Category: Introduction to Project Management

Project management is the foundation of every successful project. This category introduces you to the core principles, stages, and methodologies that guide effective project execution. Learn how to define goals, allocate resources, manage timelines, and deliver results with precision. Whether you’re new to project management or looking to refine your skills, this section covers everything from planning and scheduling to risk management and communication. Gain practical insights and proven strategies to lead projects efficiently and meet business objectives on time and within budget. Perfect for beginners and professionals aiming to strengthen their project management foundation.

Project Management Life Cycle

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Project Management Life Cycle

We all know that Project is an endeavor that has a definite start and end. Thus, it makes it all the more important to have well defined life cycle in place. Life cycle is helpful in laying out transparent and time bound entry and exit points throughout the project stages.

Time boxing the stages ensures we stay on track and deliver with quality. One of the key objectives of any project is always having a balance among the triple constraints – Time, Cost & Quality. The better the balance, better the chances of the project being successful.

No matter what project it is that you’re preparing for, the project management life cycle can assist you and your team in narrowing the project’s focus, keeping its objectives in order and finishing the project on time, on budget and with minimum surprises (unwanted)!

PMI is the world’s largest nonprofit membership association for the project management profession. It has set the standards for project, program, and portfolio management and offers training and certifications. The gold standard of certification from the association is the Project Management Professional (PMP) certification.

A project management life cycle as defined in the PMBOK (Project Management Body of Knowledge) by Project Management Institute (PMI) consists of 5 phases:

  • Project Initiation
  • Project Planning
  • Project Execution
  • Project Monitoring and Control
  • Project Closure

Project Initiation

Initiation is first phase of project management life cycle where the feasibility and the business value of the project are determined.

The key outcome of the Initiating phase is our “Project Charter“! It is the bible of your Project!

The answer to all your project disputes, concerns, and doubts are covered in the Project Charter. So why do you think this is such an important document?

As common logic says – before we undertake any endeavor we perform certain background checks, initial research, execution feasibility, and commercial viability and then decide if it should be undertaken at all.

And exactly that is what is covered in our Project Charter

  • Business Case or Vision
  • Goals / Projected Benefits
  • Identify Stakeholders
  • Project Scope (In-scope and Out-of-scope items)
  • Identifying Deliverables
  • Identifying Risks
  • Defining project resources, cost &budget

It is quite evident why a Project Charter is the most important document of any project.

It explains :

  • Why a project was undertaken? What problems need to be addressed?
  • What specific strategic gaps and initiatives need to be served?
  • What needs, objectives and profits were served by this project?
  • Who are the key stakeholders, sponsors and project team?
  • What are the roles and responsibilities of each person associated with the project?
  • What does the project entail? What will be exactly delivered and left out of the deliverables?
  • What is to be delivered, at what time and within how much cost?
  • And lastly who is in charge and authorized to run the project?

PMP Tip– PMI gives a lot of significance to the Project Charter& has a dedicated process named “Develop Project Charter” in the Initiating Process group / Integration Management Knowledge Area.

Planning

Failing to plan is planning to fail!

We all have heard it, know it, yet often fail to implement it.

Planning is the second yet most important phase in the project management life cycle. Project planning is at the heart of the project life cycle, and tells everyone involved where you’re going and how you’re going to get there.

The planning phase is when the project plans are documented, the project deliverables and requirements are defined, and the project schedule is created.

It involves creating a set of plans to help guide your team through the implementation and closure phases of the project.

The plans created during this phase will help you manage time, cost, quality, changes, risk, and related issues. They will also help you control staff and external suppliers to ensure that you deliver the project on time, within budget, and within schedule.

Planning includes

Creating a Project Plan

The Project Plan is you project blueprint and a project manager’s best friend. It helps the Project Manager to be in-sync with the roadmap and maintain progress accordingly by taking informed decisions at the right time.

Creating a Resource Plan

A Resource Plan provides information about the level of resources that is needed to complete a project. A properly documented Resource Plan will specify the exact quantities of labor, equipment and materials needed to complete your project. At here, we also consider the skill of the resources that is whether the resources have the relevant expertise required for the project.

Creating a Financial Plan

A Financial Plan helps set budget for your project. To deliver your project within budget, you need to produce the project deliverables at a total cost which does not exceed allotted budget.

Creating a Quality Plan

Quality Planning is an essential part of any project. It helps you to monitor and control the level of quality produced by the project, to ensure that you meet the required quality targets.

