[Video 3] About PMBOK Guide 7 and Project Definition – PMP Basics – Watershed Project Management PMPUL _SM WatershedPM

Hello.

Welcome back to the channel. In today’s video we’ll talk about PMBOK 7 and the definition of project as it is in PMBOK 7.

As a member of PMI, you can download PMBOK 7 and several other books for free. PMBOK 7 basically has two parts. The part one is referred to as the standard in the Part 2 is referred to as the guide. I would recommend that you only read the PMBOK 7 after you have thoroughly read the student manual. The student manual is the book issued by PMI that you get when you enroll for your PMP training through one of the authorized training providers, like Watershed Management Consulting.

I am planning to have a separate series where I will go into the details of PMBOK 7, section by section, but here the whole idea is to just get you introduced to what it is about. So, the basic content of what part one is about is that it’s got 12 principles and those 12 principles, which are in part 1 primarily govern what the eight performance domains are. By and large, the 8 performance domains are a reflection of what you will find a spread across the PMP student manual. So, the 12 principles are meant to guide the behavior of the project team as the eight performance domains are executed. And in addition to these two components, there’s a chapter that talks about a system for the value delivery, and in Part 2 there are additional chapters which talk about tailoring. Because you don’t have a one size fit all for all projects. To begin with, projects have several different methodologies that you can choose from. Waterfall or plan driven on one end, and adaptive and Agile or change driven on the other end – so you have a lot of options for tailoring and customization. All of that is going to be discussed in this chapter, which is about tailoring. And then, the models, methods, and artifacts. These are two separate things, so you have model and methods, which basically is a discussion about all the project methodologies and all the project models that he can choose from. And artifacts are all the different documents and the different plans that you would produce throughout your project. So, starting from the project Charter to Project plan the scope plan, the project management plan, stakeholder register, any document or any plan that he produced the including the baselines, throughout your project, are all artifacts. Like I said, Part 2 of PMBOK guide 7 basically is more or less a reflection of things that you already see and you would have read in the student manual. So, this is more or less what we need to talk about PMBOK 7 right now. Please stay tuned. I’m going to have a separate series about PMBOK 7 guide and if you get subscribe to this channel you will get notified whenever I upload the new series.

Now let’s look at the definition of the word project as in PMBOK 7 and earlier books. Let me read the definition, and then we’ll break it down word by word. A project is a temporary endeavour that you undertake to create something unique and what you create, which is the outcome or the deliverable of the project is either a product, a service or a result? Now let’s take this definition and break it down word by word. So why would you think that a project is always temporary? Because it always has a defined start and an end date. If you’re looking at something which has got no defined end, then more than likely it is operations and operations is collective of all the routine work and the ongoing repeated activities and things that you do on a daily basis. All of that is operations. However, a project has got a clearly defined objective and clearly defined timelines around that.

Let’s look at the examples of each of these, and then we also want to elaborate what does it mean that you’re creating something unique? So let’s take examples. An example for project whose outcome is a product is constructing a building, maybe making a bridge? Designing software, designing a mobile phone app? Designing a prototype car or building a prototype car – these can be two separate projects. These are all examples of projects whose outcome or a deliverable is a product. And what are you creating unique? Well, the building wasn’t there before you’ve constructed the building, well you have the building right there in front of you. There was no software app before you’ve done your project, completed it, and now you have a software.

Now you have you have a product, you have a software and the same thing goes with other examples of project whose outcome is a is a product, so this is what you’re creating, which is unique. It was not there before. Now you have it. Another possible outcome of a project is that you complete your project and you create a unique service. An example of this is that any telecom company which is upgrading, let’s say from 4G to 5G network. They will have to do a project, lay some maybe fibre across and install some equipment. Maybe build some towers. These are all components of the project that they’ll have to deliver, and once they complete the project. If upgraded, the service from 4G, which is a specific download speed, to the faster download speed which is labeled as 5G. So this is an example of a project which when completed is creating a unique service. Another simple example of that is, let’s say you are a company who distributes water bottle cans. And right now you are distributing your water bottle cans in retail stores. And people will have to go to the retail store, buy those five gallon cans, put it in the car and drive home. What can be a project out of this? Based on the feedback and services that you’ve collected, you’ve decided now that you want to be able to deliver these water bottle cans, wherever you want it to be? So as a customer, I could get them delivered to my office or to my home, and I can specify the location, subscribe to the service, and they will deliver on a regular basis to my home. Or my office. What would this project require us to do? For example, you might have to, you know, maybe buy some trucks, have some staff to run the trucks, maybe have a hotline where people can call us, maybe upgrade the website. All of these can be the scope of the project and when completing all of them, you have completed the project. And hence you have created this new service, which is that now you’re ‘capable’ of delivering water bottles to wherever the customers want them to be delivered.

That’s another example for a project whose outcome as a service. Now to understand a project whose outcome is a result will be easier for us to assume that you are in an environment which is already in operations. Meaning that you already have a company which is already operating, they’re doing their operational activities on a regular daily basis, so they’re in operations now. This organization wants to say, enhance or improve things. This is where an example of a project whose outcome is a result  becomes clear. So as an organization, let’s say that we’re a call center and we want to reduce the call waiting time. So whatever is the current call waiting time; we can always run statistics to know what the average call waiting time is. And let’s say that we want to reduce that by 30%. So what will the project usually be about? You may add resources. You may change the menu. The IVR menu. That people get when you called. And whatever you feel is required to be able to achieve that objective of reducing the call waiting time by 30%, you would identify all of them added to your project scope, get it done and by completing your project you would have reduced the call center waiting time, average call center waiting time by 30%. So that’s an example of a project. Whose outcome is a unique result, which is, now the call waiting time, on average is 30% less.

Another simple example of that of organization which is already in operations. They already have sales, but now they want to increase their sales by 25% and the team will have to identify everything that’s required to be done. It will consume a budget. It will take some time to achieve the target, that objective and that on itself is a project and you’re creating a new result in that scenario.

So these are examples of project and how you have, by completing the project in each of these scenarios created something unique, either a product or service or a result. And all of this is different from what is an operations which is any routine work or which happens on ongoing repeat basis.

Thank you for watching this video. Please remember to subscribe. And find us on Facebook and Twitter with our handle #WatershedPM and stay tuned for the next video. Until then bye bye.

Thank you for watching this video. Please remember to subscribe. And find us on Facebook and Twitter with our handle #WatershedPM and stay tuned for the next video. Until then bye bye.