A Money Making Internet Business Isn’t Really That Much Different Than A Traditional Real

A money making internet business isn’t really that much different than a traditional real world company. Both begin with a dream and a plan and both need certain elements to be successful. For example, most businesses fail in the first couple of years because of lack of capital. There just wasn’t enough money invested in the venture or the money wasn’t appropriately managed. Whatever the case, the cash flow dries up and the venture comes to an end. Businesses might also fail because of lack of knowledge or experience. This may happen when someone jumps on a popular business bandwagon even though he knows little about the specific product or service and has little or no experience in the industry. Of course, companies also fail because of economic and/or market forces over which the owner has no control. When automobiles became more popular than horse-drawn carriages, the carriage maker had little recourse but to close up shop and find another line of work. When jobs are scarce and money tight, worried people cut back on discretionary spending which often means less revenue for entertainment venues such as restaurants and movie theaters. A money making internet business is more likely to be successful if the entrepreneur invests an appropriate amount of capital based on a solid budget and if the venture generates a positive cash flow. The entrepreneur is more likely to be successful if he chooses a venture that stems from his personal knowledge, education, and professional experience. No venture is completely immune from outside economic and market forces, but a savvy entrepreneur will pay attention to such possibilities and plan ways to help the business survive the rough times.
An entrepreneur actually has three choices when it comes to launching a new venture. She can open a physical location, such as a retail store or an office that offers professional expertise, such as in accounting or real estate. A second option is to launch a money making internet business by purchasing a domain name and setting up a website that offers either products or services. The third option is to do both establish a physical location that is supported or integrated with a well-designed website. This third option is so important that even established businesses are finding it necessary in today’s online-centered world to create websites that promote their products and services, provide information such as the address of the physical location and hours of operation, and perhaps informs potential shoppers about upcoming sales or special offers. By incorporating an online presence into a strategic marketing plan, traditional companies have the potential to expand consumer base and increase sales revenue. Those who ignore the internet phenomenon may find themselves sharing the fate of unimaginative nineteenth century carriage makers, bemoaning their fate and wondering what went wrong.

What is the best tool use in expert judgment?

During the reporting in our Project Management subject, each of the group tackled about the expert judgment. What is expert judgment all about? So for me, when I heard the word expert judgment one thing that comes into my mind is that expert judgment is that in order for the project team to understand deeply their project they would find an expertise to know that such particular problem. But according to the Project Management Book of Knowledge (PMBOK), expert judgment is often used to assess the inputs needed to develop the project charter. Such judgment and expertise is applied to any technical and management details during this process. Such expertise is provided by any group or an individual with specialized knowledge or training and is available from any sources, including the other units within the organization, consultants, and the stakeholders including customers or sponsors, professional and technical associations and the industry groups.


In order for me to understand deeply the word expert judgment, I researched it through the internet and as what I have read in the site www.my-project-management-expert.com it stated that Expert Judgment is a widely used tools and techniques in almost all major process in the PMBOK from initiating till closing of the project or its phase. In some of the processes it is the one and only technique mentioned. When we say expert, expert are those individuals or a group who possess specialized knowledge or training in a particular area. In project management, experts are either part of the project such as the project manager or involved such as the stake holders in the project processes. Project teams with a project manager and team members with relevant experience in the project related subject can perform the project with more success probability than those are not. In other than the project team, generally there are also available experts like project consultants, the user groups, and the subject matter experts. In judgment,judgment provided by those people with expertise in an appropriate project area is utilized at various stages of the project phase in order to do an effective project management.


According to a blog entitled “IT Project Management”, there are four sources of expert judgment available in order to help on a project. First are the CONSULTANTS – the consultants can be hired from outside of the company to serve as an expert for a project. But however, this kind of sources is expensive and cause too much cost to rise on a project. For an example, a company that is specialized in a natural gas may be hired a consultant on a pipeline project. Second are the specialized and technical associations – the specialized and technical groups can provide an expert judgment when the information needed is very detailed or technical. For an example, if you need to know what the building code is for a residential home, you could ask the local builders association. Third are the manufacturing groups – the manufacturing groups can offer general information for the project. For an example, if you need to know how long it takes for a cement to cure, a construction group would be able to answer on your question. Lastly are theother units or other departments inside the organizations – preferably, this is the best place to obtain expert judgment and it can obtained at no cost to the project team.


