Project Management: Understanding Complexity and Success Factors

This assignment delves into the world of project management, focusing on the complexities involved in managing projects. It discusses various aspects of project management, including risk management, stakeholder management, governance, and key success factors. The assignment also references several books and journals that provide further insights into project management concepts. It is essential for students to understand these concepts to excel in their academic pursuits and professional careers.

MANAGING PROJECTS

Table of Contents
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
1. Projects crucial characteristics................................................................................................3
2. Scope Statement and Responsibility of Work Breakdown Structure(WBS)..........................3
3. Gantt chart...............................................................................................................................4
4. Budget preparation approach which exists.............................................................................5
5. Project risk and action which are taken within project management as response...................5
6. Quality method ensuring project is completed successfully...................................................5
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Project can be defined as the activity prepared by the companies or individuals
comprising of tasks and is basically the road map defining goals. There are aims and objectives
which organizations wants to achieve so they make projects. . There can be business as well as
non- business objectives and projects of every organisation can vary depending upon the type of
work that include process, task and procedure. So companies should build a team who can
manage projects and this assignment will be dealing with different ways through which a
company can manage projects (Andersen, 2010). For this entire assignment, ABC Plc firm has
been selected which is UK's largest company in food and drink retailer sector. The organization
is going to acquire DEF Ltd which deals with street frozen food and the project manager is given
the duty of managing the resources, elements and budget of the company for acquisition.
TASK 1
1. Projects crucial characteristics.
When a company wants to achieve particular goals, they prepare a project. This can be
temporary, unique and progressive attempt so that they can come with some kind of tangible or
intangible results. Following are the characteristics of a assignment:-
A project is for the customer – Usually plans are made for the customers. Whatever project is
prepared by the company has a aim of satisfying and attracting the consumers through the
activities or strategies mentioned in the assignment..
Starting and Ending Point:- It has a time limit in which it will initiate and will terminate at
point. This will start by implementing the strategies or elements of the project in business and
will end when the target goals are achieved or when the manager thinks that now project cannot
last longer.
Requirement:- It has a unique set of requirements which to be satisfied by a material, design,
product or service.
Once off Endeavour:- A single project cannot last longer or does not prove to be beneficial
every time because demands and environment of the business changes frequently.
Cross Functional:- Project can be used at different places or can be functional at different
places.

2. Scope Statement and Responsibility of Work Breakdown Structure(WBS).
It is a statement which aims at identifying scope and target which a company wants to
achieve in a particular time period (Chen, 2011). Project Manager at ABC Plc should identify
areas where people requested scope but it was not approved to be included in the project. Project
Scope Statement include product scope, deliverables, constraints and assumptions. Company
requires a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) which is essential for managing a project and it
shows the complete scope of the project broken into manageable deliverables (Cooke-Davies,
2011). It is important because a project will take more time if WBS is not made and the
managers may also miss some important activities without it. Mangers through this will easily
break the work or task into smaller packages.
3. Gantt chart.

4. Budget preparation approach which exists.
Budgeting is a important task for a company because it controls the flow of money in a
business. So the ABC Plc who is doing acquisition need to make sure that their project manager
should prepare a budget by looking at different approaches. They should evaluate potential
expenditure or investments that are significant in amount. There will be large expenditure which
will include purchase of the fixed assets like land, building, new equipments and etc. The first
approach that the company should focus on is identifying the project and generation of a
proposal for investment. This proposal will include all the costs of the products which will be
added after the acquisition between both the companies. Next is selecting the correct criteria to
judge the desirability of the proposal. In this, company wants to match the objective of the firm
to maximize its market value. An estimation will be made to know the benefits and the costs in
acquisition. After that project is selected or finalized and through this firm will define the
objective of the acquisition. Approval of the project is based on the factors which decides that is
there any profit involved in it and what are the market conditions. The last step is the
implementation that means money is spent and thus process of acquisition takes place.
5. Project risk and action which are taken within project management as response.
Risk is an uncertain situation which brings different outcomes whether positive and
negative. In a business, risk can arise from different situation or factors like strikes, increase in
the competition, amendment in policies of government and when preference of the acquiring
firm changes. It is important that risk is managed properly and managers should adopt different
responses for handling the risk (DeMarco and Lister, 2013). He have to identify the risks and
find appropriate ways through using which they can overcome the risk. If the risk involves threat
then they can avoid, transfer, reduce, accept, contingency can be done. If the risk has positive
outcomes so he has the option of sharing, exploiting, enhancing and rejecting.

