KT Chapter Summaries Flashcards
List 6 characteristics of projects.
“1. Projects create outputs, often known as deliverables (or products). These can be tangible (e.g. a building) or intangible (e.g. software).
- A project is transient (has start and end dates). Within this time it uses temporary resources to deliver the planned deliverables.
- Projects are of various sizes and complexity. Each project requires resources and its work is often a significant endeavour involving risks that must be managed.
- Projects are not ends in themselves. They are undertaken in order to realise planned benefits. These benefits are often only realized after the end of the project.
- Projects bring change within an organisation. They involve new work which differs from the repetitive business-as-usual types of work.
- A project has a predetermined and planned budget. “
List 5 differences between projects and business-as-usual.
“1. Projects achieve objectives then terminate, whereas BAU sustains the organisation to achieve its business purpose and goals.
- Projects are limited, temporary in nature, with pre-defined start and end points, whereas BAU is repetitive, ongoing and continues indefinitely.
- Projects form temporary teams, formed across organisational boundaries to meet project needs. These may not be aligned with organisational structure, whereas BAU teams are formed within the BAU organisational structure and aligned to suit functional demands.
- A dedicated manager is appointed for the duration of project. They may not have direct line authority over project team, whereas BAU has long-term formal management, with direct line authority over functional unit personnel.
- Projects produce a unique product or service, whereas BAU creates repetitive, a non-unique product, service or result. “
List at least 4 differences between projects and programmes.
“Project
1. Specific objectives are defined at the start.
2. Single tactical solution to single requirement.
3. Benefits are realized after the end of the project.
4. Focused teams with clearly defined roles and responsibilities.
5. A project typically has a single customer defining he requirements and accepting the project’s products.
6. Satisfies a single tactical objective.
7. A defined scope enables a clear view of the work required.
Programme
1. Objectives can evolve as the programme matures.
2. Delivers large strategic changes within an organisation.
3. Programmes realise benefits throughout their life cycle and have a highly developed benefits-management focus.
4. Highly complex inter-project relationships require highly developed communication and influencing skills.
5. Programmes have multiple customers at different times throughout their life cycle.
6. Takes a top-down ‘visionary’ approach, where each of the programme’s projects contributes to the vision.
7. Cyclical development within the programme means projects come and go but they always contribute to the strategic benefits. “
List the benefits of project management.
“Benefits of project management.
- Enables a consistent approach to how projects are executed within an organisation.
- By using proven best practice project management methods, risk is reduced and opportunities maximised.
- As project management maturity improves, success happens more frequently and failure becomes less frequent. Ill-founded or non-viable projects are terminated early.
- Continuous ‘firefighting’ can be avoided, and individuals work in a more successful environment where innovation can flourish.
- Stakeholders become used to success and the opportunity to contribute positively is enhanced as there is less conflict when things go wrong. “
List the benefits of programme management.
“Benefits of programme management.
- Improves the ability to initiate, define, accelerate or close projects within the programme.
- Improves the ability to manage project interdependencies and the related impact on business-as-usual.
- Better management of available resources and competing demands from the business.
- Better management of risks, issues and changes across the programme.
- Focuses on defining and managing strategic benefits. “
What is the relationship between programmes, projects and strategic change?
Strategy implementation is delivered through the execution of strategic portfolios, programmes and projects, and the realisation of their expected benefits.
What are the situations when the use of programme management may be appropriate?
“The use of programme management is appropriate in an organisation when there’s a need for:
- More effective delivery of change.
- Increased responsiveness to strategic initiatives.
- More effective management of resources.
- Better management of risk in a wider business context.
- More efficient coordination and control.
- Increased focus on obtaining strategic benefits. “
Differentiate project management from programme management and portfolio management.
“Project management is the application of processes, methods, knowledge, skills and experience to achieve the project objectives.
Programme management is the co-ordinated management of projects and change management activities to achieve beneficial change.
Portfolio management is the selection, prioritisation, and control of an organisation’s projects and programmes in line with its strategic objectives and capacity to deliver. “
What are the situations where the use of portfolio management may be appropriate?
