Project Management: A Case Study on British Gas

This article discusses project management methodologies, team management, project management plan, and more with a case study on British Gas. It covers the scope of the project, the role of the project manager, and the composition and management of teams. It also includes a communication matrix and triple constraint analysis.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................4
1.Project, characteristics and role of project manager.................................................................4
2. Project methodologies..............................................................................................................5
3. Compositions and management of teams................................................................................6
4. Project management plan.........................................................................................................7
5. Measures to control and monitor project risk quantity, change and configuration...............14
6. Project success and failure ....................................................................................................15
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................15
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
A project refers to sequence of activities performed to achieve a specific outcome. The
Project management is a procedure to use specific knowledge, tools, techniques and skills in
order to deliver something unique and valuable to people (Silvius, 2017). Every project is unique
and reaches to a conclusion after the objective of project is attained.
British Gas is an energy and home service providing company serving millions of homes
in the United Kingdom. It is the biggest energy supplier in UK and offers products such as Gas,
electricity, plumbing and drains, renewable energy, home appliance services and boilers and
central heating services. The project will discuss regarding creation of a social media marketing
strategy to develop the business and expanding the customers for British gas. It will include
project methodology, management of teams, a project management plan, measures to control and
monitor the project and factors evaluating success or failure of the project.
MAIN BODY
Aims and objectives:
Aim: To develop a social media marketing strategy for development of business and customers.
A case study on British Gas.
Illustration 1: British Gas
Source: British Gas Customers Now Eligible for Five Days of Free Electricity, 2020.

Objectives:
To create a social media strategy
To develop the business and its customers
To create a social media strategy or British gas for development of its business and customers.
 Scope of the project: The project scope refers to the detailed outline of the al element of a
project such as activities, objectives, deliverables and timelines. The current project will
focus upon the identification of various social media marketing strategies which are used
by British Gas in order to develop its business.
1.Project, characteristics and role of project manager
A project refers to the set of tasks which are completed in order to arrive at a certain
outcome. The tasks may be simple or elaborative which hangs on size and the scope of the
project undertaken.
Definition
As per Larsson-J & Larsson-L, (2020), Project is an activity undertaken with a view to
meet the creation of a unique service or product. It is an activity undertaken to create something
unique and in step by step process and continuous increments.
Characteristics
Various characteristics of a project can be as follows:
 A project have boundaries: A project has to be completed in a certain constraint of
money, quality and functionality.
 Start and finish date: A project does not continue for forever. It always comes with a pre-
defined start and defined end.
 Project is not a usual business: Projects involve various steps to perform a particular task
not one-off activity.
 A project creates new things: Each project is different which was not in existence before.
Role of project manager
A project manager is the one who plays the lead role in the planning, controlling,
directing and finishing a project (Vrchota and et.al., 2021). Various roles, responsibilities and
obligations of a project manager according to the project stages can be described as follows:

 In the project initiation stage, project manager needs to develop a project charter and
identify the key stakeholders to the project.
 In the planning phase, the project manager has to develop project management plan for
the project.
 In execution stage, project manager directs and manages all the work and activities of the
project.
 In monitoring phase, the project manager validates, controls and monitors the project and
manages all the necessary changes as well.
 In its closing stage, project manager closes all the project procurements.
2. Project methodologies
A project management methodology refers to the set of practices which guide in
organization of projects in order to ensure their optimum performance (Fashina, Abdilahi and
Fakunle, 2020). Every project is different which means for every project a different project
methodology is to be used.
Agile methodology
An agile project methodology is the project methodology which manages a project
thorough breaking it in several phases. The methodology also involves the constant involvement
with thee stakeholders and regular improvements in every stage of the project undertaken. Once
the project initiates, the project teams cycle through the process of planning, execution and
evaluation. The basic values of an Agile methodology in project are following:
 Working software over the comprehensive documentation in projects.
Individuals and interactions over the tools and processes (Wyrozebski and Pawlak, 2021).
 Responding to the changes over an undertaken following plan. Customer collaboration over the contract negotiations.
Justification:
The use of agile methodology is justified in the project as it will allow the teams of the
project to better equipped to immediately change focus and directions. It will also allow to re-
evaluate the work which the team is doing and adjust themselves in the given situations in order
to ensure that the customer and work landscape changes and the focus also changes for the
project team. Even though agile methodology looks like a difficult and complex to manage
system approach, but in reality the company is already doing a lot of things which are required