Creating a Risk Plan

A Risk Plan helps you to identify the potential risks and how to mitigate them. The Risk Management Plan is created as part of the Risk Planning process. The risk plan contains lists of all potential risks, their ranking or level and priority, the preventive actions, along with a process for tracking them.

Creating an Acceptance Plan

The acceptance plan lists the tasks we design to meet customer requirements. It outlines the deliverables, the acceptance test activities, the criteria and standards we must satisfy, and the plan to complete each item.

Creating a Communication Plan

A communication plan explains how we share information with stakeholders. It lists what information we need to share with stakeholders, project members, and the PMO; when and how often we will share it; the communication methods we will use (email, stand-up meetings, weekly reviews, presentations, etc.); and where team members can access the relevant reports and documents.

Creating a Procurement Plan

Procurement planning is the process to decide what to buy, what are procedure should be followed to buy and sources from which required materials to be purchased.

Execution, Monitor and Control

This is the phase that is most commonly associated with project management. Execution is all about building deliverables that satisfy the customer. Team leaders make this happen by allocating resources and keeping team members focused on their assigned tasks.

Execution relies heavily on the planning phase. The work and efforts of the team during the execution phase are derived from the project plan.

The key tasks performed are

Assemble Execution Phase Project Team

Acquiring the required resources to work on the project.

Team Development

Dividing the resources into small teams to work on certain modules. For example, if you are working on website development, one team can be assigned for UI/UX design of the website, other team for the backend design, similar a team to perform testing and so on.

Assign Resources

Assigned skill or expert resources to the project. Obtaining the right resources for the project is crucial for project success. A high skill to requirement mapping will enable smoother and timely task execution.

Execute Project Management Plans

Set your schedule into action.

Direct and Manage Project Execution

This involves leading and performing the work defined in the project plan and implementing approved changes to achieve the project’s objectives.

Conduct Progress Status Meetings

Having periodic status checks helps keep the team motivated, stay on track, address any real or perceived threats in advance and take corrective measures as required.

Update Project Schedule and Management Plans

As the project moves forward, we must regularly update the schedule and plans to stay on track and meet the agreed timelines. However, you can skip this step if the project remains on schedule without adjustments.

Quality Assurance

Review tasks and deliverables are up to the mark or not. And what corrective actions are required to meet the defined quality guidelines.

Acceptance of Deliverables

Verify if the developed project meets the deliverables, fulfills all the standards and criteria set by the customer.

Complete Execution Phase Review

Lastly, ensure all the key execution activities are performed properly

Closure

So much time and effort is put into the planning of a project, it is often forgotten that the end of a project is equally important. There’s a lot of work involved even once a project is technically complete.

You handover all deliverables to your customers, relevant stakeholders, release the project into business as usual and handover to the operations team, free all your resources, return equipment and notify all of project closure.

Here are some associated tasks in the closure stage

Lessons Learnt

Managing a project isn’t only about tasks and resources, budget and deadlines, it’s an experience you can constantly learn from. While you should have been learning throughout the project, now is a great time to look back without the pressure and distractions that might have dulled your focus.

Gather the core team to invite feedback about what worked and what didn’t. Encourage honesty.

Clearly document the lessons you learned. Celebrate how you averted a major mishap and highlight the remedial actions that created a positive turnaround in the project. Identify what you missed, where you missed it, and record how those gaps impacted the project.

You can go back and look over the information for precedents when planning new projects; moreover, this helps you build stronger and more informed strategies. In addition, there’s a wealth of knowledge generated at every project closure, and, consequently, smart organizations share this valuable insight with great zeal to continuously improve future outcomes.

Complete paperwork

Acquiring required resources who can work on the project.

This includes a complete documentation of the project, approval from the stakeholders, Legal contracts of the projects should be verified and signed up by the stakeholders.

It also includes addressing outstanding payments and sending invoices for the payments. All dues must be settled, and vendor contracts must be closed before proceeding to project closure.

Release resources

This step formally returns resources to the project pool so they become available for new work. If contractors worked on the project, we release them and close their contracts after settling all dues

Archive documents

Archive all project documents so the organization can reference them in the future. We learn valuable lessons from every project, and keeping the documents organized in a shared portal or with the PMO helps everyone access that knowledge when needed. This practice protects the organization and supports quick resolution of future issues.

