Projects And Organisations

Question 1

whats a project

Answer 1

• A project is ‘a unique, transient endeavour to bring about change and to achieve planned objectives’
  o A defined start-point and endpoint
  o Specific objectives
  o Specific resources assigned to perform the work

Question 2

what project shaping

Answer 2

• Project shaping is done by a sponsor in the conceptual phase, often by writing a business case

Question 3

characteristic of a project

Answer 3

• Characteristics of a project
  o Creates specific outputs / products
  o Objectives measured in time / cost / performance (quality)
  o Phased lifecycle
  o Complex interrelationships (often cross-functional)
  o Cost of changing objectives gets more expensive closer to completion
  o Uncertainty, risk, and stakeholder influence are highest at the startB

Question 4

BaU vs project

Answer 4

o Operations performs and manages routine and ongoing activities
o Produces core products or repetitive services
o Fulfils strategic mission of the organisation

Question 5

Project constraints

Answer 5

project management is an efficient and effective way to manage such a change, ensuring delivery within constraints of time, cost, and quality, without compromising benefit realisation
o Changing one constraint can compromise others (e.g., v fast delivery means higher cost and lower quality)
o Project sponsor decides relative importance of each

Question 6

whats a programme

Answer 6

a unique, transient strategic endeavour undertaken to achieve beneficial change and incorporating a group of related and business-as-usual (steady-state) activities

Question 7

characteristic of a programme

Answer 7

o Single business case, aligned to individual project business cases
o Focus on iterative delivery of outcomes
o Manage transition from project output to BaU
o Aligned to wider strategy
o Longer duration than projects within it

Question 8

project vs programme

Answer 8

• The benefits of completing a project are only completed after it is completed but programme lifespans cover the realisation of these benefits
• Managing a programme requires managing projects and BaU
• Programmes often deal with high uncertainty in objectives and scope, especially larger initiatives.
• Programme managers define governance structures and coordinates the programme, not the running of individual projects

Question 9

whats a portfolio

Answer 9

a collection of projects and/or programmes used to structure and manage investments at an organisational or functional level to optimise strategic benefits or operational efficiency

Question 10

whats portfolio management

Answer 10

• Portfolio management is the selection, prioritisation, and control of an organisation’s projects and programmes in line with its strategic objectives and delivery capacity.
• Project prioritisation is important for portfolio managers, often using categorisation by legal necessity, issue resolution, ROI, or other preferential projects.

Question 11

• Benefits of portfolio management

Answer 11

o Aligning and prioritising projects and programmes with corporate goals
o Balancing qualitative and quantitative benefits
o Focusing and balancing short- and long-term goals
o Adapting project and programme delivery to external market changes
o Efficient resource utilizationit see
o Keeping project level risk in line with organisational risk appetite

Question 12

relationship between organisational environment and organisational strategy

Answer 12

• Organisation environment is ever changing, so change is necessary within the organisation to keep up. Decisions on which changes to make is the organisational strategy

Question 13

whats PESTLe

Answer 13

• These are conceptualised with PESTLE
  o Political – government changes, such as legislation, taxes, and funding
  o Economic – Exchange rates, inflation, resource etc
  o Sociological – culture, income demographics, customer behaviour
  o Technological – software infrastructure changes, skill availability
  o Legislative – local and national laws, e.g., employment or environmental laws
  o Environmental – carbon footprint, weather, energy costs
• Internal politics can also be important, especially for stakeholder engagement
• These help to conceptualise threats and opportunities to the organisation, which is useful in prioritising and shaping projects and programmes.

Question 14

whats a project life cycle

Answer 14

• There are many ways to carry out a project. Life cycles provide a structured set of steps in each project, each separated by deciding whether to continue to the next one.

Question 15

4 life cycle types:

Answer 15

Linear, Incremental, Iterative, and Evolutionary

Question 16

whats a linear life cycle

Answer 16

• Linear life cycles
  o Require early detailed planning, and each element is delivered step by step before moving onto the next.
  o Usable products are only created at the end, so useful for very set projects that cannot change much but have low risk.
  o Require stopping between each stage to conduct a gate review, where whether to continue or stop will be determined

Question 17

stages of a linear life cycle

Answer 17

o These stages are different project phases
 Concept – developing the idea into a proposition (writing a business case)
 Definition – design and plan the proposition in more detail, analysis risks, costs, and timescales.
 Deployment – building the product, following designs
* Any changes at this stage require a change control to consider diverging from the plans
 Transition – handover of product to users