“Portfolio management is appropriate to use:
- When the organisation’s projects and programmes need to be aligned with key business objectives.
- When the organisation’s financial controls, planning and expenditure review processes need to be applied.
- When assurance is needed of how the projects continue to support strategy and take account of changes to external factors.
- When the organisation needs to decide whether activities should be managed as projects or not.
- When risks associated with the portfolio need to be highlighted and monitored.
- When verification is needed that projects and programmes are consistent with the organisation’s existing capabilities.
- When the organisation’s needs to engagement with suppliers to encourage a more sustainable portfolio.
- When evidence is needed that engagement with customer and sources of project finance encourages a sustainable portfolio.
- When assurance is needed that the impact of implementing a portfolio is acceptable to its ongoing operations. “
Explain how environmental factors affect projects.
“1. Projects do not take place within a vacuum.
- Environmental factors such as industry or government regulations, the sector of the sponsoring organisation (e.g. private or public sector), and geography (e.g. whetherthe project is affecting a single site, or multiple sites across countries and timezones) can affect projects in multiple ways.
- Environmental factors can occur in infinite combinations, each one having a unique effect on the way a project is set up and managed.
- The project sponsor or project manager must assess the project environment early in the project life cycle. Tools such as PESTLE can help them understand the project’s unique environment.
- The environment assessment should consider both the effect that the environment has on the project, and the impact of the project on its environment.
- As the work progresses, interactions between the work and its environment will develop and change.
- The project sponsor and project manager must monitor this relationship and identify any threats and opportunities which result. “
Explain the tools and techniques that are used to determine factors that influence and impact projects.
“The tools and techniques that can be used to assess a project’s context are PESTLE, SWOT, and VUCA
PESTLE
The project sponsor or manager needs to perform an assessment of the environment as early as possible in the life cycle. The most common of which is PESTLE, which stands for Political, Economic, Sociological, Technical, Legal and Environmental factors.
SWOT
The organisation needs to be aware of what it is good at (Strengths) and not so good at (Weaknesses).
Analysing these factors will provide a significant insight into how a project is ought to be managed (including Opportunities and Threats).
VUCA
Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity.
These conditions describe an organisational context where there is inherent uncertainty that makes it difficult to predict and plan with great accuracy.
Other considerations include:
• Procurement processes
• Regulatory requirements
• Use of structured methods
• Appetite for risk “
What are the relevant legal and regulatory factors that may likely impact the project? WcMrGS
“1. Working conditions
- Management of risk in the workplace
- Governance
- Sustainability “
What is the law that encompasses working conditions and its purpose?
“1. Employees’ working conditions are set out in the basic foundations of employment law.
- Employment law regulates the relationship between employers and employees.
- It governs what employers can expect from employees, what employers can ask employees to do, and employees’ rights at work. “
What does management of risk in the workplace entail?
“1. A key duty of a project manager (this also applies to all project personnel) is to understand the risks in their area of work.
- They must then take the necessary steps to highlight these and take proactive measures to manage these risks appropriately.
- Individuals must utilise sufficient knowledge to understand their main duties to be compliant with the law. “
What is the impact of governance in a project and who is responsible for understanding the governance framework?
“1. Governance impacts how a project is managed, the processes the project uses and how project status is assured and reported when the project is delivered.
2. The project manager must understand the governance framework needed and how the resulting management approaches must be tailored to provide confidence to stakeholders that the project is being managed in a compliant manner. “
What is sustainability and who is responsible for maintaining sustainability? ESEA aspects
“Sustainability is concerned with balancing the Environmental, Social, Economic and Administrative aspects of the project to meet the current needs of stakeholders without compromising or overburdening future generations.
Sustainability requires both individual and organisational responsibility to ensure that outputs, outcomes and benefits are sustainable over their life cycles.”
What are organisation structures?
Organisational structures define how roles, responsibilities and power are assigned and controlled to achieve strategic objectives, and how information flows between different levels of management.
