CH14- Managing Projects

Question 1

What are the key attributes that differentiate a project from “business as usual” ?

Answer 1

A project is unique and is undertaken to achieve a specific objective

Project has a beginning and an end

Project has resources dedicated for the length of the project eg staff,funding etc

Project will have stakeholders-those interested in progress and final outcome

They will be some degree of uncertainty - the unique nature leads to some degree of risk in deliverables and activities to achieve deliverables.

Once complete should become integrated into day to day activities of business.

Key: association of project managers defines a project as - a human activity that achieves a clear objective against a time scale

Question 2

What is CIMA terminology for project management?

Answer 2

The integration of all aspects of a project, ensuring that proper knowledge and resources are available when and where needed, and above all to ensure that the expected outcome is produced in a timely cost effective manner.

Question 3

What are project constraints?

Answer 3

Every project has constraints- anything that restricts, limits, prevents or regulates activities been carried out.
Critical that the constraints are known, so they can be taken account of.
Primary constraints are Time,Cost and Quality - the project triangle.

Question 4

Explain the conflicting nature of the three primary project constraints.

Answer 4

Time and cost are positively correlated- when time increase so does cost, a longer project generally means Human Resources are needed for longer.
Not always the case - if the project is urgent, it may be possible to reduce timescale by allocating additional resources or by scheduling expensive overtime. Both these will increase cost and reduce time.
Project quality tends to be positively correlated with cost and time

Question 5

What are the 4 stages of the project life cycle?

Answer 5

1 - identify a need.
Feasibility study to check size of potential benefits and evaluate potential alternatives and their lifetime costs. At the end of this phase the company decides whether to proceed with project.
If It does Project initiation document is raised (PID)

2 . Development of a proposed solution.
All proposals submitted and evaluated. The most appropriate solutions which satisfies the need is then selected

3. Implementation.
   Involves detailed planning, and then implementing plan to accomplish project objective.
   Overall solution divided into deliverables to be achieved at fixed points (milestones)throughout this stage.
   Projects objectives of functionality,cost,time and quality are regularly monitored against each deliverable to ensure they are being met. Timely action can be taken if slippage has occurred.
4. Completion.
   Also called closure. Confirmation that all deliverables are completed and accepted and all payments have been provided and received.
   Project performance evaluated and appraised in order to learn for future projects.
   Original business case revisited to check if benefits are as anticipated or if further actions are needed.

Question 6

What are the stages in the project management institutes - 5 project managements process areas?

Answer 6

Initiating
Planning
Executing
Controlling
Closing 

Similar to Gido & Clements project life cycle, but more emphasis on planning and controlling activities.

Question 7

Why would a project be initiated?

Answer 7

To help company meet long term goals and objectives
Process / service enhancement
Solve problems identified internally or externally
Take advantage of new opportunities
Statutory legal requirement

Question 8

Companies may not have the resource to carry out all projects so have to select most worthwhile. How can this be done?

Answer 8

Feasibility study

Also consider Risk and uncertainty related to project.

Question 9

What are the different types of feasibility which can be considered ?

Answer 9

Technical feasibility
Social (operational) feasibility
Ecological (environmental) feasibility
Economic (financial) feasibility

Question 10

What are the key aspects of technical feasibility?

Answer 10

Is the technology available?
Is the technology tried and tested?
What performance do we require from the technology?
Is the technology suitable to satisfy the objective of the technology?

Question 11

What are the key aspects of social (operational) feasibility?

Answer 11

Does it fit with current operations?

Awareness of social issues with a group, but also wider social awareness regarding effects of projects on workers, employment or the environment .

Social considerations include-
No of people required-during and after project
Skills required- recruitment, training,redundancy?

Some are tangible and can be costed directly, others are not

Question 12

What are the key aspects of Ecological (environmental ) feasibility?

Answer 12

How does it affect the environment?
Customers may want to purchase less harmful products?
Effect on local community, therefore company image
What pollution could be caused by project

Question 13

What are the key aspects of Economic(financial) feasibility?

Answer 13

Is it worth it?
Project must provide a benefit to organisation
Cost benefit analysis in detail

Question 14

What are the key aspects of a cost benefit analysis?

Answer 14

Financial cost and Benefits evaluated using investment appraisal techniques- payback, discounted cash flow approaches like NPV or IRR.
No reliance on one method alone.

Benefits-
tangible, can be financially evaluated
Intangible - not easy to evaluate financially, have to be excluded in financial evaluation process.

Costs-
Capital costs inc installation and maintenance
Revenue costs- incurred on regular basis eg repairs and consumables
Finance costs- interest charges

Question 15

Briefly, what is the risk management process?