by the Agile methodologies (Rehman and et.al., 2020). With the use of agile methodology, the
company will be able to shorter development cycles which ultimately leads to the smaller yet
frequent product or service releases. The Agile methodology can help the British Gas to create a
social media marketing strategy which will help the company in development of its business and
expansion of its customer base. It will allow the company for ambiguity as it is flexible to change
its focus on the project as the project moves towards the future. The agile methodology consists
of daily stand up meetings which ensures that everyone is on the track and is informed up to
date. It will also help the team to track the progress of the project through the Agile board. It will
assist the British Gas in creating its unique list of team members with their assigned roles. It can
include cross-functional, curious, team oriented and adaptable etc.
There are various other project methodologies which could be used for this project such as
waterfall methodology, scrum methodology and critical path method (CPM).
3. Compositions and management of teams
Project team structure is an important component in management of a project. The team
of project is stakeholders of the project which includes project owner and the users of the final
outcome. The teams in the current project were composed as per the Bruce Tuckman's model of
team stages. Tuckman's theory describes various phases of team building such as forming,
storming, performing and norming as well (Berge-Thierry and et.al., 2017). It explains the
behaviours of teams, managerial and team roles as well as the power the project manager can
give to the employees for decision-making. The team composed is more balanced in regard to
group efforts which means the team for the project is more focused towards the coordination and
team work.
Stakeholder analysis: Stakeholder analysis is the procedure through which identification,
understanding and prioritization of the important stakeholders of a project is possible. It also
assist in analysing who the important stakeholders of a project are and also helps to win them
over as soon as possible (Loth and et.al., 2017). The stakeholders in the current project are as
follows:
For the current project the team will be composed of the following stakeholders:
Project manager: The project manager have the obligation for the successful completion of a
project, and he is also responsible to make sure that the project undertaken proceeds within the
certain time scale and pre-defined budget.

Project leaders: Project leader will be responsible for leading the team and motivating the
workforce to attain the established outcomes with successful implementation of the project.
Project team members: The team of project members will involves of all the individuals which
are actively working on the various stages of the project. The roles of the team members will
vary as per the phases of the project. Their responsibilities in the project are following:
 To contribute in overall project goals
 To complete individual deliverables
 Providing their knowledge and expertise on their specialized areas
 Documenting the whole project process.
Project sponsor: The project sponsor refers to the champion and driver of the project. In the
current project, the members of the senior management are the project sponsor who have a stake
in the project outcomes (Saltz and et.al., 2018). The responsibilities of a project sponsor are
following:
Making important various business decisions regarding project
 Approval of budget of the project.
 Ensuring resource availability
 Communication of objectives of the project in the whole organization.
Others: There are various other stakeholders in the team which involves following:
 Scrum master
 Product owner
 Project management officer
 Functional manager
 Technical manager
Management of project team:
The team management is an essential concept for the project management. The
responsibilities and role of the team members were assigned before the project initiations and
communicated clearly as well (Eskerod and Larsen, 2018). The project team will be managed
through MS-Project software.

4. Project management plan
Overview
`The company British gas has planned to start a new project of making use of internet or social
media platform in order to generate awareness among the customers about the company and its
services. The project is related to creation of effective social media marketing strategy that could
contribute in influencing people to be part of the firm as compared to other organization
operating in similar industry. Likewise, it has planned to make use of platform such as Facebook,
Instagram and official website to promote the brand image of company in mind and heart of
customers for benefits of organization.
Project charter- assumptions
Project charter is type of pitch that contain key information associated with the project
objective, its scope as well as roles and responsibilities that need to be performed by each and
every individuals within the project. Such as:
The objective of project is To increase the market share and profitability of company by 15%
through making use of social media marketing (Raum, 2018).
The scope of project of social media marketing is wide as British gas through making use of
internet marketing can easily attract range of customers within the organization. It is able to
inform existing as well as new customer to have its services in order to meet their respective
requirements.
Roles and responsibilities are already decided in advance related to each and every
individuals working for the completion of the social marketing creation project so that company
can gain competitive advantages. Such as content writer will write the content that will
contribute in influencing people towards the company. Social media manager will monitor the
social platform, create social media strategy, analysis, review the same in order to make an
effective strategy that could be used to influence people within the organization. Profile manager
lay efforts on understanding the type of customers that need to be selected for the project and the
method that could be used to attract them within the organization.
Assumptions
1. In the project of creating social media marketing it is assumed that around 4000-5000
will be spent in order to use social media platform to induce individual within the firm for
longer time frame.

