the concept of project management Flashcards
what does the project mgment institute say are the 5 process areas of a project?
initiation - goals/objs defined. team formed. scope/expectations determined
planning - define reqs, time/budget, specs
controlling - measure progress, correct/change goals, problem solving
executing - plan to action, lead/coordinate, keep focus
closing - ensure achievements met
what are the main points in project initiation?
establish project requirements > assess project feasibility > manage risk and uncertainty > project initiation documentation
why can turning objectives into realisable projects prove difficult?
prioritising objs isn’t always straightforward, different members of the org will have different priorities. also there is likely to be multiple ways to achieve each objective.
how do orgs decide what projects to take?
as orgs rarely have resources to carry out all strategies, important to identify strategies that provide most benefit/achieve org’s most important objectives. also as org identifies key objs more clearly proposals for action become more detailed/more accurate judgement can be made on costs and benefits.
what is the project specification vs requirement?
project specification = statement of detailed characteristics of product/project
project requirement = statement of what is expected of a project/product. must be clearly defined and will meet org’s objs, as this gives greater chance of success and less chance of cost escalation due to rework/continual changes/customer dissatisfaction.
how should orgs prioritise potential projects?
list potential projects
determine need or opportunity for each project
establish rough delivery dates
establish preliminary costings and budget schedule
establish overall proj feasibility
establish risk with each project
review project list, objs, feasibilities, risks
eliminate unfeasible or inappropriate projects
prioritise the rest
select the most important project
what are feasibility studies?
identifying strategies that should be examined to explore feasibility. may be carried out on number of potentials with aim to decide on which to choose.
important for PMs to understand process of feasibility assessment. compare ‘no change’ option of achieving objs with 2-3 alternative proposals. criteria used are technical capability, fit with business goals, financial benefit, social impact and risk sensitivities.
what technical features of a strategy need to be considered for feasibility?
development - further testing or has material/tech/process been tested and readily available for use?
applicability - is tech suitable to satisfy objective and project effectively?
also important to assess varity of technical aspects of proposals. likely to vary greatly and require numerous experts for evaluation.
how important are social and ecological feasibility?
increasingly neccesary to assess. may include awareness of social issues of introducing (e.g.) a computer system or larger social awareness regarding effect of projects/products on workers or employment. relevant considerations - will intro lead to redundancy? how will general public be affected/what position would people take about project like constructing new road or power plant?
eco considerations may be driven by understanding that customers would prefer purchsing alternative ecologically sound products. may be stimulated by legislation. important for orgs to consider raw material input, production processes and disposal of product at end of life.
also need to consider fit with business goals
what needs to be identified for a cost benefit analysis?
- value - monetary terms or in terms of benefits
- whether it is capital or revenue
- when it occurs
- whether it is one-off or recurring
- whether funding will be available at necessary times for significant payments
what capital investment techniques may be used for financial feasibility analysis?
payback method
DCF for PV
ARR ((average annual profit/average investment)/100)
ROI (profit before interest and tax/average capital employed)
ARR is ration based on profits, and exclusive use of ARR not recommended
ROI often used to assess mgr performance
financial feasibility of a project cannot be determined by a single measure alone.
what are the stages of risk management?
identification
assessment
response development
response control
what is risk identification?
sources of risk may be identified by listing risks through brainstorming/other thinking tools. risk profile must include: list of questions assessing traditional areas of uncertainty, questions that address both technical and mgment risks, murphy’s law
what is risk assessment?
some risks identified will not merit attention. deciding this through scenario analysis required. assess loss probability and magnitude for each item, each risk to be assessed in terms of: undesirable event, all outcomes of event’s occurence, severity of event’s impact, probability of event happening, when event might occur.
risk prioritisation necessary and involves producing ranked ordering of risk items
what is risk response development?
involves deciding how to address each risk item (avoid/transfer/reduce/accept).
risk resolution = producing situation in which risk items avoided or reduced. mitigate, transfer, accept (with contingency plans) or share (partnerships/consortia).
what is risk response control?
execute risk response strategy, monitor risks, initiate contingency plans and watch for new risks. org culture shold encourage reporting probs and admitting to mistakes. risk profiles need updating regularly. responsibility should be documented. risk monitoring tracks progress toward resolving risk items and taking corrective action
what is uncertainty?
impossible to evaluate because cannot assign probability. instead contingency planning used to construct action plans to be implemented if uncertain event occurs.
what is project initiation documentation? why use it?
defines overall scope, mission and devlierables. also roles and responsibilities to provide overriding terms of reference for life of project. reasons for PID:
authorisation by project steering committee/board
act as base document against which progress and changes can be assessed
what is included in project initiation documentation?
background of project and why necessary
project scope and objectives
approach to be taken (in house/suppliers etc)
key deliverables/desired outcomes
interfaces between this project and others
assumptions on which PID is based
project org structure, project mgrs and team
communication plan
controls in place in project
what are the basic questions a project plan should answer?
what is the project trying to achieve
roles and responsibilities
timeline of project
methodology/how things will be done
what are the types of project plans that need to be made?
time plan - timeline for project
cost plan - uses rate per hour for each activity in plan, plus cost of resources from resource plan + contingency costs to create budget for whole project. can be used for cash flow forecasting
quality plan - identify customers, outcomes expected by them, acceptance criteria agreed with them, test plan and safety and security planning. includes audit plan for project mgment process
resource plan - check peaks/troughs of activity to ensure plan feasible and list purchases
contingency plan - assessment of risks, decide what additional activities/buffers of cost and time need to be added to ensure reliable budget and completion date. risk register identifies contingency plan for each key risk and allocates monitoring responsibility for them
communication plan - key people, likely concerns, message needed, planned method of comms
what are the 4 steps of project planning?
