Managing Projects: Characteristics, Reasons for Failure, Teamwork, Knowledge Areas, Project Manager Attributes, Benefits of Network Diagram

This document provides an overview of managing projects, including the characteristics of projects, reasons for project failure and going over budget, the importance of teamwork in project management, knowledge areas in project management, attributes of a project manager, and the benefits of using a network diagram in project planning and control.

MANAGING PROJECTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................6
Project Initiation Document.............................................................................................................6
Planning.........................................................................................................................................10
Execution.......................................................................................................................................15
Monitoring.....................................................................................................................................16
Closure...........................................................................................................................................17
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................18

TASK 1
1. Characteristics of project
A project is a progressive, unique yet temporary attempt to produce any type of
tangible or intangible result such as a service, competitive advantage, benefit etc. Project
includes interrelated tasks planned for execution over a fixed period of time. The key
characteristics are: Temporary as the project has a finite end; unique, as it aims at
producing deliverables; progressive as it needs continuous improvement and
comprehensive plans.
1b. Reasons why projects fail and run over budget
Major causes of projects getting late, failed or over budget are inexperience of the
project leader, poor communication and management of workforce, losses by damage or
malfunctions, human errors, absenteeism of staff, poor relationship with vendors and
suppliers, poor workmanship, making unnecessary changes along the way, lack of
foresight and poor allocation of resources (Papke-Shields and Boyer-Wright, 2017).
2. Stages and project benefits of well-structured project
The five stages in project management are:
 Project Initiation- Start of project, defining of goals, feasibility analysis at broad
level.
 Project Planning- Smart and clear goals are established and roadmap is built. The
cost, quality, resource allocation and scheduling are conducted and roles are
defined.
 Project Execution: Deliverables are developed and task like development of team,
resource assignment, execution of project plans, procurement, status meeting,
updating project schedules and modification of plans.
 Project monitoring: KPIs are monitored, progress in measured to ensure if project
is on track.
 Project Closure: Completion of project, Feedback, termination of workforce.
Major benefits of project management are that: it improves productivity, reduces
workload and costs, improves collaboration, enhances customer satisfaction, improves
performance, effective problem resolution.
3

3. Teamwork in project management
Good teams in any project help in achieving the goals of the project and overall
management efficiently and on time. They work collaboratively and coordinate better
amongst each other, encourage risk taking, build trust, bring diverse strengths together,
increase accountability, keep on getting feedback, better leadership and conflict
resolution. Bad teams on the other hand lead to waste of resources, issues in
collaboration, improper management, unable to solve complex problems etc (Driskell,
Salas and Driskell, 2018).
4. Knowledge areas in project management
Nine knowledge areas of project management are integration, cost, scope,
workforce, time, quality, communication, risk and stakeholder. Risk management is the
categorisation and prioritisation of risks that could potentially occur during execution,
and is done by creation of a risk register. Contingencies and controlling methods are
evaluated. Time management is done by dividing tasks into scheduled deadlines,
allocated budgets and phases of completion for achieving milestones and targets
(Nguyen, Chih and García de Soto, 2017).
5. Attributes of a project manager
A successful project manager has the ability to organise and delegate, has wis and
flexibility, balances logic with creativity, good communicator, leadership and
management qualities, technical expert, decision maker, problem solver, good negotiator.
Decision making is important as within the course of project, decision in terms of costs,
tasks, procurement, workforce etc, have to be taken and acted upon. Communication
skills are significant as the project manager has to connect with people at all levels and
clearly explain vision and mission of the project to all levels of workers (Tabassi and
et.al., 2016).
6. Benefits of using a network diagram
A network diagram is the graphical representation of all the responsibilities and
tasks that are undertaken in a project. It is utilised for mapping out the entire schedule
and the sequence of work in the project and tracks the progress of every phase of work
from beginning to conclusion. The major benefits are justification of estimated time and
4

