Project Management

Project Management - Definition A project can be defined as: –"An endeavour in which human, material and financial resources are organised, in a novel way, to undertake a unique scope of work, of a given specification, within the constraints of cost and time, so as to achieve a beneficial change defined by quantitative and qualitative objectives."

Project Definition –The essential features of a project are its uniqueness and novel organisation to achieve a beneficial change. Projects need to be evaluated against expected gains before the project is initiated. Projects that are doomed to failure before they even commence carry a great business risk.

Project Management – Project v Process Process is repeated and project is unique: means not done before, it doesn’t mean all of the project is new. There is a risk in doing something new. If you are doing something new and relatively complex then project planning is necessary.

Project Management - Resources: Projects use consume resources as part of a process of converting inputs into an output i.e. the project objective. Typical resources consumed/utilised are: labour, material, finance and time.

Project Management - Specification A project has an objective it’s the final output of the project, the deliverable. However just having an objective is not sufficient the output needs to be accurately defined as a specification. We can see if the project has been successful on one level by comparing the performance of the output against the specification.

Control No control over a project has been exerted if we only compare its final output against the specification. The expected outputs of the project have to be specified a various stages throughout the project. The more important stages are called milestones.

Specifications Come in several varieties these are: Functional, what the deliverable does Performance, how well it does it Operational, how its used Physical, what it looks like and also if its hardware what it made of and how its made. Project specifications don’t just relate to the deliverable but also to other factors

Specifications continued: The resources consumed are also part of the specification so that finance will have a specification i.e. a budget Time will have a specification, in its most simple form it’s the delivery date. Other resources used such as labour, material, and equipment also have specifications usually the define the resource and the constraints. Project based organisations share resources amongst several concurrent projects.

Project Management Method The project method thus involves the following general sequence: Define/agree the deliverable specification Plan the project this will include breaking down the project into major tasks, then dividing them further into sub-tasks Define the project outputs at key stages throughout the life of the project. Implement the project, monitor progress against plan, adjust accordingly the project process and or the plan so that the agreed deliverables are accomplished.

Implications of Digital Media When developing Digital Media applications there may be other issues outside the control of the project that arise These could effect individuals or groups They may have a variety of impacts

Example implications These impacts may be beneficial or detrimental (and usually are a combination of the two) e.g. –Peer to Peer File sharing Good for dissemination of knowledge and processing power Bad for copyright owners –VOIP systems Emergency calls issues

Issues to consider Mobile phone tracking by parents of their children Phishing and spoofing – Whose responsibility? Credit card data storage – Ease of use vs. security

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