What is the difference between a permanent structure and a temporary structure? PT
“Permanent structure provides a relatively stable environment to support decision-making and the flow of information across the organisation.
Temporary structure is used to describe a specific project, programme or portfolio team brought together specifically to implement project-based work. “
Differentiate the three (3) types of organisation structure. FPM
“1. Functional organisation
• Staff take direction from a line managers and report to them on a daily basis.
• Project work undertaken by the organisation is co-ordinated at the functional head level.
2. Project organisation
• Staff work for a project manager and report to them daily.
• All work is project-based and the organisation is the sum of all its projects.
3. Matrix organisation
• Is a mix of both functional and project organisations;
• Staff work for a line manager and report to them daily.
• All project work is carried out through a project manager, utilising staff across the business on an ‘as needs’ basis. “
What are the responsibilities of the steering group?
“Collectively the steering group:
• takes on responsibility for the project’s feasibility, business case and achievement of outcomes;
• provides support, guidance and executive oversight of progress;
• ensures the project’s scope aligns with key stakeholders’ requirements;
• provides strategic guidance on project business issues;
• keeps project scope under control;
• reports progress to higher management levels;
• progresses any organisation-wide issues associated with the project.
• reconciles differences amongst members;
• ensures effort and expenditure are appropriate to expectations;
• ensures risk strategies are costed, approved, and regularly re-assessed;
• addresses issues escalated by the project manager; “
What are the responsibilities of the project team members?
“The responsibilities of the team include:
• Team members use their expertise to design, build and test the deliverables according to the agreed specifications within agreed within time, cost and quality constraints;
• Report progress of assigned tasks in a timely manner;
• Identify issues or risks;
• Act as risk owner and manage risk within their area of expertise;
• Contributes to the evaluation of the project at all stages and reviews;
• Manages communication with stakeholders as assigned in the communication plan.
• Support the project manager and other team members in solving project-wide problems;
• Give support, help and advice to the project manager when required; “
What are the responsibilities of the project manager?
“The responsibilities of the project manager include:
• Plans, organises, motivates, directs, controls and leads the project to deliver its objectives;
• Monitors and controls project progress;
• Delivers the project to time, cost and quality priorities;
• Makes timely decisions to ensure project success;
• Initiates reviews and assists the sponsor in the decision to terminate the project, if justified;
• Escalates issues requiring a decision by sponsor;
• Communicates and acts as prime point of contact with team members, other organisations, contractors, suppliers and business-as-usual representatives;
• Communicates with the sponsor, informing them of progress and seeking direction when needed;
• Builds, leads and motivates the project team;
• Ensures work packages are allocated and responsibilities identified.
• Defines and plans the project by creating a Project Management Plan (PMP);
• Liaise with project stakeholders;
• Keeps the sponsor and senior management informed of progress/problems/issues; “
What are the responsibilities of the sponsor?
“The responsibilities of the sponsor include:
• Initiates the project and ensures a project manager is appointed;
• Overall responsibility for the project;
• Ensures the necessary resources are made available to the project;
• Develops and maintains ownership of the business case;
• Oversees how the products are used and their effectiveness;
• Monitors the project’s business environment and reviews the business case at gate reviews;
• May manage senior stakeholders directly and personally;
• Liases with the programme manager if part of a programme;
• Advocates on behalf of the project at senior levels of the organisation;
• Acts as the chairperson of the steering group;
• Keeps senior management informed of progress;
• Ensures effective project implementation and embedding of outputs;
• Supports the project manager when needed;
• Monitors high-level project progress and makes decisions when necessary and when escalated by the project manager;
• Exerts influence to remove blockages for difficult issues;
• Monitors key risks;
• Passes information about strategic risks to the project manager;
• Approves changes to the project scope after assessing the impact on the benefits in the business case;
• Arbitrates and try to gain consensus between users when there are conflicting requirements;
• Determines the relative priorities of time, cost and quality;
• Releases contingent funds if necessary;
• Terminates the project if necessary after a gate review. “
What are the responsibilities of the users?