- divide project into work packagesbreaking project into work packages requires identifying individuals responsible for elements of work. work breakdown structure (WBS) is hierarchical tree of elements needing to be accomplished by project team. shows responsibility for each activity, allowing mgr to delegate. can be further divided by defining tasks and activities that comprise them, but only where essential to allow delegation and control otherwise motivation/creativity reduced and becomes costly.
- estimate resources and costsusing rates per hour and cost of purchased resources needed, can calculate total cost for project. use past projects to increase accuracy of estimates on time/cost. plan how long it’ll take and how much of each resource is required per activity, then a cost estimate on type of resources and quantities anticipated for each activity. risk analysis done to estimate what additional contingency allowance is needed for time and cost.
- define activities graphicallysome work packages occur in parallel, so to calculate total time a network diagram/critical path analysis created showing required sequence/interdependencies of packages to achieve objs in user friendly format.
- determination of project schedule/budgetbaseline budget that presents realistic assessment of time and funding requirements, available resources to complete project obj. complete guide for on time and within cost. should include: start/end dates for project and each activity, resources needed for activity, cost estimate for each period, final cost for whole project
why is project control important?
as project evolves important to monitor continually to ensure going as expected towards obj. continually measure actual activities:
activities started and completed, how long it has taken so far vs estimate, how much money has been spent per activity
measurement of actual resources committed must be compared against plan to monitor deviations.
if BvA shows deviations, report and take corrective action if authorised to.
most important aspect of control is ensuring monitoring progress is carried out regularly and corrective action is considered and implemented immediately. effective control involves system to regularly gather data on progress and performance and correcting asap when needed.
PROGRESS REPORT - detail needed
how can effective control decisions be made?
decisions about changing plan/adding more resources can only be effective is mgr uses up to date accurate info, don’t gather data start of month and wait for EOM to update schedule/budget with it. agree any changes with customer as likely to affect cost/schedule/scope of baseline plan.
when updated schedule/budget calculated, comparison to be made against baseline budget and schedule to determine variances.
control processes cannot be over emphasised in importance to success of project. mgr needs an active approach in controlling project, if carried out successfully 3rd phase of life cycle will end when project objective met and customer requirements achieved.
what are the steps taken when corrective action is required in a project?
next decision is how to revise. usually a trade off between time and scope -
getting project back on track may require extra resources/additional costs or compromise on scope
reducing excess expenditure may mean using lower quality resources, which may affect final performance of project
once decision taken, changes must be incorporated to schedule/budget. this process happens continually throughout duration of project. if considered project has high control risk, carry out more frequently.
what is Gido and Clements’ project control process?
establish plan
start project
during each period collect data on performance, inc changes into plan
calculate updated schedule/budget/forecasts
analyse current status vs plan
take action if needed
what are the main steps of project closing?
external post completion meeting with client carried out to assess their view ont he project now finished.
mgr should meet with everyone to discuss individual performances.
documentation collected, organised and reviewed to assess performance
project report made to compare BvA for whole project - quality, cost and time.
what project close procedures can help with continuous improvement?
look at lessons learned, common processes and benchmark performance against others in industry. inform company teams abut lessons learned/improvements found in common processes and and discoveries that can be beneficial.
audit report also prepared to give pros and cons aspects of the project.
what are the main project termination activities?
organising and filling all project documentation. keep info for future audit purposes.
receiving and making final payments to suppliers of resources - obvious incentive to ensure org carries out project successfully. contract accounts can then be analysed and contract profitability established.
agreeing formally with customer that all agreed deliverables have been provided/receiving full payment
reviewing project and methods to find/recommend future improvements
reward project team, make sure they have jobs to move on to
review business case to check intended benefits likely to be received
disband team and tie up loose ends
conduct external post completion review and/or audit
obtain formal closure by steering committee and disband
what post project review meetings are needed at project close?
internal
discuss successes/failures, establish learnings. cover: role of individual members, cope for improvement in individual performance
external review meeting
from customer’s perspective. establish if requirements satisfied and obtain feedback. cover: customer satisfaction, feedback, concerns, framework for open dialogue, improve customer relationships
what is the post-completion audit?
audit entire project. continous improvement only happens with careful monitoring of projects and audit to highlight goods and bads.
project cannot be said to be successful until mgment assured benefits can be shown to have been realised. audit checks whether benefits achieved, and reduces tendency towards over-optimism.
what does the post-completion audit assess?
objs and outcomes achieved, extent to which required quality achieved, efficiency of operation vs agreed performance and stds, actual vs budget cost and expenditure, reasons for expenditure variances, time taken and reason for variances, effectiveness of mgment process, significance of problems encountered and effectiveness of solutions
audit then leads to production of report to mgment
in a cost benefit of doing a post-completion audit, expected savings to future projects should be offset against cost of audit
why is continuous improvement important in project mgment?
Many organisations view project management as a strategic competence, from which they can gain a competitive advantage. This is particularly true of organisations in project-based industries, such as engineering and consultancy. Such organisations have begun to see that using project management without continuous improvement to the methodology allows for the repetition of mistakes and poor practices.
excellence in project mgment - develop methodology, develop culture that believes in methodology, continuous improvement of methodology
