Project Management
Framework
Projects are temporary, unique, and constrained by the triple constraint: scope, time, and cost, with quality as the balancing outcome - changing one affects the others. The life cycle runs initiating, planning, executing, monitoring and controlling, closing. The charter authorises the project and names the sponsor; stakeholder analysis and a WBS decompose the work; a RACI matrix clarifies who is responsible, accountable, consulted, and informed.
Scheduling and control
A Gantt chart shows time; the critical path is the longest sequence of dependent tasks and has zero float - slippage there slips the whole project. Risk is logged with probability and impact and an owner. Change control prevents scope creep: no change without assessment of cost, time, and benefit. Earned value: CV = EV − AC; SV = EV − PV; CPI = EV / AC; SPI = EV / PV. CPI below 1 means over budget; SPI below 1 means behind schedule. Closing captures lessons learned and formal acceptance.
Traps
Mixing up CV and SV, or CPI and SPI. Crashing adds resources to shorten duration (usually raises cost); fast tracking overlaps activities (raises risk). Adding resources to a late task does not always help. Gold plating - adding unrequested features - is scope creep even though it feels generous.
Worked example
Budget $200k, 50% of work complete, actual spend $120k. EV = $100k, AC = $120k, so CPI = 0.83: the project is over budget and roughly $20k of value behind what has been spent.