Course Report

Student name: Rocky Leroy Lumowa

Student email: [email protected]
Report date: 12 January 2021
Course name: Project Management

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 Course Report

Project Management

By :
Rocky Leroy Lumowa

Master of Business Administration

Singapore Business School
Contents
Course Report ................................................................................................................................................ 1
Report Assignment ......................................................................................................................................... 1
Course Report ................................................................................................................................................ 2
1. Introduction To Project Management .................................................................................................... 4
2. Change Management In Project Management ....................................................................................... 5
3. Phase 1 - What Is Your Project About ................................................................................................... 5
4. Phase 2 - What Has To Be Done In The Project..................................................................................... 6
5. Phase 3 - What Is Your Project Strategy................................................................................................ 7
6. Phase 4 - Assign Duration, Responsible, and Start date......................................................................... 9
7. Project Management Tools ................................................................................................................... 11
8. Conclusion............................................................................................................................................. 14
 1. Introduction To Project Management

⚫ What is a Project?
A project is basically anything which needs to get done over a period of time involving a group
of tasks, people, money and deliverables. Projects are temporary work efforts with a clear
beginning and end. Projects can be completely contained within a specific unit or department,
or include other organizations and vendors.

⚫ What is a Budget?
The Project Budget is a tool used by project managers to estimate the total cost of a project. A
project budget template includes a detailed estimate of all costs that are likely to be incurred
before the project is completed.

⚫ What is a Schedule?
A schedule is a timetable showing the forecast start and finish dates for activities or events
within a project, programme or portfolio.

⚫ What is Resourcing?
A resource is a necessary asset whose main role is to help carry out a certain task or project. A
resource can be a person, a team, a tool, finances, and time. Most projects require many
different resources in order to be completed. Resources should be assessed and allocated before
a project begins.

There is 4 phases of project time-line, these phases are :

⚫ Phase 1: Define project goal

The project goal refers to achieving a desired outcome (performance goal) at a specific end
date (time goal) employing a specific amount of resources (resource goal).

⚫ Phase 2: Activities list

Project Activity is basically a milestone, a section or a task that has many sub-tasks under it. In
simple words, any activity that requires a number of tasks to be completed in order to complete
that activity is known as a project activity.

⚫ Phase 3: Set project strategy

Project strategy is a direction in a project that contributes to success of the project in its
environment.

⚫ Phase 4: Define responsible, deadlines, and duration

A project can also be defined as a set of inputs and outputs required to achieve a particular
goal. Projects can range from simple to complex and can be managed by one person or a
hundred. A deadline is a target date indicating when you want a task to be completed. If
the deadline date passes and the task is not completed, Project displays an indicator.
A deadline is also shown as an arrow in the Gantt Chart view. Duration is the total time that it
takes to complete a project measured in work days, hours or weeks.
 2. Change Management In Project Management
Change management is the process, tools and techniques to manage the people side of change
to achieve the required business outcome. Change management incorporates the organizational
tools that can be utilized to help individuals make successful personal transitions resulting in
the adoption and realization of change.

Figure 1.1 - Change management in project management illustration

As shown above, both project management and change management support moving an
organization from a current state (how things are done today), through a transition state to a
desired future state (the new processes, systems, organization structures or job roles defined by
the change). Project management focuses on the tasks to achieve project requirements. Change
management focuses on the people impacted by the change.

Any change to processes, systems, organization structures and/or job roles will have a technical
side and a people side. Project management and change management have evolved as
disciplines to provide both the structure and the tools needed to manage and realize change
successfully on the technical and people side.

3. Phase 1 - What Is Your Project About

Based on Phase 1, a project cannot be separated from things like defining a project scope,
project time-line and / or a project goals. To define project goal we will use a example from
mobile application project for the public transportation in the city of Brussels. The mobile
application has to allowed the users to:

✓ Plan a route from point A to point B

✓ The user have to be able to see the time-line of each public transportation in the city
✓ The user have to be allowed to buy a public transportation ticket

The 3 (three) points above are the project goals for the mobile application project in the coty of
Brussels. Based on the example above what we can learn is, we have to be specific when
defining a project goal / scope, the more specific a project goal /scope the better a project will
be. Because it will make the project easier to understand and will produce a clear time-line and
clear delivery.
 4. Phase 2 - What Has To Be Done In The Project
Based on Phase 2, we must define all the action that we will need to do as a part of a project.
Things that we need to consider on defining the action / activity list as a part of a project are:

⚫ Functionalities activities
The function responsible for supporting Project Management in a number of activities
including planning, estimating, scheduling, budgeting, forecasting, and performance
measurement, evaluation and correction. The functions activities span across
all project phases.