Hope you have now had a proper glimpse of the various project management phases and, moreover, an overview of their key outputs and how they help run projects successfully. Additionally, in the next chapters, we will look into each of the phases in further detail, so you can gain a deeper and more practical understanding

PMO And Its Role In Organization

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PMO and its role in the Organization

According to Wikipedia, A project management office (abbreviated to PMO) is a group or department within a business, agency, or enterprise that defines and maintains standards for project management within the organization. The PMO strives to standardize and introduce economies of repetition in the execution of projects. The PMO is the source of documentation, guidance and metrics on the practice of project management and execution.

Functions of PMO

Governance

The PMO’s governance function plays an important role by providing decision support for project sponsors, decision makers, and stakeholders involved in the program, organization and enterprise. Documenting governance decisions and tracking action items for future governance sessions provides the administrative support needed for effective decision making.

Performance Management

The performance management function integrates project level status reporting and generates the program level status for executive reviews. The PMO investigates specific performance issues and communicates early warning signs of troubled projects. The PMO also enforces consistent performance reporting guidelines so each project reports project performance consistently.

Schedule Management

The schedule management function assists the program by identifying project level milestones and integrating them into an overall program level plan. The program level plan is a summarized view of critical program milestones. If the program is leveraging tools such as Microsoft Project Server or CA Clarity, the PMO may integrate the detailed project schedules into a detailed program schedule. The PMO also monitors schedule variances and recommends corrective action.

Quality Management

The PMO provides quality management by providing expertise in quality control, quality assurance, coordinating quality inspections, and process coaching. This function is often perceived as administrative overhead and intrusive to individual projects, however, it is a critical function for consistent delivery. The PMO should inspect project level deliverables and more importantly provide coaching to project teams requiring additional project management support.

Communications Management

Every project and program requires a communications plan. Although the target audience and frequency may vary at the program and project levels, the PMO creates the overall program communication standards for projects to follow. The PMO will also assist the program manager in developing necessary communications to program stakeholders.

Supplier Management

The PMO supports supplier management by monitoring the various suppliers providing services to the program and notifying the program manager of supplier performance issues. Supplier performance scorecards are integrated through the PMO and individual suppliers work with the PMO to understand performance-reporting standards.

The need for highly competent, confident, and effective project managers is growing, in a world where projects are becoming larger, more complex, and increasingly cross-cultural.

It is no longer enough to master the essential tools and techniques involved in managing tasks, costs, and resources. To be an excellent project manager, you must have driven, confidence, and attitude, and be able to lead your team to success through your vision and engagement.

You must become a project management champion and take your team on a journey by sharing an appealing project vision and a road map for achieving that vision. These are the tasks project manager should perform every day

Focus on Customer Needs

The single biggest success factor for a project is whether it delivers what the customers really need.

Not only will that create a happy customer, it will also dramatically increase your success as a project manager.

The tricky part is that customer needs aren’t necessarily synonymous with what the customers say they want. Outstanding project managers focus on the customer’s real needs and seek to uncover the reasons behind the requirements.

They do that through enquiry and by consistently learning about the client’s business.

Keep Your Promises

As a project manager is it absolutely essential that what you say and do is credible and that your clients and stakeholders trust you.

When you take on an action or commit to a deadline – however big or small – always deliver it when you said you would. This is also true when it comes to chasing other people for the actions they take on.

You will gain an enormous amount of respect for being effective, timely and reliable and it will be easier for you to plan and execute the project with minimal resistance. Set a good example in everything that you do.

Be Proactive

They key to success for any manager and leader is to be proactive and consistently focus your efforts and attention on the long-term as opposed to being reactive in the present moment.

Too often we get caught up in urgent or unimportant activities and we procrastinate on the big important things such as planning and initiating the project properly, writing the business case, learning about our client’s business or taking the time to build strong relationships with our customers and team members.

Don’t sit back and wait for things to happen. Take the initiative as a matter of course.

Support Your Team

Your team is the project’s biggest asset so nurture it and enable each individual team member to thrive.

Allow for people’s individuality, play to their strengths and give them the support they need to succeed. To build a great team, spend one-on-one time with people on a weekly basis.

Ask them what you can do to help, what they worry about and how you can assist them in working more effectively.

Never be afraid to ask questions and to lend a helping hand. One of your most important roles is to remove blockages so that your team can get on with its work.

Delegate

If you are to add maximum value, you must learn to delegate. This will help you create space to concentrate on the big picture and on the strategic aspects of the project.

Tracking timesheets, taking minutes and planning detailed work-streams are important aspects of a project, but it’s not important that you do them.