“The responsibilities of the users include:
• Define the requirements;
• Advise the sponsor on the suitability of the deliverables;
• Accept and operate deliverables;
• Liaise with the project manager about changes;
• Perform an active role on the project and provide respresentative(s) to the steering group. “
What are the responsibilities of a product owner?
“Responsibilities of a product owner include:
• defining goals and creating vision for the operability of the project’s outputs;
• acting as the on-site customer for iterative or agile projects;
• communicating with stakeholders to ensure the project remains aligned with business objectives;
• providing feedback to the project team on iteration planning, constraints, priorities and progress in relation to business needs;
• establishing priorities for scope, budget and time within iterations;
• acting as the main communication link between stakeholders and teams;
• evaluating progress and providing feedback to the team on delivery performance and advising if continuation is feasible. “
Differentiate the responsibilities of the project manager and sponsor during the project life cycle.
“Concept Phase
PM may not even be appointed. At the latest, the sponsor appoints a project manager at the end of the concept phase.
Sponsor focuses on developing a business case, and understanding the scope, deliverables, desired outcomes and expected benefits at a high level.
Definition Phase
PM focuses on planning and developing the project management plan (PMP) which includes a detailed definition, plans, budgets, schedules, requirements, justification for the work, and plans for managing risks, issues, changes, procurement, quality and communication with stakeholders.
Sponsor focuses on developing a detailed business case to justify the investment. The sponsor leads gate reviews at the start and end of the definition phase. At the latter review, the sponsor approves the PMP and authorises the resources required to implement it.
Deployment Phase
PM implements the PMP. The focus of the project manager in this phase is on delivering the agreed scope within the agreed constraints of time, cost and quality documented in the agreed PMP. This is where the project manager allocates work to the team(s), monitors progress, deals with issues and risks, and reports progress to the sponsor and steering group, and escalates issues and risks when necessary.
Sponsor assists the project manager when requested, ensures that resources are made available when needed, and takes decisions about escalated issues and risks.
The sponsor reports progress to senior management. The sponsor also monitors key business risks and releases contingent funds when needed. The sponsor can also approve changes to the project scope after assessing the impact on the benefits in the business case.
Transition Phase
PM works with users to gain their acceptance and to ensure handover occurs.
Sponsor is accountable for ensuring that the project’s benefits are realised, when the project is handed over to operations. “
What are the five (5) functions of a project management office (PMO)? CrACeSsIm
“1. Controls and reporting
Controls and reporting involves collecting, analysing and presenting
progress information and managing interdependencies.
2. Assurance
Assurance involves audits, health checks and reviews to support decision gates and change control.
3. Centre of excellence
Centre of excellence involves improving processes, tools and techniques; embedding best practice through training and support; and measuring capabilities to review progress and target higher levels of maturity.
4. Specialist support
Specialist support involves provision of specialist skills such as risk; quality, planning or finance resources as role models to other project professionals.
5. Information management
Information management involves document management and access to information, tools and services. “
What are the benefits of a PMO? DsPiRf
“A PMO brings three main benefits to any project-based organisation:
1. Deployment support
2. Process improvement
3. Resource flexibility.
Other benefits include the following:
• It frees up time for the project manager by relieving part of the administrative burden from the project manager.
• It enables the organisation to standardize on a common project management approach and governance.
• It provides assurance to the project manager that work is going according to plan;”
List the various aspects of project management governance. PRFPPDr
"The aspects of project management governance include: • Policies • Regulations • Functions • Processes • Procedures • Delegated Responsibilities"
Why are aspects of project management governance required?
When effectively implemented, governance provides confidence to all stakeholders that projects are being managed well and that the most appropriate financial and technical controls are being exerted to ensure that the deployment of effort has the best chance of leading to a realisation of value.
What are the 3 types of Life Cycles? LIH
“1. Linear life cycle
A life cycle that aims to complete a project within a single pass through a set of distinct phases that are completed serially and span from the development of the initial concept to the deployment of an ultimate output, outcome or benefits.