After determining which experts or groups of experts can help you during on the different project phase on a project, you can use tools and techniques to obtain the expert judgment that you need. So first, the interviews: An interview can be on a one-on-one or a many-to-one basis. We already know that an interview is conducted by asking a series of question that will increase your knowledge of the project or in a particular project activity. Next is the brainstorming: brainstorming works by getting a group to focus on a problem and then coming up with as many solutions as possible. And once the session has resulted into a number of solutions, and then the results can be analyzed. Lastly, the past data: past data uses as the knowledge which is gained on a similar past project activity to obtain duration estimates for each of the activity associated with a current project. While a certain technique might be appropriate in some situations, in others the same technique wouldn't give you the information you need. Interviews are best used when knowledgeable, experienced people are available at an affordable cost and specific information is needed, while brainstorming is best used when input for multiple experts needed or when experienced people aren’t available. Past data is best used when records are accurate and both projects are similar.

When using an expert judgment in a project there are also advantages and disadvantages of it. There are many advantages when using the expert judgment technique for estimating activity duration. The advantages of it are: it allows for different perception, it makes valuable use of prior knowledge and experience, it can help you find creative solutions, and it helps you avoid re-inventing the wheel. Expert judgment, like so many things has also disadvantages. You have to be careful when using an expert judgment, it’s because it can be time consuming. It can also tie up experienced team for many hours, to the failure of other projects. In addition, expert judgment can be costly if you have to go outside of your company to hire an expert. Another disadvantage is that experts may be likely to downplay the fact that an activity took longer than the expected on past projects. When using an expert judgment, used it wisely though expert judgment is a great and very useful tool for estimating activity duration. It allows for different perspective and more creative solutions. And the most importantly, when using expert judgment, your team will be less likely to re-invent the wheel.


The interviews, the brainstorming and the past data for me are the best and useful tool that is used in expert judgment.

How is a project different to any other work? Is Project Management relevant to me? 

So first, when we say project: it is normally defined as a work to bring about a beneficial change and which has a start and an end, a multi-disciplinary team brought together for the project, constraints of cost, time and quality, and a scope of work that is unique and involves uncertainty. According to Project Management Book of Knowledge (PMBOK), a project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, a service or a result. Why is it temporary? It is because; in every project has a definite beginning and a definite ending. The end is reached when the projects objectives have been achieved, or it becomes clear that the project objectives will not or cannot be met, or the need for the project no longer exist and the project is terminated or completed. There are many project that I have met in my life, like in our subject System Analysis and Design (SAD) in which we are in a group of five and we will going to adopt a company and make documentation or shall we say deliverables on how to improve their existing system into a new and better one. In this project, I learned a lot especially on the schedule, you must be hectic on time that is allotted on the project, do not just relax instead make it before on the due time. And even though we did not submit it on time but I’m happy also that we have complied it.

How is a project different to any other work? According to a site spottydog.u-net.com, they stated that a continuous process is not a project and the development of new rent or lettings policy is a project but the subsequent day to day operation of that policy is a continuous process that is usually managed by an individual or a management. For me, based on my own understanding of how is a project different to any other work, it is because when you are making a project you must have focus and determination so that you can achieved your objective on that particular project.

Does project management relevant to me? I could say that having a Project management is very important to me because project management itself does have a quality of managing and organizing the information’s that you needed in a project – from its scope, the resources and down to the time management as well as the team management and the most important is to set the requirements that you should meet in order to employ changes to the project. According also to the site spottydog.u-net.com, they stated that if you have been given a specific job to complete then you should consider using the principles of project management if it has the following features: - A defined goal, time, cost and quality (or functionality) constraints, requires expertise and support from other functions, Involves a unique (to you or the organization) scope of work. Using a project team approach will help you to achieve the beneficial gain in a structured, controlled and cost effective way.

Is Project Management the best method of implementing change?

Is project management the best method of implementing change? I think, it is good or best to have a method of project management in a project, in order to have a best and good result in the project delivery in a project. According to the Project Management Book of Knowledge (PMBOK), project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to project activities in order to meet the project requirements.


