15. Project Managment

Question 1

What is a Project?

Answer 1

A project: Is ‘an undertaking that has a beginning and an end and is carried out to meet established goals within the cost, schedule and quality objectives.

It is different from the usual operations of the business, which is normally a function that is ongoing as recurring tasks, goals and deadlines are more general.

Question 2

What is Project Management?

and

What are the triple constraints?

Answer 2

Project management:‘Integration of all aspects of a project, ensuring that the proper knowledge and resources are available, when and where needed, and above all to ensure that the expected deliverables are produced in a timely, cost-effective manner.

The primary function of a project manager is to manage the trade-offs between performance, timeliness and cost’

The Triple Constraints?

1. Scope –of the work (deliverables) to be achievedfor the project’s success. The scope is closely connected to the issue ofquality.
2. Time – this concerns the agreed date for the delivery of the project.
3. Cost – this relates to authorised spend on the project. (Budget)

Question 3

What is the project management Process?

Answer 3

Step 1 - Plan/Replay Project - plan detailing the work to be performed

Step 2 – Perform Tasks – implement the plan and undertake the tasks involved

Step 3 – Measure Progress – measure completed steps, costs, time scale

Step 4 – Compare Actual Progress to Plan – are we on target to meet deliverables, in the budget and on time

Step 5 – Take Corrective Action – if your off-plan, action to get back on track and replan focusing on the priorities of the “3” constraints.

Question 4

What are the common challenges project managers face?

Answer 4

• Team Building- from varied experience, views and opinions. They must “gel” and work well together.
• Potential for conflict – between team members because of conflicting views.
• Expected Problems – careful planning to avoid expected issues
• Unexpected Problems – Mechanisms to deal with these quickly (innovative team member)
• Delayed Benefit – No benefit until the project is completed, causing stress and difficulties for the end-user in the meantime.
• Specialists – are likely to join at different stages.

Question 5

How can projects be the key competence for the strategy of a company?

Answer 5

Project management can be a core strategic competence for organisations working in industries such as consulting and construction.

It is of high importance for these companies need to develop key skills associated with project management, in terms of “hard technical skills! and “soft skills” specifically Communication and negotiation skills.

Also the development of resources that can apply to a number of similar projects. e.g. Often projects have a deal with large numbers of stakeholder and can often lead to difficult situations such as redundancies, so policies must be developed for which must be dealt with ethically. Or construction companies have minimum levels of quality of each project.

Question 6

What tasks occur before a project is initiated?

Answer 6

Pre-initiating tasks are the responsibility of the senior managers, they decide that the project should be undertaken.

How it is done?

(a) Determination of project objectives and constraints. setting the project scope, also time or cost constraints.

(b) Selection of the project manager

(c) Identification of the project sponsor

Question 7

Define the role of a Project Manager and what are there responsibilities?

Answer 7

The project manager : Takes responsibility for ensuring the desired result is achieved on time and within budget.

• Are often generalists with wide-ranging backgrounds and experience levels
• Oversee work in many functional areas
• Facilitate and oversee team members, rather than supervise, team members

Responsibilities to management or project sponsor:-

• · Ensure resources are used efficiently – (balance of cost, time and Deliverables)
• · Keep management informed with timely and accurate communications
• · Manage the project to the best of their ability
• · Behave ethically and adhere to policies
• · Maintain a customer orientation (internal or external customer) – customer satisfaction is a key indicator of project success

Responsibilities to the project and the project team

• · Take action to ensure activities stay on target, for a successful project completion
• · Ensure the project has the resources required to perform tasks assigned.
• · Help new team members integrate into the team.
• · Provide any other professional support required when members leave the team, either during the project or on completion. e.g it may involve helping the project team reintegrate into normal teams.

Question 8

What are the duties of a project manager?

Answer 8

• Detailed planning
• Obtain necessary resources
• Team building
• Communication to all stakeholders
• Co-ordinating project activities
• Monitoring and control
• Problem resolution
• Quality control

Question 9

Explain the role and Define the duties of a Project Sponsor?

Answer 9

Senior management is likely to delegate the supervision of the project to a Project Sponsor (owner). The project sponsor will not be involved in the management of the project.

The project sponsor: Provides and is accountable for the resources invested in the project and is responsible for the achievement of the project’s objectives.

Question 10

What do managers need to consider, Before initiating a project?

Answer 10

The management needs to consider the business case for the project but mainly concerned that will the investment be in the interests of the shareholders of the company.

A Key Part of the business case is to identify what benefits might occur, then they need to compare it to the costs, to see if the project should move forward.

Question 11

What are the stages of benefits management?

and

What is the purpose of it?