2. Iterative life cycle
A life cycle that repeats one or more of the phases of a project or programme before proceeding to the next one with the objective of managing uncertainty of scope by allowing objectives to evolve as learning and discovery takes place.
3. Hybrid life cycle
A hybrid life cycle is a pragmatic approach to achieving beneficial change that combines a linear life cycle for some phases or activities with an iterative life cycle for others. “
Why are projects structured as phases in a linear life cycle?
“These are reasons for structuring projects as phases:
- Improved planning of work - phases break down work into stages, work packages and activities. Work is more visible in this way, allowing better planning decisions to be made.
- Clearer identification of priorities - stages enables focus to be maintained on important factors appropriate to the characteristics of each stage.
- More effective risk assessment - thorough risk assessments can be conducted at the end of each stage which support ‘go’ or ‘no go’ decisions.
- Greater estimating accuracy - near-term stages allow work to be viewed in more granular way which provides more accurate estimates.
- More representative performance management - stages provide opportunities to review achievement and recognise success.
- Greater adoption of continual improvement - as each unit of work or stage is delivered lessons can be learned about performance and effectiveness of processes. These can be fed into upcoming work.
- Improved control - the sponsor and project manager can review objectives and tolerances and make appropriate changes to ensure effective control for exmaple by gate reviews.
- More effective stakeholder communication - enables stakeholders to be updated on project status. “
What are the two additional phases of the extended life cycle? ABr
“1. Adoption
Adoption facilitates the use of project outputs to enable the acceptance and use of benefits.
2. Benefits realisation
Benefits realisation is the practice of ensuring that benefits are derived from outputs and outcomes. “
What is the difference between the project life cycle and the extended life cycle?
“A life cycle is a framework comprising a series of distinct high-level stages required to transform an idea or concept into reality in an orderly and efficient manner.
An extended life cycle, on the other hand, is a life cycle approach that adds an adoption phase with the purpose of ensuring the accountability and governance of the investment stays with the change teams until change is fully embedded. It also provides the missing connection to benefit realisation. “
What are the six (6) different types of reviews? GSPPA
“• Gate reviews - performed to review the project against the business case and project management plan to decide if the project should proceed to the next phase.
• Stage reviews - evaluate the progress of the project against the agreed plans with the aim of identifying variance and corrective actions.
• Post-project reviews - provides the organisation with assurance that the project has successfully met its success criteria (or not), to confirm that the project has actually finished, and provides a forum to learn lessons for future projects.
• Benefits reviews - performed to understand whether the project was
a success and delivered the necessary products that achieve the
expected benefits.
• Peer reviews - are intended to use colleagues of the project manager (or potentially the sponsor) to provide scrutiny of the way in which the role is being fulfilled and the manner in which the project is being run.
• Audits — are external to the project and provide assurance to the organisation that the project is conforming to agreed procedures and has a good chance of success.”
Explain the benefits of conducting reviews throughout the life cycle.
“1. They provide a basis for stakeholder management, communication and effective governance.
- They help organisations assess how projects contribute to business objectives. These objectives and the metrics used to measure them should be stated in business and supporting strategies.
- They generate lessons learned which should be fed into the organisation’s project management processes and procedures for future projects.
- They enhance project management performance and contributing to the long-term maturity of the organisation.
- They can initiate changes to the way that the organisation and its people work. “
What are the possible reasons why projects may close early?
“Projects may close early when:
• They are not able to achieve objectives.
• There is no longer a viable business case.
• They are no longer promising. “
What are the contents of a communication plan? CICNCF
“1. Communication targets - containing a list of stakeholders which the project needs to communicate with;
- Information to be communicated - describes the information to be communicated into and out of the project (e.g. reports);
- Communication channels - describe the different communication channels which will be used including formal and informal verbal, formal and informal written, and non-verbal channels;
- Nature of the audience - this considers the nature of the audience and how it may wish to receive information;
- Costs - this provides details on how much will be spent for each of the activities associated with communication on the project;
- Feedback - this describes how feedback will be collected and what will be done as a result. “
What are the benefits of a communication plan to a project?