When we say project management, it is comes from the two words which is the project and the management. Project is a task of work to bring about a beneficial change and which has a start and an end or a multi-disciplinary team who brought together for the project, has constraints of cost, time and quality, and has a scope of work that is unique and involves uncertainty. A good example of a project is an introduction of an improvement to an existing process.


In project management as what I have learned in our discussion, project management has evolved a discipline to managed the new and unusual. It has an objectives of defining the project, reduce it to a set of manageable task (Work Break-down Structure), obtain appropriate and necessary resources, build a team or teams to perform the project work, plan the work and allocate the resources that will be needed to do the task or the project, monitor and control the work, report progress to senior management and the project sponsor, closed down the project when it is completed and lastly review it to ensure the lessons are learned and widely understood the project. All of these are the best way or the best method for implementing change in a project.


In a project management there is a project manager in which the project manager will be the leader of the project team and will be responsible for ensuring the process of making the project. So the project manager will gain the approval for the project aim and the terms of reference, selecting and leading the team and setting individual objectives, ensuring the feasibility study is complete, ensuring that the project is planned in appropriate detail, allocating and monitoring the work and the cost, motivating the team, reporting progress back to the organization, helping the team to solve a project problems, achieve through the team and the goals, and reviewing and closing down the project. In managing a project, you must have the skills in order for you to manage it successfully. It includes business knowledge, the technical skills and the individual and the team leadership skills. Individual Skills are the personal skills in a team; these skills are likely to include a good presentation and persuasive skills, good written skills, high energy and credibility. Team Skills is very important, it will appreciate the differing needs of both individuals and the project team at the different stages of the project. And the Technical Skills, it is good to have a technical skill in setting objectives, planning complex tasks, negotiating resources, financial planning, contract management, monitoring skills, managing creative thinking and problem solving, as well as their own specialist topic. 

In implementing a project there is also a tools and techniques which are being used during a project life cycle of it. So here are some of the tools and techniques which are being used in a project management. First, verifying the objective setting – it is a kind of technique in which it ensures that the objectives for the project can be measured and verified to ensure that they have met all of it. Second, Gantts Charts – it is used to display the result of your analysis in a simple bar chart format that can be readily understood by those who have not involved in the detail of the project. Third, Brain Storming - it is a technique used in all stages of the project in order to encourage creative thinking and solve the problems. Fourth, Work Break-down Structure (WBS) – it is a technique to analyze deeply the content of the work and the cost by breaking it down into a sub-components parts or into a smaller elements. Fifth, Critical Path Analysis – it is used to analyze and identify the tasks that are critical in determining the overall duration of the project. Sixth, Milestone Planning – it is used to show the major steps that are needed to reach the goal or the project on time. And lastly, accrued cost and earned value analysis – it is used to measures and enables the progress of the project to be monitored in financial terms and conditions.


In a project team there are also involving in a project and these are the project sponsor, the project sponsor should be a senior in the organization who has the most to gain from the project’s success and most lose if it fails. And the project customer, the project customer should either be a member of the project team or represented on that team.


All of these I have been stated above are some of the important task and techniques that can proved that a project management is the best thing in implementing a change to a project. It is because; it will provide a process of delivering a changes and a perfect result in implementing a project. I can say that this is very useful in managing a project because it specifies the task which would be carrying out the life of the project and can have a good quality result of a project.


“A project without a strategy is like an airplane weaving through stormy skies, hurled up and down, slammed by the wind, lost in the thunderheads. If lightning or crushing winds don't destroy it, it will simply run out of gas. “- By Alvin Toffler 

Why do projects fail?

Why do projects fail?