Answer 11

Stages of benefits management

1. Identify and structure what benefits are going to be
2. Plan how to realise the benefits
3. Execute the plan
4. Review and evaluate results
5. Establish potential future benefits

Purpose of why identifying and structure the benefits

• Establish agreed objectives for the investment into the project.
• Identify all the potential benefits that may arise if the objectives are met.
• Understand how those benefits could be realised
• Determine ownership of the benefits
• Determine how the benefits can be measured to prove they have occurred
• Identify any issues that could delay the project or cause it to fail
• Produce an outline business case to decide whether to proceed with the project or stop investment at the planning stage

Important to identify who owns the benefits and how it will be measured.

Question 12

How are the benefits measured?

Answer 12

1. Observable: Benefits are those which are measured by experience or judgement. ‘Soft’ benefits such as staff morale fall into this category.
2. Measurable: Benefits relate to an area of performance that could be (or already is being) measured, but it is not possible to quantify how much performance will increase because of the change.
3. Quantifiable: Benefits are those where the level of benefit that will result from the change can be reliably forecast based on the evidence in place. (Pilot scheme)
4. Financial: Benefits are quantified benefits that have had a financial formula (such as cost or price) applied to them to produce a financial value for the benefits.

Most people will focus on the financial benefits as good evidence for the business case, but important not to ignore the observable benefits.

Question 13

What types of costs are considered, for a business case of a Project?

Answer 13

Types of costs to consider: -

1. Purchase costs such as hardware, software, consultancy and materials
2. Internal systems development costs such as developing/purchasing software
3. Infrastructure costs. These are costs that are incurred exclusively for the new system.
4. Costs of carrying out the changes should be included to provide a complete financial view of the investment. This includes costs such as training, recruitment, redundancy, refitting buildings and so on.
5. Ongoing costs. These are the permanent costs involved in new ways of working. They should be either explicitly stated as additional costs or netted off against the benefits.

The project will include both capitals which are usually spent at the beginning of the project and operational costs.

Question 14

How is the cost to benefit of a project evaluated?

Answer 14

• Accounting Rate of Return
• Payback Period
• Net Present Value
• Internal Rate of Return

Question 15

Why is project planning so important?

and

What type of tools are used to help plan a project?

Answer 15

Many project failures can be traced to failures of planning. (Scope, Time, Budget, management techniques)

So there are a number of tools that can help a project manager create a detailed plan, such as:-

1) Work Breakdown Structure
2) Project Budgets
3) Gantt Charts
4) Network analysis (or critical path analysis)
5) Resource histogram

Question 16

Explain a Work Breakdown Structure?

Answer 16

Work breakdown structure

Work breakdown structure (WBS): Is the analysis of the work required to complete the project, broken down into manageable components (Stages). considering the outputs (or deliverables).

Analysis of each major benefit and breaking down into larges phases and sub sections allows to better understand, the time scale of each stage, cash flows, quality checks. This very useful for control purposes.

Question 17

How are Project Budgets used as a planning tool?

Answer 17

Project budget: The amount and distribution of resources allocated to a project.

2 main approaches: -

• top-down – Budgets imposed by senior management, mainly used by companies with previous experience of similar projects, or limited funding
• bottom-up - the project manager consults the project team, and others, to calculate a budget based on the tasks that make up the project.

Question 18

Explain What is a Gantt Chart

Answer 18

A Gantt chart: Shows the deployment of resources over time. Tasks/objectives are shown as a stacked bar graph, indicating the time to complete the whole project.

The horizontal line shows the total time scale

A vertical line has a list of all the major (tasks/objectives)

Each action will have bar corresponding to the time taken to complete, if actions are apart of staged processes, they are then stacked upon each other.

There should be 2 bars for each action, to show the estimated comparison with the actual.

Question 19

Explain what is the Critical path analysis (CPA)?

Answer 19

Critical path analysis (CPA): Aims to ensure the progress of a project, so the project is completed in the minimum amount of time.

Used mainly on large construction, R&D and Software Projects.

It pinpoints the tasks on the critical path, Identifying the longest duration sequence of tasks, If these tasks are delayed, will it delay the overall completion of the project? The technique can also be used to assist in allocating resources by identifying keys tasks.

Question 20

Explain what is a Resource Histogram?

Answer 20

A resource histogram: Shows a view of project data in which resource requirements, usage and availability are shown against a time scale.

Looking at the resource requirements on a graph compared to the resources available to identify any potential issues, so we can work it into the plan for e.g. Work Hours Necessary

Question 21

Explain Project Execution and Control?

Answer 21

Project execution and control – step 2 & 3

Project execution and the process of controlling the project are in essence two separate stages but they tend to happen at the same time.

Projects need to be monitored closely to ensure that benefits are being realised and costs kept under control.

Question 22

How are Projects Controlled?

Answer 22

Gateways

• A gateway Is a project review point at which work completed to date is reviewed, on the scope of work completed and how much time and cost it has taken.
• This might mean a review by independent experts.
• Management may decide the Work must be meet a certain level before the project can pass through the gateway and proceed to the next stage.

It aims to prevent ‘scope creep’ whereby the scope of the project becomes expanded without proper consideration, preventing unnecessary expenditure.

