CH14- Managing Projects Flashcards
What are the key attributes that differentiate a project from “business as usual” ?
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
What is CIMA terminology for project management?
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.
What are project constraints?
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.
Explain the conflicting nature of the three primary project constraints.
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
What are the 4 stages of the project life cycle?
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
- 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. - 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.
What are the stages in the project management institutes - 5 project managements process areas?
Initiating Planning Executing Controlling Closing
Similar to Gido & Clements project life cycle, but more emphasis on planning and controlling activities.
Why would a project be initiated?
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
Companies may not have the resource to carry out all projects so have to select most worthwhile. How can this be done?
Feasibility study
Also consider Risk and uncertainty related to project.
What are the different types of feasibility which can be considered ?
Technical feasibility
Social (operational) feasibility
Ecological (environmental) feasibility
Economic (financial) feasibility
What are the key aspects of technical feasibility?
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?
What are the key aspects of social (operational) feasibility?
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
What are the key aspects of Ecological (environmental ) feasibility?
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
What are the key aspects of Economic(financial) feasibility?
Is it worth it?
Project must provide a benefit to organisation
Cost benefit analysis in detail
What are the key aspects of a cost benefit analysis?
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
Briefly, what is the risk management process?
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.
What is TARA and when is it used?
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.
What is uncertainty and how is it managed?
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.
What is the project initiation document and what is it for?
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.
What are the contents of a project initiation document?
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.
Why is the planning stage important?
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
During planning stage, a number of separate detailed plans are drawn up. Give examples of the types of plan
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.
What are the responsibilities of the project manager during the planning stage?
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.
In addition to project time, cost and quality, what is another important project constraint?
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.
What is after the planning stage in project management?
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.
