rule = the more complex the
project, deliverables, or list of stakeholders
the more tools that are needed.
Portfolio
Project
Operations
Program
Service Line

3.  A project is temporary in that it has a
defined beginning and end in time, and
therefore defined scope and resources.
 And a project is unique in that it is not
a routine operation, but a specific set of
operations designed to accomplish a
singular goal. So a project team often
includes people who don’t usually work
together – sometimes from different
organizations and across multiple
geographies.
 Source: https://www.pmi.org/about/learn-about-pmi/what-
is-project-management

4. Project
Sponsor:
•The sponsor is the most senior member of the program organization. Authorizing the program on the basis of its
mandate and business case;
Project
Owner:
•This role is appointed by the sponsors to represent them in the program organization and is ultimately responsible for
foreseeing that the program meets its overall objectives. Project Manager
Program
Manager:
•This role is mainly operational since this person is responsible for planning and governance and for overseeing the
successful delivery of the program’s output/product.
Project
Manager:
•Project manager have the responsibility of the planning, procurement and execution of a project, in any undertaking
that has a defined scope, defined start and a defined finish.
Business
Change
Manager:
•One of the fundamental differences between program management and project management lies in the management
and realization of the benefits.
Business
Analyst:
•A business analyst (BA) is someone who analyzes an organization or business domain and documents its business or
processes or systems, assessing the business model or its integration with technology.

5. Project management processes fall into five
groups:
1. Initiating
2. Planning
3. Executing
4. Monitoring and Controlling
5. Closing
◦ Source: https://www.pmi.org/about/learn-about-pmi/what-is-project-
management

6. Project management knowledge draws on ten
areas:
◦ Integration
◦ Scope
◦ Time
◦ Cost
◦ Quality
◦ Procurement
◦ Human resources
◦ Communications
◦ Risk management
◦ Stakeholder management
Inputs
Process
Groups,
Knowledge
Areas, and
Plans
Activities
Workgroups
&
Committees
Outputs
Deliverables
& Products

7. A successful project is any initiative that satisfies all 5 of
these criteria:
1. Completed at or under budget.
2. Completed on schedule.
3. Meets sponsor objectives.
4. Meets defined requirements of features and functions.
5. Customers score the product as satisfactory or better.
If your projects do not meet all five success criteria, all
the time, you need to read further to learn the roadblocks
to avoid and the actions to take to make current and
future projects successful.
Source: https://www.pmi.org/learning/library/project-failure-avoid-mistakes-8235
Additional Resource: https://www.cio.com/article/3174516/project-management/it-project-success-rates-finally-improving.html

8. Source:
https://www.pmi.org/-
/media/pmi/documents
/public/pdf/learning/th
ought-
leadership/pulse/pulse
-of-the-profession-
2017.pdf

9. Source: https://www.girlsguidetopm.com/9-essential-project-documents/
•This is the document that kicks off the whole project.
1. The Business Case
•It coves tangible deliverables as well as services and can go down to quite a low level of detail
2. The Statement of Work
•It’s your mandate to run the project and it’s the document that turns the project from an idea into an
actual program of work, with allocated owners (and agreement on funding).
3. The Project Charter
•This is a huge document. In fact, it’s probably not one document. I always manage it as separate
documents but together they form ‘The Plan’.
4. The Project Management Plan
•I use an action log to keep track of all the project team’s actions. When someone says they will do
something I add it to the action log. I copy across the actions from minutes and emails too. It’s different
from a To Do list as that only covers my personal actions.
5. Action Log

10. Source: https://www.girlsguidetopm.com/9-essential-
project-documents/
•Like the action log, it pays to have a register of risks so you can keep track of everything.
6. Risk Register
•OK, these are a collection of documents rather than a single document. But they are really
important because they’re the mechanism you use to get information to your stakeholders on a
regular basis. They are the formal written record of progress
7. Status Reports
•Your project budget is a different sort of document – less text, more numbers. However, it helps
to have a text-y document to go with the calculations that sets out information about contracts,
procurement and the financial processes you’re expected to follow.
8. Budget
•This document forms part of your project closure work and it’s only helpful if you share it with
the people on this team so they’ve got something that codifies the lessons they learned while
working with you.
9. The Lessons Learned Review

11. Source: https://www.ifm.eng.cam.ac.uk/research/dstools/value-chain-/
(adapted)