Scope creep: Relates to uncontrolled changes in the scope of a project If this occurs the project needs to be realigned with the original business case and plans. e.g.

• Prior to the awarding of contracts to subcontractors
• Prior to going live with a new system
• At key decision points

Progress reports

A progress report: Shows the current status of the project, usually in relation to the planned status.

A common form of progress reports uses two columns – one for planned time and expenditure and one for actual. The report should monitor progress towards key milestones.

A milestone:‘Is a significant event in the life of the project, usually completion of a major

deliverable.’

Question 23

What is Project Slippage?

and

How might project managers address the issue?

Answer 23

Slippage: Occurs when a project is running behind schedule.

Addressing slippage

1. Do Nothing - It might correct itself
2. Add Resources – Increase staff numbers to catch up but it does increases costs.
3. Work Smarter – Trying using new methods
4. Replan - If the original assumptions were proved invalid, a more realistic plan should be devised.
5. Reschedule – You might just need to change the phasing
6. Introduce Incentives – Incentives for staff to meet targets, also ensuring not to remunerate poor performance which should be answered with disciplinary action
7. Briefings and Motivations – Long Projects may find it beneficial Update briefings, to renew energy and enthusiasm.
8. Change the specification (Deliverables) of the project – if the original 3 constraints are unrealistic, it might need to be renegotiated. It could change the number of activities of the level of quality required.

If projects slippage starts to be drastic, but has a fixed deadline and cannot be delayed, Managers may take the following action:-

Fast-tracking - If activities/tasks are normally completed in sequence, but management may decide to do them in parallel. Reduce the overall time spent on the project.

Crashing - involves assigning additional resources to the critical path.

Crashing usually leads to an increase in the cost of the project, but this may be considered an acceptable trade-off for getting the project back on schedule.

Question 24

Why might Project Changes occur?

and

How is Project Changes managed?

Answer 24

Reasons why to change the project deliverables or outcomes: -

• Project slippage
• The availability of new technology
• Changes in staffing personnel
• A realisation that user requirements were misunderstood
• Changes in the environment
• New legislation, e.g data protection act

This process is called Change Control, it ensures that just anyone can make any change and that all changes I viewed objectively.

Earlier the change is actioned, the less expensive it should prove. Project managers should evaluate: -

1. Consequences of not implementing the proposed change
2. Impact of the change on time, cost, and quality
3. Expected costs and benefits of the change
4. Risks associated with the change and with the status quo.
5. Acceptability of the Risk Sponsor

Question 25

How do project managers respond to risk?

Answer 25

All projects carry an element of risk, for example, the risk of an inappropriate system being developed and implemented. Risk management seeks to identify risks of the overall project and what could go wrong and then to implement policies to reduce risks.

6 stages of Project risk management:

Stage 1 – Plan the risk-management approach – (Determine risk appetite of the sponsor)

Stage 2 – Identify and record risks – create the risk register detailing the type, probability and impact (in financial terms) of the risk.

Stage 3 – Assess the Risks - on 2 aspects, the likelihood and consequences if it were to occur. Plotted on a matrix to identify high Impact and high Likelihood.

Stage 4 – Plan and record the risk responses – T.A.R.A

• Avoidance – Avoid the activity e.g. reject an acquisition because of legal liabilities.
• Reduction – Reduce the level of likelihood or impact. e.g. using escrow for staged builds.
• Transfer – Transfer risk impact to another. e.g. Insurance, or penalties attached to supplier contract.
• Absorption – Accept the risk when necessary and can be coped with.

Stage 5 – Implement risk-management strategies

Stage 6 – Review the risk-management approach and actions for the adequacy

The process is ongoing and not a one-off.

Question 26

What is a Project Completion report?

Answer 26

The completion report: Summarises the results of the project and includes client sign-off.

On completion of the project, the project manager should produce a report which details:

• · The outcomes compared to the objectives (Deliverables)
• · The cost compared to the budget
• · The time taken to complete compared to the schedule

Question 27

What is a Post Project Review?

Answer 27

The post-project review: Is a formal review of the project that examines the lessons that may be learned and used for the benefit of future projects.

It’s done by asking:-

1. Was the project achieved on time and within budget?
2. Was the management of the project as successful? or were there bottlenecks or problems? This review covers:

(i) Problems that might occur on future projects with similar characteristics.
(ii) Performance of the team and individual members.

In other words, any project is an opportunity to learn positive and negative lessons, how to manage future projects more effectively.

Question 28

What is a Post Implementation review?

Answer 28

Post-implementation reviews: is an assessment of the completed working solution.

The post-implementation review focuses more specifically on the output that was produced by the project.

Why It is carried out for three main reasons: -

• How well the project met its objectives, delivered the expected benefits and addressed the requirements that were originally defined.
• To consider the working solution to see if further improvements could be made to optimise the benefit delivered.
• To identify lessons that can be learned and fed back into the output production process; e.g. improving processes such as research and development, and operational processes as well as making changes to who is involved in certain processes and the timings at which individual processes are carried out.