2011

Project Management Report

Faculty of Business and Law

Faculty of Business and Law

Table of Contents
1. Introduction to task 1 .................................................................................................................. 3 1.1. 1.2. 1.3. 1.4. 1.5. The Network Diagram ........................................................................................................ 3 Determining the timing of activities and the total float ........................................................ 4 Determination of project duration and its critical path ......................................................... 5 Determining the earliest finish date of the given project ...................................................... 5 Effect of delayed activities in the project duration ............................................................... 5 Delay in activity B by 2 days ...................................................................................... 5 Delay in activity P by 2 days ....................................................................................... 5 Delay in activity O by 1 day........................................................................................ 5

1.5.1. 1.5.2. 1.5.3. 1.6. 2.

Limitations of network diagrams ........................................................................................ 5

Introduction to task 2 ................................................................................................................. 6 2.1. Project management process .................................................................................................. 6 2.1.1. 2.1.2. 2.1.3. 2.1.4. Step I: Concept and Initiation ...................................................................................... 7 Step II: Design and Development ................................................................................ 9 Step III: Implementation ........................................................................................... 10 Step IV: Commission / Termination .......................................................................... 11

2.2. Problems concerned with project management ...................................................................... 11 2.2.1. Leadership problems ...................................................................................................... 11 2.2.2. Administration problems ............................................................................................ 13

2.2.3. Control problems ............................................................................................................ 13 Bibliography.................................................................................................................................... 15

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1.

Introduction to task 1

Juron Ltd. is a leading merchandiser in the sports market and is well known for supplying quality products including training shoes, t-shirts, tennis racquets and soccer balls. The company has received a fresh order of supplying a new range of soccer boots to the sector.

1.1. The Network Diagram

The Network Diagram as per table 1

Figure 1.1 Source: Author (2011)

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1.2. Determining the timing of activities and the total float

The timing of an activity can be judged through understanding the status of completion of the preceding activity. For example in the above activity chart, B succeeds A (Aronson, 2008). Therefore (A) (B).

This indicates that activity B can be initiated only once activity A finishes. So A is critical for B. Thus the timing for B would start after the completion of A and all such other activities critical for starting activity B. Here, we have taken only activity A to be the critical activity for B. However in real life scenarios there are numerous activities to be undertaken and completed before the next specified activity begins. Therefore the timing for such activity starts only once all preceding activities have been taken up and completed (Aronson, 2008). Total float is the time of delay that can be allowed in a specific activity after its earliest start date so as to not let this delay affect the project duration. This means that even if the specified activity starts after earliest start + total float days the projects still finishes on time (Gupta, 2008). Mathematically, Total float = Early start Late finish

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1.3.

Determination of project duration and its critical path

The duration of the project can be determined by calculating the early finish time of the last activity. The last day of the project determines project completion and the number of days taken to reach there since the beginning is the duration of the project (Harold, 2009). Critical path is such a chain of activities, which if delayed, would affect the duration of the project. The critical activities of the above scenario include the following chain in the same sequence: In other words the shortest duration of the project is called the critical path and thus the total float of all activities that is, of the entire path equals zero (Heerkens, 2007).

1.4. Determining the earliest finish date of the given project

Earliest finish of the project = Earliest start of the last activity + duration of the last activity (Kerzner, 2009). If the project starts on the 16th of January, it finishes on the 82nd day of its start. Considering a five day working week, its finishes on the 12th of May.

1.5. Effect of delayed activities in the project duration

1.5.1. Delay in activity B by 2 days If activity B is delayed by 2 days the, it would not affect the duration of the project because it has a float of 4 days, which means even if it get delayed by 4 days, it would not affect the timely completion of the project. 1.5.2. Delay in activity P by 2 days Since activity P is a critical activity the project will get delayed by 2 days. 1.5.3. Delay in activity O by 1 day Since activity O is a critical activity the project will get delayed by 1 day.

1.6. Limitations of network diagrams

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a) There could be potentially hundreds of thousands of activities involved in projects that need to be measured do determine the criticality of the project duration. Network diagrams lack that scalability required to design such activity chart. b) If done without usage of software, the diagrams can go haywire- requiring large amount of time, energy and other resources in the process. c) Once out of control and unruly, these diagrams become useless until redone all over again, utilising all the energy once again only to realise it may be required to be redone (Walker, 2010).

2. Introduction to task 2
Jimaga Ltd, started in 2005, is a SME involved in the business of specialisation in the design and supply of promotional brochures and serve mainly the local authorities, other SMEs, and sometimes by large global organisations. The stated problem Jimaga Ltd, is undergoing an expansion strategy of opening of a new office building which will target at and respond to business from large global organisations. The project is to be completed at the given time and within the given budget

2.1. Project management process

The task involves managing the entire project of opening the new building of Jimaga Ltd. The entire task is broken down into four basic phases of project management (Lock, 2007). These include: Step I: Concept or initiation

Concept or initiation, where the project starts off by the managers doing the feasibility study of the need that the project will fulfil. This step will look into the budget provided for the opening of the new building and the timeline that has been decided.
Step II: Design and development

Design and development, where the plans for implementation of the project will be scheduled and timelines and costs of each activity involved will be decided.