interrelation of activities. It can be used to determine critical path and is beneficial for
planning, organising and controlling the activities of the project and show interdependent
activities. It also relays the workflow of the activities, show progress and opportunity to
compress the schedule (Poinet, Stefanescu and Papadonikolaki, 2020,).
Critical path is the longest path for the project which is also the shortest duration
possible in which all essential activities can be conducted.
Path A= [1,2,3,5,7] = 3+ 7+ 6+ 6+ 10 = 32 weeks
Path B= [1,2,4,6,7] =3+ 7+9 +8+ 10 = 37 weeks {CRITICAL PATH}
S. No. Tasks Preceding Time (Weeks)
1 A - 3
2 B A 7
3 C B 6
4 D B 9
5 E C 6
6 F D 8
7 G E, F 10
NETWORK DIAGRAM FOR THE GIVEN PROJECT
B
Sta rt: Fri 13-11-20 ID: 2
Finis h: Thu 31-12-20Dur: 7 wks
Res:
C
Start: Fri 01-01-21 ID: 3
Fi ni s h: Thu 11-02-21Dur: 6 wks
Res:
D
Start: Fri 01-01-21 ID: 4
Fi ni s h: Thu 04-03-21Dur: 9 wks
Res:
E
Sta rt: Fri 12-02-21 ID: 5
Finis h: Thu 25-03-21Dur: 6 wks
Res:
F
Sta rt: Fri 05-03-21 ID: 6
Finis h: Thu 29-04-21Dur: 8 wks
Res:
G
Sta rt: Fri 30-04-21 ID: 7
Finis h: Thu 08-07-21Dur: 10 wks
Res:
A
Sta rt: Fri 23-10-20 ID: 1
Finis h: Thu 12-11-20Dur: 3 wks
Res:
2 3
4
5
6
71
5

TASK 2
Project Initiation Document
Objectives
This project is aimed at installation, testing and commission of the IT and communication
infrastructure in the new construction of a conference centre, to be called, “The Pandemic
Centre” in the Docklands area of London, United Kingdom.
 The successful development and establishment of all the phases of the project including
initiation, planning, execution, control and monitoring and closure.
 To achieve the primary goal of timely installation of all the required equipment and
infrastructure in the conference centre effectively and optimize all necessary inputs.
 To appropriately follow all required needs of the client and reform the vision for the
project accordingly.
 To provide guidance, appropriate supervision and communicate effectively with all the
team members and workers associate with the project.
Timescale
The total duration for the project will be a period of 15 months, totalling to 460 days.
Scope
The project needs are timely delivery of all the required installations in the construction
building of the pandemic centre with all requirements like provision of IT facilities for marketing
and booking, TV and telephone provision for Conference and activity Halls, CCTV, and
appropriate IT facilities in meeting rooms and in conference centre. The major requirements are
IT materials and equipment, timely commitment, collaboration, relationship and trust with the
vendors and suppliers, effective coordination with stakeholders specially workers and client.
Stakeholder Analysis
Stakeholders Significance
Client/ Customer The entire project will depend upon the needs and requirements of
the client who are constructing the pandemic centre. All activities
have to be in sync with their demands and have to keep them
periodically updated and ask for relevant modifications. The
quality of all installations has to be as per the requirements of the
6

client.
Employees and workers Employees associated with all departments from procurement,
engineers, installers, quality analysts, supply-chain workers,
transportation workers, labour etc. have to be trained efficiently.
Employee legislation, remuneration, health and safety interests
have to be taken care of.
Sponsors All the financial sponsors of the IT company who have invested
in the project have to be kept update at periodical meetings
regarding the progress.
Executives The top management of the IT company who take major decisions
have to be kept updated regarding needs and progress of the
project. Any problems with the client regarding the contract of the
project will have to be updated to the executives.
Vendors and suppliers Effective communication and good relationships with all vendors
and suppliers have to be built as the IT company will procure
materials and equipment from them at regular intervals and they
are highly important for timely progress of the project
(Elias, 2016).
Budget
Particulars Amount (£)
1.
Operating
Expenses
480,000
Salaries and Wages 100,000
Insurance 10,000
Legal Expenses 15,000
Transportation and Travel 45,000
Shipping and delivery 30,000
Maintenance and Repairs 20,000
Procurement Expenses 10,000
Installation expenditure 65,000
Quality Check and Testing 40,000
7

General administration 35,000
Taxes, duties, licensing 10,000
Supplies 50,000
Electricity 40,000
Miscellaneous 10,000
2. Non-
operating
Expenses
Hardware Equipment 304,000
Tv screens 30,000
CCTV 14,000
Computer systems 45,000
Smart Board & projection screens 50,000
Distributed Antenna System 100,000
Audio equipment 15,000
Digital projectors 10,000
Printers 6,000
Intercom/Telephones 4,000
Wi-Fi Routers and Network Hardware 12,000
Miscellaneous Parts 9,000
Software 45,000
Marketing Information and Booking system 15,000
Cybersecurity Tools 13,000
Digital signage 10,000
Other software 7,000
Total expenditure 820,000
Risk register
8