Answer 15

Identify risks - produce list of risk items
Analyse risk - assess in terms of probability and impact if it happened
Prioritise - rank the risk
Management- plan how to address each item (could use TARA)
Resolution-produce a situation in where risk items are avoided or reduced
Monitor- continually monitor progress towards resolution of risk and identifying new ones.

Question 16

What is TARA and when is it used?

Answer 16

Way to remember risk management approaches.

Transfer - low likelihood, high impact. Eg subcontracting risk to someone more able to handle it, such as a specialist supplier or by insurance.

Avoid - high likelihood, high impact. Abandon project as risk too great.

Reduce - high likelihood, low impact. Alternative course of action with lower risk exposure or additional capital equipment to reduce risk. Another way is to implement more internal controls.

Accept - low likelihood, low impact. Inevitable part of business. Continually monitor to check their likelihood or impact don’t increase.

Question 17

What is uncertainty and how is it managed?

Answer 17

Uncertainty impossible to evaluate because we can’t assign a probability to it. Because of this we can’t put in place a management control.
Instead use contingency planning - eg
Contacting lenders to discuss possible additional finance
Replanning the remaining project with a longer duration
Identify if materials are available from other suppliers.

The purpose of contingency planning is to avoid unnecessary delay in the project. The contingency may never be used, but the planning can be done when it suits us. If we wait for the uncertain event to happen before doing any planning, this may further delay the project.

Question 18

What is the project initiation document and what is it for?

Answer 18

Main output of initiation stage. Used to -
Secure authorisation for project
Act as a base document against which progress and changes can be assessed.
Therefore it-
Defines the project and its scope,
Justifies the project,
Secures funding,
Defines roles and responsibilities,
Gives people the info needed to be productive and efficient from the start.

Question 19

What are the contents of a project initiation document?

Answer 19

No set required format. But would generally contain -

Purpose statement-why project is undertaken

Scope statement- put boundaries to project by outlining major activities, prevents scope creep.

Deliverables- tangible elements of project, reports assets and other outputs

Cost and time estimates - starting point budget necessary for planning. May change

Objectives-clear statement of mission, CSF’s and key milestones

Stakeholders- list of major stakeholders and their interest

Chain of command- statement and diagram of the project organisation structure.

Question 20

Why is the planning stage important?

Answer 20

Helps to
Communicate what has to be done, when and by whom.
Encourage forward thinking
Provide a measure for success
Make clear the commitment of time,people,equipment and money required for the project.
Determine if targets are achievable
Identify the activities the resources need to undertake

Question 21

During planning stage, a number of separate detailed plans are drawn up. Give examples of the types of plan

Answer 21

Time plan- list activities and how long each one is planned to take. Dates of each stage of project and also whole project.

Quality plan - identification of projects customers, key outcomes each expects and acceptance criteria that have been agreed. May include safety and security planning. Will also include audit plan for project management process.

Resources plan - checks peaks and troughs of workload to ensure Human Resources plan is feasible. Lists purchase required.

Contingency- what additional costs,activities and time need to be added to ensure reliable budget and completion date. Risk register will identify contingency plans for each of the key risks and allocates responsibility for monitoring each.

Cost plan - uses rate per hour for each activity in the time plan, plus cost of purchases from resources plan plus contingency costs to create a project budget. All info can be used to create detailed cash flow.

Communication- key people, their likely concerns, messages needed, panned method of communication and who will be responsible.

Deliverables- will detail exactly what has been agreed by users and sponsors at the outset of the project.

Question 22

What are the responsibilities of the project manager during the planning stage?

Answer 22

Define the project objective clearly with customer,
Communicate this to rest of team making clear what constitutes a successful outcome.
Involve teams members in planning process to encourage commitment etc
Set up project reporting system to record progress in all areas against plan. Communication to team members frequently, they are responsible for there own areas, but aware of and consider the bigger picture.

Question 23

In addition to project time, cost and quality, what is another important project constraint?

Answer 23

Scope / functionality

Scope of project is all work must be carried out to satisfy the projects objective. Eg in house building it would be unsatisfactory to the customer to leave the roof unfinished. Project scope tend to be positively correlated with cost and time. Managing variations to scope is one of the most complex areas of project management. Manager must ensure that every time a customer asks for a change or addition to the scope of the project, the customer is informed and signs off the cost and time consequences of the change. Changes need to be fully documented to avoid arguments later.

Question 24

What is after the planning stage in project management?

Answer 24

Executing and controlling - change in inevitable so must be carefully managed.
Change management process should be in place.
Initial documents such as PID and project plan used as baselines so changes can be monitored and controlled.
Change process is not to stop change, but to agree and communicate to all involved before they are implemented.

