Week Three

Before starting of any project, cost for that particular project can be estimated roughly. To calculate this approximate cost there are two ways which are called as Historical cost, where you look at other previous similar projects & estimate the cost & the other method is "Expert judgment" where knowledge of expertise are taken into the consideration.

We have done few calculations regarding project cost calculation & learnt how to calculate the payback period & how it effects the project. When selecting a project solution we must select the project with the shortest payback time.

We have done a case study of implementing an edm for APIIT & identified what is the cost effective method (PHP or .NET) when developing the software.

Also it is identified how to proceed with projects based on NPV (Net Present value).

If :-

NPV > 0 Accept the project

NPV = 0 Accept the project

NPV < 0 Reject the project

NPV 1 < NPV 2 Then Choose NPV 2

Week two

As it is stated in (visitask.com, 2011) The Project Life Cycle refers to a logical sequence of activities to accomplish the project’s goals or objectives. In every project there are 4 main stages, which are Introduction, Planning, Execution, & Close. There is first an Initiation or Birth phase, in which the outputs and critical success factors are defined, followed by a Planning phase, characterized by breaking down the project into smaller parts/tasks, an Execution phase, in which the project plan is executed, and lastly a Closure or Exit phase, that marks the completion of the project.

It is identified that the ultimate success criteria for a project is called "customer satisfaction".

Projects are:

Always temporary

Have a definitive start time & end time

Project abandon

Project is to bring a Product, service, or a result that didn't exist before

Unique

Operations are totally different from projects. Operations are on going repetitive, involves continues work with out an ending date. The purpose of operations is to keep the organization functioning.

After assigning a team to do a project, the team goes under 5 stages, & that are :

Forming - Introducing themselves to other team members

Storming - Problems arise

Norming - Compromise each other and negotiating

Performing - Start performing

Adjoining - Team is disabled

stakeholder are group of people who have got vested people on that project. also they can be primary/secondary or direct/indirect.

Intro

Hii,

I'm shanaka, 22 years old & currently reading for my BSc at Asia Pacific Institute of Information Technology in Sri Lanka . As one of the final year modules, i'm learning Project Management &  i'm posting here what i'm learning from my lectures everyday.

From this module I'm expecting to learn different types of Project Management methodologies, tools & techniques available & different scenarios that we can apply them into & how to gain success. also to understand  the common issues that arise in projects & how to avoid them.

As I'm in the initiating stage of this module I think project management is  a well planned & well organized effort to gain success in a particular project.Project mangers apply theirs skills, project management tools & various techniques to project activities to make their project a success.

I hope Project Management will help me in both my career plan & professional life. As  I'm learning another module called Group Case Studies simultaneously in this semester, what i'm learning here will be very helpful for that module too, because i can directly apply my learning out comes in this PM module to successfully develop the application which i have to submit as a part of GCS module. Also I hope the things that I learn from  here will be quite supportive & will make my tasks easier in my professional life.