The first reason why the projects do fail, it is because the project did not correctly manage the time and the project did properly delivered. As what I have written in my paper when we had a reflection paper in our subject Project Management in the question why do projects fail, so for me based on my own understanding of why do projects fail, it is because the project did not meet all the requirements that is being needed and the project does not pass during the time duration given. So as we all know that a project is just only a partial task that is need to be finished or to be done on time. Maybe projects do fail due to the time consciousness. As what we have been discussed in one our topic last semester in our subject System Analysis and Design, it is said that in order to have a project successfully and well effectively it should be finished or done on time, within the scope and specifications and it should be within a budget. The project should be done planned properly in terms of its boundaries in which the scope must have in it. The project should not over be in budget, it should be on the quality in terms of the budget. Making a project is just like having a time management; it must be made or done on time as what it should be. Beside in time management, planning is also one of the most important key in order for the project not to be failed. If a project is not well or properly planned, it could affect the total amount time that was spent on a project. So if more time is focused on the project, then this will lead the quality of the project into a successful one. So if a sufficient amount of time planned for the project, then the important information of the project would be wasted. A project can only be said successful when it is has a good quality, finished on time, within the budget and within the scope and the most of all is the quality of the planning made in the project. It is a sad fact that many projects, particularly those involving information systems, fail to deliver against their objectives on time and within budget. Projects fail when they are not managed well - when planning is not rigorous (or ignored altogether), when insufficient control is exercised, when the necessary skills are missing and when elements or people are ignored or forgotten. Just like the case in our project in System Analysis and Design subject, we all in our group get a grade of incomplete because we did not manage our time thoroughly and we did not planned well on what we first to do about our project.


So during our discussion about the real meaning of the project management, my entire classmate answered the same reason and that is the management of the time, and for me I agreed also about the answers of my classmate, but sad to say that our professor was not agree about the answers of my classmates. But somehow our professor shared that the only reason why projects fail it is because we plan to fail. We have planned for the failure while doing the project, so all the same the result is also a failure. In a ideal world every project would be "on time and within budget." But in reality (especially the proven statistics) tells a very different story. It's not uncommon for projects to fail. Even if the budget and schedule are met, one must ask "did the project deliver the results and quality we expected?" True project success must be evaluated on all three components. Otherwise, a project could be considered a "failure." So when a project begins to show signs of stress and failure, everyone looks to the project manager for answers. It may seem unfair that the burden of doom falls upon a single individual. But this is the reason why you chose to manage projects for a living! You've been trained to recognize and deal with these types of situations.


As based on the Project Management Book of Knowledge or PMBOK the reasons behind on the failures of the project are as follows: First is Poor Estimates – it only implies that we might have a poor result in managing the time or the any phase of the development of the project. Second is Scope Changes – it only implies that we did not defined definitely the scope on what the project should be. Third is Work breakdown failures – it only implies that we lack of efficiency while during the process of development of the project. Fourth is not enough time or resources allocated – it only implies that the time and the resources made during in the project was insufficient, and the only reason is the time management. Lastly is incompetent project management – it only implies that a project should have a proficient or competent project management to manage the project or the task equally and accordingly. And that is the reason why most of the projects fail because of the incompetent project management during the making of the developing the project. These five reasons are being defined in the Project Management Book of Knowledge or the PMBOK.
So in order for me to understand deeply the reason of the failures of the project, I made some research on the internet. And as what I have read in the site of projectsmart.co.uk, these are some of the common reasons of failures of the project or projects:

Poorly managed – the project is poorly managed because of its undefined objectives and goals and lack of management commitment.
Lack of a solid project plan – the project is lack of a solid project plan, it is because through the lack of user input and lack of organizational support.
Central practical managing initiatives to combat project risk - Enterprise management of budget resources; Provides universal templates and documentation
Poorly defined roles and responsibilities – the project is poorly defined roles and responsibilities, it is because through the inadequate or vague requirements and the Stakeholder conflict.
Team weaknesses – it is because the team of the project has a unrealistic timeframes and tasks and competing priorities.
Poor communication –the project is poor in communication, it is because through the insufficient resources.
Overruns of schedule and cost - Estimates for cost and schedule are erroneous; Lack of prioritization and project portfolio management
Scope creep - No change control process; Meeting end user expectations
Ignoring project warning signs - Inadequate testing processes; Bad decisions


So if you understand the difference between symptoms and problems and can spot warning signs of project failure, your training will help you take steps to right the ship before it keels over. During the course of managing a project, the project manager must monitor activities (and distractions) from many sources and directions. Complacency can easily set in. When this happens, the process of "monitoring" breaks down. This is why the project manager must remain in control of a project and be aware of any activity which presents a risk of project failure.