Risk Description Probability
On a scale
from 1 to 5
Impact Mitigation Strategy
Operational
risk
These risks might
include poor
implementation and
problems in processes
like procurement,
installation,
transportation etc.
4 High Contingent plans,
adjustment in existing
process, centralised
documentation,
automated procurement,
Cost risk This refers to the risk
associated with finances
and quotations of
equipment which might
differ across vendors and
suppliers, and its
instability can increase
the budget
3 High Creation of contingency
budget for additional
costs that can be
potentially incurred,
short term loans should
be available, clarification
and negotiations, explore
other low-cost options
Labour strike This risk can occur when
workers of a particular
department unionise and
declare strike, most
frequently transportation
workers tend to
announce strikes.
2 High Engaging workers on
fixed term contracts,
drafting in employees
from other parts of
business, maintaining
project as usual, non-
union employee should
be hired
Communication
risks
This risk can delay the
project or result in
project failure if
communication and
collaboration between
3 Moderate Reassigning the
departments and staff,
conflict resolution,
employee engagement,
changing teams, create
9

employees and
management is poor.
and maintain trust
Time risk This risk can result in
delay in project, it will
happen when the
construction doesn’t
coincide with installation
or equipment don’t
arrive on schedule.
2 Low Communication to
executive management,
On-spot hiring for faster
completion, switching
vendors to local
suppliers (O'Har, Senesi
and Molenaar, 2017).
Planning
Task management
S.
No.
Task Name Duration Start Finish Predec
essors
1 IT and Communication
Infrastructure installation
460 days Fri 23-10-20 Thu 28-07-22
2 Initiation 30 days Fri 23-10-20 Thu 03-12-20
3 Business analysis 20 days Fri 23-10-20 Thu 19-11-20
4 Feasibility analysis 10 days Fri 20-11-20 Thu 03-12-20 3
5 Planning 80 days Fri 04-12-20 Thu 25-03-21
6 Budgeting 20 days Fri 04-12-20 Thu 31-12-20 4
7 Recruiting Human
resources
60 days Fri 01-01-21 Thu 25-03-21 6
8 Quotation identification 10 days Fri 04-12-20 Thu 17-12-20 4
10

9 Conference Centre
requirements
20 days Fri 18-12-20 Thu 14-01-21 8
10 Equipment identification 15 days Fri 15-01-21 Thu 04-02-21 9
11 Execution 265 days Fri 05-02-21 Thu 10-02-22
12 Developing Teams 30 days Fri 05-02-21 Thu 18-03-21 10
13 Assigning resources 20 days Fri 19-03-21 Thu 15-04-21 12
14 Procurement management 100 days Fri 16-04-21 Thu 02-09-21 13
15 Status Meetings 30 days Fri 16-04-21 Thu 27-05-21 13
16 Tracking systems 15 days Fri 28-05-21 Thu 17-06-21 15
17 Installations 170 days Fri 18-06-21 Thu 10-02-22 16
18 Monitoring 120 days Fri 11-02-22 Thu 28-07-22
19 Key performance
indicators
30 days Fri 11-02-22 Thu 24-03-22 17
20 Quality check of
deliverables
60 days Fri 25-03-22 Thu 16-06-22 19
21 Cost tracking 30 days Fri 17-06-22 Thu 28-07-22 20
22 Dealing with project
performance issues
30 days Fri 25-03-22 Thu 05-05-22 19
23 Closure 45 days Fri 06-05-22 Thu 07-07-22
24 Deliverables to client 30 days Fri 06-05-22 Thu 16-06-22 22
25 Feedback 10 days Fri 17-06-22 Thu 30-06-22 24
26 Releasing resources 5 days Fri 01-07-22 Thu 07-07-22 25
Gantt Chart
11

Network Diagram (critical path)
Work breakdown Structure
12

Procurement Planning:
13
IT and Communication
Infrastructure installation
Initiation Planning Execution Monitoring Closure
Business
analysis
Feasibility
analysis
Budgeting
Recruiting
Human
resources
Quotation
identification
Conference
Centre
requirements
Equipment
identification
Developing
Teams
Assigning
resources
Procurement
management
Status
Meetings
Tracking
systems
Installations
Key
performance
indicators
Quality
check of
deliverables
Cost tracking
Dealing with
project
performance
issues
Deliverables
to client
Feedback
Releasing
resources

