Project Management Tools

Phases of Project Management Life Cycle

A project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product or service. A project is temporary in that there is a defined start (the decision to proceed) and a defined end (the achievement of the goals and objectives). Ongoing business or maintenance operations are not projects. Energy conservation projects and process improvement efforts that result in better business processes or more efficient operations can be defined as projects. Projects usually include constraints and risks regarding cost, schedule or performance outcome.

Project Management is the application of a collection of tools and techniques (such as the CPM and matrix organization) to direct the use of diverse resources toward the accomplishment of a unique, complex, one-time task within time, cost and quality constraints.… Read the rest

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Project Scope Management

Scope is the description of the boundaries of the project. It defines what the project will deliver and what it will not deliver. Scope is the view all stakeholders have from the project; it is a definition of the limits of the project. Project Scope Management includes the processes required to ensure that the project includes all the work required, and only the work required to complete the project successfully. Project scope management’s primary concern is with defining and controlling what is and is not included in the project. One of the leading causes for project failures is poor management of the project scope, either because the project manager did not spend enough time defining the work, there was not an agreement on the scope by stakeholders, or there was a lack of scope management which leads to adding work not authorized or budgeted to the project, this is known as scope creep.… Read the rest

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Concept of Feasibility Study in Project Management

A feasibility study is an important tool for decision-making in project management. Accurate and  adequate information about the project like technology, location,  production capacity, demand, and impact on existing operations, cost  and benefits to the company, time span for execution, resources needed  should be included in the report. Alternatives if any should also be  suggested.

Feasibility Study in Project Management  can be defined as:  “A tool for transforming the initial project- A tool for transforming the initial project-idea into a idea into a specific hypothesis of intervention, through the identification, the specification and the comparison of two or more alternatives directed to achieve the defined objectives, by producing a set of information helping the Project manager  to take the final decision”

Market research or demand analysis, technical viability studies, financial or commercial  feasibility studies are other wise known as functional or support studies to aid the  decision-making.  … Read the rest

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Build Own Operate Transfer (BOOT) Model

Build Own Operate Transfer (BOOT)  funding model   of project financing involves a single organization, or consortium (BOOT provider) who designs, builds, funds, owns and operates the project for a defined period of time and then transfers this projects ownership across to a agreed party. BOOT projects are a way for governments to bundle together the design and construction, finance, operations and maintenance and potentially marketing and customer interface aspects of a project and let these as a package to a single private sector service provider. The asset is transferred back to the government after the concession period at little or no cost.… Read the rest

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Build Operate Transfer (BOT) Model

Build Operate Transfer (BOT) is a project financing and operating approach that has found an application in recent years primarily in the area of infrastructure privatization in the developing countries. It enables direct private sector investment in large scale infrastructure projects.

In BOT the private contractor constructs and operates the facility for a specified period. The public agency pays the contractor a fee, which may be a fixed sum, linked to output or, more likely, a combination of the two. The fee will cover the operators fixed and variable costs, including recovery of the capital invested by the contractor. In this case, ownership of the facility rests with the public agency.… Read the rest

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Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT)

In the critical path method of scheduling projects, the duration of each activity is usually defined with a reasonable degree of certainty.   For some projects, it may be difficult to estimate a reasonable single duration for one more of the activities in the project schedule. The Program Evaluation and Review Technique or PERT method of project scheduling, uses three durations for each activity and the fundamental statistics to determine the probability of a project finishing earlier or later than expected.   Although the PERT method is not used extensively in engineering and construction projects, it provides valuable information for assessing the risks of a schedule slippage in a project.… Read the rest

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