Managing Operations & Projects

This document provides a comprehensive guide on managing operations and projects. It covers project overview, cost management, time management, risk management, and more. The document is suitable for students studying operations and project management.

Managing Operations &
Projects

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Project overview/ scope...............................................................................................................1
Project cost management.............................................................................................................3
Project time management.............................................................................................................5
Project risk management..............................................................................................................8
Project communication management.........................................................................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
In existing era, it is essential for companies to manage operations addition to projects.
Managing operations is related to approaching daily and strategic issues of business in
systematic ways (Awaleh and Engelseth, 2018). Similarly, managing project requires effective
planning, organising and controlling all the resources for accomplishing particular projects. The
report is about project plan of Bloomsbury Institute that wishes to organise a three day welcome
as well as induction event for coming academic year's intake. The plan covers key project area
including overview or scope, cost management, risk management and various other aspects.
MAIN BODY
Project overview/ scope.
Project description and objectives:
Description of project: Project overview is mentioned to brief precis of specific project
that other parties prefers to go through prior to making decisions (Basu, 2017). The project is
build for organising an event in context to Bloomsbury Institute so that thy can organise 3-day
induction addition to welcome event for upcoming intake of academic year. The event will held
on September, 2020 and on large scale. For this, various types of workings are to be executed in
sequential and effective manner. The project will be organised for the coming academic year and
for this suitable venue will be selected, stage will be designed, welcome facilities and different
segments will be arranged in which students and guardians will enjoy the event. Along with this,
certain influential speakers will be called that will motivate and influence students to work hard
in coming year.
Project Objective: The main objective to organise the three day event is to introduce the
students with the studies that they will undertake in coming year and the professors that will
guide them through out the academic year. With this event, the market and customer base of the
Institution will increase by 50% within 6 months and this will also help in facilitating intakes for
the next year.
` Project scope: The scope of the three- day project is wide as it involves proper planning,
organising and initiations for carrying out welcome and induction event. Following are some of
the project scope:
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 Deliverables: The deliverables of project includes activities related to work statement,
governance plan and an organised event.
 Outcomes of project: the main project outcomes of three day event are welcome speech,
introduction of learnings that students will perform in the upcoming year.
Assumptions: It is assumed that large population size of students will take part in the
welcome and induction event. Along with, it is also assumed that the project will require more
than 60 people as volunteers to execute all activities.
Constraints: The constraints that are involved in the project includes prediction of
participants number so that arrangements can be made properly. Along with this, choosing right
venue for the event, running short of time and involvement of limited people are some other
constraints associated with the organising three day event.
Project roles and responsibilities: Following is list of key project members that will be
involved in initiation to closing of three day event:
Project members Roles and responsibilities
Owners The owners of Bloomsbury Institute have key role and
responsibility related to administration of entire event and
overseeing that all activities are performed on time.
Project leaders Project leaders are generally responsible for ensuring well-balanced
and high level programme is organised as well as presented to
students.
Publicity chair Publicity chair have role and responsibility of promoting event to
potential delegates,students, wider media as well as authors.
Work breakdown structure: WBS structure is deliverable breakdown of entire project
into smaller elements. It is considered as key project deliverable which assist in organising whole
team work in manageable aspects. The WBS structure for the event is as follows:
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Project cost management
Cost breakdown and budget: Cost management refers to procedure which is followed
to estimate, allocate and contol costs associated with a specific project (Gomes, Small and
Yasin, 2019). With this, managers predict expenses for minimising chances related to becoming
over budget. It allows identifying together with approbating budgets and making provisions to
control spendings. All the project costs are identified and calculated in planning stage and are
approved prior to initiation of works. The activities that are part of cost management that
comprises planning and controlling resources that are related with a particular project. In context
to the event for upcoming academic year's intake, resources such as people, facilities, funds,
equipments and anything else which are required in completing all activities promptly. At the
time of initiating project management plan, all the resources are analysed properly and
requirements are identified for the distinct resources in order to ensure that all are arranged
effectively for achieving suitable outcomes for the project.
Budgeting is the procedure which is used to plan upcoming activities through setting
performance goals along with putting all in formal plan (Hill and Hill, 2017). It plays essential
part in project as it provides proper basis to control costs and expenses. Moreover, it specifies
about funds availability in order to manage all activities of event without any obstacles or delays.