This is the process of identification and consolidation of requirements of the project, that
is installation, testing and commission of IT and communication equipment in the conference
centre i.e., the pandemic centre. The first step in the procurement planning is to evaluate the
needs of the conference centre by collecting the list of needs after evaluation of the centre and
communicating with other departments. The prices for required equipment will be then
researched in various markets like local vendors and suppliers, specific markets, online market
and then costs will be quoted to the suppliers (Nielsen and Saha, 2018). Quotations will be based
on the number or quantity of products required for installation across every meeting rooms in the
conference centre. Interrelationships among all the materials will be identified along with the
scheduled lead times. Procurement methods will be evaluated, that are, competitive bidding,
proposals, quotations requests, sample request and direct purchases. The identified requirements
for the conference centre are: The IT equipment that have to procured at constant intervals from
various vendors and suppliers are: Tv screens, Smart Board & projection screens, CCTV,
Computer systems, Audio equipment, Distributed Antenna System, Wi-Fi Routers and Network
Hardware, Digital projectors, Printers, Intercom/Telephones. A list of vendors and suppliers has
to be generated, preferably from London and Other countries for specialised equipment. After
finalising the suppliers, negotiations of contract terms will be conducted with the aim to get the
lowest prices. When the purchase order is finalised, invoices will be received and payment will
be processed. It is necessary to document every invoice (Farhat and et.al., 2017).
Human resource planning
Human resource refers to all the workers, staff and employees involved in the project at
multiple levels across various departments like technical, procurement, quality management etc.
In order to plan for employing all required workers for the project, a workforce planning has to
be conducted. The current human resource capacity present in the IT company HCL has to be
assessed along with their skills, competencies, experience, age, performance ratings and see if
they are sufficient for all major tasks in the project. The further requirements for workers in other
departments has to be forecasted and recruitment plan has to be created. All the workers have to
recruited and selected on a contractual basis for a period of not more than 15 months. The
various recruitments include work profiles like engineers, quality managers, business analysts,
technicians and mechanics, electrical repairers and electronics installers, General maintenance
and repairers, Line installers to install electrical power systems, telecommunication cables and
14

fibre optics, transportation workers, procurement and operational assistants, IT engineers,
Electrical engineers, Headend technicians etc (Browne and et.al., 2016.).
Execution
Assigning resources and developing teams:
execution phase aims at improving the internal and external interactions of all workers
and then they are divided into various teams according to the nature of work, tasks and project
objectives. Various tools and techniques will be used at this stage such as focussing in
interpersonal skills of all workers, recognition of their strengths and weakness and the project
manager has to become a facilitator of all valuable assets required by the teams. A focussed
training has to be given as per the requirement of technical skills through coaching, mentoring
and performance appraisals. Accurate measurement of team members according to the schedule
of activities has to be evaluated. All human resources will be assigned for various tasks on the
schedule plan (Nasirian and et.al., 2019).
Procurement management:
The procurement plan will be implemented at this stage and aim will be to reduce costs
and time in processing, fewer exceptions, improving compliance, Enhancing spend visibility,
improving speed management, increasing the productivity of the purchase department and more
time will be spent on negotiation and procuring high quality equipment from suppliers. An
overall monitoring of the supply chain has to be conducted at multiple intervals. Automated
procuring has to be implemented and all activities of purchase requisition, vendor management,
contract management, removing chaos, approving workflows, integration and storage has to be
monitored (Marion, Richardson and Earnhardt, 2016).
Tracking systems
Project tracking software and management tools have be used to overview the progress of
project according to needs of the client, stakeholders, departments. The activity and timing for
every task has to be recorded. All the project targets and milestones have to be assigned, file
management and documentation has to be evaluated and maintained.
Status meetings
To monitor the progress of all plans and activities in the project, monthly status meeting
has to be conducted by the project manager, where all feedbacks from employees, problems in
15