⚫ Marketing activities
Marketing activities are all measures taken to achieve its marketing goals.

⚫ Integration activities
Integration activities is the coordination of all elements of a project. This includes coordinating
tasks, resources, stakeholders, and any other project elements, in addition
to managing conflicts between different aspects of a project, making trade-offs between
competing requests and evaluating resources.

⚫ Content activities
Activities related to images, text or any other piece of content that is a part of the project scope.
Images, logos, branding materials, call for actions, the text of the promotional materials, call to
action text, the website copy, Facebook page description. All the marketing components and
the functionalities have must have a content.

⚫ Design activities
The design phase is concerned with the physical construction of the system. Included are
the design or configuration of the network, design of user interfaces, design of system
interfaces, and security issues.

⚫ Actual work activities

All remaining or / and additional tasks that need to be performed in order to achieve the project
scope from the beginning of the activities (Functionalities till Design activities).

⚫ Team activities
Team building is a project focused process that builds and develops shared goals,
interdependence, trust, commitment and accountability among team members.

⚫ Resources activities
In project management, resources are required to carry out the project tasks. These can be
people, equipment, facilities, funding, or anything else capable of definition required for the
completion of a project activity.

⚫ Contracting activities
Contracting activities is the process of managing contract creation, execution, and analysis to
maximize operational and financial performance at an organization, all while reducing
financial risk. Organizations encounter an ever-increasing amount of pressure to reduce costs
and improve company performance
 5. Phase 3 - What Is Your Project Strategy

⚫ Define the Demo / Prototype related activities

Prototyping is a technique used to experiment with new ideas or concepts at relatively low
cost. Prototyping is used to model and create a functional form of a newly redesigned or
re-engineered component of a value stream. It is utilized to test alternative approaches and to
validate that they represent real improvements. The greatest value is to study changes that
could be very beneficial if implemented correctly, but could be extremely disruptive to the
enterprise if implemented incorrectly.
Prototyping is related to, but should not be confused with Simulation. Prototyping, in the
context of business re-engineering, is used to physically test components of a value stream in a
laboratory environment or control group setting. Simulation is used to model a complete value
stream and to test the effects of changes in variables associated with the value stream.
Prototyping often follows simulation to further validate the value of process changes.
Prototyping, in the context of information systems development, involves the development of a
component of an automated system (e.g. a horizontal prototype is paper-based; a vertical
prototype is an automated version). Generally, prototypes are used to demonstrate a model of
the human interface (i.e., screen design), although they may be developed for other uses, as
well such as value engineering and marketing purposes.

Prototype applications are:

✓ To determine how a solution will function before it is put in place in a department or

enterprise-wide.
✓ To determine the effect of change and verify the correctness and efficiency of a redesigned
component of a value stream.
✓ To capture information about functional requirements to enable more robust and complete
solutions.

⚫ Select the challenging tasks

We have to select the tasks that represent as a challenge in the project. Challenging tasks in a
project can come from a technical and non-technical perspective. Every project is unique and
every project has its own unique problems. The following are problems that generally occur in
a project:

✓ Keeping Teams on The Same Page

Managing a team that is widely spread out is one big challenge. Keeping your team on the same
page will make things happen interactively. Each team member will know exactly what’s
going on, what they need to do, and what each of them is working towards.

✓ Poorly Defining the Goals And Objectives

Poorly defined goals or goals without objectives pushes a project in danger. An important step
in a project is to define goals and objectives—and that becomes a major challenge. The project
managers and team members might not be knowing what exactly to expect from the project. If
the goals and objectives are not clearly defined, the project is doomed to fail. When no one is
aware of the what, why and when of the project, what will follow is a lot of confusion and
chaos.
✓ Unrealistic Deadlines
A big thing that most teams or project managers struggle is unrealistic to project deadlines and
expectations clients and stakeholders have from them. Most project timelines do eventually
slip due to the unrealistic ‘initial deadlines’. As we live in a world, where competition is getting
aggressive and targets are set either unrealistic or unachievable rather than driven by calculated
business requirements. From then, what begins is a desperate attempt where the team tries to fit
the requirements in the already drawn boundaries.