6. Quality method ensuring project is completed successfully.
It is a way through which manager at ABC Plc ensures that project is completed
successfully with positive outcomes. Quality methods include project evaluation, monitoring
and control (Eskerod and Huemann, 2013). Manager in the initial step should evaluate all the
activities of acquisition by tracking or monitoring them so that he could identify elements which
are affecting that particular task. Components can be positive and negative so they should try to
promote the positive factors so that the quality can be maintained and negative factors should
struck off who are acting as inhibitor.
TASK 2
Managing a project is a complicated task because in a single assignment there are lots of
activities involved in different stages of it like planning, executing, controlling and managing
are some of them When it is in progress manager should assign different work and make
members of the company aware about their roles (Jonny Klakegg and Haavaldsen, 2011). Aim of
acquisition is to expand the business at bigger level by increasing the production which will help
them in rising profit revenues . In this operation a detailed information about the acquisition is
described that how all the procedure will be carried out. Other than this, what will be the
strategy which they adopt for different activities.
Supervising a project is a art of planning, controlling and executing it, which ensures
that the decided operation is completed. Following are some activities executed in planning
process:-
Determining the condition of the source files and databases:- In the process of
acquisition ABC Plc need to be confident about the documents of DEF Ltd. The managerial
team should go through all papers and should check records of the company. Through this they
will able to know about the status of the merging firm by getting answers of some questions. If
they are facing any legal issues or violating any rules & regulation which are related to their
business made by the parliament of UK, this program will catch them. Such activity assures
that in future they don't have to worry about any problem arising related to law and legislation.
Determining or revise the cost estimates: They could have estimated cost before acquisition
but should not finalize that price, instead review of it is to be done. . Whatever the cost is
required in carrying out any business activity related to maintenance, technology, contractors

and training should be highlighted (Kandelousi, 2011). Other than this indirect costs like the
labour and transportation charges also need to be included with time estimate.
Risk assessment:- Duty of HR is to evaluate the risk involved in business. Manager can adopt
a strategy of checking out every step involved in acquisition and highlight the risk on the basis of
factors affecting the acquisition of both the companies. He should compare those risks on the
basis of their importance & level and make priority list that which issue will be resolved
resolved first.
Identification of success factors:- In this activity project manager try to find out those factors
which can play the role catalyst and help them in gaining competitive advantage. Such elements
should be supported and encouraged. These component represent business so its the duty of
administration to allocate more budget for them and make sure that these are handled by the
core team.
Preparation of Project character:- It is a document highlighting the roles, functions, shares
and ownership in the relationship between ABC Plc and DEF limited. In the process of
acquisition all the crucial tasks are decided through this written document. It makes it clear that
when certain activities will be carried out then only acquisition will take place (Lau and
Rowlinson, 2011). Project character is a detailed information of the project and covers all the
areas like cost, resources and expectations from each employ of the company.
Creating project plan:- Projects are prepared in forms of Gantt chart which reflect activities,
resources, dependencies and effort mapped out on a calender. Other than this both the companies
can use different methods of data representation . Budgets are allocated for each task of the
activities and what kind of training, members of the assignment will require is mentioned in the
plan.
Launching of the project:- This comes after the project plan is prepared which involves the
implementing process. It is the final task in which both the company's board directors agree with
each others terms and conditions or they come on a single agreement and pass the project further.
Communication channels are set for informing all its members and stakeholders about the
acquisition. Emails, newsletters & etc. can be used for contacting all the customers and members
of the company.
There are some skills which are required for handing the project, so undertaking
manager should have following skills for managing the tasks:-