Question 25

What problems may arise if change isn’t managed?

Answer 25

Time and money wasted as team may be working to old plans.
Project unlikely to deliver objectives if not well managed.
End user will be unhappy if their expectations have not been managed throughout the project.
Can cause confusion and conflict for project stakeholders.

Question 26

What should be included in a change management process?

Answer 26

Method for prioritising changes ranging from “must be done” to “nice to have”

Authorisation for changes - it must be agreed who has the authority to agree the changes eg project manager can approve small changes, but larger changes must be agreed at highest level.

Agreement of a change budget- set up to avoid project sponsor have to authorise every pound of additional spend.

Recording of changes- procedure for how changes are recorded and who will manage this.

Communication of changes - change management process must specify how changes to the project will be communicated to all interested parties.

Question 27

In project management, what is configuration Management?

Answer 27

Involves tracking and controlling all aspects of project. Included in configuration management will be-
Version control for documentation -with this several version may exist causing confusion.
Ownership and responsibility for documentation.
Authorisation and tracking procedures for any changes to documents
Access control over project records.
Monitoring and control procedures to ensure only authorised documents and records are held.

Effective project control regularly compare actual progress, cost and performance against the plan. Any deviations then the project manager must -
report the deviation
Obtain authorisation is necessary
Take corrective action to get project back on track.

Question 28

What are the main purposes of a project control system?

Answer 28

Correction of deviations
Prevention of deviations by revising plans,target,measure etc
Implementing of recommendations from monitoring, reviewing and evaluating the project.

Question 29

2 most important elements in project control are reports and meetings. Give examples of reports

Answer 29

Project reports -
Exception reports- everything is in accordance with plan. Only exceptions are reported.

Progress reports - what has happened in report period and to date.

• status against plan in terms of cost,timetable and scope
• status and progress of resolving issues found
• new issues
• corrective action plan. Considering alternatives as may overun budget.
• next report date

Report should have standard format so recipients become familiar.

Question 30

2 most important elements in project control are reports and meetings. Give examples of meetings

Answer 30

Team meetings-
Formal or informal, held periodically or when an issue arises.
Can foster good relations within team and with manager
Regular team meeting ensure all members are aware of progress and issues.

Project progress review meetings-
Regular, formal, involve project manager, team members and customer or steering committee.
Might occur quarterly, project manager submitting progress report, allowing those involved to ask questions not covered in written report.
Purpose of meeting is to provide update on project status, identify any issues and establish action plans from that point.

Other meetings-
Project problem solving meeting
Meetings with external parties eg subcontractors

Question 31

Final stage of project life cycle is the closure of project. Briefly outline the activities that should be undertaken at this stage.

Answer 31

Project is delivered to users

End of project meeting -

Formal sign off

Project review meetings evaluates management of project. Deadlines met? Quality met? Budgets adhered to?
Carried out internally to review project controls,discuss success/failures,learn for future,individuals development.
Carried out externally to establish satisfaction of customer, obtain feedback.

Final report issued, contents are -
brief overview, customer original requirements and original project deliverables, list of deliverables which customer received,actual achievement re cost schedules and scope,degree to which original objective was achieved, future considerations.
To produce this reference is made to feasibility study report,PID, project planning reports, ,milestones and gates.

project team disbanded

Question 32

What is the purpose of the closing stage of the project process?

Answer 32

Ensure project is complete and conforms to definition of what was to be achieved.

Formal comparison between PID and project outcomes

Cost of system compared to budget
Time taken compared to budget
Effectiveness of management
Significance of any issues encountered

Complete project termination activities -
Organising project documentation,
Receiving and making final payments
Agreeing formally with customer that deliverables have been provided.
Meeting with project team and customer to report on project success and failures
Disbanding project team

Learning from project
To provide continuous improvement and feedback.

Question 33

When and Why would a business carry out a post completion audit?

Answer 33

A few month after end of project. Meeting of managers, users and developers.

Carried out to-
Review success of project as a whole
Receive feedback of users now they have had time to judge it
Establish whether project has help deliver the business benefits originally defined.
Increase organisations knowledge and experience. Difficult to quantify, could use CBA (of the audit) to project expected savings on future projects.

Question 34

Why is continuous improvement important in project management?

Answer 34

Many organisations view project management as a strategic competence from which they can gain competitive advantage.
Especially in project based organisations like engineering and consultancy.
If there isn’t continuous improvement, poor practices are carried forward.
Elements of continuous improvement can be seen in activities carried out during the completion and post completion stages of a project