Get a project administrator on board or train your senior team leads to take on a more senior role.

Not only do you develop their skill set, you also free yourself up to focus on customer relationships, communication, team building and setting the vision.

Challenge the Status Quo

It is no longer enough to turn up for work and deliver a project the way we used to.

The global crisis has meant that everything is being scrutinized and that executives are constantly on the look-out for how we can deliver change in a better, cheaper and faster way.

PMO

You need to challenge the status quo on a daily basis and help identify how the team can work smarter, what new technologies you can employ, which extra benefits you can deliver and how project processes can be improved.

Stay Calm under pressure

As a project manager, you are under daily pressure to deliver, make decisions and sort out issues.

You need set a great example by managing your state of mind and remaining calm when the pressure is on. Maintain a balanced perspective and think of solutions rather than placing blame or making knee-jerk decisions.

PMO

In situations of conflict, take on the role of a mediator and convey both sides of the argument. Whatever you do, do it well, as the way you conduct yourself is the most you can ever expect from your team.

How to Kick Start your Projects?

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Projects

Projects are as much a part of our work-life as the coffee machine. Strange but true!

A typical work day of any professional is filled with all sorts of project meetings – status update, project review, Stakeholder review, management review and as many visits to the coffee machine!

At times, it feels like a ritual to pay a visit to the coffee machine before entering the meeting room

Why is it so?

Is it that a good coffee in the morning sets your tone for the day? 99% of we coffee lovers will say “Well YEAH!!”

This simple daily act has an important message – “kick-offs are important” and all efforts and focus must be deputed to ensure we start things on the right note with our best foot forward.

And, projects are no different!

I consider Kick-off meetings to be one of the “Critical Success Factors” of any project. It is your opportunity as the Project Manager to rally your troops behind a common goal.

It’s like your foundation laying ceremony if I may

You get to present the project vision, the expectations, stakeholders involved, the TEAM & its GOAL!

It is best if you have the basics of a project setup in your chosen project management tool. For e.g. create the project, invite the project team, define user permissions, create the initial tasks & define timelines.

Let us quickly see how we can prepare and orchestrate an effective and successful “Project Kick-Off Meeting“.

Projects

Understand why you are here?

Kick-off meetings are your means to introduce the project and project charter. Project Charter is the Project Manager’s bible for a simple fact that it outlines everything between today’s problem and tomorrow’s expected solution. It clearly explains to you –

  • The problem statement for undertaking the project
  • The solution to the problem
  • The timelines for completion of the project
  • The project deliverables & goals
  • The stakeholders – management, client, team etc.
  • The roles and responsibilities of each stakeholder
  • The foreseen risks and current identified constraints

Introduce your Project Team

Your TEAM is the most important part of your project after the charter. Getting them to know each other, building rapport, and explaining their roles & responsibilities on the project is key to successful project delivery.

The finer execution details can wait for now.

As a Project Manager, you must take enough time to ensure the stakeholders also know each other’s expertise & strengths so that they can reach out to the right person when in need.

Exude confidence, hope and trust while you explain the team as to why they are the chosen ones and what is expected of them. It would be a good time to introduce the “RACI Matrix” to your team so that they know who is Responsible, Accountable, will be Consulted or Informed.Projects

Clearly defining “User Roles and Privileges” at the beginning of the project would further enable clarity, smoother collaboration and execution

Positive sentiments among the team would go a long way when the going gets tough.

Plan your project Execution

Once you have the team introduced and settled with the project scope and problem at hand, begin with the timelines of the project.

Be specific in communicating the start and end dates, the periodic milestones, projects within project if any, allowed deviation and expected results from each task and the overall project.

A visual and interactive “Gantt Chart” and “Kanban View” would come in very handy while sharing the project schedule, task assignment and timelines for your team’s easy understanding.

Projects

You can further boost their productivity, save their time and reduce any duplicity of efforts by using the “Workflow Management” offered by your project mgmt. tool to your team’s advantage.

During execution it is important to ensure “Resource Availability” and to measure and manage your “Resource Utilization” so that you stay within the budget and do not run into resource issues which ALWAYS lead to huge stand-off in the organization and result in project delays.

Share your Communication Plan

Communication if well managed can work wonders for you and your team. It is always recommended that you set some ground rules around project activity communication

Everyone in the team MUST know the “authorized” recipients of the information along with the expected timelines and intervals for every project communication.