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Step III: Implementation The implementation phase, where the project will be implemented as the plan agreed, that is the building will be thrown opne for official use and the shortcomings and smooth operations will be looked at Step IV: Commission or termination This is the commission or termination phase where the building has opened and is functioning smoothly and the project will thus close formally. Diagrammatically the project life cycle can de depicted as per the following figure: Project life cycle

Figure 1.4 Source: (Meredith, 2008) 2.1.1. Step I: Concept and Initiation The following steps are to be taken in concept phase:

Data gathering

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Data gathering is done on the following parameters and the results have been depicted in the following table:

Data gathering table Data gathering points Number of employees who will use the building Processes that will be carried out of the building Data 100 y y Functionality required from the building y y completed The budget or the cost within which the project 8750 is to be completed Figure 1.5 Source Author (2011) y Identifying need The building is to be thrown open for use in 50 days from now and is to be completed within the budget of 8750. Sales Operations Sales oriented Operations oriented

The time by which the project needs to be 50 days

Establishing of goals and objectives, understanding the basic economics, drawing feasibility of the projects, knowing stakeholders, finding out the required skill set and identifying and putting together the potential team are the next crucial steps to be undertaken to carry on the project. a) The objectives of the project are clearly stated in the need that has been identified. b) The management and the global sales and operations team are the stakeholders of the project. c) The team required to carry on the project includes: 1) Cleaners 2) Painters 3) Electrical fitters 4) Other fitters 5) Final cleaners
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6) Security surveys d) The feasibility study will be done on basis of the following questions being asked and the feasibility will depend on the responses: Project Feasibility Study Feasibility characteristics Response How realistic is it to expect that the The project is to open the building for project can meet the office use, thus realistic stated objectives? How realistic are the project scope, The building is to be thrown open in 50 budget and time days in 8750, so realistic requirements? Are sufficient funds available to Yes the funds are sufficient

complete the project? Does the organisation technical expertise to accomplish the project? have the Since it is outsourced to technicians who are easy to find, so required technical skills are easily available Figure 1.7 Source Author (2011) Guestimate resources Following resources will be required to complete the project 1. Manpower 2. Material 3. Money y Identifying alternatives, presenting proposal and obtaining approval for next phase are a few more steps to be taken care of in this phase (Taha, 2007). 2.1.2. Step II: Design and Development

Appoint key team members At present the company employs i) 1 General Manager, ii) 2 Assistant Managers, iii) 3 Administration staff,
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iv) 5 sales staff, and v) 6 warehouse staff. And the task mentions that the staffing structure would be the mirror structure of the existing structure.

Develop scope baseline, Work breakdown structure, budget and activity chart Scope Baseline, WBS and Activity Chart

Activity Cleaning Electrical fittings Other fittings Set-up Final up Cleaning

Nomenclature A B

Dependence A

Duration 10 days 14 days

Budget 1000 2500

C D

A B, C D

5 days 10 days 4 days

2750 500 500

touch E

7 days

1500

Figure 1.8 Source Author (2011) Conducting studies, assessing risks, confirming justification, presenting project brief and obtaining approval to proceed are some of the other qualitative aspects of the step that would require to be carried out (Murthy, 2007).

2.1.3. Step III: Implementation y Setup has to take place in the sense that once the development phase is over and the entire layout of the project has been made, the implementation begins, where the actual work starts and the laid out activities are carried out in the pre-determined sequence. y The team has to be kept motivated throughout the implementation of the project. It is during the implementation phase that the key personal decide to leave the project in between. Most plausible reasons of doing so involve dissatisfaction with work, feeling
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over-burdened, de-motivated due to company policies or else some personal reasons. Thus, the manager requires people skills here to make things happen fro his team in every sense of the word. y Detail technical requirements are set and have to be implemented as per specification. Since technical requirements are critical to functioning of the business, it is utmost important to take care of the working of these technicalities. y Procurement of goods and services and direct monitoring when required, will have to be implemented. Other than that regular forecast and controlling measures will have to be carried out. Forecast and control involve scope of the project, quality, time and cost. y Resolution of problems will also have to be carried out as and when they occur.

2.1.4. Step IV: Commission / Termination y Finalise product(s) Now when the building is complete and ready in time to be fully functional, it has to be reviewed according to the standard of quality which have been set earlier. y Review and acceptance by the administration and the facilities department of the company will have to be done. The officials of facilities survey the entire structure to understand whether the completed project meets all requirements and is comfortable enough from operational point of view. y Documents are prepared for completion of the project and for commissioning of the same. The building layout and its safety standards are displayed to the facilities department. y The reusable resources used in the project are released from the project and updation are made with the internal operations management department.