✓ Project Management Software

It can be tedious to identify the right technology for your project team that is within your
budget, to implement your projects. A well-designed project management software will ensure
that projects are progressing as planned and allow you to get visibility into all your projects. At
times, it can be difficult to find such a tool, especially those that meet your needs.

✓ Insufficient Team Skills

A team is as good as its team members. If team members are not smart or are not trained
enough to perform assigned tasks, it can put the development in a risky spot. But most of the
times, the team members are assigned on their availability, not for their expertise for many
projects. If team members are not skilled or trained enough to meet the challenges and
perform assigned tasks, it can put the development of the project in a risky spot. Some projects
are challenging or demand a certain level of knowledge and expertise, so it is up to project
managers to decide whether team members need to be trained or to add someone with the
required skills.

✓ Miscommunication
How many times have you heard of communication issues as an excuse or explanation to
unfinished tasks, projects don’t meet deadlines, conflicts or not working together?
Miscommunication, poor communication, is one of the biggest project management
challenges that get in the way to deliver projects successfully. Communication skills are the
project manager’s greatest asset. No matter if you are giving instructions, asking questions or
seeking information, there’s always a challenge to provide clear and open communication.

✓ Risk Management
Projects don’t go as planned is one of the major project management issues that project
managers have to deal with. Management experts can tell how seasoned a project manager is
with his ability to oversee risks that might creep up in a project any-time. These risks can be an
uncertainty in the financial market, hidden flaws in the project plan or unknown factors that can
impact the success of a project.

✓ Teamwork
Teamwork isn’t really teamwork unless the team actually works. A team consists of multiple
members, each having a different personality, managing and catering to their needs can be a
daunting task at times. With so many people working on a project together, there can be
disagreements and differences in a team that can have a negative impact on the project and
work environment.

✓ Lack of Accountability
Everyone wants accountability but a few teams have it. I’m sure we are well aware of the
challenge. A project manager has to make sure that the team is accountable throughout their
daily workloads.
 6. Phase 4 - Assign Duration, Responsible, and Start date
In order to develop schedule (Start date, Duration, and Responsibility), we first need to define
the activities, sequence them in the right order, estimate the resources needed, and estimate the
time it will take to complete the tasks.

⚫ Defining Activities
The activity definition process is a further breakdown of the work package elements of the
Work Breakdown Structure (WBS). It documenting the specific activities needed to fulfill the
deliverables detailed in the WBS. These activities are not the deliverables themselves but the
individual units of work that must be completed to fulfill the deliverables. Activity definition
uses everything we already know about the project to divide the work into activities that can be
estimated.

Expert judgments in the form of project team members with prior experience developing
project scope statements and WBS can help you define activities. If we were asked to manage
a project in a new domain, we might also use experts in that particular field to help define
tasks so we can understand what activities are going to be involved. We may want to create
an activity list and then have the expert review it and suggest changes. Alternatively, you
could involve the expert from the very beginning and ask to have an activity definition
conversation with him or her before even making your first draft of the list.

Sometimes we start a project without knowing a lot about the work that we will be doing
later. Rolling-wave planning lets you plan and schedule only the portion that we know
enough about to plan well. When we don’t know enough about a project, we can use
placeholders for the unknown portions until we know more. These are extra items that are put
at high levels in the WBS to allow us to plan for the unknown.

⚫ Activity List
Now that the activity definitions for the work packages have been completed, the next task is to
complete the activity list. The project activity list is a list of everything that needs to be done to
complete your project, including all the activities that must be accomplished to deliver
each work package. Next you want to define the activity attributes. Here’s where the
description of each activity is kept. It includes all the information you need to figure out plus
the order of the work. Any predecessor activities, successor activities, or constraints should be
listed in the attributes along with descriptions and any other information about resources or
time that you need for planning. The three main kinds of predecessors are finish-to-start (FS),
start-to-start (SS), and finish-to-finish (FF). The most common kind of predecessor is the
finish-to-start. It means that one task needs to be completed before another one can start. When
you think of predecessors, this is what you usually think of; one thing needs to end before the
next can begin. It’s called finish-to-start because the first activity’s finish leads into the second
activity’s start.

⚫ External Predecessors
Sometimes the project will depend on things outside the work we are doing.

⚫ Discretionary Predecessors
These are usually process or procedure driven or best practice techniques based on past
experience. There’s no necessity, it is just a matter of preference.
⚫ Mandatory Predecessors
Mandatory predecessors are the kinds that have to exist just because of the nature of the work.

