Project Management Foundation: Learning a Project Management Methodology Applying the Learning on a Community Project

By Mounir A. Ajam

"Built around a captivating storyline set in a dynamic region of the world, this lively book takes an interesting project from concept, through various phases of development and delivery, all the way to operational readiness and project close. Along the way, it gradually covers relevant concepts building them into a cohesive framework and allowing the reader to gain insights into managing project work step-by-step. This excellent book provides relevant examples and applications of essential tools and techniques of Project Management. The book balances professional rigor and human interest to provide a sound approach to effective Project Management within a vivid storyline." Professor Frank Anbari

This book explains the foundational elements for managing projects. It provides an overview of a project management methodology that is proved and aligns with global leading practices and standards. The style the author uses encourage those who never managed a project to learn and acquire skills. It is also highly practical and useful even for those experienced project managers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Feb 20, 2014
• ISBN: 9781491849439

Mounir A. Ajam

The author is a seasoned executive, speaker, author, and consultant. He is a project management thought leader with a career spanning close to three decades, working on projects and with organizations in North America, Europe, Africa, South East Asia, and West Asia. He has worked on a variety of projects from small and multiple projects to mega projects. He is a serial entrepreneur and active volunteer leaders, with a passion for project management and global community development!

Book preview

2014 Mounir A. Ajam. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 18 February 2014

ISBN: 978-1-4918-4945-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4918-4944-6 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4918-4943-9 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014900486

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Table of Contents

Dedication

Second Edition Comments

Acknowledgements

Preface

Author’s Personal Note

Foreword

Reviews to The Inheritance

Part: 1 The Encounter

Chapter 1. Ethnic Kaleidoscope

Chapter 2. An Unplanned Trip

Chapter 3. Awakening the Giant

Chapter 4. Abu & Um Ahmad

Chapter 5. The Encounter

Part: 2 The Inheritance

Chapter 6. What is Project Management?

Chapter 7. The Phone Call

Chapter 8. The Inheritance

Chapter 9. Midnight Visitors

Part: 3 A Project Management Model

Chapter 10. Project Management is a Disciplined Approach

Chapter 11. The Model

Part: 4 Project Concept Phase

Chapter 12. Introduction to the Phase

Chapter 13. Understanding the Concept

Chapter 14. Validating the Concept

Chapter 15. Starting a Tradition

Chapter 16. Authorizing the Project

Part: 5 Project Development Phase

Chapter 17. The Requirements

Chapter 18. The Project Management Plan

Chapter 19. The Meeting

Chapter 20. Project Definition Stage

Chapter 21. The Project Detailed Plan

Chapter 22. Final Decision

Part: 6 Project Delivery Phase

Chapter 23. Introduction to Project Delivery

Chapter 24. Implementation

Chapter 25. Operation Readiness

Chapter 26. Groundbreaking

Chapter 27. Project Close and Close-out Report

Part: 7 For The History Book

Chapter 28. Exciting Times

Chapter 29. Opening Surprises

Appendices

Appendix A: Acronyms and Glossary of Terms

Appendix B: The Model Stages

Appendix C: The Model Gates

Appendix D: The Model Stage Deliverables

Appendix E: Bibliography

End Sections

Author Biography

Al-Insan wa Al-Mujtama Foundation (IM Foundation)

Endnotes

Table of Figures

Figure 1: The Project Phases

Figure 2: The Project Phases, Split into Six Stages

Figure 3: The Full Picture: Phases, Stages, Gates, and Main Deliverables

Figure 4: The Project Concept Phase

Figure 5: The Project Development Phase

Figure 6: The Project Initial Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

Figure 8: Project Definition Stage (Detailed Planning)

Figure 9: Project Delivery Phase

Table of Templates and Samples

Template 1: The Project Idea Statement

Template 2: The Outline for the Feasibility Study

Template 3: The Project Authorization Document

Template 4: The Outline for the Basic Requirements Document

Template 5: Outline of the Project Detailed Plan

Template 6: Outline for Operation Readiness

Dedication

To my sons Sumer and Akkad, this is for your future!

To all who wants to learn to walk in project management and to awaken their giants!

Second Edition Comments

We published the first version of this book in February 2010, under the title The Inheritance, A Story about Friendship, Community, and Project Management. In this edition, we are not making changes to the story line, but we are updating some of the project management content. We are also adding templates (as samples) from the community project, which is also vital to this book.

The main objective of this book is to provide newcomers to project management the necessary foundation to manage projects and learn this dynamic field. It is for the accidental project managers; it is project management for the non-project managers. The Project Management Foundation will enable readers to learn a valuable methodology, and apply the knowledge on a community project, through a story-telling format.

Those readers who want more in depth understanding of The Customizable and Adaptable Methodology for Managing Projects™ (CAM²P™), the method explained here; they would be able to improve their learning experience, significantly, by locating our other book on CAM²P™, with the title, Redefining the Basics of Project Management. The other book is comprehensive and includes additional resources, to help the readers, and practitioners, in learning and applying the model.

