PM Themes – 1

During the life cycle of any project> there are seven themes that the Project Manager must keep returning to if they are to have any chance of bringing the project to a successful conclusion. $1Project Management methodologies list these themes as being: Business case, Organization, Quality, Plans, Risks, Change and Progress.

The function of Project Management Themes. #

The seven themes> named above serve the purpose of establishing baselines to ensure everyone knows what the final outcome should be, that if a mandatory requirement is not met by one section the whole project> is in jeopardy, any add-ons by the client will be subjected to $1prioritization, allows you to readily see things of poor/low value that can be arguably dropped and finally, to reinforce that point, that the baseline is $1non-negotiable but that add-ons aren’t.

The Business Case theme. #

The business case theme> for a project is its whole raison d’être. It must establish if the project is necessary, viable and, of significant importance to the Project Manager> - achievable. Needless to say this requires the $1business model> to be constantly revisited with both the client and the project Manager’s teams throughout the life of the project, to both verify the $1achievement of landmarks> and to approve the benefits they will bring. The business case needs to describe why the project is being undertaken, the estimated costs and risks and the $1expected benefits> arising from it. The measurements applied to these factors will vary according to the nature of the project. They may be simply based on a “return on investment” basis or could be on a wholly non-financial one. Either way the business case needs to $1identify the benefits> of the project, determine $1objective measurements for it and then once the project is begun, decide who is to make those baseline measurements. Which prepares us nicely for the next theme of $1Organization - which is to be discussed later.