⚫ Leads and Lags

Sometimes we need to give some extra time between activities. Lag time is when we
purposefully put a delay between the predecessor task and the successor. Lead time is when we
give a successor task some time to get started before the predecessor finishes.

⚫ Milestones
All of the important checkpoints of project are tracked as milestones. Some of them could be
listed in a contract as requirements of successful completion; some could just be significant
points in the project that we want to keep track of. The milestone list needs to let everyone
know which milestones are required and which are not. As we figure out which activities will
need to be done, we may realize that the scope needs to change. When that happens, we need to
create a change request and send it through the change control system.

⚫ Gantt Chart
A Gantt chart play an important role in a projects. Gantt chart is a time-line of a project. The
top of the chart shows the time frame and the left side of the chart lists the project activities. A
Gantt chart is a type of bar chart, developed by Henry Gantt, that illustrates a project schedule.
Gantt charts are easy to read and are commonly used to display schedule activities. These
charts display 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. Some Gantt charts also show the dependency relationships between activities.
Gantt charts show all the key stages of a project and their duration as a bar chart, with the time
scale across the top. The key stages are placed on the bar chart in sequence, starting in the top
left corner and ending in the bottom right corner. A Gantt chart can be drawn quickly and easily
and is often the first tool a project manager uses to provide a rough estimate of the time that it
will take to complete the key tasks. Sometimes it is useful to start with the target deadline for
completion of the whole project, because it is soon apparent if the time scale is too short or
unnecessarily long. The detailed Gantt chart is usually constructed after the main objectives
have been determined.

Figure 5.1 - Gantt chart example

Gantt charts are relatively easy to draw by hand, but this doesn’t offer the same level of
flexibility during monitoring that we would get from a software package. Various programs are
available to assist project managers in scheduling and control. Once the data have been entered,
a program helps you to work on “what if” scenarios, showing what might happen if a key stage
is delayed or speeded up. This is more difficult if you are working manually.

⚫ Creating the Network Diagram

Many project managers use network diagrams when scheduling a project. The network
diagram is a way to visualize the interrelationships of project activities. Network diagrams
provide a graphical view of the tasks and how they relate to one another. The tasks in the
network are the work packages of the WBS. All of the WBS tasks must be included in the
network because they have to be accounted for in the schedule. Leaving even one task out of
the network could change the overall schedule duration, estimated costs, and resource
allocation commitments.
The first step is to arrange the tasks from your WBS into a sequence. Some tasks can be
accomplished at any time throughout the project where other tasks depend on input from
another task or are constrained by time or resources.

Figure 5.2 - The relationship between the work breakdown structure (WBS) and the network diagram

The WBS is not a schedule, but it is the basis for it. The network diagram is a schedule but is
used primarily to identify key scheduling information that ultimately goes into user-friendly
schedule formats, such as milestone and Gantt charts. The network diagram provides important
information to the project team. It provides information about how the tasks are related, where
the risk points are in the schedule, how long it will take as currently planned to finish the
project, and when each task needs to begin and end.

⚫ The Critical Path

The critical path describes the sequence of tasks that would enable the project to be completed
in the shortest possible time. It is based on the idea that some tasks must be completed before
others can begin. A critical path diagram is a useful tool for scheduling dependencies and
controlling a project. In order to identify the critical path, the length of time that each task will
take must be calculated.

7. Project Management Tools

Project management tools helps project managers, or PMs, manage projects. Project
management tools can installed on premise, but many new tools are offered online as a Saas.
They offer features to make charts and reports, share documents, track budgets, allocate
resources, manage tasks, plan projects, and communicate with teams.
Project management tools example:

✓ Scoro

✓ ProofHub

✓ Basecamp
✓ Asana

✓ Podio

✓ Workzone

There are still many types of project management tools that can help a project manager on a
project. The example above only represents a few types / types of the various project
management tools.
 8. Conclusion
Project management is very diverse and a project manager should be well adapt on problems
and on factors surrounding initiation to be able execute a good decision, and be able to
complete the projects with a good result. Changes in a projects are likely to slow down the
progress of the project but with good leadership and management skills, it will be easy to
complete within the allocated resources and time. The presence of many project methodologies
and project management tools / software should be taken as an advantage because of the
perceived wide selection of methods and tools.

*END OF REPORT*