The project Wizards Guide

A funny guide for project management

Project Management Life Cycle

The Project Management Life Cycle has four phases: Initiation, Planning, Execution and Closure.

INITIATION
Develop a Business Case
Undertake a Feasibility Study

Establish the Project Charter
Appoint the Project Team

Set up the Project Office
Perform Phase Review

PLANNING
Create a Project Plan
Create a Resource Plan
Create a Financial Plan

Create a Quality Plan

Create a Risk Plan
Create an Acceptance Plan
Create a Communication Plan

Create a Procurement Plan

Contract the Suppliers

EXECUTION

Build Deliverables
Monitor and Control
Perform Time Management
Perform Cost Management

Perform Quality Management
Perform Change Management
Perform Risk Management
Perform Issue Management
Perform Procurement Management
Perform Acceptance Management

CLOSURE

Perform Project Closure
Review Project Completion

Perform Communication Management

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History

Project management has been practiced since early civilization. Until 1900 civil engineering projects were generally managed by creative architects and engineers themselves, among those for example Christopher Wren (1632–1723) , Thomas Telford (1757-1834) and Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806–1859). It has been since the 1950s, that organizations started applying systemic project management tools and techniques to complex projects.

Henry Gantt (1861-1919), the father of planning and control techniques.
As a discipline, Project Management developed from different fields of application including construction, engineering and defense. In the United States, the two forefathers of project management are Henry Gantt, called the father of planning and control techniques, who is famously known for his use of the Gantt chart as a project management tool, and Henri Fayol for his creation of the 5 management functions, which form the basis for the body of knowledge associated with project and program management. Both Gantt and Fayol were known as being students of Frederick Winslow Taylor's theories of scientific management. His work is the forerunner to modern project management tools including work breakdown structure (WBS) and resource allocation.
The 1950s marked the beginning of the modern Project Management era. Project management was formally recognized as a distinct discipline arising from the management discipline. Again, in the United States, prior to the 1950s, projects were managed on an ad hoc basis using mostly Gantt Charts, and informal techniques and tools. At that time, two mathematical project scheduling models were developed. The "Critical Path Method" (CPM) developed in a joint venture by both DuPont Corporation and Remington Rand Corporation for managing plant maintenance projects. And the "Program Evaluation and Review Technique" or PERT, developed by Booz-Allen & Hamilton as part of the United States Navy's (in conjunction with the Lockheed Corporation) Polaris missile submarine program; These mathematical techniques quickly spread into many private enterprises.

PERT network chart for a seven-month project with five milestones.
At the same time, technology for project cost estimating, cost management, and engineering economics was evolving, with pioneering work by Hans Lang and others. In 1956, the American Association of Cost Engineers (now AACE International; the Association for the Advancement of Cost Engineering) was formed by early practitioners of project management and the associated specialties of planning and scheduling, cost estimating, and cost/schedule control (project control). AACE has continued its pioneering work and in 2006 released the first ever integrated process for portfolio, program and project management (Total Cost Management Framework).
In 1969, the Project Management Institute (PMI) was formed to serve the interests of the project management industry. The premise of PMI is that the tools and techniques of project management are common even among the widespread application of projects from the software industry to the construction industry. In 1981, the PMI Board of Directors authorized the development of what has become A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide), containing the standards and guidelines of practice that are widely used throughout the profession.
The International Project Management Association (IPMA), founded in Europe in 1967, has undergone a similar development and instituted the IPMA Competence Baseline (ICB). The focus of the ICB also begins with knowledge as a foundation, and adds considerations about relevant experience, interpersonal skills, and competence. Both organizations are now participating in the development of an ISO project management standard.

The Project Wizards' Network

Introduction

Welcome to Project Wizards Blog!

In here you can find all kind of necessary information about Project Management!

If you are curious about why we are doing this and who we are, please take a look at the following paragraph!

We are students of the course Project Management in the summer school of Utrecht. We, as Luca Bottone, Stephanie Gras, Stefania Monterotti, Enrico Prunotto and Dalya Samur, are aiming to connect, inform and help people about project management by using several social media tools which will be coordinated under the name of “ The Project Wizards“. This task is given by our instructor Bo Buma who can be held as the sponsor of the project.

Nowadays the use of internet could be very helpful for the spread of information; however, it is challenging to decide about the quality of the information. So we are aiming to bring reliable information about project management in one project with including several social media tools.

Even though people constantly engage in projects, most of them lack of the professional approach to project management. We are aiming to provide simple and basic information about the project management accompanied with information thoroughly.

The other social media tools are listed below, just feel free to visit them as well!!
- Website
- Facebook
- Youtube
- Email

On our website you can find some selected books and journals with academic articles which will help to deepen your knowledge about project management.
Besides we uploaded on the website some documents about
- how to write a project plan,
- how to work with MS Project,
- how to plan meetings,
- how to analyze the risk of a project,
- how to build a team
- and so on

We also have a Youtube account which we us as a visual library. We know that not everyone prefers to learn from articles, that’s why we have an account to share information on videos. There you will find some interviews, some funny videos but also some trainings. You invite you also not just to watch the videos, but to comment also on the files.


We also started a group on facebook so that all the users of our social media get know each other and can discuss about project management. We want to offer you a forum where you can exchange your knowledge, learn from others and solve problems about project management together.
We invite everybody who is interested in project management to join our group.


We also have an email address. If you have questions, suggestions for improvement and so on, you can write us an email. Besides if you find some other interesting articles, books, videos in the internet, send some to us, so that we can upload some. We want to grow our social media on its own that’s why it depends on your postings and comments.

Thank you for your interest!
Project Wizards Team
Note: If you have any further comment or suggestion; feel free to contact us through