PROJECT MANAGEMENT TOOLBOX – Second Edition / صندوق أدوات إدارة المشاريع – الإصدار الثاني

PROJECT MANAGEMENT TOOLBOX, Conventional wisdom holds that project management (PM) tools are enabling devices that assist a project manager in reaching an objective or, more specifically, a project deliverable or outcome. While this traditional role of PM tools is more than meaningful, we believe that there is greater opportunity to provide value to an organization and its project managers.

In particular, each PM tool can be part of a set of tools that makes up a project manager’s PM Toolbox.

The PM Toolbox, then, serves a higher purpose:

(1) to increase efficiency of the project players, (2) to provide the right information to support problem-solving and decision-making processes, and (3) to help establish and maintain alignment among business strategy, project strategy, and project execution outcomes.

Project management tools support the practices, methods, and various processes used to effectively manage a project.

They are enabling devices for the primary players on a project: the project manager, the specialists who make up the project team, the executive leadership team, and the governance body.

PM tools include procedures, techniques, and job aids by which a project deliverable is produced or project information is created. Similarly, A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge and other sources use the phrase “tools and techniques” in place of what we define as PM tools.

PM tools may be either qualitative or quantitative in nature.

To illustrate, consider two examples: the team charter and Monte Carlo analysis. They differ in the type of information they process.

The team charter provides a systematic procedure to process qualitative information about authorizing a team to implement a project. Monte Carlo analysis is a risk-planning tool that uses an algorithm to quantify risks. The heart of both the qualitative and quantitative groups of tools—and all PM tools belong to one of these

groups—is in their systematic procedure.

Note that we don’t talk about software tools here. True, many PM tools that we discuss in this book exist in a software format. However, our focus is not on tool formats.

Rather, we concentrate on the substance of PM tools: the use of tools to manage projects more effectively and efficiently.

The design of a PM Toolbox should mirror the approach an organization takes for establishing standardized project management methodologies and processes.