Core Activity Area B Flashcards
What are project constraints?
Time, cost and quality
What are the four stages in a project life cycle?
Need
Solution
Implementation
Completion
What are the five project management process areas?
Initiating - help meet companies long term goals, solve problems, take advantage of new opportunities
Planning - communicate what has to be done, Encourage forward thinking, provide measures of success
Executing
Controlling
Closing - end of project meeting, formal sign off of project, project review meetings
What are the types of feasibility?
Technical - can it be done?
Social - does it fit with current operations?
Ecological - how does it affect the environment?
Economic - Is it worth it?
What is a project intiation document?
Main output of the intitiation stage of the project.
Two reasons:
1. Secure authorisation of the project
2. Act as a base document
Contents:
Purpose statement
Scope statement
Deliverables
Cost and time estimates
Objectives
Stakeholders
Chain of command
What is project management software useful for?
Planning, estimating, monitoring and reporting
What is the risk management process?
Identify risk
Analyse risk
Prioritise
Management
Resolution
Monitoring
How do we manage risk?
TARA, contingency planning, PERT, Scenario planning, buffering
What is contingency planning?
considering alternative actions which could be taken if uncertain events occur
What is PERT?
Projection evaluation and review technique
What is scenario planning?
considering one or more sets of circumstances that might occur
What is buffering?
Adding artificial slack into risky activities
Who is involved in the project?
Stakeholders
What is the stakeholder hierarchy?
Project sponsor - make yes/no decision
Project owner - person whom the project is being carried out
Project customer - people whose needs the project should satisfy
Project manager - responsible for successful delivery of project objectives
Project team - individual responsibility for parts of the project
What techniques are used for dispute management?
Negotiation
Mediation
Partnering
Compromise
What skills are required by a project manager?
Negotiation
Planning and control
Technical awareness
People skills
Financial awareness
Problem solving
Communication
Change/configuration management
Delegation
Leadership
What is the lifecycle of project teams?
Forming - individuals brought together
Storming
Norming - individuals settle into their roles
Performing
Adjouring
What is a matrix and project structure?
Matrix structure aims to combine the benfits of decentralisation with those of co-ordination.
Seeks to add flexibility and lateral coordination
What is expected values?
Summarises all the different possible outcomes by calculating a single weighted average
What are the different categories of risk?
Business
Political
Legal
Regulatory
International
Corporate reputation
Environmental
Technology
Financial
Economic
What is business risk?
Risk businesses face due to the nature of their operations and products. Different categories:
Strategic risk
Product risk
Commodity price risk
Product reputation risk
Operational risk
Contractual inadequacy risk
Fraud and malfeasance risk
When probabilities are not available how can we calculate risk?
Add risk premium to the discount rate
Use shorter payback periods
Sensitivity analysis
Simulation (With and without probabilities)
Stress testing
Scenario planning
What are the sources of long-term funds?
Capital markets - new share issues, rights issues
Bank and finance houses
Government and similar sources
What is equity finance?
Equity is another name for shares or ownership rights in a business
What is the cost of equity?
rate of return that ordinary shareholders expect to receive on their investment
What is the cost of debt?
Rate of return that debt providers require on the funds that they provide
What is the yield to maturity?
Cost of debt calculated from the investor’s perspective
What are ordinary shares?
pay dividends at the discretion of the entity’s directors.
Owners of the company.
Can attend AGM’s
What are preference shares?
Shares that pay a fixed dividend.
What are the methods of issuing new shares?
IPO
Placing
Rights Issue
What is an IPO?
Occurs when company seeks to be listed on a stock market for the first time.
Shares offered for sales to investors, through an issuing house. Offer could be made at a fixed price set by company or via a tender offer.
What is a placing?
Shares placed directly with certain investors on a pre-arranged basis.
What is a rights issue?
Where new shares are offered for sale to exisiting shareholders.
What are some characteristics of debt?
Cheap
Can be secured against assets - less risk for lender
Interest is tax-deductible for the company
High risk for company
May come with covenants
Can match timescale to the need for funding
What are some other sources of finance?
Existing cash
Sale and leaseback
Grants
Private Investors
What does Schein suggest a group is?
Any number of people who:
Interact with one another
Are psychologically aware of one another
perceive themselves to be a group
What are the different types of groups?
Formal - used to carry out tasks, communicate and solve problems
Informal - individuals join groups to meet their social and security or safety needs
Reference - group the individual does not currently belong to but wants to join
Self directed and autonomous
What is a work team?
Formal group
It has a leader and a distinctive culture and is geared towards a final result
What are the benefits of groups?
Increased productivity
Synergy
Improved focus and responsibility
Improved problem solving
Greater creativity
Increased satisfaction
Increase motivation
Improved information flows
What are the problems with groups?
Conformity
Risky shit or group polarisation
Groupthink
What are the stages of team development?
Forming
Storming
Norming
Performing
What are the team roles?
Co-ordinator
Shaper
Plant
Monitor Evaluator
Resource Investigator
Implementer
Teamworker
Completer Finisher
Specialist
What are high performing teams?
Group of skilled individuals who are selected to work together to meet a common objective and share responsibility for outcomes.
What are the five key aspects of successful teams according to Peters and Waterman?
Numbers should be small
Team should be of limited duration
Membership should be voluntary
Communication should be informal and unstructured
It should be action-oriented
What are the types of communication?
Formal - planned and intentional and tends to have a professional tone
Informal - more casual in nature and is generally unplanned
What is the process of communication?
Sender
Encoding
Channel
Receive
Decoding
Feedback
What are some digital communication tools?
Intranet
Chat and private messaging
Discussion forums
Tracking and case software
Internal blogs
What is negotiation?
ability to discuss an issue with one or more other people in the attempt to establish ways to reach agreement
What are the three characteristic negotiation is defined by?
Conflict of interest between two or more parties
No established set of rules for resolving conflict
Parties prefer to search for an agreement rather than to fight openly
What is the process of negotiation?
Preparation
Opening
Bargaining
Closing
What is conflict?
Disagreement, and is when one party is perceived as preventing or interfering with the goals or actions of another.
What are the causes of conflict?
History
Difference
Limited resources
Win/lose situation
Interdependencies
Misunderstandings
Conviction beliefs
Stress and failure
Change
What are the main sources of horizontal conflicts?
Environment
Size
Technology
Structure
Goal Incompatibility
Task interdependence
Reward systems
Differentiation
What are the main sources of vertical conflict?
Power and status
Ideology
Pyschological distance
Scarce resourcesw
What is constructive conflict?
Considered useful, positive and beneficial to the organisation as it does not revovle around personality
Creates an environment of innovation and change
What is destructive conflict?
Tends to be ad hoc and personal
Harmful for the org and its involved members
Can be demoralising for those involved