Leadership:- This is the first skill which a manager should have because he is regarded as leader
who has the duty of guiding and assigning the task to the employees who are working under him
. Not only assigning the work is the function of manager but he also make sure that his team has
full confidence and skills to complete any task given to them.
Negotiation:- In the process of acquisition different situation mayarise where interest of both
the orgnaisation can strike and could leads to conflict between them. Manager final aim is to
successfully complete the process of acquisition so he assures that any dispute arising should be
resolved through negotiation. Negotiation can be done on some grounds where both the
companies can make profit.
Scheduling:- He should have the skill of arranging the time for every task because time
management is the ability which increase the productivity of the companies. All the activities of
acquisition should be pre planned or scheduled on different time. Schedule should be maintained
by supervisor and make sure that all the tasks are done on decided data &time.
Cost Control:- Any project which is to be implemented needs a particular amount of money
through which elements and activities of that project will be carried out. So manager should
have a skill of managing the money and make sure that in the given budget maximum output
should be there. Cost of the assignment depends upon different factors like what is the duration
of the project and resources required for different activities. After analysing these things he
should sketch a rough estimate that for these things particular amount will be required (Loch,
DeMeyer and Pich, 2011).
Risk Management:- All the businesses taking place between the companies involves some or
other risk with it. These unpredictable hazard affects them in a great way but there are
organisations who easily survive in these harsh situation because they have managers who are
expert in handling such unpleasant conditions. ABC Plc supervisor should develop skills of
managing risk. They should be flexible in handling any situation and should take steps to reduce
the risk creating factors.
Communication:- Project manager should have great communication skills because he has to
deal with every single individual who is part of the company directly and indirectly. He has role
of communicating with employees and stakeholders of the company on regular basis. Through
such activities he will able to know know their demand, requirement, opinion. He should

inform every employ about the progress, notification, information related to company through
newsletters, emails, meetings and conferences.
Quality management:- Maintaining the quality of the project is a skill if a manager have then
company he is been working for will be in big profit. Whatever task is done or in progress should
be completed properly whether it takes little or more time because maintaining quality is the
priority of ABC Plc.
Sense of Humour:- Managers takes decision so they need to have great sense of humour
because through this they can predict outcomes. They can easily prepare strategy which will be
dealing with uncertain situation coming in the way of the company.
Mentioned below are the some competencies:-
Decision Making:- Manager who is working for ABC Plc should take decision by analysing
facts and data of the company for that particular period. If they want to gather information for
this purpose so they should search data through different platforms. Decision can be based on
different scenario like if long term goal is to be achieved then judgement should be made by
predicting future outcomes.
Strategy Development:- It is necessary for every individual to understand complete project.
When everybody will be clear about their goals, they will just focus on what they wanted to do
and what all things they aim to achieve. By using performance indicators they can track or
monitor their progress.
Execution:- Workers of the company should be well versed with skills & knowledge and should
know how to tackle the risk which can arise in their way. Managers have to understand the
importance of training and should provide them training related to their tasks.
Team Management:- Team management makes task easy and reduce the work load from the
employees. It increases the productivity as well as profits and its the duty of manager to motivate
team members. He should make them believe that through team work they can perform activity
more efficiently and if they will be following this concept than they can take helpfrom their team
mates if they face any issue. Supervisor removes or solve the conflict which has arisen between
the team members.

