Project Management Principles and Practices

The provided assignment details a project management plan that consists of objectives, task determination, resource quantification, budgeting, and completion timelines. It emphasizes the importance of considering various aspects such as objectives, purpose, constraints, and potential risks in successful project execution. The document also highlights the roles and responsibilities performed by project managers, including planning, controlling, and managing risks.

Project Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK ..............................................................................................................................................1
1. Define a project, its characteristics and the role of the project manager................................1
2. Application of the theoretical frameworks and methodologies within a project environment
.....................................................................................................................................................3
3. Critically evaluate the composition and management of teams in a project environment......5
4. Formulate a project management plan....................................................................................6
5. Appraise measures to control and monitor project risk, quality, change and configuration...7
6. Evaluate project success and failure and disseminate the key learning points from the
delivery of the project.................................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
Project Management refers to planning, managing and organising the effort to attain a
successful project. It is the application of skills, knowledge, techniques and tools to project
activities in order to meet its requirements (Alsudiri, Al-Karaghouli and Eldabi, 2013). In the
present assignment, chosen organisation is Morgan Sindall Group plc which is a construction
company headquartered in London. The main purpose of developing this project is to develop a
project initiation document to deliver an office move. It covers project overview, its
characteristics, role of project manager and application of methodologies and theoretical
frameworks. Apart from this, a project management plan is developed in which some measures
to monitor and control project risk, change and configuration, quality are defined. At last,
success and failure of project is evaluated in this report.
TASK
1. Define a project, its characteristics and the role of the project manager
A project refers to the temporary endeavour that is undertaken to develop a unique result,
product or service. It involves series of tasks that requires to be completed to reach a particular
outcome. Morgan Sindall Group plc is a United Kingdom based construction company which is
headquartered in London. The firm was established in year 1977 and offers construction
services to their clients. It is one of the leading construction and regeneration group of UK which
is operating in commercial and public sectors (Conforto and et. al., 2016). The company wants to
relocate its office and for this specific purpose, a project manager has been appointed by firm for
a project to deliver an office move.
Project Title: “Office Relocation”
Background: This project is develop with the purpose of relocating office. Morgan
Sindall Group plc wants to relocate its office. The main reason of moving office is to increase
departments within firm and for this, it is require to maximise the work space as staff is also
increase. For relocating the office, it is required by project manager to identify a new location
which is fit for the purpose. In order to initiate this project, various prerequisites needs to be
fulfil by manager including availability of adequate amount of resources, legal requirements etc.
It is also require to coordinate with team members so as to produce the expected outcomes.
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Purpose: The main purpose of undertaking this project is to relocate the office and
increase the departments as well as work space within company.
Objectives: The main objectives of project includes:
 To increase the departments within organisation and to increase work space.
 To expand the operations of business by recruiting new staff members (Gareis and et. al.,
2013).
Project scope: It includes the work or activities that is to be done for delivering final
results. So, the project manager requires to have clear understanding about costs, resources,
boundaries, tasks, goals and deliverables to make a project successful. For relocating office,
project manager requires to find out new location to shift the office and which fits the purpose.
An effective planning needs to be done and requires to consolidate departments for Morgan
Sindall Group plc by moving them into another building. Manager also needs to plan and ensure
that space for new office is properly painted, furnished and carpeted.
Exclusions from scope:
Deliverables: The aim of undertaking office relocation project is to increase departments
by consolidating these with human resources, finance and information system department. An
accurate schedule of activities requires to be prepare by project manager before taking a move.
For moving these departments and increasing the work space, some costs are also incurred like
land purchasing, carpeting, painting, recruiting new staff etc.
Constraints: In undertaking this project, few constraints are involved. Some of the
constraints are defined below:
 Issues related to cost can be faced by project manager as cost incurred in relocating office
and hiring new employees is high. It takes more time to relocate office at another place which is also a constraint in carrying
out this project.
Assumptions: This project is expected to be successfully complete within 8 weeks
(Greiman, 2013).
Project characteristics:
A project includes several characteristics which are as follows:
 The project have unique set of needs that requires to be deliver within its boundaries.
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 The nature of office relocation project is temporary and it has a definite start and end
point.
 It involves unfamiliarity as the previously done projects are different. During undertaking a project, Morgan Sindall Group plc has something at stake.