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Budget plan is prepared for ensuring exact spendings that will be made in distinct types of
activities related to an event. For the welcome and induction event, budget plan states that £
78000 is allocated for completion of all activities successfully. As per the budget, funds are
allocated to all activities according to requirements and certain surplus amounts are hold for
meeting uncertain situations that might arise in the event. Moreover, budget is prepared through
considering estimates basis, contracts, activity cost estimates, resource calendars, schedule of
project and other aspects. Following is the budget for the three day welcome along with
induction event of Bloomsbury Institute:
Particulars Amount (In £ )
Event venue 10000
Stage formation 1500
Publicity 8000
Decorations 5000
Section formation 2200
Help desk formation 3800
Stationery supplies 5000
Speakers 7000
Food and Beverage 12000
Light and water 8000
Security 3900
Refreshments 6000
Other services 5600
Total 78000
Project cost baseline: Cost baseline is used for handling amount of money that is
predicted to be cost along with the duration when the funds will be spent in project (Kassel,
2017). It is in the time duration format that will be used in the Bloombery Institute event for
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computing, monitoring and controlling entire cost performance related to the plan. With the help
of it, the performances will be analysed on timely basis and accurate modifications will be done
promptly whenever required. On the basis of requirements to complete activities, expenditures
will be made in different time periods to gain actual performance progress. The cost base line for
three days event organised by the Institute is as follows:
Particulars I II III Total
Event venue 5000 3000 200 10000
Stage
formation
500 500 500 1500
Publicity 2000 4000 2000 8000
Decorations 1500 1200 2300 5000
Section
formation
600 600 1000 2200
Help desk
formation
800 1000 2000 3800
Stationery
supplies
1000 2000 2000 5000
Speakers 3000 2000 2000 7000
Food and
Beverage
5000 5000 2000 12000
Light and
water
3000 2000 3000 8000
Security 1400 1200 1300 3900
Refreshments 2000 2000 4000 8000
Other services 0 0 5600 5600
Total 25800 24500 27700 78000
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Project time management
Project activity/ duration and base table: Project time management states the time
which is spent on different activities to complete the project in successful manner (Marle and
Vidal, 2016). Outcomes of effective time management increases productivity and effectiveness
to huge extent. With this, appropriate time involved in completion of project are identified and
accordingly workings are initiated. It also helps in enhancing project effectiveness by managing
and completing activities on the time as ascertained. For the purpose of managing time for three-
day academic event, managers of Bloomsbury Institute will be using wide tools such as gantt
chart, network diagram and so on. The description of each are underneath:
Critical path analysis: It is a project management technique which is needed for
mapping all the essential and key tasks which plays important aspects in project completion. It
generally involves amount of time in which each activity will be finished and dependencies of
activities on others. It is majorly used by administrators of Bloomsbury Institute for setting
realistic deadlines of the event and tracking progress through out the way. Below is critical path
analysis of the academic event:
Project Network diagram: A visual representation related to schedule of project is
known network diagram (Mohagheghi and Aparicio, 2017). It assist in planning together with
tracking project from the initial duration to finish timings. It depicts arrows for activities as well
as nodes for events. Moreover, it represents all tasks, responsibilities addition to workflow for
event in graphical manner. It involves every single action along with results that are related to
the project and also assists project administrators about the scope of it. The managers of
Bloomsbury Institute use network diagram so that they can map out schedules, sequence of work
and track the event progress at each stage from initiation to completion. The network diagram for
the academic event is underneath:
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Project Gantt chart: A timeline that illustrates about the ways project will be run is said
to gantt chart. It helps in viewing individual tasks, sequence and duration of tasks of project.
Various types of tasks or activities are performed by Bloomsbury Institute to organise the
academic event and has prepared a graphical representation that shows start and end time of each
activity. This is done for calculating time that will are required in completing project. To prepare
the chart, various complexities are faced but at same time, preparation of it provides wide
benefits which makes it worthy and valuable. Following is Gantt chart for the Academic event:
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Project risk management
Risk identification, analysis and action plan:
Project risk management is a process that managers opt for minimising potential
problems that may leave negative impact upon timetable of the plan (Nicholas and Steyn, 2017).
In context to risk, it is unexpected event which affect people, resources, procedures and
technologies involved in any programme or event. In any project, managers face various types of
difficulties at the time of identifying along with naming uncertainities which arises in
undertaking activities. In association to the three-day academic event, managers have forecasted
the situations and identified the possible risks that can arise in future. With this, possible steps
are prepared to reduce unfavourable effects of uncertainties on the event.
Risk identification: Risk identification is done through using various tools such as
Delphi technique, Root cause analysis and assumption analysis. Some possible unfavourable
outcomes that are identified by Bloomsbury Institute managers are technical risks,
mismanagement of time and security risks that might arise in the event.
Risk analysis: After the risk identification, the next is to analyse the risks. In this, all the
risks are properly analysed and potential issues are identified that can impact negatively on
initiatives or activities of the project. Through this, various solutions are devised to mitigate them
and manage the situations effectively.
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Action plan: Risk register for the three day event is as follows:
Risk Severity Responsibility Mitigation actions Score Out of (10)
Technical risk High Technical
department
Effective and competent
technical team is build that
will check setting and will
also set alarms for alerting.