2.2. Problems concerned with project management

2.2.1. Leadership problems a) Key staff leaving the project: In times when key staff leaves the project, it becomes very difficult to carry on with such critical activities that cannot be carried out without are expertise and know-how. These types of manpower problems do not have any
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contingency plans for them, since contingency here would means having an expert in back-up which is additional cost with no output. Also there is all probability that this resource would never be used (Wysocki, 2011). b) Motivational levels go down: While the project is at its peak time and all resources have been applied to take the project to its full swing, some of the workers and managers might get over-burdened with the stressful situation of short deadlines and scare resources, thus affecting their level of motivation of carrying out work any longer. The managers role here, is that of a mentor, who helps de-motivated staff to look at the bigger picture and find ways to keep them going. The manager can use the principle of Maslows Hierarchy of Needs to keep the employees motivated (Pride, Hughes and Kapoor, 2011). Maslows Hierarchy of Needs

Figure 1.9 Source: (Lock, 2007)

c) Information received too late so corrective action takes time: Lets imagine a scenario where workers suddenly stop coming to work one day. The information reaches the project manager and he tries to find out the main problem. Now he comes to know that the workers have not been working to their fullest capacity since the last 3 days and have decided to leave the project now since they have been demanding higher wages and their supervisors have been turning a deaf ear towards them. This is a classic example of a scenario where the information has reached the manager too late.
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3 days have already passed since the workers have not worked and this is the 4th day. In case it takes 2 more days to solve their issues, 6 days are lost in the process. Had the information reached the manager on the first day itself, it would have been easier to tackle it and would also have not resulted in lost output (Walker, 2010). 2.2.2. Administration problems

a) Some estimates overlooked: There may be instances were estimates of items have been overlooked. This involves especially large projects with lots of fine processes and materials required which could get missed out at the project cost/budget estimation level. Although they might seem small at their individual levels, once added up, they tend to become a substantial amount and could affect the overall project cost significantly (Daft, 2011). b) Policies or legislation of implementation change: Internal policies of the management could change during the project duration. Other than this external policy and legislative environment could also change due to which the project could get affecteddelayed or else completely abandoned. These typical scenarios will have to be thought about and contingency plans will have to be made before-hand so as to cope up with tem with ease. c) Cost of materials change thus budget of project gets affected: All materials are not bought together at the onset of a project, but are ordered and bought as and when required for specific activities. This involves a problem of price change. That is prices of materials if change, will affect the budget of the project. Therefore, a +-10% contingency in costs should always be kept so as to swallow the changes in prices (Dow, 2010). d) Contingency not available, so project gets affected: When cases arise of no contingency available, for example lead time of supply of material not taken into consideration and order arriving 3 days after the material lasted out, affects the timeline of the project, specially if such errors occur (Meredith, 2008). 2.2.3. Control problems a) Meeting quality specifications: All along the project, timely delivery and budget are the more important constraints for the delivery manager. In such cases, quality might be sacrificed for timely delivery of the project or else in a bid to stay within the

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budgeted costs. These constraints are contrary to the constraint of quality. Now the challenge before the project manager is to fulfil all constraints (Lock, 2007). Quality is a qualitative constraint and thus its measurement is tough. The project manager will have to develop benchmarks against which quality can be judged. Apart from this, each activity could have different benchmark standard of quality, depending on its type. The manager will have to take care of all these aspects when measuring quality (Harold, 2009). b) Control plans need constant updating and revision in terms of being accurate and realistic. But this update has to be undertaken only by managers authorised to do so. Ensuring that progress, expenditure and scope of the performance are all as per the expectations of the client is the biggest hurdle in completion of the project. Information regarding these parameters has to be collected electronically, manually, through meetings and on-site survey (Heerkens, 2007).

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Bibliography
Aronson, J.E. (2008) Operations Research: Methods, Models, And Applications, Texas: Information Age Pub Inc. Daft, R.L. (2011) Understanding Management, 7th edition, Mason: South-Western Cengage Learning. Dow, W. (2010) Project Management Communications Bible, John Wiley and Sons: Chicago. Gupta, P.K. (2008) Operations Research, New Delhi: S Chand & Company ltd. Harold, K. (2009) Project management : Case Studies, 3rd edition, Hoboken: Wiley. Heerkens, G. (2007) Project management : 24 lessons to help you master any project, New York: McGraw-Hill. Kerzner, H. (2009) Project Management A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling, and Controlling, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. Lock, D. (2007) Project Management, Burlington: Ashgate. Meredith, J.R. (2008) Project management : a managerial approach, 7th edition, Hoboken, N.J: John Wiley. Murthy, R. (2007) Operations Research, New Delhi: New Age International. Pride, W.M., Hughes, R.J. and Kapoor, J.R. (2011) Business, 11th edition, Mason: SouthWestern Cengage Learning. Taha, H. (2007) Operations Research : An Introduction, Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson Education. Walker, E. (2010) The Problems with Project Management, Chicago: McGraw Hill Prof. Wysocki, R.K. (2011) Effective Project Management : Traditional, Agile, Extreme, 6th edition, Indianapolis: Wiley.

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