According to the site I have research; there are six key factors that are involved in any particular project failure. And these are the followings: First is Lack of User Involvement - Lack of user involvement has proved fatal for many projects. Without user involvement nobody in the business feels committed to a system, and can even be hostile to it. If a project is to be a success senior management and users need to be involved from the start, and continuously throughout the development. This requires time and effort, and when the people in a business are already stretched, finding time for a new project is not high on their priorities. Therefore senior management need to continuously support the project to make it clear to staff it is a priority. Second is Long or Unrealistic Time Scales - Long timescales for a project have led to systems being delivered for products and services no longer in use by an organization. The key recommendation is that project timescales should be short, which means that larger systems should be split into separate projects. There are always problems with this approach, but the benefits of doing so are considerable. Many managers are well aware of the need for fast delivery, leading to the other problem of unrealistic timescales. These are set without considering the volume of work that needs to be done to ensure delivery. As a result these systems are either delivered late or only have a fraction of the facilities that were asked for. The recommendation here is to review all project plans to see if they are realistic, and to challenge the participants to express any reservations they may have with it. Third is Pitiable or No Requirements – there are many projects have high level, vague, and in general unhelpful requirements. This has led to cases where the developers, having no input from the users, build what they believe is needed, without having any real knowledge of the business. Inevitably when the system is delivered business users say it does not do what they need it to. This is closely linked to lack of user involvement, but goes beyond it. Users must know what it is they want, and be able to specify it precisely. As non-IT specialists this means normally they need skills training. Fourth is the Scope sneak – the scope is the overall view of what a system will deliver. Scope sneak is the sinister growth in the scale of a system during the life of a project. As an example for a system which will hold customer records, it is then decided it will also deal with customer bills, then these bills will be provided on the Internet, and so on and so forth. All the functionality will have to be delivered at one time, therefore affecting time scales, and all will have to have detailed requirements. This is a management issue closely related to change control. Management must be realistic about what is it they want and when, and stick to it. Fifth is the rebuff change managing organization - despite everything businesses change, and change is happening at a faster rate than ever before. So it is not realistic to expect no change in requirements while a system is being built. However uncontrolled changes play havoc with a system under development and have caused many project failures. This emphasizes the advantages of shorter timescales and a phased approach to building systems, so that change has less chance to affect development. Nonetheless change must be managed like any other factor of business. The business must evaluate the effects of any changed requirements on the timescale, cost and risk of project. Change Management and its sister discipline of Configuration Management are skills that can be taught. Sixth is the pitiable test - the developers will do a great deal of testing during development, but eventually the users must run acceptance tests to see if the system meets the business requirements. However acceptance testing often fails to catch many faults before a system goes live because:


• Poor requirements which cannot be tested
• Poorly, or non planned tests meaning that the system is not methodically checked
• Inadequately trained users who do not know what the purpose of testing is
• Inadequate time to perform tests as the project is late


Users, in order to build their confidence with a system, and to utilize their experience of the business, should do the acceptance testing. To do so they need good testable requirements, well designed and planned tests, be adequately trained, and have sufficient time to achieve the testing objectives.

For me when we say project, it is not only a preferring to a term paper work or a final project. But anywhere in our place now have comprises of a different establishments or any buildings in which it also considered as a project. Why? It is because it also undergoes a solemn plans and applications for those proposed project plans to be finished within time and within a budget. It is not a building which also considered as a project but also the construction of the public highways, bridges, houses, malls, schools and institutions, and roads, and even also the government establishments. So all of these I have mentioned can be considered as a project, particularly when it needs expertise which might be think as a complex projects. A project like buildings must have project assembly supervision which will be applied in managing and building process of a building. Also I have read some articles that say communication is still a part of the process of project management. In that fact, organizations nowadays are lacking the aspects of communications, ineffective communications and downright confusing communications. This is because in organizational viewpoint, only few who are involved in the project is taking the constraints of it on head. It’s just the same as having an intelligent mind but then again does not have the ability to apply what’s on his/her mind. We may also spot the reason of failure or cancellations of the project because of cost overruns, or the project were launched with essential errors mistakes.