Some activities may require a “Daily Catch-Up” or an instant discussion over a “Chat” engine and yet be recorded within the project management software for audit and future references.

Having automated email notifications would be a blessing in disguise while working on projects with a lot of stakeholders. Updating and/or submitting a reply or comments to a task can fire away the key updates and progress with your desired stakeholders in a matter of seconds.

Similarly, issue logging and change requests processes must be well documented and clarified to avoid planning and approval delays

Given the sheer amount of project documents involved having a central project repository that allows for changes, is controlled by proper user privileges and available when needed is a must. Even better if it allows for social sharing via Google drive, Dropbox etc. provided your project manager or company authorizes it.

Clarify Project Risks

Before you embark on a journey, it is wise to gather as much info about the impending terrain as possible. This mainly translates to risks and constraints in project management terminology.

Knowing the risks and preparing for them in advance would reduce your project delays, budget overruns and save your team a lot of stress.

You may face supplier, resource, budgetary, government regulatory etc. risks depending on the nature of your business and project.

Ensure you have a proper Risk Mitigation Plan and a Rapid Response Team who are aware of the “ASK” and your entire project team knows whom to reach outshould an emergency occur.

Ensure THE GOAL is understood

Each project begins with a defined end result that is expected to solve the problem at hand. The tangible and intangible deliverables must be clearly explained and shared with all relevant stakeholders.

You must stay away from use of any management or technical jargons and buzz words. Explain in simple yet detailed terms each relevant objective that is supposed to be met by the team.

The team’s alignment to the common goal is of utmost significance for project success. There should be no room for guesswork.

More than that, the team’s belief in the end result and the rewards it entails will also go a long way when it comes to flawless execution and on time delivery.

Projects

Allow Interactive Session

Now that you have shared your vision, associated goals, time lines, productivity and delivery goals with your team it is utmost important that they provide feedback.

Depute a reasonable amount of time to answer all their questions and/or concerns if any. You may unearth crucial information and facts that may prove beneficial for the project.

Urge the team to be forthcoming with their ideas, recommendations, to highlight their or other members’ strength and expertise.

The higher the interaction, greater the chances of team collaborating and willing to bring facts to the decision making table. Not only will this lead to better planning and execution but also provide time and money benefits.

Before signing out –

  • Do provide time for a quick recap of the meeting
  • Go over the crucial points, deliverables, goals and risks etc.
  • Acknowledge the key contributors of your interactive session
  • Record their points with the project documents
  • Promise to follow through on any unaddressed items from this session
  • Thank people for their time and affirm your trust in them

The above actions will help build mutual trust and confidence among the stakeholders and encourage each one to work in the best interests of the project.

All of which are very crucial for a successful project delivery.

Introduction to Project Management terminologies

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Project Management Terminologies

Project management is becoming increasingly important. In the past, project management consisted mainly of collecting metrics and project data for evaluation, then making adjustments in order to increase productivity and efficiency.

Project managers were also responsible for managing human capital (making sure that a project had enough “people” to get all tasks completed).

With the rapid proliferation of technology, the importance of project management has increased exponentially in terms of the tasks required of a project manager, as well as the knowledge necessary to perform these tasks.

What is a Project?

Projects exist in every enterprise. A project is run with an objective to deliver unique products, services, or events, and also contribute to bring about major organizational changes or recovery from natural or man-made disasters.

Projects have starting and ending points in time and progress through a number of life cycle phases.

Project Management Terminologies

According to Wikipedia, a project is an individual or collaborative enterprise, possibly involving research or design, which is carefully planned, usually by a project team, to achieve a particular aim.

A project may also be a set of interrelated tasks to be executed over a fixed period and within certain cost and other limitations.

What is Project Management and how is it different from Operational management?

A project in any organization is a collaborative effort across departments to achieve a single well-defined goal. The process of planning, organizing and managing resources to achieve the organizational objective is called project management.

Project Management Terminologies

On the other hand, Operations Management is an ongoing organizational function that performs activities to produce products or supply services. For an instance, production operations, manufacturing, IT service management, and accounting operations.

Furthermore, operations are permanent endeavors that produce repetitive outputs. Resources are assigned to do the same tasks according to operating procedures and policy.

In contrast, projects are temporary and help the business to meet organizational goals and to respond quickly and easily to the external environment. Organizations use projects to change operations, products and services to meet business need, gain competitive advantage and respond to new markets.

