The "Back Pack"

One thing I am sure about is that you all must have used back pack at some point of your life. Whether at School, College, University or Office. Now the question arises "What back pack has to do with Project Management?". But if you try to be more creative just like me then you'll see "Back Pack" has a direct relation with the Project Management.

Lets take it this way, When you go to School, College or Office what are things that you have in your back back. Are those things have to do some thing with you or they are just those things which can't find place any where else, so you just kept them in your back pack. The answer, I hope, that most of you are thinking about is those are the things that you need, that actually helps you carrying out your work or a part of your work. Now we have reached the climax of whats the relation between back pack and the Project Management.

The material in your back pack defines and outlines the work that you are doing or that you are suppose to do. So in the simple words of Project Management we can define the back pack as the "Scope Statement" that is it includes all the work that a Project Manager is suppose to undertake and implement as a part of a Project.

Like wise if you take another course in School or University then you have to carry that extra book in your back pack but if your back pack is not big enough to accommodate that book then you have to buy a new back pack with large space and in this process you'll spend more money and time. In the same way when ever there is a scope change request we have to modify the cost and the timeline associated with that project in order to incorporate those changes.

I hope I am able to justify the relation between a back pack and the Project Management (Scope Statement). So when ever you undertake a project just ask one question to yourself "What's in your back pack?" because that is something that you have to carry on your shoulders and if its too small to accommodate all the "books" then the back pack would tear apart that is it would be difficult to complete the project on time and within cost.

Thank you for reading my blog and All the best.

The "Tripod"

You all must be wondering how a tripod is related to the Project Management. Let me tell you there is a deep connection between a tripod and the project management. Just like a tripod has three legs in the same way a project has three legs on which it stand, walk and finally sits. These three legs are: Scope, Time and Cost. 

Everyone who has any relation to the project management field is asking a question from a long time that "Which of the three constraints is more important?" and on which a project manager should spend most of his time in order to make sure the project completes successfully. The answer to these questions lies in a tripod; we can only understand the answer with the help of a tripod. 

Let’s assume that the project is kept inside a flask on the tripod and we have to perform a successful experiment. The three legs of the tripod represent time, cost and scope. Now if we increase the length of any of the leg then the balance of the tripod gets disturbed and eventually the flask which hold the project will fall down, which is something every project manager wants to avoid for sure. So we have to maintain a balance between these three legs of the tripod in order to carry out the experiment successfully.  

So the answer to the question is that none of the triple constraint is more important or least important. All of them are equally important and it’s the duty of the project manager to make sure there is a balance between all these to complete a project successfully.

There is one more discussion going on everywhere, that there are four constraints not three and the fourth constraint is Quality. So you all must be wondering that where this fourth constraint is represented in the tripod. This fourth constraint is nothing but the lines joining the three legs of the tripod and it solely depends upon the three legs, we can conclude that though we can consider quality as a constraint but it does not exist on its own in a project rather it depends upon the other three constraints for its existence.   

As a final conclusion, we can say that there are three core constraints (Scope, Time and Cost) like the three legs of a tripod and there is another dependent constraint called Quality which depends upon the three core constraints.

Project Management - A Buzz Word

We all must be very much familiar with the term "Project Management". In our day to day life we use this term "Project Management" very often. But we never take a look into from where this term came from. Many of us would say it’s a term which came into existence in last 100 years.

Even though the term came into existence in last 100 years but we all were following the meaning of this term from the time when early man first produces the fire with the stones; for producing the fire he first have to make sure that he has all the material that is required to carry out this activity then he make sure that all the environmental factors are in the favor of this activity i.e. there is no rain and no fast blowing winds. By managing all these factors he was able to carry out his fire producing project. 

To understand the real meaning of Project Management we have to break this term into two parts and then understand these words separately in order to understand the concept behind it.

The very first word is "Project", whenever we do anything we call it project. Whether it’s a small in size or large in size, or of short period or of long period. A project is something which has a definite start and a definite end. It's not something which keeps on repeating itself. Two projects can be of similar type but they can't be same. for example, if we take cooking as a project even though you cook daily but every time you cook something different and even if you cook the same dish there is always variation no matter if you follow the same procedure, taste will always varies i.e the outcome is not the same every time. So whenever you undertake any activity or task then do remember that it is nothing else but a project.

Now let’s understand the second word "Management". Most of you must be hearing this word on a daily basis. Management is used in reference to manage something whether its time, money or even you life. Management is part of our daily life. We start our day with managing time; we make sure we reach Office, College or University on time. Then we make use of money management in order to manage our daily expenses like the one that we spent on our food, groceries, travelling and drinks.

So we knowingly or unknowingly make use and even implement management in our day to day life. 

Till this point we have discussed the meaning of the two words Project and Management separately. If we join these two words

  PROJECT + MANAGEMENT = PROJECT MANAGEMENT

we get to the buzz word "Project Management", and from our previous discussion we can conclude that the real meaning behind this term is "Carrying out an activity by managing all the factors those can affect or get affected by this activity".