manage projects final ass

8/2/2019 Manage Projects Final Ass

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Manage ProjectsFinal AssessmentPart B: Essential knowledge

1.) Understanding Project

To understand the project scope and its parameters, firstly the project manager must

be able to define the projects scope including the deliverables, objectives and its

outcome. Essentially you are defining the projects goals and how the goal can be

met. This approach ensures that the result will match your vision, having organised

the first critical step allows the executions of the project to come along smoothly.

Along with understanding the project team and identifying stakeholder groups all are

important elements in getting a full understanding of the scope. Once the scope is

designed up to a certain level, insist on getting input from all key stakeholders with

the outline of the project scope at hand it is considerably easier to come to an

agreement. How you deal with upcoming issues or how the project you work on will

proceed to grow, depends on how clearly you communicate the objectives.

Needs of stakeholders will be defined when you have identified stakeholder groups,

their influence and interests, this makes a big difference to the success of the project

when you engage the right people in it, also further identifying potential collaborators

as the project progresses can be of an advantage. Frequent communication with

stakeholders confirms they fully understand actions and benefits of the project.

Understanding the needs of each stakeholder groups assist in pushing the project in

the right way.

Carefully planning resources and allocating them appropriately will give you a better

idea of where you could start. Detailing resources early can be beneficial as it gives

you more time to deal with unexpected costs or goods that may arise.


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A responsibility of a project manager is the ability to take on a project and control

and manage the task to its full extent. The project manager will have the overall

responsibility for successful initiation, planning, design, execution, monitoring

controlling and finally the closure of the project. Main concerns that are present suchas risks and relevant issues should be monitored and resolved throughout the life

cycle of the project, along with a combination of management skills that are

practised, and making decisions in a way that will directly benefit the project.

To see how other projects within the organisation is relating to the project you are

undertaking gains you insight into the companys general goal in where the

companys heading. Consultation with other project managers will inform you of any

changes that may have an impact to your project as uncertainty arise. If other

projects within the organisation have similar goals and objectives you can make sure

resources can be used effectively and coordinate complementary efforts accordingly.

Taking initiative to discover this knowledge can keep you ahead and assist you to

make better decisions in the planned project. Once you know how other projects

relates to yours and the success that other projects brings, you can understand whatthe organisation has confidence in and follow through with an effectiveness plan.

Aligning organisations goals with the project goals, remedies the contributions that

the projects makes. The results from doing so accommodate the delivery and the

organisational value the project provides. Creating this performance orientation

benefits the understanding that aligns the projects primary drive to the organisations

goals

2.) Project Plan

When undertaking a project it is essential to develop a plan, failing to do so can cost

you time, money and many problems. Developing a project plan at the start of the

project that clearly sets expectation in regarding to scope, timeline, and budget is

critical to ensure all efforts are safe guarded and potential hardships can be avoided.

Information to be considered in the components of the plan:


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Establish clear project goals

Objectives

First step would be defining and creating purpose and objectives of the project thatwill provide a clear direction for the project. It is a good idea to refine it from the

beginning as it helps you establish a clear project plan.

Stakeholders

It is important to identify stakeholders that may be affected directly or indirectly to the

project, along with investigating their needs and expectations. The best way to do

this is to conduct interviews and carefully analyse their needs and create benefits.

The next step will be prioritising the list then creating goals that can easily be

measured; one method that can be used is applying the SMART goal technique.

Outline projects Scope

Resources, timeline and budget

Resources, timeline and budget are created here to achieve the objectives of the

scope. Maintaining these elements and adjusting as project goes along, when you

have the project scope clearly identified and included the time and budget, you can

begin to manage the project resources more efficiently.

Support Plans

Communications

Create a document that shows who need to be kept inform of the projects outcome

whether it should be weekly or monthly will be determine from the list that indicates

stakeholders priority groups and the level of involvement with the project.


