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Project Management Cheat Sheet (DRAFT) by

this cheat sheet is for Project Management

This is a draft cheat sheet. It is a work in progress and is not finished yet.

Week 1

Projects are unique focused (objective goal) and temporary
There are 3 main constr­aints on a project: time, cost and scope all impacting quality
A project has seven main charac­ter­istics:
1) unique­ness;
2) focused;
3) temporary;
4) change orient­ated;
5) integr­ating;
6) social constr­ucted
7) has emergent aspects and uncert­ainty
Every project has intera­cting key constr­aints of time, cost and scope, known as the Project Management “iron triangle”
Project management triangle is time, scope, cost and quality

Week 2

Project leadership involves 4 main aspects:
1. Establ­ishing and mainta­ining vision
2. Critical thinking
3. Motivating team members
4. Interp­ersonal skills
Group is when 2 or more people who are connected by social relati­ons­hips, whereas a team is when 2 or more people with common goals and shared respon­sib­ility.
Teams go through 4 steps: forming, storming, norming and perfor­ming. It is important to be aware about these steps in your project and manage them effect­ively
A high-p­erf­orming team is comprised of nine roles, some are task oriented, some are thinki­ng-­related and some are social­-or­iented
 

Week 3

The Project Start Up determines what the project is about and what is not
Develop knowledge on the management of these activi­ties, PMI’s (2017) 5 processes groups: initia­ting, planning, executing, monitoring and contro­lling and closing
Projects objectives should be SMART. Specific, Measur­able, Activity and Achiev­ement based, Realistic and Relevant, and Timed
Stakeh­olders need to be managed as they can impact and are impacted by the project
The internal team project, core externals and rest of the world are the main stakeh­older groups
Power(­hig­h/low) and intere­st(­hig­h/low) of each stakeh­older needs to be considered
Project risks can arise from internal (time, cost, scope, quality, health and safety legal and resources) and external sources (PESTLE)
To effect­ively plan scope stakeh­older engagement is vital – collect and manage requir­ements

Week 4

Planning gives a deeper unders­tanding of the project, but they need to be adapted
The Project Management Plan includes key project inform­ation and can be used to introduce to the project members. Typical contents: What, Where, When, Who, Why and How
Stakeh­older engagement is vital for requir­ements collection and measuring quality
Projects can spiral out of control through scope creep – this needs active management
WBS shows the scope of the project and divides the work into manageable tasks
Quality standards that can be measured aid in bridging the gap between expect­ation and perception
Product scope: The features and functions that categorise the product, service or result
Project scope: The work performed to deliver a product, service or result with the specified features and functions
Scope creep is the uncont­rolled expansion to product or project scope, without adjust­ments to time, costs and resources
Manage this by focusing on ensuring the project contains all the work required and only the work required for the project to be successful
 

Week 5

Network Analys­is/­Cri­tical Path Analysis is a tool to plan and allocate resources and to minimise total project duration and costs
“Activ­ities” are known as a specific task, or set of tasks, that are required by the project
“Network Diagram” is the combin­ation of all activities that define the project and the sequence of relati­onships between them. Network diagrams usually include the duration of tasks, as well as their earliest and latest start/­finish times
“Duration” is the total time it takes to finish a task/a­ctivity
A zero-d­uration activity, also known as a “Miles­tone”, is a task that does not involve any work, but is acknow­ledged as a key achiev­ement
A Critical Path is the sequence of activities where if delayed, the entire project is delayed. The Critical Path is the slowes­t/l­ongest path in a network
To construct a network diagram, you first identify all the activities undertaken in the project, estimate the time each activity takes to complete, and pinpoint the order of activities that need to be completed
The earliest an activity can start is known as the Earliest Start Time, or “EST”
The earliest an activity can finish is known as the Earliest Finish Time, or “EFT”. The “EFT” can be calculated by adding the earliest start time and duration of an activity
The latest an activity can finish is known as the Latest Finish Time, or “LFT”. The “LFT” of the activity can be calculated by the lowest LST of the previous activi­ty/­act­ivities
The latest an activity can start is known as the Latest Start Time, or “LST”. The “LST” can be calculated by deducting the latest finish time of the activity with the duration of the activity
The difference between the EST + Duration and the LFT is known as FLOAT (or Slack). In other words, the activity can “float” for a specific period without it becoming a problem.
 

Week 6

Project resources are anything that is necessary for the project to be completed. The four resource categories present within a project are Human Resources, Materials, Equipment, and Cash (Capit­al/­Budget)
A resource constraint is any limitation and/or risk associated with project resources
Resource Constr­ained Projects should be levelled, allowing end dates to move. It forces the resources scheduled to not exceed the limits of resources available.
Time Constr­ained Projects should be smoothed, to move or split tasks or to assign replac­ement resources. It ensures resources are used as effici­ently as possible by utilising float/­slack of activities to increase or decrease resources needed at one specific activity and spread it throughout the project
Top-down budgeting approach are when budgets are prepared by top management and imposed on the project manager. This approach shows the business perfor­mance goals and expect­ations of top manage­ment, however it can be unreal­istic because it doesn’t include the specialist input and knowledge of the project staff
The Bottom-Up approach is when project managers and planni­ng/cost engineers prepare the budget based on an analysis of all the resources needed for the project tasks and is then passed up the chain of command for review and approval. Bottom-up budgets tend to be more exact and can have a positive impact on project morale because staff have played an active role in the process
Risk management refers to activities for minimizing project risks, ensuring completion within time and budget and scope. The risk management process consists of 5 stages, which are to Plan Risk Manage­ment, Identify, Analyse Risks, Response Plans, Implement Responses
A risk matrix is a matrix that is used during risk assessment to define the level of risk by catego­rizing the probab­ility against the impact of conseq­uence
There are 5 risk strategies that can be used to respond to risk. These are Escalate, Avoid, Transfer, Mitigate, and accept
Escalation is approp­riate when the project team or project sponsor agrees that a threat is outside the scope of the project or that the proposed response would exceed the project manager's authority
Avoid is when the project team acts to eliminate the threat or protect the project from its impact
Transfer involves shifting ownership of a threat to a third party to manage the risk and to bear the impact if the threat occurs
Action is taken to reduce the probab­ility of occurrence and/or the impact of a threat. Early mitigation is usually more effective
To accept is to acknow­ledge the existence of a threat, but no proactive action is taken