Roles and responsibilities of project manager:
A project manager is an individual who has the complete responsibility for successful
beginning, planning, design, implementation, monitoring, controlling and closing of project
(Hällgren, 2012). Planning: In planning for a project, manager plays crucial role. Project manger of
Morgan Sindall Group plc is responsible for planning or creating a roadmap for
proceeding the project. This plan consist of project scope and schedules of activities.
Efficient policies and procedures are also develop by manager that helps in successful
implementation of office relocation plan. Monitoring: It is also one of the major responsibility of project manager as they requires
to be continuously monitor all the activities that are undertaken in this project. They
needs to ensure that all the activities are going at right track. The role played by project
manager of Morgan Sindall Group plc is to ensure optimum use of resources and
completion of project within specified time frame.
 Managing risk: For any project, risk is an inevitable part. So, the main responsibility of
project manager of Morgan Sindall Group plc is to manager is to manager uncertain
conditions and risk that can have adverse impact on project. They have the responsibility
of determining potential risks and developing appropriate course of action in order to
overcome this. Communication is also the important part of risk management. Therefore,
manager has the responsibility to properly communicate all the information about risk to
team members as well as stakeholders (Harris, 2017).
2. Application of the theoretical frameworks and methodologies within a project environment
The framework of project facilitates structure and direction on a desirable manner to do
something without being rigid. It provides guidance when being flexible enough to adopt the
changing conditions while using vetted approaches. The main purpose of designing this
framework for project of Morgan Sindall Group plc is to simplify and help with sharing
information of best approaches, practices, templates, tools and samples on project management.
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This helps manager in creating an understanding of best practices for planning and managing
project. It also assists in improving the competence level and contributing in setting common
standards for project. There are some basic components of project framework which is defined
below:
Initiation: The project initiates with the idea of relocating office. Morgan Sindall Group
plc wants to increase their departments and for doing this, they also requires to hire new staff.
This creates a need for company of increasing work space (Korhonen, Laine and Martinsuo,
2014). By this, an idea is generated of relocating the entire office in other building and at another
location. In order to do it successfully, office relocation project is initiated by company. A
project manager is hire by firm to initiate the project.
Planning: In this step, project manager of Morgan Sindall Group plc formulate an
appropriate plan which includes estimation of costs, resources to be required, determination of
needed skills and competencies, manpower requirements and various other factors. Some
policies and procedures are also formulated by manager and appropriate methodologies are
determined to carry on this project. This planning provides a roadmap to project manager that
helps in taking future course of action.
Execution: In this, project manager of Morgan Sindall Group plc applied formulated
strategies for successful implementation of plan. Manager executes all the activities in this stage
which are identifying in planning phase as per their specified schedules.
Control: All the implemented activities are monitored carefully by project manager of
Morgan Sindall Group plc in order to ensure that activities are going at right track. Some control
measures are also taken by manager, if required.
Closure: This is the final stage in which manager ensures successful completion of
project on specified time frame (Muller, 2017).
Project methodology refers to an approach of doing something with a specified set of
methods, rules, deliverables, test activities and processes that typically serves to resolve a
particular problem. The methodology which is used by project manager of Morgan Sindall
Group plc for office relocation project is Critical Chain Project Management.
Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM):
CCPM is a schedule network evaluation technique that undertakes limited resource
availability, task dependencies and buffers which are necessary to successfully complete this
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project. Application of this technique allow project manager of Morgan Sindall Group plc to plan
and manage schedule of project by concentrating on resources utilized in critical path. Critical
chain refers to the longest path of network diagram that undertakes resource availability and task
dependency. This methodology use buffers as strategic points which eliminates uncertainties
related to project. Four types of buffers are use in CCPM, i.e., project, feeding, resource and
capacity buffer (Müller and et. al., 2013).
Application of CCPM process:
For applying CCPM process in project management, manager requires to follow below
defined steps:
 Reduce the time estimates of project by 50%.
 Level plan of project and eliminate resource retentions.
 Add a part of reduced task approximation in project buffer and artefact it at project's end.
The points at which non critical chain itinerary meets with critical chain path, insert
feeding buffers. Protect these chains from unavailable resources via placing resource
buffers.
 Insert capacity buffers to the paths where required.