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Mismanagement
of time
Medium Managers To mitigate the risk,
managers will make
schedule, prioritise activities,
sets boundaries and will
account distractions so to
eliminate them from the
project.
5
Security risks Low Security team By setting protocols in
mobile devices, turning off
ports in desktops,
safeguarding techniques and
deploying all updates, it can
be mitigated.
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Risk Matrix: Risk matrix is mentioned to the matrix which is used while assessing risks
in order to define the level after considering the category of it (Rindova and Srinivas, 2017). It
generally increases uncertain visibility along with helps in managing decisions. Managers of
Bloomsbury Institute uses risk matrix to represent unfavourable which are involved in the event
project. With this, they assists administrators to prepare mitigation plan that will reduce impacts
of unwanted situations which can result in costing adversely. Risk response is other aspect that is
used to manage risk in project. It involves steps for controlling the identified risks. Using it,
managers of the institution decides ways to deal with all the risks promptly. For example, to deal
with technological risks, uncertainty risk and other, managers arranges effective and competent
technical service provider. The service provider will help in mitigating risks and will keep all
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actions ready for the unforeseen circumstances. The risk matrix for the Bloomsbury Institute is
as follows:
Risk level High Moderate Low
Likely Technical risk Technical risk Security risks
Possible Technical risk Security risks Mismanagement of
time
Unlikely Security risks Mismanagement of
time
Mismanagement of
time
Project communication management
Project stakeholders: Project communication management refers to the process which
ensures transferring of information as per project needs and stakeholders which are met by
artifacts development as well as execution of activities to gain effective information exchange
(Rathi and Zalzala, 2016). Communication in effective manner is essential for project success.
The stakeholders matrix for Bloomsbury Institute academic event are as follows:
LEVEL OF
INTEREST
LEVEL OF
INTEREST
LEVEL OF POWER HIGH LOW
HIGH Management Government
LOW Staff members Customers
From the above matrix, it is said that key stakeholders for the event are government,
managers, students and communities which have different interest and powers in the event:
High power and high interest: Managers of Bloomsbury Institute falls in this stakeholder
type as they have high interest and powers in organising the event.
High power and low interest: The government of UK is the key stakeholder which have
high powers for governing standards of project workings but low interest in what is going inside.
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Low power and high interest: The staff members of Bloomsbury Institute are the
stakeholders that posses low power for decisions and hight interest in organising the event.
Low power and low interest: Community are the main stakeholders that have low power
and low interest in the event related to next academic intakes.
Stakeholders Communication plan: Communication plan is said as policy driven
approach that helps in providing all the information to stakeholders (Sarkis, 2017). Effective plan
of communication comprises of stakeholder, communicator, status, comments, message, delivery
method and schedules. At Bloomsbury Institute, the communication plan is made up of purpose
of communication, identification of target audience, designing message, considering resources,
planning obstacles and preparing action plan. By introducing a proper communication plan, the
institute is able to create channels for communicating all the necessary message and information
to targetted audiences. Interactive communication, pull and push communication are some of
ways that managers will used by managers of institution to communicate with project team along
with external stakeholders that are associated with project.
CONCLUSION
The above report concludes that the managers must focus on all the activities related to
managing projects for gaining positive results. At the time of planning an event, administrators
of company should pay attention on various aspects that are project overview, management of
risks, time and cost along with prepare communication plan. When all these are effectively
executed then the event will be a successful one.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Awaleh, F. and Engelseth, P., 2018, December. Managing Outsourced Logistics Service Projects
as Complex Networked Resources. In 2018 IEEE International Conference on
Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management (IEEM)(pp. 1583-1587). IEEE.
Basu, R., 2017. Managing quality in projects. Routledge.
Gomes, C. F., Small, M. H. and Yasin, M. M., 2019. Towards excellence in managing the
public-sector project cycle: a TQM context. International Journal of Public Sector
Management.
Hill, A. and Hill, T., 2017. Essential operations management. Macmillan International Higher
Education.
Kassel, D. S., 2017. Managing public sector projects: A strategic framework for success in an
era of downsized government. Routledge.
Marle, F. and Vidal, L. A., 2016. Managing Complex, High-Risk Projects. London: Springer.
Mohagheghi, P. and Aparicio, M. E., 2017. An industry experience report on managing product
quality requirements in a large organization. Information and Software Technology, 88,
pp.96-109.
Nicholas, J. M. and Steyn, H., 2017. Project management for engineering, business and
technology. Routledge.
Rathi, D. S. and Zalzala, A. M., 2016. Business Modeling for the Sustainability of Humanitarian
Projects. In Managing Humanitarian Logistics (pp. 173-188). Springer, New Delhi.
Rindova, V. and Srinivas, S., 2017. Managing Meaning—Culture. In The Oxford Handbook of
Management.
Sarkis, J., 2017. Greener manufacturing and operations: From design to delivery and back.
Routledge.
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