Project Management

A Managerial Approach

Managing E projects

Learning Objectives

Define e-project and understand its various features

Understand the merits and demerits of an e-project

Identify the future trends of e-projects

Know the role of computers in project management

Project Management and Appraisal By Sitangshu Khatua

E-Project
It is an application of using updated software designed for managing a task
more effectively and efficiently. It involves all stake holders of the project
management in a similar platform, where everybody can interact and share
the information and also able to provide their feed back.

3
Project Management and Appraisal By Sitangshu Khatua

Merits of E- Project

Make it easy of using and sharing data and information.

Communication becomes easier and faster and more streamlined.

Standardized or generalized management processes.

Establishing or importing model project templates.

Using common and proven applications.

Minimizing development and maintenance cost of data.

Minimizing time to plan, execute and share information within team

members.

Removing problem of distance or absentia.

4
Project Management and Appraisal By Sitangshu Khatua

Demerits of E- Project

Problem of data security.

Chances of information loss.
There is a restriction to transmit big size files.
Sometime information is overloaded.
Generally human being is not ready to except changes.
Legal considerations are not fully taken care of.
It needs some more adjustments and special attentions.
Use of main frame software requires strong internal communications lines for
support.
Software implementation is less likely to succeed if the organization does not have
sufficient training in project management principles.
Upper level management may not use the packages for planning, budgeting and
decision making.

5
Project Management and Appraisal By Sitangshu Khatua

Features of E-Project

Project planning and management

Managing of several requests for changing of project schedule at a time

Multi-tasking

Individual work management tools and equipments

Resource management tools and equipments

Communications in e-Project

Administration details

Monitoring and control

Providing feedback
6
Project Management and Appraisal By Sitangshu Khatua

Future of E-Project
Project

management software helps to analyze, optimize and manage projects

and it also provides the decision regarding the right mix of project.
It

helps in estimating the resources that fulfill strategic objectives .

Without

project portfolio management software, it is almost impossible to

manage portfolios of too many projects and the interdependencies among them
simultaneously.
The

market for project portfolio management (PPM) software was around $2.9

billion in the year 2008, according to Forrester Research. It is expected that the
market for PPM will increase with a multiplying factor in the near future.

7
Project Management and Appraisal By Sitangshu Khatua

Role of computers and Software in Project

Management
Project Functions

Role of Computers

Fix up project goal or The first set of project planning task sets the stage of
plan
work that will eventually be processed on the
computer. There are several software packages that
provide some guidance for this function in their
users manuals.
Identify the work

Most of the portion of the project planning process

is not done by the computers

8
Project Management and Appraisal By Sitangshu Khatua

Role of computers and Software in Project

Management
Set up the work Usually at this point of the project one builds up a critical
period
path network a thorough analysis of this network path is
done with the aid of computers to compute an early start
and finish. The task schedule can be drawn in three typical
formats, a tabular listing, a bar (Gantt) chart and a network
diagram.
To
set
up
resource
availability and
requirements

Since the variations involved in the resource theme are not

limited they cannot be determined by simple review
therefore there is a need to determine the type of project
management software on the basis of the level of details
required by the organization to run the project successfully.

9
Project Management and Appraisal By Sitangshu Khatua

Role of computers and Software in Project

Management
To set up a To make this process easier a table of resource and resource
baseline for the cost is established with the aid of computers by entering the
cost
of
the task durations, resources, and fixed costs. The budget is
project
created. At the resource area, costing can be approached at
various levels of details.
To evaluate the The computer is the best tool available for performing the
baseline plan
evaluation and optimization of the baseline plan. As the
computer will work upon the logic to calculate the earliest
start and finish and will perform a backward pass to determine
the latest start for an activity so as to finish within the
budgeted timing. The computer marks the difference between
the earlier dates and the late ones an activity as float or
slack. Therefore ones attention can easily be drawn towards
the activities having least floats (the most critical activities)

10

Project Management and Appraisal By Sitangshu Khatua

Role of computers and Software in Project

Management
To keep the In this part of the project management the computers play
track of the a very important role as some programs, like QWIKNET,
progress of is equipped with an auto progressed settings. When the
the work
program runs in the auto progress mode, the system
assumes that any activity that was scheduled to start prior
to the data date has actually progressed as planned,
although no progress has been entered.

11

Project Management and Appraisal By Sitangshu Khatua

Role of computers and Software in Project

Management
To evaluate the The computers play a most imperative role. The project
performance
management software are usually equipped with the analytical
data that are required to evaluate and report the project
performance, a very good example of such software is
QWIKNET.
Reporting
and The computer is equipped with programs which not only
exporting data
matches the data formats, environments and needs but also
helps with the preparation of hard copy (reports and graphics)
for presentation to the various project stakeholders. The
programs like Artemis 2000, actually allows the user to
modify the project database structure as well as to add
extensions to that structure.

12

Project Management and Appraisal By Sitangshu Khatua