Critical Thinking:- It is essential to identify the validity of the project and can handle the
objectivity of it. Managers can also combine their assignments with objectives related to cross
function (Müller and Jugdev, 2012).
Technical Competence:- There are some tools and techniques which are related to the task and
they can apply these tools in the plan.
Project Life cycle are the activities which are compulsory to achieve goals and objectives.
Every project has four stages whether project is small or big in size they have to undergo four
stages. Following are the project life cycle stages:-
 Initiation Phase:- This is the starting phase of the project and in this stage the manager
search opportunities, scopes and issues attached to it. Mentioned period deals with the
documentation process on the part of providing growth and development process for an
organisation. Development of the business cases are some activities which develop
feasibility study along with identification of project vision and objective that are to be
developed.
 Planning Phase:- In this process planning of the project takes place and includes
activities like identifying the resources which are required for carrying out the task
mentioned in the plan. They decides that in certain time they want to achieve desired
goals & objectives and for that they will adopt those different strategies. It is a crucial
stage as it decides the framework for the task and how they will be implemented (Pryke
and Smyth, 2012). Who all people will be the part of project, how much time or
duration will be there for project, from what sources budget or revenues will come, how
it will benefit the company and what are future benefits. Theseare the questions whose
answers are framed in this stage.
 Execution Phase:- Execution phase deals with the implementation of the project. This
is the stage which comes after planning process and whatever things were planned will
be executed in this period so that the desired goals can be achieved. It also include
monitoring, controlling and in this status reports are made or change management is
taken place. In this stage actions are taken so that organisation can reach the set targets.
If the deliverables produced are accepted by the clients or consumer the project can
move to closure phase.

 Closure Phase:- It is the completion stage or this is the period in which final products
and services are delivered to the target audience or customers. Other than this
contractors are terminated and all the members or stakeholders are informed about the
closure of the project. This stage involves stagethe study or research of the results and
project to find out what went well and what didn't. This can be said that this step is
done to conduct lesser learned studies. Such study or research will help the manager or
the project team to emphases on the task which has loopholes or was not carried out.
CONCLUSION
This is to conclude that managing a project is the task on which a proper emphasis
emphases should be given so that organisations can achieve the goals they seek for. All above
research project has given us detailed information about the skills and contingency which is
necessary for a project manager. With the help of WBS, they can divide tasks in small parts.
Acquisition betweeen both the both companies will give ABC plc competitive advantage and
help them in expanding their business.
REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Andersen, E.S., 2010. Rethinking project management–An organisational perspective. Strategic
Direction. 26(3).
Cavallo, A., 2010. Risk Management in Complex Projects. An exploratory study to managing
unknown unknowns in uncertain environments.
Chen, C.Y., 2011. Managing projects from a client perspective: The concept of the meetings-
flow approach. International Journal of Project Management. 29(6). pp.671-686.
Cooke-Davies, T., 2011, August. Aspects of complexity: Managing projects in a complex world.
Project Management Institute.
Cusworth, J.W and Franks, T.R., 2013. Managing projects in developing countries. Routledge.
DeMarco, T. and Lister, T., 2013. Waltzing with bears: Managing risk on software projects.
Addison-Wesley.
Eskerod, P and Huemann, M., 2013. Sustainable development and project stakeholder
management: what standards say. International Journal of Managing Projects in
Business. 6(1). pp.36-50.

Jonny Klakegg, O and Haavaldsen, T., 2011. Governance of major public investment projects: in
pursuit of relevance and sustainability. International Journal of Managing Projects in
Business. 4(1). pp.157-167.
Kandelousi, N.S., 2011. Key success factors for managing projects. World Academy of Science,
Engineering and Technology, International Journal of Social, Behavioral, Educational,
Economic, Business and Industrial Engineering. 5(11). pp.1541-1545.
Lau, E and Rowlinson, S., 2011. The implications of trust in relationships in managing
construction projects. International Journal of Managing Projects in Business. 4(4).
pp.633-659.
Loch, C.H., DeMeyer, A and Pich, M., 2011. Managing the unknown: A new approach to
managing high uncertainty and risk in projects. John Wiley & Sons.
Müller, R and Jugdev, K., 2012. Critical success factors in projects: Pinto, Slevin, and Prescott–
the elucidation of project success. International Journal of Managing Projects in
Business. 5(4). pp.757-775.
Pryke, S and Smyth, H., 2012. The management of complex projects: A relationship approach.
John Wiley & Sons.
Online
What is project management?. 2017. [Online.] Available through:
<https://www.apm.org.uk/resources/what-is-project-management/> [Accessed on 8th
June, 2017].
Welcome to the Project Management Guide by Wrike. 2017. [Online.] Available through:
<https://www.wrike.com/project-management-guide/> [Accessed on 8th June, 2017].