Introduction to Project Management Assessment Notes

What is a ‘Project’

• Projects can be identified and defined by the following features:• They are an instrument for change

• They have a specific and unique goal or outcome

• They are usually one-off activities and not routine

• They will have a defined starting date point and specific and required finishing date point

• They will have a defined and clear budget to work within

• Composed of interdependent activities

• Carried out by people who do not normally work together

• Uncertain and involve a degree of risk

‘Project’ Examples

• Examples of unique projects include:• A new shopping centre

• A bridge

• A new motorway extension

• Designing the next generation of computers

• Planning the next national election

• Building a shed

After a project is completed, the entire project team will become redundant until they are re-hired when they sign contracts for new unique contracts

Project Task

• A project task is defined as ‘an achievable section of a project’

Stakeholder

• Project stakeholders include the sponsors of the project (e.g. people who are paying for it). They are also those involved/impacted by the project, and to some extent all members of the project team are stakeholders as they can influence the project in varying levels including:• Strategic – They determine the strategy that the project will use

• Managerial – They undertake management control over the project and the resources used

• Project – They are involved in the development and delivery of the project

• Operational – They are involved in the implementation and operational outputs of the project

• Direct influence – They are directly affected by the project and its outputs

• Indirect Influence – They are indirectly affected by the project and its outputs

Key Stakeholders and Stakeholder Maps

• Key Stakeholder – Those who the project will impact upon the most

• Stakeholder Map – Used to identify each stakeholder’s interest in the project outcome. Below is an example for organising a conference:

Stakeholder Finance Safety Publicity Programme Hospitality Venue

Exhibitor x x x

Delegate x x x x

Press x

Media x

Supplier x x x

Sponsor x x x x

Presenter x x x

Project Triangle

• The project triangle concept relates to factors that affect a project outcome. These factors include:• Quality

• Cost

• Scope

• Schedule

Project Triangle Explained

• The quality of the completed project is affected in different ways. If the cost set aside for a project is not enough then the project quality will suffer. If the cost is enough then the quality will be as expected.

• The scope of the project can be underestimated and therefore affect the quality of the completed project. If the scope is overestimated, then the quality will then still be affected.

• The schedule of work (timescale) can be overestimated and underestimated meaning the quality can be enhanced and also underachieved respectively.

Resources

• A resource in projects can be physical elements such as building materials, people required to work on the project and equipment such as tools and documents.

Brainstorming

• Brainstorming is a group creativity technique by which efforts are made to find a conclusion for a specific problem by gathering a list of ideas spontaneously contributed by its members.

Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

• A work breakdown structure (WBS) is a key project deliverable that organizes the team's work into manageable sections. This makes project members clearly understand each section of the project and its details

Schedule

• Each deliverable group and individual task which has milestones are part of the complete project schedule.

• You can take a project and by making judgements identify how long the project will take by using the work done previously

Gantt Chart

• A Gantt chart is a type of bar chart that illustrates a project schedule. Gantt charts illustrate the start and finish dates of the terminal elements and summary elements of a project. Terminal elements and summary elements comprise the work breakdown structure of the project.

Pert Chart

• Pert charts are a system required in order to complete a project on time. Each node represents an event in the project, with arrows drawn between each based on the sequence of events.

• Pert stands for Program Evaluation and Review Technique

Pert Chart Example

Pert Chart – Critical Path

• The critical path is the maximum length of time needed to complete every single task within the project.

• All other tasks must fit within this time period

Scope

• Project Scope is the work that’s needs to be accomplished to deliver a product, service or result with the specified features and functions. The scope of a project is the clear identification of the work that is required to successfully complete or deliver a project.

• One of the project manager’s responsibilities is to ensure that only the required work (scope) will be performed and that this will happen within the allotted time and budget.

• Dangers of Scope• If the scope of a project is not well defined and limited, the scope of the

project can far exceed the original idea. A project needs to be placed within a boundary to ensure the project does not increase in the size or decrease.

Feature Creep

• If a project scope is altered during the implementation of the project after the scope has been defined, then it can ‘creep’.

• This is when additional features or functions of a new product is added after the determination.

Task Concurrency

• In relation to tasks in a project, a concurrent task means that multiple tasks will start at the same time as each other