In making or implementing a project, there may be all sorts of things going wrong, such as being behind schedule, over budget, under resourced, or having poor quality deliverables leading to non-acceptance. So how do you recover from this coming up project failure? So the first thing to do in project recovery is to evaluate the overall project - an audit or project review using a series of standard questions should identify the key problems and the severity of each one. This will allow you to priorities project recovery planning and activity so that you tackle the most serious problems first, and then work down the list. During the review, you might find some areas where you can stop the bleeding - for instance, if scope is unstable and forever changing, the introduction of a strict change control process should at least help to firm up and stabilize the scope. And after the assessment of the troubled project you may determine that there is no good business case for project recovery so we may need to cut our losses and move on rather than waste time and money on project recovery planning. In this case, of project failure, we need to plan euthanasia - let the project die as painlessly and with as much dignity as possible. A failing project needs the help of a well-trained project planning professional, also called a recovery Project Manager to minimize recovery time, cost, and residual damage if the project can be saved, or to recognize when euthanasia is the recommended option.

Finally, in order to prevent a project failure you must have a good project planning based on a well-constructed deliverables-based Work Breakdown Structure and proper controls. However, once a project starts to fail, there are also techniques to recognize it, minimize the extent of the project failure and make the project recovery as successful as possible. There may be some casualties along the way, such as some reduction in scope, additional time, and/or additional cost, but with good project planning and timely intervention where required, these can be minimized. A project manager needs to be trained in these techniques not only to recover a failing project, but more importantly, reduce the chances of creating one themselves in the future.

What is project?

For me based on my own understanding of what is project all about, it is a task or an assignment in which you are given a time duration or an allotted time to passed, the project must meet all the requirements in order to have a good result. Being a college student like me, we also given a project by our professors in completion or accomplishments of our subjects.

Project as being defined in the Project Management Book of Knowledge or PMBOK, project has a characteristics of a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service or a result. Why it is temporary? Temporary because in every project has a definite beginning and a definite ending. Temporary or impermanent does not mean a short time in duration, but many projects also last for a several years. We can only conclude that the project is already finished if the project objectives reached or if the project will meet all of its requirements. Unique product, service or a result because project creates a unique deliverables, which are products, services or result. For me product could only say it is a product when it is unique or one of a kind and must be in its simple way. And according to the author of the PMBOK, it is also the characteristics of a project to be a Progressive elaboration; when we say progressive elaboration it is a process or a steps of developing and continuing it by boost.

Based on the research I had in the internet, project defined as a temporary activity that has a starting date, has a specific goals and conditions, has defined responsibilities, has a budget, has a planning, has a fixed end date and has a multiple parties involved.
A project has a starting date in order for you to know when to start your project. A project is a collections of activities in which it have also a goal or an objectives. Why does it have a goal or objectives? It is because if you have a goal in your project surely you will achieve it within a more or less fixed timeframe or fixed time duration. Project has also a defined responsibility, especially when you are a group in a project each you will have a different responsibilities or an obligation to do in order for your project to complete it. And if one of your group members will not do his responsibilities that one must fulfill and which has a consequent penalty for its failure. Project has also a constraint that consists of three elements, and these elements are the: First is the Cost - This includes everything that costs money, like people and equipment. Second is the Time - What is the time frame in which every activity should take place? And lastly is the Quality - What is the level of quality the project has to reach? Project has also a planning, when we say planning it is an idea or a set of ideas, a conception or abstraction. It is very important to have a plan before you should start making a project, it is because if you have a plan you will know what would be your going to do and how you manage your time. And lastly project has also fixed end date because if you have a starting date you will also have a fixed end date to submit the project.

An example of this project is our project in our subject System Analysis and Design (SAD 1) in which we prepared a Gantt chart. Gantt chart is a type of bar chart that illustrates a project schedule. Gantt charts illustrate the start and finish dates of the terminal elements and summary elements of a project. Terminal elements and summary elements comprise the work breakdown structure of the project.

I noticed that in the Gantt chart we create, we always follow the time schedule that was in the Gantt chart. But sorry to say we did not follow the time schedule that we had made in the Gantt chart and that’s we get a grade of incomplete because we did not submit our project on time. And in that thing I had learned so much especially in managing the time.

What is management?