Here are the quick differences between operation and project management

Role assigned to manager Project manager Operation Manager
Duration in the role Role ends with project Routine
Team Temporary team Stable organization
Work type Work not done before Work repeatable
Factor depends on Time, cost and scope constraints Annual planning cycle
Budget time estimate Difficult to estimate time and budget Budgets set and fixed events

Popular Project Management Terminologies

Before we move into the details of project management, we need to understand some common project management terminologies.

Project Scope

Project scope is the part of project planning that involves determining and documenting a list of specific project goals, deliverables, features, functions, tasks, deadlines, and ultimately costs.

In other words, it is what needs to be achieved and the work that must be done to deliver a project.

Requirements

Requirements describe how a product or service should act or perform. They generally refer to the features and functions of the deliverables you build in your project.

Project Management Communication Plan

A project communication plan that will guide the messages to the stakeholders is a critical part of any project. How well you communicate throughout the life cycle of your project can make the difference between success and failure.

Task

In project management, a task is an activity that needs to be accomplished within a defined period of time or by a deadline to work towards work-related goals. A task can be broken down into assignments which should also have a defined start and end date or a deadline for completion.

Resource

In project management terminology, resources are required to carry out the project tasks. They can be people, equipment, facilities, funding, or anything else capable of definition (usually other than labor) required for the completion of a project activity. The lack of a resource will therefore be a constraint on the completion of the project activity. Resources may be storable or non-storable. Storable resources remain available unless depleted by usage, and may be replenished by project tasks which produce them. Non-storable resources must be renewed for each time period, even if not utilized in previous time periods.

Stakeholders

Stakeholders are those with any interest in your project’s outcome. They are the members of a project team, project managers, sponsors, customers, and users. They are people who are invested in the project and who will be affected by your project at any point along the way, and their input can directly impact the outcome of your project.

Sponsor (executive sponsor and project sponsor)

Sponsor is the person who is responsible for funding of the project. The executive sponsor provides project funding, resolves issues and scope changes, approves major deliverables, and provides high-level direction. The project sponsor represents the executive sponsor on a day-to-day basis and makes most of the decisions requiring sponsor approval. If the decision is large enough, the project sponsor will take it to the executive sponsor.

RACI matrix

RACI organizes your project so that everyone knows what’s happening. With the RACI, map out who is Responsible, is Accountable, must be Consulted with, and shall stay Informed.

Let’s break it down further. Here is what your project delegation looks like with RACI.

Responsible –Person responsible for completing the task.

Accountable –Decision makers and person responsible to taking actions on the task(s).

Consulted –– Person to be communicated with regarding decisions and tasks

Informed –Person to be updated on decisions and actions during the project

Project Scheduling

Project scheduling is a mechanism to communicate what tasks need to get done and which organizational resources will be allocated to complete those tasks in what timeframe. A project schedule is a document collecting all the work needed to deliver the project on time.

Critical path

The critical path is the longest sequence of activities in a project plan which must be completed on time for the project to complete on due date. An activity on the critical path cannot be started until its predecessor activity is complete; if it is delayed for a day, the entire project will be delayed for a day unless the activity following the delayed activity is completed a day earlier.

Project Management Terminologies

Estimating Project Duration and Costs

The duration of a project can only be estimated once you know what resources are available.

For example, if a project is estimated to require 1000 hours of effort and only one person is available to work on it, it may take six months or more. However, if three people are available, it may be possible to complete the project in two months.

Costs are normally split into labor costs and non-labor costs.

The labor cost can be determined by examining the number of hours of effort required and the cost per hour.

If you are using external labor, e.g., contractors or consultants, the costs should be estimated and budgeted in advance.

This is straightforward if you already know your exact requirements, but if the final staffing requirements are not yet known you may need to make some assumptions based on the general type of staff required, e.g. use standard hourly cost for accountants, programmers, office administrators.

Non-labor costs include everything not directly related to salary or contractor costs. Some of these, such as training and team-building costs are employee-related, but they are not regarded as labor costs as they do not relate directly to employee salary or contractor costs.

Every project manager should be familiar with the accounting rules in his or her own company to ensure that labor and non-labor costs are allocated correctly.

Project Risk

Project risk is an uncertain event that, if it occurs, has an effect on at least one project objective. There are no risk-free projects because there are an infinite number of events that can have a negative effect on the project. Risk management is not about eliminating risk but about identifying, assessing, and managing risk. We will talk more about it in the Risk management module.

In the next article, we are going to see how to kick start projects effectively and set them for success!