“I’m still interested in project management after reading this book. What should I do next?” If reading this story makes you more interested in entering the world of professional project management, keep reading below for specific steps you should take next. There are specific actions to take and current costs are shown when applicable. Please note that the Project Management Institute has not endorsed this story in any way; the points below are simply recommendations based

Project Closure Abby woke up late the next morning, catching up on some sleep after working so hard on the party and then going out with friends afterwards. She was really happy that everything went so well with the party and that Nathan had so much fun. And she was so appreciative of all the help everyone gave her – she never could have put it on by herself. Altogether, everything went great, from the idea of throwing the party, to planning it out, to doing all the work an

Mom was leaving to pick up Nathan from baseball practice, but Abby wanted to make sure the project sponsors were happy with everything and ready for the party to start. So, Abby took her dad around to show him the food spread and decorations, taking pictures of these things with her tablet so that her mom could review the pictures while she waited for Nathan in the car. There were certain things Mom really cared about, like having the food on ice and a meat thermometer to ens

Project Monitoring and Controlling After sleeping hard all night from all the work she had done, Abby awoke to the start of Nathan’s 10th birthday. Her eyes shot open and she sprang out of bed, both nervous and excited to get to work as soon as she could. Quickly getting ready and having just enough breakfast to feel ready to tackle the day, Abby wasted no time getting to work on the remaining tasks for the party. She let her friends know that she was on her way to the park

Project Execution With all the plans in place, it was time for Abby and her team to start setting up for the party! It was so exciting for all of them to finally start executing everything they had planned together. Abby felt a great sense of excitement and anticipation, but along with it, some nervousness. This was the big time when work would be done and money would be spent, and it would be a lot harder to stay on track if things didn’t go well. Thankfully, Abby knew she

At this point, Abby had a lot of important information figured out. She could clearly see what would need to happen to get the work done, and what it would take to get there. Abby decided the best next thing to do next was to review and add to her human resource management plan, to finish planning how to best manage her team. She had already involved her friends in some of the planning, like the brainstorming sessions, and she documented the processes that she had used so far

Now that Abby had determined the scope of the project to throw the party, created a schedule for her team to set up the party, and estimated the total cost of throwing the party, she could see how changes in any one of these three elements could affect the other. If extra items were added to the party, it would result in the party taking more time to prepare if any setup was required or costing more money if the extra items were purchased. So, an increase in scope would incre

As Abby figured out how much work would be involved with certain parts of the party, she decided it was time to think about hiring some help from outside of the project team. She knew Nathan would really love a bouncy castle at the party, but neither she nor her friends or parents, had ever worked with a bouncy castle before. They could make every last party supply themselves, but some would be hard to do and would take a long time. There were just certain things that made mo

As a thank you to her friends, Abby came up with an idea to “pay” them for their help. She wanted to surprise them after the party with a carnival ride punch card for the fair that would be in town the next weekend. Would this fit within the cost constraint set by her parents? There were a few different prices to choose from, and she thought it would be great since the fair was such a special event for them every year. To get it all worked out, Abby made a plan to determine h

The next day, Abby continued to work on the schedule of setting up the party. Most of the work on this was done, but she needed to make sure everything could get done in time for the party. To do this, Abby would calculate a very important timeline in project management known as the critical path. The critical path is the absolute minimum amount of time required to complete all the work for a project from start to finish, and any delays in the tasks on the critical path will

With the requirements and scope in mind, Abby was ready to start developing a project schedule for her team to use. Would they be able to fit all the scope they had planned into the time left before the party? If not, Abby would have to identify what would be the easiest thing to cut out of the party, but even that would be a hard task and she really didn’t want to do that. De-scoping a project is never easy, but especially when it would take away from the fun of something li

The thought of the requirement to get the meat hot enough to be safe to eat stuck out in Abby’s mind as a definite risk to everyone’s safety, and it would really ruin the party if not successfully prevented. That would be a terrible way to remember Nathan’s 10th birthday. Just the thought of it jolted Abby with a split second of fright. “This would be devastating to Nathan’s party…I need to make sure this doesn’t happen and also try to think ahead to anything e

After Abby and her friends finished defining the scope of the party and figuring out how communications would work, it was time for them to go home for dinner. Abby made sure to take a nice break from the work, knowing there was plenty to do still and not wanting to get burned out. Her mom was almost done making dinner when Nathan watched her put a thermometer in the pork chops. “How come you need to do that, Mom?” he asked inquisitively. “The me

Some of Abby’s friends were pretty busy with summer jobs, sports camps, and family vacations, but everyone was happy to offer help where they could. They let her know when they could spare time and when they would be away, and Abby made a calendar to keep track of when everyone was available to help out. Professional project managers do this as well, assembling what is called the resource calendar. Often, people on a project at work have other jobs or projects that they spend

Since everyone would be working closely together to execute the project plans, Abby suggested they should take some time to build rapport together before getting into the project work by spending a few hours playing volleyball that evening. By doing this, everyone could get a sense of working with others on the team. They mixed up the teams at the start of every other game so everyone would play on the same team as everyone else for at least two games. As they played, every

Project Planning Abby was so excited to get started on planning Nathan’s big party! She could hardly wait to get to work, but soon she realized there was too much to do by herself, and there were way too many details to try to keep them all in her head. She would need other people to help her put on this party, and she would need to make a plan for how to get everything done and make good use of everyone’s help. How could she do this? After a few minutes of pondering how he

Project Initiation One bright and sunny summer morning, fifteen-year-old Abby was eating a bowl of cereal with her little brother and watching the world begin the day outside. The birds were chirping, and the neighbor cat was out for a jaunt through the back yard. The neighbors behind the back yard were scurrying about, setting up tables, blowing up balloons and festooning their deck railing with colorful banners. “Hmm…”, Abby thought to herself. “That party

Do you like to par-tay? Is fun with friends your jam? If so, read on! This story is all about planning a great party, but really, it’s much bigger than that. This is a story that can open up a whole new world for you, giving you the keys to the castle in the real world after the party’s over, all while you learn to set up a great time with your friends and impress everybody else around! But first, here’s some nerdy stuff you need to know… This story is loosely based on terms

Why Start with Waterfall? The practice of project management has undergone major evolution over the past generation. A major benefit of this evolution is the development of new project management practices, which build on and offer new capabilities to complement the traditional waterfall project management framework. As helpful as these newer methods can be, they can be better understood and better appreciated by starting from the beginning and learning about waterfall projec

The next several posts tell a project management story of a young girl and her quest to throw the best 10th birthday party her little brother could imagine! Read this story to learn project management fundamentals and how to take the first concrete steps toward a career in project management. By explaining project management concepts in the context of throwing a party, examples from the story are commonly relatable and easy to understand. How can this story help you? If you w