Acknowledgements

¹

This has been a project in the making for many years. The ideas, thoughts, and learning I share in this book have occurred over my entire career, so it is hard at this time to name all the people who have influenced this work, directly or indirectly. The people who have had a direct impact on the project management concepts and methodology behind this book, we have acknowledged them in Redefining the Basics of Project Management.

The first time I started thinking about writing this book was many years ago, and at that time I even wrote some notes and established a rough outline. Yet life caught up with me—a second child, a job change, starting a business—and this project was put on the back burner and delayed until 2010 when we published the first version of this book. In February 2013, three years after the original work, we published a short version of The Inheritance as an eBook.

I know my wife does not always believe me when I say this, but it is true: a good part of the inspiration for this book comes from watching her. I joke with her and call her an accidental project manager².

My two young boys also have had an influence on this work. What I have learned from them is something I hope to build on for future projects. It is a fact that one of the reasons for the community center project that we discuss in this book, is for their future, and for children at different ages. The intention is for the center, and the foundation that it will house, is to introduce project management for schoolchildren at different ages and organize youth camps so the youth can learn how to apply project management on life projects in their villages and communities.

The following people have been valuable contributors to this project: Ms. Nabila Aboumrad (my wife), Mr. Luc Bauwmans (friend and colleague), Ms. Nada Chaban (friend and colleague), and Mr. Ahmed Darwish (artwork—characters and scenes’ illustrations).

Preface

Objective

The main objective of writing this book is to spread the use of project management to a wider part of the professional community and reach out to those who are unfamiliar with project management (project management for non-project managers). I view project management as a powerful giant that resides inside each of us, and is an essential capability, not only for work-related projects but also for life projects.

"How to discover that there is a giant residing inside each one of us regardless of our pursuits in life? How to awaken this giant from its deep sleep (hibernation), how to deal with this giant, tame it, refine it and utilize it in order to serve our personal and professional growth?" (Ajam, Awakening the Giant Within, 2006)

Some of the answers to these questions are in Awakening the Giant Within, a paper we wrote and published by the Project Management Institute (PMI®)³ in 2006. This book builds on that paper and offers an expanded and practical model for awakening the giant within.

Since my main objective is for a larger segment of our community to understand and accept project management, then my challenge was to present it in as simple as possible, hence the story format. I am reminded of a well-known quotation from Albert Einstein: "Things should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler." I used this approach to write the book. Make things as simple as possible, but keep the project’s environment in mind, which has complexity.

Inspiration for the book

Nabila, my wife, decided not to continue with a full-time career, even though she worked for years as an engineer with global companies in the United States and Europe. She worked hard as an engineer and did well, but with the birth of our first child, she decided to be a stay-at-home mom. Careers are not the only place where one can practice project management. We believe that one can use project management for many things, large and small, personal and professional. We are not saying every person must be a trained project manager, but exposure to project management often inspires people to apply its concepts to their personal life. We hope this book encourages more people to use project management to enhance their personal and work performance.

I watch with interest the personal and coordination skills that Nabila uses in running our life projects. I watch her maintain a balance as she supports us in the company part-time and takes care of our children, supervises their school activities and birthday parties, and tracks our family’s activities. It takes an accomplished project manager to keep her eye on the goals, and there are many small goals in everyone’s life. Is not project management about setting and achieving goals? How many professionals could manage multiple projects effectively? I am not trying to present my beautiful wife as a superwoman, but is not she an example of almost every working woman and mother?

We often see projects as large and complicated things, but it is essential to handle them as Nabila likes to say, one piece at a time. Then what appears to be a large project is suddenly not more than various smaller pieces or goals. This may sound like an oversimplification, but is not the concept of Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)⁴ is all about dividing projects into smaller, manageable pieces?

Expectations

We are not expecting that every reader of this book will become a project manager or learn to manage large, complex projects. However, we do hope that readers will learn to handle their own projects more effectively. We would like to see these ‘accidental project managers’ (Ajam, 2012) improve on their success rates and minimize their mistakes.

As I said earlier, my objective is to reach a larger part of our professional community. To accomplish this objective, the first thing I did was to use the story-telling format. The second thing is to explain the methodology by following the life of a project from idea to closure. The project we use in this book, a social entrepreneurship (community) project (the launch of a not for profit organization and community center) is a realistic case study, which is not yet real, but some of its elements are already in place; other elements we are implementing as we write this book update. Further, all revenues from this work will go toward this IM Foundation⁵.

In summary, my purpose is to get as many people as possible to apply the main principles of project management in their own lives so they can do a better job of achieving their goals and pursuing their dreams. I want to help our readers achieve results and enhance performance. In other words, the aim of this book is to help you learn how to walk. When you can walk, and