For me based on my own understanding of what is Management all about, the meaning of management for me is a something to do with especially in managing and making a rule in a given task or a project. Management is classify as an instruction and controlling the things by tolerating or follow the rules that aims to finish the project leaning. Maybe should I say that management is like being managing a people. An example of management is the management of the institution or an organization as being cited as an example by our professor. Institution because, in an institution there are some people who imposing the rules to their people to do the task manageable.

So in order for me to understand deeply the true meaning of what is management, I have researched on the internet some definition of the word management. According to Wikipedia, management is an activity or the acts of getting people together to accomplish a desired goals and objectives efficiently and objectively. In management it comprises planning, organizing, staffing, leading or directing and controlling a group of one or more people for the purpose of accomplishing a goal. Planning, preparing a satisfactory plan of an organization is essential in order to helping avoid mistakes. Organizing, in a management also it should be organized so that the management will have a good relationship between their people. Staffing, is liked a routing, recommendations, and approvals for the official documents and memorandums in a management. Leadership, in a management there is always a leader who is leading the project into the right place or the right accomplishment of a common task. Control in management means setting a standards, measuring actual performance and taking corrective action. Organization, in management it is viewed as an entity which is bring organized, and the focus is on the organization as a set of tasks or set of actions.

From the information that I’ve been gathered from the internet, I can only say that management can be defined as the managing characteristics.

What is Project Management?

Basically, project management is the combination of the words project and management. Likewise, the definitions itself do reflect from one another. For my own understanding, the word project management is the technique used in managing a project. From that idea, a project can be done with a sequential process. Everything is done within a sequence. Fundamentally, project management in Wikipedia as the discipline of planning, organizing, securing and managing resources to bring about the successful completion of specific engineering project goals and objectives. As of from the definition itself, discipline of planning; I can say that it is the process of controlling and providing proper planning of the project or projects. Discipline of Organizing, this process could be reflecting on the process of planning. After the planning of project, you must organized it to have a clear sight of the things you will going to do or what will be the step to be done. Organizing for me is the set of organizing the plans you just have formulated about your project. Discipline of managing resources, inside this discipline; you must have a great view of any ideas or things that can be apply to your project. You need to be mentally absorbent of the things that might help you to complete your project.

Since, project management is a very broad topic to talk with; I have researches another idea of what a project management is. As said over the internet, project management is the science (and art) of organizing the components of a project, whether the project is development of a new product, the launch of a new service or etc. no matter project it is, project management relies in the same principles of processes which are Definition, Planning, Execution, Control and Closure. First in the list is Definition Pattern. In this stage, the project team defines what the project is and what the users hope to achieve by undertaking the project. The same also in this phase, the inclusion of list of project deliverables, and the outcome of a specific set of activities are implemented. The project team works with the business sponsor or manager who wants to have the project implemented and other stakeholders -- those who have a vested interest in the outcome of the project. Second, Planning the Project. Here, you define all the activities of the project. The project manager is required to list all the activities or tasks, how the tasks are are related, how long will it take to finish the task, and how this activities must be done on the specific time. Also the refining of the project requirements must be settled up. In this stage, the project manger is design to identify how many people and how must cost is needed for the project to be done as well as the requirements that are required to the project to enable to be completed. Since, it’s the part of planning the project. The constraints are also identifying here, the sort of probable constraints that might come unto the project. These constraints might be in cost that could definitely affect the project performance. For instance, the cost constraints, because of the crisis that has occur the project might not be able to afford many people to work with the project. That somehow might be the reason while the project can’t comply with its time limitation and the worst thing is to become the failure of the project.

Third, project execution. The project manager in this stage needs to build the project team. He/she must be able to know the how many resources and how much budget he or she has to work with for the project. because of the project team is already build, it would be easier now to assign the things or tasks that must be doing by each of the project team member. Since everything has been settled and done, its time for now for making budgeting the project. Fourth, Project Controlling. The project manager now is assigned to make updates of the task that he had given to his people. He can now see if the task is done within the time that is allotted by each task. From this stage, the project can be identifying if it is doing well or not. And most of all, the project manager can able to understand how well the project is progressing overall. Last is the Project Closure. In this stage, the project manager merges the ideas of his people with what the ideas he had on his mind to have a project product in a good sense. And to find if the product of the project is done properly; the analysis of the project to have a final project product will now be carried out.