2. Furthermore, it is assumed that the project will be completed in time frame of 2 month so
that the desired outcome can be enjoyed by the company (D’agostino and et.al., 2020).
3. Along with it, all employees will have sufficient resources to complete their respective
task on time so from specialized to general tools and software will be offered to
employees.
4. At the same time it is assumed that the overall cost related to the project will not
increased on continuous basis and resources will be provided in working condition for
better outcome.
Triple constraint analysis: this is the framework which states that cost is the function of the
scope and time, and if any one of them changes the other changes automatically in he defines
predictable way. It involves the three constraints such as capability, scope and value. In the
current project triple constraint analysis is used to analyse the influence of cost ad time on the
constraints of projects and vice-versa (Susilowati and et.al., 2021).
Scope management- WBS

Schedule management- Milestones, activities, Gantt chart dependencies
From the above diagram it can been seen that creation of a social media strategy is lengthy
process. It goes from various stages. The process have a defined route through which the project
have to pass in order to succeed.

Cost/ Budget management: It is identified that around 4000-5000 will be cost or expense that
will be occurred in order to create the new project of social media marketing strategy for
attracting range of customers in the firm (Antwi, 2020). Manager through continuously monitor
and making records of each and every element or expense that company have incurred in
creating the social media marketing can easily plan strategies to improve the same. In addition to
this, manager will try to make efforts to find alternative sources from which fund can be easily,
or resources can be gained at lower price so that the project can be completed in limited cost and
time frame for better outcome. Therefore, steps will be lead to make optimum use of available
resources in order to reduce the cost and delivered maximum value to customers (Demirkesen
and Ozorhon, 2017).
Quality management: Information technology will be used to keep record pertaining to the
progress, key achievement related to the project. On the basis of accumulated data and
information, necessary step will be undertaken by the manager of British gas to improve the
quality of project.
Communication management- Communication matrix
INFORMATION SENDER TIME FRAME MEDIUM RECEIVER

Detail about the
project progress
Project
Manager
Within 4 days Face to face
meeting or
through document
Top management
of British gas
Key resources
required for the
project
Subordinate or
team member
Within 2 days Email Top management
of British gas
Document related
to project
completion or its
outcome
Project
Manager
Within 5 days Document or
email
Top management
of British gas
Roles and
responsibilities
Project
Manager
Within 6 days Face to face
meeting
Team member
Total expense
involved in project
Project
Manager
Within 3 days Email Top management
of British gas
Issue management- issue log
ISSUE REPORTE
D TO
PRIROTY IMPACT STRATEGY TO
OVERCOME
Communication
issue
Project
manager
1 High In order to overcome
communication issue, open ad
effective communication need
to be promoted with the the
team member. So that they are
ready to share their respective
idea.
Unrealistic
deadline
Project
manager
3 Medium Formulate plan and method to
complete task on set deadlines.