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Risk management Plan

An important part of the project should include identifying as many risks as possible,

to keep prepared of unsuspected negative outcomes, and ensuring efforts from team

members arent wasted. Some examples that should be considered as risks:

New requirements after the project has started

Unexpected budget change

Time and cost estimates not true to project

Lack of commitment from team

Team members involvement

The project manager will be the person that is responsible for ensuring the project

team completes the project, with direction from the project manager in a level that

has been appropriately designed. In the decision making stages gather input from all

team members and valuing their ideas, also providing an opportunity for the team to

participate gives a sense of ownership of the project. This engagement process

gains the commitment from team members to the project.

3.) Challenges faced my Project Manager

Different projects present different issues and challenges, the following are some of

the generic issues that every project manager must address;

Ensuring team members understand their responsibilities and are effectively

completing tasks on time.

Using communication tools such as publishing an organisational chart (which clearly

displays who has what roles, responsibilities, who to report and liaise with and set

deadlines) on the team noticeboard as well as regularly using the team newsletters

will ensure a smooth information flow throughout the project which will minimise

misunderstandings and is almost a full proof method of ensuring everyone knows

what they are doing. However, you must gain the teams commitment in order to

maximise team performance so they will meet deadlines. In order to achieve this,


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you could hold a team meeting and develop Key Performance Indicators with your

team and include them in decision making processes.

Ensuring quality results from your team.

As a project manager, you must ensure that the team has the right support (i.e.

training, additional resources assistance to those with disabilities, team members

that acquire extra supervision in order to meet deadlines) as they undertake their

tasks.

Using simple but effective tools such as supervising techniques to track team

members progress, feedback (i.e. sandwich technique), giving them encouragement

with positive reinforcement when they perform well, and holding regular team

meetings (with set agendas) will facilitate constant communication flow whilst

supporting the team during the project.

4.) Completion of project

Projects are about achieving set goals with minimum resources within a set time

frame. Completing accurate financial recordswill ensure that; the maintenance of

financial data is up to the companys standard, data was developed so it could

accurately be compared to original expenditure plan and the amount actually spent

(which can later be reviewed for continuous improvement), the data is supported by

sufficient evidence, the data is in a format that is easily accessible for reviewing and

that all financial data has been developed according to relevant laws. By combining

the process of completing financial records with ongoing monitoring of costs will

ensure that your team is performing at a profit and the original budget is not in

danger of being exceeded.

Assigning post-projectrolesto staff is a very important part during the completion

of a project. This is a professional and respectful way to appropriately conclude the

employment of all staff within the project (employees of organisation full/part-time,


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specialists, temporary contractors/casual staff) according to relevant legislations.

This is important in dealing with expectations from all of your staff so you can

properly address acknowledging contributions from specialists (with a letter/phone

call/report that show impact of their contribution) to recognise their efforts, preparinga report on current contractors/consultants on how well they performed or the

reasons as to why you do not wish to work with them in the future and to

appropriately reassign employees from the organisation (taking into consideration

the additional experience they have gained from this project).

Every project is reviewed after its completion for continuous improvement purposes.

One of the documents that will help during this process is a final project report.

When developing a project report you must include; executive summary (with

overview of project and outcomes), history of project, intended outcome, all

personnel involved, timelines, stages, budget, outcomes as well as issues and

difficulties and how you resolved them. These reports are compulsory for any

government-funded projects and are normally the project managers responsibility to

develop one. This is essential in facilitating continuous improvement since strategies

that were effective, lessons learnt and errors documented so you do not make the

same mistake in future projects.

5.) Reviewing the Project

As I have already briefly discussed, reviewing the project is a vital stage in project

management. It helps assess outcomes such as the achievement of set goals andidentify gaps in current processes and procedures that need to be noted for future

projects. This is so that the same mistakes are not made in future projects (not just

for your-self, but managers who undertake similar tasks in the future may be able

save more money and time since unforseen obstacles would have been identified in

the report). If a project report is not included in the completion of a project, you can

never learn from your mistakes which will lead to repetitive errors and leave no room

for growth.

manage projects final ass

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