According to the MPUG-you.com, the project management has three essential components. These are the time, money and scope. It emphasizes there that the increase and decrease of any of the components will give a great impact to the other two components of the project. To make it realistic, it sited here the example of reducing the time for making the project. Consequently, when the time expansion that is allotted to finish the project is to be reduced; you will probably expect for the great effect of it to the project scope and the quality of the project. It will make confusion on what will be including in the project. Not just the scope is only affected, but also the cost of the project. In terms of its cost, the project will affected in terms of the people who will work for the project and also the needed resources to meet the abbreviated schedule for the project.

My reflections/learning’s on the first day of class:

As we have started the first day of our discussion or the first lesson in this subject Project Management, there is a big question that comes into my mind, that question is what this Project Management is all about? But as we move along to our first discussion which is about the project management definition, we had a simple sharing on the first quiz we’ve done and it gives me a clue or a tip about this project management. For us to better know the real meaning of project management, along with our professor we had a short or a brief discussion through sharing our own ideas. First we do what is the meaning of project. Next is the meaning of the management and lastly the meaning of project management. So each of us right our own definition of those three words which is given by our professor. At that moment of writing our own definition of project, management and project management, I learned that a project only defines a task or a duty in which it has a narrowed time to end and the unusual attributes of project management. And I realized that this subject project management is a very broad to tackle within a one semester. That’s why our professor gives us an electronic copy about the project management which has a title of a guide to Project Management Book of Knowledge (PMBOK 3rd edition) in which this electronic copy will be made as one of our material for this subject.

Through introducing this subject, I learned so many things such as the specific definition of the project and the project management. As being defined in the PMBOK, project is a sequence of unique, complex, and connected activities which has a one purpose or a one goal and that must be completed or accomplished by a given specific time, must be within a budget, and must be according to the specifications. Project Management is also defined in the PMBOK as an application of knowledge, skills and a technique to a project activity in order to meet the project management. I also learned that the word management has four aspects which are the: Directing, Planning, Organizing and Controlling. First is the Directing in which it represents the ideas of giving an instruction to somebody to be finished. Second is the Planning in which it involves simple planning or site up an idea for a preparation for something. Third is the Organizing in which it implies an exercise power or the authority something or to limit, put a ceiling on the areas of running something.

The word SMART was the most interesting word I learned. It is because the word SMART as what have our professor has a short form of Specific, Measureable, Attainable, Reliable, and Time-bounded. Through this word SMART, I learned that a project objective must have a detailed form so it means that the scope of a project must be defined as it should be. The project is said to be measureable when the project is manageable to measure through in its scope. The project is said to be attainable when the designed project is to be accomplished within a specifications when it is said as a temporary. The project is said to be reliable when a project is reliable which means the project implies and is able to be trusted to do what would expected to do. And lastly, the project is said to be time-bounded when a project has an allotted time to submit or to pass. This project is not an ongoing activity not like in an outfitted work.

After we had a discussion of the project and project management. We also had a brief discussion about one of the common tool of the project management development which is the Gantt chart. One of our classmates was given a task to share his own understanding about Gantt chart. Through this Gantt chart you will be able to know the time of each task when would it be going to pass and when would it be its time limit. I learned also about the ideal project manager, management and people skills. Through this, I able to know that a project manager should have the characteristics of: Leadership, Negotiation, Selling, Team Building and Motivation, Communications, Meeting Management, and Problem Solving and a Decision Making. Though I already know the primary role of the manager is to manage the project, but my mind conceptual change into managers being a leader. And once we become a leader, our main objective or the main goal is to lead the way to do the task of the project not to control anybody.

Lastly, I also learned the primary types of information that a project would have, and these are the tasks duration, tasks dependencies, resources and the cost of the project. And all of these four primary types of information would represent a meaning to the project components which are the time, budget and the project scope. In fact our professor change the Project Management into a Project Leadership for it is joke only. But as what he has said we should not be controlled by others but instead we wanted a freedom in all everything we are doing. And all over with our discussion, it was very fun and interesting lesson about the Project Management. So that was the first day our class in this subject Project Management, a one day class only but I had already learned a lot.