Question

1. Discuss and explain the fundamental concepts of project management and the tasks required in managing a project.

2. Outline the project process and evaluate projects, preparing and analysing project budgets.

3. Identify and apply project management tools in scheduling; understand and plan basic resource allocation.

4. Be able to report on a project’s progress; design and prepare closure evaluation and reports.

Please can someone help me with this. Thank you very much

Answer 1

Project management is the discipline of initiating, planning, executing, controlling and closing the work of a team to achieve specific goals and meet specific success criteria. A project is temporary in that it has a defined beginning and end in time, and therefore defined scope and resources.

Fundamental Concepts of Project Management

Phase 1: Project Initiation

This is the start of the project, and the goal of this phase is to define the project at a broad level. This phase usually begins with a business case. This is when you will research whether the project is feasible and if it should be undertaken. If feasibility testing needs to be done, this is the stage of the project in which that will be completed.

Phase 2:Project Planning

During this phase, the scope of the project is defined and a project management plan is developed. It involves identifying the cost, quality, available resources, and a realistic timetable. The project plans also includes establishing baselines or performance measures. These are generated using the scope, schedule and cost of a project. A baseline is essential to determine if a project is on track

This phase is key to successful project management and focuses on developing a roadmap that everyone will follow. This phase typically begins with setting goals. Two of the more popular methods for setting goals are S.M.A.R.T. and C.L.E.A.R.

S.M.A.R.T. Goals – This method helps ensure that the goals have been thoroughly vetted. It also provides a way to clearly understand the implications of the goal-setting process.

o Specific – To set specific goals, answer the following questions: who, what, where, when, which, and why.

o Measurable – Create criteria that you can use to measure the success of a goal.

o Attainable – Identify the most important goals and what it will take to achieve them.

o Realistic – You should be willing and able to work toward a particular goal.

o Timely – Create a timeframe to achieve the goal.

C.L.E.A.R. Goals – A newer method for setting goals that takes into consideration the environment of today’s fast-paced businesses.

o Collaborative – The goal should encourage employees to work together.

o Limited – They should be limited in scope and time to keep it manageable.

o Emotional – Goals should tap into the passion of employees and be something they can form an emotional connection to. This can optimize the quality of work.

o Appreciable – Break larger goals into smaller tasks that can be quickly achieved.

o Refinable – As new situations arise, be flexible and refine goals as needed.

Phase 3: Project Execution

This is the phase where deliverables are developed and completed. This often feels like the meat of the project since a lot is happening during this time, like status reports and meetings, development updates, and performance reports.

Tasks completed during the Execution Phase include:      · Develop team · Assign resources · Execute project management plans · Procurement management if needed · PM directs and manages project execution · Set up tracking systems · Task assignments are executed · Status meetings · Update project schedule · Modify project plans as needed Phase 4: Project Performance/Monitoring This is all about measuring project progression and performance and ensuring that everything happening aligns with the project management plan. Project managers will use key performance indicators (KPIs) to determine if the project is on track. A PM will typically pick two to five of these KPIs to measure project performance. Key Performance Indicators · Project Objectives: Measuring if a project is on schedule and budget is an indication if the project will meet stakeholder objectives. · Quality Deliverables: This determines if specific task deliverables are being met. · Effort and Cost Tracking: PMs will account for the effort and cost of resources to see if the budget is on track. This type of tracking informs if a project will meet its completion date based on current performance. · Project Performance: This monitors changes in the project. It takes into consideration the amount and types of issues that arise and how quickly they are addressed. These can occur from unforeseen hurdles and scope changes. Phase 4: Project Closure This phase represents the completed project. Contractors hired to work specifically on the project are terminated at this time.Once the project is complete, PMs still have a few tasks to complete. They will need to create a project punchlist of things that didn’t get accomplished during the project and work with team members to complete them. Perform a final project budget and prepare a final project report. Finally, they will need to collect all project documents and deliverables and store them in a single place.

2.

PROJECT PROCESS

• Project Start
• Project Preparation
• Project Planning
• Project Implementation
• Project Completion

PROJECT EVALUATION

• Planning
• Development
• Implementation
• Action
• Improvement

PREPARATION OF PROJECT BUDGETS

1. Use historical data
2. Reference Lessons Learned
3. Leverage your experts
4. Confirm Accuracy
5. Baseline and Re-baseline the budgets
6. Update in real time
7. Get on Track

PROJECT BUDGET ANALYSIS

A project budget is the total projected costs needed to complete a project over a defined period of time. It's used to estimate what the costs of the project will be for every phase of the project. The project budget will include such things as labor costs, material procurement costs and operating costs.

3.TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Project Managers can use a range of tools and techniques to develop, monitor and control project schedules.

• GANTT CHART

This is a horizontal bar chart plotted over time (e.g. days, weeks or months). Each activity is shown as a bar (its length based on a time estimate). Depending on task dependencies and resource availability, these bars may be sequential, or run in parallel. Each bar is plotted to start at the earlier possible start date. The plan laid out when the GANTT Chart was created can be compared with actual times taken (plotted below the planned time bars in the chart).

• Schedule of Network Analysis

The schedule network is a graphical display (from left to right across a page) of all logical interrelationships between elements of work — in chronological order, from initial planning through to project closure. As a project progresses, regular analysis of this network diagram is a check to ensure the project is proceeding ‘on track’.

• Critical Path Method

The critical path of a project is the sequential string of activities that takes the longest time to complete, recognising any dependencies between tasks in this sequence (e.g. one cannot start till another finishes). Arrowed lines represent activities with circles at each end representing milestones (start and finish).

The critical path method (CPM) determines by adding the times of all activities on the critical path, the earliest time that the project can be completed

• PERT(Programm Evaluation and Review Technique)

PERT charts differ from CPM charts in the way times are calculated for activities. They allow better for uncertainty. For each activity, three estimates of time are obtained: the shortest time (SP), the longest time (LT) and the most likely time (MT). The estimate assigned for the activity is a weighted average of these three estimates. The formula is:
Expected time = (SP + 4(MT) + LT) /6.

• Schedule Compression

A schedule can be shortened two ways:

1. crashing: using more resources than planned on the task
2. fast-tracking: adjusting the schedule so, mindful of task dependencies, more activities are done in parallel than was planned

• Risk Multipliers

This involves building in a time or resource contingency for tasks considered to be at high risk of overrun.

• Resource Tools and Techniques

1. Levelling: This involves adjusting the activities within the schedule so as to ensure there are minimal peaks and troughs in resource use. This ensures efficient use of resources. It also allows the Project Manager to direct resources, where required, to more critical activities.
2. Critical chain method: Activities are planned in the light of their latest possible start and finish dates. The extra time that results between some activities can be used to better use resources.
3. Resource histograms: This is a column chart that depicts the resources used on a project over time.