Project Management Knowledge
While I’m writing this article, I’ve just passed my CAPM certification test from PMI. So I want to share the knowledge of Project Management, which expected to grow 33 percent or nearly 22 million new jobs by 2027 (a report from PMI).
So, lately, Project Manager often being merge into a Product Manager, which their roles maybe sometimes is a little bit different but they mostly have the same background. Which is an Engineering or Business as their background major education and have an intention on both, business and technical?
In this article, we will discuss project management knowledge first and in the future, we will discuss product management.
Project management consists of 47 processes divided into 11 Knowledge areas and 5 Project Management Processes Group based on the Project Management Institute. Each of the processes is linked to each other in a very detailed way, the input, output, tools, and techniques used to analyze, define, execute, monitor, and close the project. In project management, everything should be defined in a detailed way in order to decrease or even eliminate the scope creep, which could turn into another cost requirement. In order to define every project's components in a detailed formal and non-verbal way, a project manager needs to communicate with the product manager, engineers, accountants, vendors, or even lawyers to confirm that all the project aspects are able to execute and meet the business requirements.
This is the project management knowledge table snipped from the PMBOK 5th Edition:
From the picture above, shown that there are 5 Project Management Process Group which are Initiation, Planning, Executing, Monitoring and Controlling, and Closing. Each group has its own uniqueness, Initiation, and the Closing group could only be done once in a project. Planning, Executing, Monitoring, and Controlling could be done several times in order if there are changes that affected the Scope, Time, and Cost on the project. The Project Management Process Group should be done in the sequential flow which is shown below:
To be a great project manager, the one thing that should be the most important thing is to communicate effectively and efficiently, because 90% of project manager’s activity is communicating either the project requirements, need, status, report, output, etc. The project Manager need to communicate with the Product Manager in order to gather the product scope, requirement, and output. After that, they should communicate it clearly to the engineer in order to create the product or project output exactly the same as the product manager's expectations (or stakeholder). They have to report periodically to all the project stakeholders to have continuous progress on the project in order to finish on time. After the project is finished, they have to make sure that all the deliverables have been met and approved by the project stakeholder in order to formally close the project.
SO, there’s a lot of things to do and also a lot of responsibility as a project manager. That’s why managing a project isn’t easy and needs a lot of experience in order to become a GREAT Project Manager. For example, if you want to take the PMP (Project Management Professional) Certification Test, you should have experienced 4,500 Hours (more or less 3 years) doing projects as a Project Manager and 35 Hours of PDU’s (Project Development Unit). That’s quite a huge number, but that number comes from a deep consideration from the PMI. That’s all for the general Project Management Knowledge in this article, the next article we will discuss the detail of each project management knowledge areas, processes, and process groups.