Introduction

• General
  • What is a project?
  • What is project management?
  • What does a project management system consist of?
  • Project visualisation
  • Why breakdown a project?

Topics

• Simple process parts
  • Concept or idea
  • Feasibility study
  • Initiation
  • Specification
  • Design
  • Build
  • Implementation
  • Operation and review
• Basics
  • Project Notebook
  • Assumptions
  • Assumptions and constraints
• Problem statement
• Mission statement
  • Mission statement
  • Mission statement Simple approach
  • Mission statement Formal approach
• Strategy
  • Strategy
  • Selecting a strategy
  • Recording the strategy
• Scope
  • Scope
  • Scope areas affected
• Objectives
  • Objectives reasons for setting
  • Objectives should be
  • Customer analysis
• Deliverables
  • Deliverables
  • Exit criteria
  • Product specification
• Schedules
  • Work breakdown structure part 1
  • Work breakdown structure part 2
  • Work breakdown structure part 3
  • Types of plans
  • Schedules
  • Resources cost
  • Control system
  • The Gantt chart
  • Authority roles responsibilities
  • Authority
  • Risk areas
  • Benefits What are they
  • Terms of Reference
• Planning
  • Planning part 1
  • Planning need to answer
  • Introduction schedule overview
  • Task characteristics Work package
  • Task information
  • Milestones General
  • Milestones Deliverables
• Control
  • Why - what can go wrong?
  • Monitoring
  • General
  • What scope?
  • Time
  • Cost
  • Cost - common terms
  • Cost overspend
  • Cost cash flow
  • Progress reporting general
  • Progress reporting Project Board
  • Progress reporting what data?
  • Taking action what does this entail?
  • Assessing the situation
  • Resolving issues and problems
  • Contingency
  • Areas of review
  • Controlling change part 1
  • Controlling change part 2
  • Document control procedures
  • Project completion
  • Quality management plan overview
  • Plan - areas to define
• Quality
  • Quality management plan overview
  • Plan - areas to define
  • Statistical control
• Risk management
  • Overview
  • General approach
  • Health and safety
• Project review
  • The benefits
  • The report
• Project manager
  • Overview
  • Choosing the project team
  • People recruitment
  • Communication
  • Managing user expectations
  • Systematic approach
  • Empowerment
  • Appointment
  • Project organisation The Project Office
• Construction
  • Construction projects part 1
  • Construction projects part 2
  • Construction projects part 3
  • Construction projects part 4
  • Construction projects part 5
  • Construction projects part 6
  • Construction projects part 7
  • Construction projects part 8
  • Construction projects part 9
  • Construction projects part 10
• Reports
  • Writing reports part 1
  • Writing reports part 2
  • Writing reports part 3
  • Writing reports part 4
  • Writing reports part 5
• Manual methods
  • Time and duration
  • Precedence grid
  • Task flow charts
  • Task flow charts Activity-on-Node networks bubble diagrams
  • Task flow charts Activity-on-Node networks bubble diagrams
  • Task flow charts Activity-on-Arrow networks
  • Task flow charts Activity-on-Arrow networks arrow diagrams
  • Task flow charts Activity-on-Arrow networks arrow diagrams float v slack
  • Contingency 1 General
  • Contingency 2 The weather
• Resource
  • Resource procurement part 1
  • The schedule
  • Resource levelling part 1 summary
  • Resource levelling part 2 techniques
  • Reducing project durations
• Project management systems
  • Six sigma part 1
  • Six_sigma part 2
  • Six_sigma part 3
  • SCRUM part 1
  • SCRUM part 2
  • SCRUM part 3
  • Earned value management part 1
  • Earned value management part 2
  • Earned value management part 3
  • Earned value management part 4
  • Earned value management part 5
  • Earned value management part 6
  • Sensitivity analysis
  • PMBOK part 1
  • The Project Management Knowledge Areas part 2
  • The Project Management Knowledge Areas part 3
  • The Project Management Knowledge Areas part 4
  • The Project Management Knowledge Areas part 5

Detailed planning

• Overview
• Initial estimation simple cost plan
• Initial estimation high level plan first review
• Initial estimation high level plan second review
• Initial estimation budget cost plan
• Estimating overview
• Estimating why are estimates too long
• Estimating why are estimates too short
• Estimating data usage
• Dependencies 4 basic types
• Dependencies (schedule)
• PERT and slack (float)
• PERT part 1
• PERT part 2
• PERT part 3 Cumulative Probability graph
• Elapsed time example for a task
• Roles and responsibilities
• Responsibilities and resources
• The Gantt chart
• Constraints resource
• Critical path part 1
• Critical path part 2 choosing one
• Criticalpath part 3 eliminating one
• Critical path part 4 reducing durations

Definition

There will be many views on the exact definition of a Terms of Reference document. Some are given below:

‘A document specifying the scope and details of the activity to which it refers and any conditions relating to the appointment of a person(s) to undertake the activity (usually used in relation to the supply of professional services).’

Or,

‘A guiding statement that defines the scope and limits of an investigation’.

There are many others which may depend slightly on the industry use.

The example provided here might be the Terms of Reference between the Project Board and the Project Manager for what is expected from the project.

Basically it is a document which describes the purpose and structure of a project.
It is also known as a ‘TOR’ or sometimes a Project Charter.

It will be created at the front end of a project at the Initiation phase.
It is critical to a project as it defines all of its key aspects.

Content

These could include:

• The vision, objectives, scope and deliverables (that is what the project will actually produce).
• Stakeholders, authority, roles and responsibilities (that is, who will take part in it)
• Resource, financial (costs and budgets) and quality plans (that is, how it will be achieved)
• Work breakdown structure and schedule (that is, when it will be achieved)
• Identification of the customer
• Major assumptions and constraints
• Key risk areas
• Project approach or strategy used

In effect it is a basic road map for the project.
It gives the project management team a clear indication of what the project must produce.
The project must then produce the deliverables according to the constraints of the Terms of Reference.

Once the Terms of Reference is approved it should be signed off by all interested parties.
It is likely that the Terms of Reference will contain a lot of the information that exists separately in the Project Notebook.
The exact nature of the Terms of Reference document will be agreed between the Project Manager and the Project Board.

Under PRINCE2® the Terms of Reference is created immediately after the approval of a project Business Case.

It will be presented to the Project Board for approval by the Project Manager.

[see Starting up a Project (SU) - part 5 - Preparing a Project Brief (SU4)]

The Acceptance Criteria will form part of the ‘terms of reference’ and are given in the Product Description in file ‘Acceptance criteria.doc’ in the product package.

Under PRINCE2 2009 [see ‘The Complete Project Management plus PRINCE2’] the project mandate should provide the terms of reference for the project and should contain sufficient information to identify at least the prospective Executive of the Project Board.
[see Starting up a project - Context]

PRINCE2® is a Registered Trade Mark of the Office of Government Commerce in the United Kingdom and other countries.