continuing tasks, technical and managerial problems, problems of remuneration etc. have to be
discussed.
Updating project schedule and plan
As per the changes asked by the clients, all the tasks and activities have to be updated and
the modifications have to be made in the entire plan like recording new estimates, assessment of
availability of resources, added costs and new hiring etc.
Monitoring
KPI: All the key performance indicators have to be estimated in alignment with
objectives like Installations in meeting rooms on the first floor in 3 months or Completion of the
wired connectivity in the entire conference centre by 3rd quarter. Other broad KPIs are as
follows:
 Return on investment.
 The percentage of cost variance.
 Deviations of the planned budget.
 Deviation in the planned hours of activities.
 The percentage of milestones missed.
 Resource capacity
 Cost performance index
 Schedule performance index (Kerzner, 2017)
On schedule measurement: Monitoring if all activities are being completed on allotted time and
the duration of the achievement of milestones is not higher than the estimated and planned time.
Quality of deliverables: The quality of all equipment installed has to be check using various
testing methods. The functioning has to be tested thrice before it is configured ready for usage.
Cost tracking: The finances and costs of all procurement materials have to be tracked on regular
intervals to see if the project is not going over the budget
Project performance issues: As a project manager, various project management issues and
challenges will be presented, which include leadership issues, administration issues,
communication issues, excessive absenteeism, team member missing the deadlines on a constant
basis, team members delivering poor quality, conflicts amongst team, conflicts between top
management and employees. Employees may also tend to have low morale, monotony, lean
16

funding, etc. In order to overcome these challenges, effective leadership and management
qualities have to be implemented such as planning and portfolio management, motivational
techniques, total quality management, kaizen, just-in-time, lean management, conflict resolution,
appropriate mentoring and guidance, problem and grievance redressal etc (Nen and et.al., 2020).
Closure
This is the final stage of the project management where the project is formally closed. It
will involves activities like handling over the deliverables to the client, that is installation of all
IT and communication equipment will be finished and handed over to the conference centre
company, recognition of teams, passing the documentations to HCL, cancelling all the contracts
of temporary/contractual employees, suppliers and vendors, releasing all resources and staff ,
informing all stakeholders regarding the closure of the project and getting feedback from the
client. A post project review can also be initiated along with final review of the performance
(Bengtson, Havila and Åberg, 2018).
17

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bengtson, A., Havila, V. and Åberg, S., 2018. Beyond project closure: Why some business
relationships recur in subsequent projects. Project Management Journal, 49(2), pp.89-
104.
Browne, W., and et.al., 2016. Two Key Success Factors for Global Project Team Leadership:
Communications and Human Resource Management. Journal of Information Technology
& Economic Development, 7(2).
Driskell, J.E., Salas, E. and Driskell, T., 2018. Foundations of teamwork and
collaboration. American Psychologist, 73(4), p.334.
Elias, A.A., 2016. Stakeholder analysis for Lean Six Sigma project management. International
Journal of Lean Six Sigma.
Farhat, M., and et.al., 2017. Procurement planning with batch ordering under periodic buyback
contract. IFAC-PapersOnLine, 50(1), pp.13982-13986.
Kerzner, H., 2017. Project management metrics, KPIs, and dashboards: a guide to measuring and
monitoring project performance. John Wiley & Sons.
Marion, J.W., Richardson, T. and Earnhardt, M., 2016. Project execution: A research agenda to
explore the phenomenon. The Journal of Modern Project Management, 4(1), p.70.
Nasirian, A., and et.al., 2019. Optimal work assignment to multiskilled resources in prefabricated
construction. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 145(4), p.04019011.
Nen, A.N.C., and et.al., 2020. Issues and Challenges Contributing to Complexity in
Infrastructure Project Performance. In Charting a Sustainable Future of ASEAN in
Business and Social Sciences (pp. 99-111). Springer, Singapore.
Nguyen, L.D., Chih, Y.Y. and García de Soto, B., 2017. Knowledge areas delivered in project
management programs: exploratory study. Journal of Management in Engineering, 33(1),
p.04016025.
Nielsen, I.E. and Saha, S., 2018. Procurement planning in a multi-period supply chain: An
epiphany. Operations Research Perspectives, 5, pp.383-398.
O'Har, J.P., Senesi, C.W. and Molenaar, K.R., 2017. Development of a risk register spreadsheet
tool for enterprise-and program-level risk management. Transportation research
record, 2604(1), pp.19-27.
Papke-Shields, K.E. and Boyer-Wright, K.M., 2017. Strategic planning characteristics applied to
project management. International Journal of Project Management, 35(2), pp.169-179.
Poinet, P., Stefanescu, D. and Papadonikolaki, E., 2020, May. SpeckleViz: A Web-based
Interactive Activity Network Diagram for AEC. In SimAUD 2020: Proceedings of the
11th annual Symposium on Simulation for Architecture and Urban Design
(SimAUD) (pp. 419-420). The Society for Modeling and Simulation International (SCS).
Tabassi, A.A., and et.al., 2016. Leadership competences of sustainable construction project
managers. Journal of cleaner production, 124, pp.339-349.
18