Introduction All projects consume resources, including time and money, in order to deliver a product of a particular scope and quality. There is thus always a tension between the extent of resource input and the extend of product output. Additionally, there is also tension between project management activities and project development activities. Dawson (2009: 4.1) provides a graphical presentation of this: Project Management Project Management concerns the planning and conduct of the project by controlling and checking project progress, monitoring milestones and deliverables, and managing risk. The effort involved in project management should account for not more than 10% of the overall effort but it will not be evenly distributed, as most of it is expended towards the start of the project. A project can be conceived as product
2 development that is concerned with achieving the aims and objectives of the project by producing the deliverables in accordance with the project plan, while optimizing scope and quality of the deliverables relative to the resources available. Project Stages From a project management perspective, projects proceed in five stages: 1. Definition -Deciding on a project; making a project proposal 2. Planning -Detailed planning of the project 3. Initiation -Organizing work (in particular, group work); literature survey 4. Control -Monitoring the progress of the project 5. Closure -Delivering/deploying result of the project; preparing final presentation; writing up reports Project Definition Aims and objectives It is important to decide and define a clear specification of what the project is to achieve and adhere to it. Wavering between different aims might be disastrous to the conduct of the project. Aims are broad statements of intent that identify the project’s purpose. Example: Evaluate an Artificial Neural Network to predict stock market indices Objectives elaborate on the Aims and identify specific measurable achievements. This is…