Question 18

whats an incremental life cycle

Answer 18

o Similar to linear, planned in detail upfront, but each step produces a usable product and then slowly refines it in following steps
o Useful for ‘quick wins,’ useful for customer maintaining customer engagement
o Deployment stage may have multiple handovers in it, culminating in a final transition

Question 19

whats an iterative life cycle

Answer 19

o Overall idea of end product is known, but each step feeds back in, allowing each iteration to adapt
o Iterative life cycles have the same stages as linear, but are repeated multiple times as each iteration develops the project further
 Pre-project phase selects the project and clarifies objective
 Feasibility phase identifies high-level foundations of the project
 Many smaller ‘sprints’ where a small part of the assets are assembled, reviewed, and deployed
 Each iteration finds more info, which feed future iterations
 Deployment phase brings baselined solution into operational use
 Post-project phase checks if expected benefits have been achieved
o Often called Agile approach

Question 20

example hybrid life cycles

Answer 20

• Hybrid life cycles combine multiple of the above, such as the following examples
  o Having an agile approach for initial definition phases of a project to refine requirements, then adopting a linear approach for deployment and design
  o The deployment phase could be broken into tranches (portions of work resulting in a product usable by stakeholders). Here, only the deployment phase is incremental.
  o Adding an adoption phase to linear or iterative life cycles to ensure accountability stays with change teams until it is embedded.

Question 21

how can life cycle stages be extended

Answer 21

• All types of life cycle complete one the product is delivered. Some life cycles are extended to add an adoption and benefit realisation stage.
  o Adoption is the implementation of the product, but keeping accountability with the change team until the product is fully embedded
  o Benefit realisation is where benefits from adoption are measured
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Question 22

why are reviews important

Answer 22

• To govern a project effectively, it must be reviewed against the deliverables of the project, the business case and project management processes in reviews.

Question 23

list some review types

Answer 23

decision gates
gate reviews
stage reviews
post project reviews
benefits reviews
project audits

Question 24

whats a decision gate

Answer 24

• Decision gates review and confirm viability of the work across the chosen life cycle. These are at the end of a phase of work in linear projects, and time bound in iterative ones, although many projects combine both, with gate reviews at the end of a phase, and stage reviews held monthly to supplement

Question 25

whats a gate review

Answer 25

• Gate reviews determine if progression to the next stage should occur. The sponsor makes this decision by considering the projects viability and progression through the life cycle, as seen in documentation provided by the project manager

Question 26

whats a stage review

Answer 26

• Stage Reviews are an interim review, often used to highlight achievement and communicate with stakeholdersw

Question 27

whats a post project review

Answer 27

• Post-project reviews evaluate project performance and achievement of success criteria after the transition phase. The project manager, team, and key stakeholders assess positives, negatives, and learning opportunities.

Question 28

whats a benefits review

Answer 28

• Benefits reviews take place during the adoption or operations phase to assess the realisation of planned benefits by comparing to the business case. The sponsor is responsible for benefits delivery and PM for benefits realisation

Question 29

whats a project audit

Answer 29

• Project audits are performed by an independent party, like PMO, or external auditors, to confirm governance and processes are being undertaken correctly

Question 30

benefits of conducting reviews

Answer 30

• Reviews can be used to demonstrate proper governance and assurance, communicate progress and next steps, maintain stakeholder commitment by increasing project visibility, highlight early warnings of risks, escalate issues, trigger increased funding or resources, validate project benefits, or trigger early project termination.

Question 31

whats a report

Answer 31

• Reports describe the progress of a project, allowing performance to be tracked towards deployment goals

Question 32

whats needed for effective reporting

Answer 32

• This requires an effective baseline to measure against, which should be determined in the definition phase
• Meaningful KPIs allow for meaningful reports, which support effective decision making, based on current performance.
• Therefore, effective reporting needs a good baseline, good performance data, and an assessment of the implications of current performance on the project’s future

Question 33

three types of reporting frequency

Answer 33

• Event-driven occur at an agreed point in the life cycle, such as after a stage
• Time-driven occur at a defined frequency e.g., daily
• Ad-hoc occur when required or on request e.g., surprise audits

Question 34

how to make reporting more agile in projects where scope is harder to define

Answer 34

• A more agile approach to project control can be needed if the scope is not easily defined.
• Daily scrums are used to verbally report the progress achieved that day and the issues to be addressed.
• Burn up or down charts are used to track completion and measure progress.
• Velocity (work done per day) is used to improve future estimates.

Question 35

benefits of project reporting

Answer 35

• Project reporting improves stakeholder understanding and expectations, improves holistic decision making, enable early warning indicators of risks or issues, provides a clear audit trail, acts as a source of lessons learnt and clearly shows progress.