Resource conflict Project
manager
2 Medium By finding alternative sources
through which resources can be
arranged.
Budget issue Project
manager
1 High Making efforts to reduce cost
so that project can be
completed in set budget.
Procurement management
Procurement is one of the important process involved in the project as it lead activities
related to procuring the resources that are required to completion of the project in limited period
frame, cost as well as resources (Kusay-Merkle, 2021). British gas service project manager has
decided to manage the procurement process through maintaining strong relationship with the
supply to get products in set time and cost. Along with it, maintained all detailed related to
existing resources or inventory present in the firm and furthermore required in order to
accomplish the project as desired. So, all these will help in procurement management and growth
of project (Gu and Easwaran, 2019).
5. Measures to control and monitor project risk quantity, change and configuration
Project manager is responsible for controlling as well as monitoring the project risk
quantity, change and configuration so that fruitful outcome can be enjoyed by the company.
Likewise, there are range of risk associated with the project such as financial risk, external
environment changes risk, cost, technology and performance that acts as hindrance in smooth
completion of the desired project (Jnr, 2019). In context of project of creating social media
strategy, all this risk are involved so to control and monitor the same, manager has make use of
digital technology or information technology. It has helped in accumulating, storing and
analysing all the information associated with the project, the type of risk, its impact thereby it
can easily find alternative method that can be used to cope up with the same. Along with this,
project manager itself lay emphasis on monitoring each and every element through taking
feedback of team member that helps in effective understanding of key issue and the way it can be
overcome.
Furthermore, in order to control and monitor the change that British gas service is like to
bring in order to stay ahead in competition, it has also made use of transformation leadership

styles that has helped in motivating the team member to readily accept the change. At the same
time it has also influence team member to find more creative and innovative idea that could be
used in creating of social media marketing project. So the project manager to control and monitor
overall change has taken feedback from employees related to its progress, key challenges as well
as accomplishment till the date (Crispim, Silva and Rego, 2019).
In order to control and monitor the configuration, firstly steps will be taken by project
manager of British gas is set or outlining the key roles and responsibilities that need to be
performed by each and every individual within the company. Then, step will be taken to monitor
whether they have completed their respective duties or responsibilities or not as per the standard
set. So, alternative method can be planned in order to improve performance and key capabilities
of each individual so that company can yield maximum benefits from the desired project.
Therefore, by reviewing, analysing that the resources are effective organized and utilized in the
firm configuration will be ensured (Muriana and Vizzini, 2017).
6. Project success and failure
From the above analysis, there are various things that I have learned while completing the
project related to creating an effective social media marketing strategy for inducing customers in
the firm. Likewise, I have learned about the way a project is planned, organized and key
resources are being utilized in order to complete the end objective. Furthermore, the project of
creating a successful social media marketing for British Gas services is successful as it helped in
motivating maximum number of customers to be the part of organisation for fulfilment of their
respective wants (Hopkinson, 2017). In the project the resources were optimum utilize, as well as
each key member has make the best use of its existing skill, knowledge and capabilities to design
effective marketing strategy so that company can easily accomplish its set goals in limited time
frame. Likewise, effective content has been created for the official website so that necessary
information can be easily provided to the customers about the company, its offer, services and
previous experience of customers. At the same time, in the project it is effectively decided that
what all strategies that need to be utilised in creating effective social media marketing such as all
platform Instagram, Facebook, twitter as well as e-mail will be used to build and retained string
relationship with customers for longer time frame.
Project risk analysis: It is the process which involves analysis of project outcomes and goals
which might be influenced and affected by the impacts of unpredictable and predictable risks.

After the identification of risks the actions to overcome those risks are under-laid (Testorelli and
et.al., 2020). In the current various risks such as additional costs and risk of suppliers have been
identified. To reduce their impact and influence on the project various strategies such as risk
mitigation and risk elimination will be undertaken.
CONCLUSION
From the discussion above ,it can be summerised that the project of creating a successful
social media marketing strategy for British Gas services has been successful as it can help the
company to attract maximum number of customers. The project responsibility is in the hands of a
project manager. Agile project methodology is considered to the best for the company as it can
help the company in breaking does the whole project in smaller tasks to produce frequent
products and services. In the project management plan, British gas initiates a new project which
uses social media platform so that awareness among customers can be created regarding its
services and products. The objective of project is to increase the reach of company with a wider
scope. The estimated budget of the project is 4000-5000 and the quality will be maintained
through information technology. Project manager will be responsible to control and monitor the
project risks and changes. In the last it can be summarized that the project is successful as it has
the ability to maximize the customer base of the company.

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for-five-days-of-free-electricity/>. [Assessed on 19 October 2021]
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