 In order to prevent multitasking, tasks must be schedule as late as possible.
 Encourage combative task completion time and focusing on the significance of beginning
time to finish task as soon as possible.
 Manage buffers and acquire information required for controlling plan and taking
measures if needed.
Application of above mentioned methodology helps manager in avoiding
mismanagement of floats and accelerates project completion (Pitsis and et. al., 2014).
3. Critically evaluate the composition and management of teams in a project environment
Team composition is defined as the complete mix of characteristics of people in team
which includes two or more people who interact interdependently to attain common objective.
Team management refers to an ability of person or company to provide and coordinate a team of
people to perform a task. The composition and management of team in project environment are
the crucial aspects for project manager in order to complete project effectively and successfully
on time. Project manager of Morgan Sindall Group plc needs to assign balanced roles to their
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team members as per their skills as it helps them in performing tasks effectively. Creation of
effective team helps manager in implementing and completing project on specified time.
4. Formulate a project management plan
A project can be explained as the overall improvement of a blue print by which the
management outlines the aims and objectives to workforce of an organisation (Seymour and
Hussein, 2014). It can be executed in more successful manner with an adequate support of
management who are having sufficient knowledge and capabilities to prepare a project
management plans consisting of various elements such as cost, time, human resource,
communication, risk etc. These all spects should be considered as if Morgan Sindall Group
should relocate its office to other areas for further improvement. Such aspects are briefly
described as under:
Scope: Morgan Sindall Group is decided to shift its business to posh areas such as
London where high skilled people are looking for employment opportunities at an average pay
scale as compared to other cities. Therefore, the main objective of Morgan Sindall Group to
relocate business i.e. hiring skilled workforce and advanced infrastructure will be successfully
achieved thus the scope of project plan made has wider scope.
Risk: There is high risk involved in the procedure of moving business to other posh areas
such as London. Risk can be related with lack of employees support, lack of funds, rivals
competitive strategies etc. which is essentially required to be tackle by the management of
Morgan Sindall Group. For this, risk management should be formed which is liable to analyse
such risk factors and make plans accordingly to tackle in more effective and efficient manner.
Human resource: It is considered as a valuable asset of company whose supports and
contribution can help Morgan Sindall Group in shifting its business to other developed areas.
The execution of plan and strategies are based on the efforts of employees thus it is important for
management to motivate them to help company to move to developed city (Spalek, 2014).
Quality: Relocating business to other developed areas requires specific knowledge and
information about new market due to which it is important for management of Morgan Sindall
Group to provide training and learning programs as well as financial support for their existing
staff so that they are more capable to search the current market trends and availability of skilled
employees, good infrastructure etc. at new place through conducting research programs. It
enhances the quality of work of employees as well as project activities.
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Communication: It is another crucial factor which encourages mutual support from all
members of an organisation in execution of their project activities. The management of Morgan
Sindall Group should frame an effective communication channel through which they can
communicate with their interested parties such as investors, customers, employees, suppliers etc.
in more effective and efficient manner (Stellingwerf and Zandhuis, 2013).
Time: It is essential for management of Morgan Sindall Group to set time frame for each
activities executed in relocating business to other developed areas. It motivates existing
employees to perform allotted roles through contributing their maximum efforts and support
management in execution of their plan. The project of relocating business of Morgan Sindall
Group to posh areas in UK such as London should be estimated completed within 8 weeks.
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5. Appraise measures to control and monitor project risk, quality, change and configuration
There are several measures that to be adopted by the management of Morgan Sindall
Group to control, manage and analyse process which is implemented to estimate, understand and
constrcut factors related with the project activities such as risk, time, quality etc. Such measures
or techniques are listed as under:
Describing project scope and its feasibility: The first and foremost technique used to
control project is to provide detailed information about scope of project whether it is wide or
narrow. Morgan Sindall Group has wider scope due to having adequate support from employees
therefore it required management to identify the feasibility impacts after detailing the scope of
project and accordingly make necessary adjustments while project formulation.
Division of projects into various parts: It is another important part of project controlling
in which the project has been divided into small units which makes easy for managers and
employees to focus on executing activities at minimum cost and time. It help in reducing cost
and bring out maximum efforts from the employees (Vanhoucke, 2014).
