PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Project Management

Project Management

Introduction

Project integration management means tying together all of the other aspects involved in a project to make it a success. Integration management relates to the project life cycle in that it is done in all of the project life cycle phases. As the project progresses, integration management becomes more focused. Integration management relates to stakeholders because it requires the project manager to know all of the project stakeholders, to know their interests and concerns about the project, and to manage relationships with them. Integration management pulls together information from all of the other knowledge areas.

Project Management Phases

Project management, in a broad sense, can be defined as a set of tools, skills, techniques, and knowledge that can be applied to a project in order to fulfill that project's requirements. Project management consists of a loosely defined process for completing projects successfully. This process generally consists of five phases:

Project Initiation - Deals with selecting and starting a project

Project Planning - Once a project is initiated, it must be planned. This is by far the largest and most important phase of project management. Without a good project plan, the project is doomed to failure.

Project Execution - Once the plan is in place, the project team needs to execute the plan to reach the project goals.

Project Control - Throughout the execution phase, a level of control needs to be in place to manage potential problems and monitor progress.

Project Closure - This phase is often times overlooked, but is very important. This phase describes how to officially close out a project with a client or sponsor.

Estimation of the Time and Cost for the Entire Project

For the proposed project we will be implementing bottom-up technique for estimating time and cost. Bottom-up estimating is an extremely helpful technique in project management as it allows for the ability to get a more refined estimate of a particular component of work. In bottom-up estimating, each task is broken down into smaller components. Then, individual estimates are developed to determine what specifically is needed to meet the requirements of each of these smaller components of the work (Shelly, 2011: 114). The estimates for the smaller individual components are then aggregated to develop a larger estimate for the entire task as a whole. In doing this, the estimate for the task as a whole is typically far more accurate, as it allows for careful consideration of each of the smaller parts of the task and then combining these carefully considered estimates rather than merely making one large estimate which typically will not as thoroughly consider all of the individual components of a task. In general, is has the smaller the scope, the greater the accuracy.

Estimating the Number of Programmers and Designers Needed

Before we look at the costs of having an app developed for your business, it is important to remind you that, from a business perspective, it is always better to focus on the value of the service and the benefit to your business than to focus purely on the cost (Sanghera, 2008: ...