“The benefits of a communication plan to a project are the following:
• The most appropriate communication media is used. Choosing an appropriate media for delivering messages is vital to ensure the messages are received and understood by stakeholders. This increases the chance of stakeholder engagement.
• More focused communication. Rather than swamping stakeholders with mass communication, much of which is irrelevant to some recipients, plan messages in a tailored and targeted way so the recipients receive only what is useful to them. These messages are more likely to be read by the recipients.
• More consistent communication. With communications planned in advance, messages can be delivered using a framework that has been agreed and approved in advance. This ensures that stakeholders do not receive conflicting messages from different areas of the project.
• Communication can be improved. By ensuring that feedback channels are planned into communication structures, barriers can be identified which allows improvements to be made. This enables more effective communication over the project life.
• Greater adherence to governance and standards. A communication plan can take account of any organisation-wide standards for communication which will avoid errors or areas of conflict such as privacy, or security breaches. “
What are the factors that can positively or negatively affect communication?
“The five factors that can positively or negatively affect communication are:
- Use of technical terms (jargon) when communicating
- Organisational culture and structural hierarchies
- Time zones and geography
- Physical and environmental aspects of the location (temperature, noise, safety)
- Planning of communication. “
Explain in brief the relationship between stakeholder analysis and an effective communication management plan.
“• A project requires a communication plan that builds upon stakeholder analysis and is used to prioritise the project’s communication efforts.
• It outlines the who, what, when, why and how of two-way communication between the project and stakeholders.
• Stakeholder analysis aims to establish the level of interest and power each stakeholder holds.
• It should be updated throughout the project to reflect changes in stakeholder attitudes.
• It allows interactions to motivate stakeholders to support the desired outcomes.
• Stakeholder analysis helps to build understanding of issues and build positive relationships. “
What are the different sources of conflict in a project?
“The different sources of conflict are the following:
• Disagreements about times and dates.
• Conflict about money and budgets.
• Different and conflicting requirements from different users.
• Conflict between time spent on the project and time spent on business-as-usual work.
• Conflict between individuals.
• Failing to gain acceptance of the project deliverables.
• Consideration of stakeholders’ views.
• Having to balance between different project objectives. “
Explain how the Thomas-Kilmann model can be used to address conflicts.
“1. The model is an assessment tool which ranks an individual on co-operativeness and assertiveness scales.
- By using a self-assessment questionnaire, a candidate can determine which style of conflict resolution they would prefer in relation to the two axes in given circumstances.
- For any given situation, it is possible to imagine ‘opposing parties, who appear to be in some form of conflict, adopting greater or lesser degrees of co-operation and be more or less assertive. “
List and explain briefly the five conflict-handling modes or styles, based on the Thomas-Kilmann model. CCAAC
Competing - A highly assertive, but uncooperative person.
When faced with this type of individual it might be best to adopt a manner that seeks to increase their level of co-operativeness.
Collaborating - A highly assertive and highly cooperative person.
This person will work with you to solve the problem.
Avoiding - An individual demonstrating low co-operativeness and low assertiveness.
They will not wish to become engaged in the discussions at all and simply avoid the issue.
Accommodating - A highly cooperative person exerting little or no assertiveness.
They will tend to just go along with the proposals.
Compromising - An individual who is prepared to sacrifice some of what they have been striving for in order to make the deal.
Explain in brief the three steps of the negotiation process. PNFu
“These are the three steps of the negotiation process:
- Planning, which is about identifying objective criteria for what you want to achieve and an understanding of the best alternative to a negotiated agreement.
- Negotiating, which is about coming up with a mutually acceptable outcome that is agreed by both parties (Win Win’).
- Following up, which is about putting in place documentation that will make it clear to all parties of the deal that has been negotiated. This is important to try to minimise future conflict. “
What is the role of leadership in a project? PESRE
"The role of leadership in a project is to: Promote the project objectives Encourage positive relationships Support effective teamwork Raise morale Empower and inspire individuals. "