Estimating resources and formulate resource plan: The project managers of Morgan
Sindall Group should require to make an estimation about resources that to be incurred in
execution of project activities and availability of resource at present with company. This will
help in arranging and managing resources through proper allocation which in results minimising
the chances of having wastage of resources.
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Critical path analysis: It is considered as an effective technique which is used to make an
estimation of time taken by each activities executed in a project. It helps in determining the total
time required for a project which includes earliest start time, earliest finish time, latest start and
latest finish time. This will help management of Morgan Sindall Group to utilise time in
optimum manner.
PERT analysis: It is known statistical tool which is also required by the management of
Morgan Sindall Group to adopt in order to analyse and control the activities involved in
execution of given project. Both critical and PERT chart are used interchangeably but have only
one difference that is time (Ward and Daniel, 2013).
6. Evaluate project success and failure and disseminate the key learning points from the delivery
of the project
Previously mentioned project plan of moving business to Porsche area of London. This is
on account of they need to enhance infrastructure of Morgan Sindall Group. This project is may
become successful in light of the fact that project activities are legitimately planed, time to time
market analysis is done. Contributions of undertaking project time is important and significant as
it performs project activities in viable and pertinent way. When the management of Morgan
Sindall Group are thinking to move corporate office to London, at that point they should analyse
budget too so this is more effective for controlling and monitoring monetary resources.
Key learning points from the delivery of the project:
With this project, information about project activities for finishing a project is
undertaken. It is conceivable to en-light learning about various techniques through which
activities can be achieved. PERT is the approach utilized by managers of Morgan Sindall Group
which is utilized in light of the fact that it gives top to bottom learning about project activities.
Planning must be done by team leader in an effective way and it must be communicated to its
subordinates (Stellingwerf and Zandhuis, 2013).
CONCLUSION
As per the above mentioned report, it has been concluded that project management
includes creating a project plan which consist of project objectives and goals, how they will be
attain, determination of tasks and quantifying the needed resources, determining budgets and
completion timelines. For managing a project and ensuring its successful completion, manager
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requires to consider several aspects like objectives, purpose, constraints, potential risks etc.
Various roles and responsibilities are performed by project manager including planning,
controlling and managing risks which helps them in successful execution of project.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Alsudiri, T., Al-Karaghouli, W. and Eldabi, T., 2013. Alignment of large project management
process to business strategy: A review and conceptual framework. Journal of Enterprise
Information Management. 26(5). pp.596-615.
Conforto, E. C. and et. al., 2016. The agility construct on project management theory.
International Journal of Project Management. 34(4). pp.660-674.
Gareis, R. and et. al., 2013, April. Project management and sustainable development principles.
Project Management Institute.
Greiman, V. A., 2013. Megaproject management: Lessons on risk and project management from
the Big Dig. John Wiley & Sons.
Hällgren, M., 2012. The construction of research questions in project management. International
Journal of Project Management. 30(7). pp.804-816.
Harris, E., 2017. Strategic project risk appraisal and management. Routledge.
Korhonen, T., Laine, T. and Martinsuo, M., 2014. Management control of project portfolio
uncertainty: A managerial role perspective. Project Management Journal. 45(1). pp.21-
37.
Muller, R., 2017. Project governance. Routledge.
Müller, R. and et. al., 2013. Project management knowledge flows in networks of project
managers and project management offices: A case study in the pharmaceutical industry.
Project Management Journal. 44(2). pp.4-19.
Pitsis, T. S. and et. al., 2014. Governing projects under complexity: theory and practice in project
management. International Journal of Project Management. 32(8). pp.1285-1290.
Seymour, T. and Hussein, S., 2014. The history of project management. International Journal of
Management & Information Systems (Online). 18(4). p.233.
Spalek, S., 2014. Does investment in project management pay off?. Industrial Management &
Data Systems. 114(5). pp.832-856.
Stellingwerf, R. and Zandhuis, A., 2013. ISO 21500 Guidance on project management–A Pocket
Guide. Van Haren.
Vanhoucke, M., 2014. Integrated Project Management and Control. Springer. Doi. 10. pp.978-3.
Ward, J. and Daniel, E. M., 2013. The role of project management offices (PMOs) in IS project
success and management satisfaction. Journal of Enterprise Information Management.
26(3). pp.316-336.