Anita Vaughan DaEun Kim

Manage Projects Final Assessment

Part 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.

Page 1

Anita Vaughan DaEun Kim

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 such as 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 what the 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:

Page 2

Anita Vaughan DaEun Kim

Establish clear project goals Objectives First step would be defining and creating purpose and objectives of the project that will 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.

Page 3

Anita Vaughan DaEun Kim

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,

Page 4

Anita Vaughan DaEun Kim

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 records will 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-project roles to 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,

Page 5

Anita Vaughan DaEun Kim

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, preparing a 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 and identify 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.

Page 6